the power of service

Last weekend at the Religious Ed Congress I was reminded, in an incredible way about the role that service should play in the lives of Catholics (and people of many other faiths).  Jack Jezreel, the keynote speaker on Saturday morning, spoke very specifically about the integration of service with the parish community.  In short, he talked about how it is not enough to simply gather as a Church family, but we must also be sent forth to love and serve the community.  In his words, “gathering is for the Church, but the Church is for the world.”  While it is important to come together and worship it is also necessary to move beyond this and also do something.  One thing he said that really stuck with me is that perhaps a reason the Church is losing members is because it is not asking enough of them.  Catholic social teaching is an incredible piece of our faith which reminds us that we too are called to respect and demand respect for our world just as Jesus did.

His talk had us on fire.  Easy to see given that we are more than halfway through our year-of-service.  We chose to be here in Los Angeles working with the poor and vulnerable, working in the image of St Vincent de Paul, St Louise de Marillac and countless others who walk before and behind us.  This year has meant a lot of things for me.  But most importantly it has reinforced the need to love and serve others.  Before I knew it was important but often found studying or social gatherings taking priority in my life and thus did not do as much as I could.  I know that it is not possible to be involved in everything, but I think I have seen the incredible impact of sustained service with a group or organization.  My hope is that after this year I can find one or two groups or organizations that I am really passionate about, such as Meals on Wheels or Cooking Matters, and really commit to being involved.  I truly believe that if every person found something, no matter how small, and gave even just a little bit of their talent and expertise it would truly make a great difference. 

So I do realize that in a way this might come out of left field a bit given that I haven’t really talked about service and how it has impacted me much on the blog.  In many ways it has made such an impact that I have found it difficult to put all of my thoughts and emotions into words.  Hopefully I will get around to it more, but until then will leave you with a quote from St Vincent de Paul: "To love the Poor is to love God the right way; to serve them well is to serve Him well; to honor our Lord, we must imitate Him."

Also if interested here is a link to the majority of Jezreel’s keynote, please read if you have the time.  It’s a bit lengthy but full of incredible ideas, inspiration and passion. 

a new direction

There are so many things I could post about, however I never feel like I have time to do them justice.  I begin posts and then weeks later come back to them when too much time has passed, or don’t even start at all because I am waiting for the day to come when I can spend an hour putting all my thoughts together.

This is not working.  I think I am going to have to start a new direction.  Brief snippets, of thoughts or ideas, are better than nothing.  So much has been going on that I would like to share.  I feel like I have hardly talked at all about service or growth, both of which I have experienced much of this year.  I would like to, so hopefully this will be a little step forward.  Thus, here is a really random assortment of what has been going on in the past few months…

1.  Work has been incredibly busy, but very fulfilling.  Up through January I had been growing more dissatisfied with my job, feeling as if I wasn’t using my talents to serve as fully as I had hoped.  However after a big girl talk with my bosses (and incredible support from my mentors at the hospital) I have moved in a new direction where I get much more (like daily) patient interaction and am working on projects that directly benefit the patients and staff.  This year so far has completely reinforced my desire to be a dietitian and my unique experiences are allowing me to grow personally as well as professionally.

2.  Along the work lines, Meals on Wheels is still as fun as ever.  I have reached a point where I feel like I have a genuine relationship with each of my clients.  The past few weeks I have had new volunteers coming with me so they have been seeing my clients instead, but I am just so happy to be able to share the program with them.  Working in the kitchen is also ridiculous, but it’s a fun environment to find myself in once a week. 

3.  I’ve had a lot of visitors recently which I have enjoyed.  Slowly they have helped me work through the long list of places I want to experience in LA before I go.  I try to show my guests a little different side of the city than they might see on a typical vacation, whether it be riding the bus through Boyle Heights or exploring the sights of a not-so-well-maintained downtown.  I welcome any and all visitors, as I love a little taste of home and I love showing people around my adopted city (at least for the year).

4.  The Staples Center has been the gathering place for two of my favorite recent outings.  Despite a tough loss, I so loved watching the Cougs play at the Pac 10 tournament.  Good game, Allez les Cougs!  In addition, a mere two days later I was back at the Center watching JUANES(!) at an incredible concert.  I have loved this artist since I first discovered him in a high school Spanish class and could not have been more excited about seeing him in person.  Not only do I love his music, but he was such an energetic and passionate performer and had super sweet graphics.  Totally worth every penny. 

5.  I’ve mentioned this before but one of the things I absolutely love the most about LA is the incredible diversity.  I feel so lucky to work with such an array of characters and backgrounds.  In February we learned how to make tamales from Amos & Holly’s co-workers.  There are so many different ethnic neighborhoods in the city and I really want to visit as many as possible. 

6.  Along those lines we have also been going out of our way to get to  know the downtown area a little better, through happy hour.  There are some great spots (cheap!) spots in the city and I can’t wait to find even more of them.

7.  I spent the early part of the year writing essays and completing applications for next  year.  Currently I am in the interview process.  Please keep me in your prayers, I may know in the next few weeks what I will be up to…

8.  Things are going really well here but one thing I feel like I am missing is a lack of a Catholic community.  My housemates are incredible, spiritual people.  However, coming from the incredible experience I had at the Newman Center at Wazzu I am beginning to realize that while spiritual friendships are incredibly valuable I also need specifically Catholic relationships to relate to slash help me grow in my faith.  I will be on the hunt for a Young Adult group in the area… I don’t know what I can really do in a few months, however I feel like it is something I should seek out to at least see what I might find.

9.  This weekend was spent at the 2011 LA Religious Ed Congress.  Over 40,000 Catholics descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center to attend workshops, worship and grow in community with each other.  It truly was a blessing to be able to participate in such an experience.  I attended some great workshops and feel like it was a good chance for me to get some of the Catholic interaction I have been craving these past weeks. 

Okay so that got things caught up a bit, though there is still so much that goes on.  As I said, I will try to update more often, even if it is brief (which this totally did not end up being).  Overall I just feel so incredibly blessed to be having this experience and am so thankful for all the support I receive from family and friends.