SVDP Community Dinner
Please join us in the parish center after the 10am Mass on Sunday, Oct. 12.
But as we spoke with our homeless friends about their needs, what came across so often was not the things we all can think of – food, shelter, clothing – but the opportunity to talk, to be heard, to be visible. There are many other places here in St Charles who provide meals to the homeless. Food is important, and we wanted to do that, also, but at our meal we invite not only the homeless, but all of you, and really, anybody who wants to come. There is no charge for the meal, because we want to treat everybody the same, rather than have separate lines for the rich and the poor. We sit at long tables so we can all sit together with people we don’t know. We serve the food to each person restaurant - style, so they can sit and relax and talk.
Just as importantly, the members of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, and the many other parishioners who help out every month setting up, serving, cooking, and cleaning up, feel rewarded every bit as much by the friendships they’ve made. Every month I see at least one of our neighbors in one-on-one conversation with one of our wonderful priests, and what a gift that is for our friends!