HOUSE NEWS: Gardening, Pants-making, Prison Reform, and No Cafe this Sunday

Dear friends,

Happy Easter! We had a nice celebration with family and friends over brunch at the House on Easter morning followed by an egg hunt for the children in the house, garden watering, a little more planting – and some rest. During the week, in addition to the regular goings-on and the additional events of Holy Week, we had two guests from Miami – Catholic Volunteers doing a year of service who wanted to spend some time volunteering at the House during their spring break. It was a busy week.

Sunday’s Cafe suspended for now: During the course of the week we talked to several homeless folks about food distribution in Gainesville. It seems that a number of other groups are now serving food on Sundays downtown. Recent lower numbers at the cafe have reflected this. That, plus our continuing struggle with funds, has led us to suspend the Sunday cafe while we figure out how best to serve hungry folks on days when they particularly need it. We are going to begin immediately to make “to go” containers marked with “Blue House” for folks to take left-over soup in and return to us for washing or refills. We’ll see how this is received and if there are particular days we can plan on meeting the lunchtime overflow from St. Francis House with either soup or veggie pockets made from vegetables donated from local farmers after the market. We’ll keep you posted.

Check out our website for updates to this week’s schedule. Here are some highlights:

Gardening – Watering and Weeding. We’ve got a large garden planted with seedlings that need lots of care during this sunny, dry weather. If you want to help, let us know and we will put you on the schedule!

Blue House Pants – We’re still making them and would love your help, especially if you have some sewing experience. Non-sewers are practicing on cloth napkins (also needed!). Stop by on Thursday afternoon between 1 and 4:30 if you can help. And bring an iron, scissors, pins, and/or sewing machine if you have them.

Roundtable with Patrick Finn-Schultz from Jacksonville, Thursday, 6-7:30pm. Patrick will lead a discussion on Restoration, Rehabilitation, and Responsibility: The Prison Reform Movement. Bring a dish to share if you can. If not, come anyway.

Hope to see you this week!

Gainesville Catholic Worker

HOUSE NEWS: Observing Lent with the GCW

The Way of the Cross 2008

The season of Lent, a time for reflection, repentance, prayer, and almsgiving, begins on Ash Wednesday, February 25. Over the past eight years, some folks have made it part of their Lenten discipline to become more involved in some of the activities here at the Jubilee House. If you’re interested, here are some ways to plug in. You can also always check out our weekly calendar for details on what is happening.

Pray with us at Tuesdays or Fridays, Morning Prayer – 7:30-8am at the House.

Sponsor or help out at the Breakfast Brigade – Fridays, 4:15am – 7am; Serve a healthy, tasty breakfast to hungry folks at the day labor pools. Or buy breakfast – we serve up to 120 people/week for about $120-150.

Volunteer at Dorothy’s Café – Every Wednesday, and the first and third Sundays of each month; Help to prepare the soup, learn to bake the bread, serve, eat, and/or clean up. Prep on Wednesdays begins at 9:30am and clean-up is over around 6pm. On Sundays, prep begins at 11am and clean-up is over by 6pm.

Participate in Scripture Study – Tuesdays, 2:30-4pm.This semester we’re looking at the readings for each Sunday in the traditional reading cycle of many churches. We’ll be studying the gospel readings that lead up to Easter during the Lenten season. To see the schedule for readings, click here.

Join us at the Roundtable – Thursdays, 6-7:30pm; each week we share a potluck dinner while a guest speaker leads us in a discussion on a current economic, political, religious, or cultural issue. During Lent, we’ll be joined by Joe Jackson, UF law professor and advocate for the homeless; Junior St-Vil, director of Pax Christi Haiti; Patrick Finn-Schultz on the state of our criminal justice system; Diedre Houchen, educator; members of Islam on Campus; and others. Bring a dish to share if you can!

Take Part in the Good Friday “Way of the Cross” – Friday, April 10.  The Way of the Cross is an ancient tradition. Join us as we make our way through downtown Gainesville and reflect on how Christ continues to be crucified among us in the poor and marginalized in our community.

Monthly Mass at the GCW – Join us Thursday, March 5th or Thursday, April 2 at 6pm for Mass at the GCW, celebrated by our chaplain, Fr. John Phillips, pastor of Holy Faith Catholic Church.

Commit to Learning to Live More Locally – Since the beginning, we’ve considered it a main mission of the Gainesville Catholic Worker to “live locally.” We try to buy the food we use and serve directly from local farmers (we highly recommend the 441 Farmers Market on Saturday mornings) or – when impossible – from Ward’s, a local grocery store that often buys directly from local growers. And we try to be conscious of how what we consume – food, entertainment, energy, clothing, etc. – affects our brothers and sisters. During Lent, we are going to try to be more intentional and invite you to struggle along with us, and weigh in when you can, on how to live locally in Gainesville. A member of our community will be fasting every day during Lent and we’ll also experiment with lowering our electricity footprint. We write regularly about our family’s attempts, failures, education – and hopefully progress – HERE.