How Do You Find Healing?

Recently, I was asked to participate in a promotional video for the diocese of Bridgeport. I’ve been ministering there as a soup kitchen chef for nearly four years now. This has given me time to get to know and serve the guests who come to eat at the center. Developing relationships with the regulars has been a deep and meaningful experience for me. I’m glad I was able to share a bit of this gift during the interview.

For this video interview I was asked to speak about my ministry and experiences in the context of Mathew 25. I had to look up the verse because like most good Catholics I don’t know chapter and verse for anything. The passage says that whatever we do for the least of our sisters and brother, we do for God. The communications team hope that sharing my experience in this context will inspire more people to come and serve.

I’m an introvert so now that some time has passed I can say what I wish I had said. I wish I had shared this Swahili proverb I encountered reading James Martin SJ’s book, This Our Exile: ‘When the guest arrives, the host is healed.‘ Serving the poor and the outcast, the leper’s of our day, is important and sorely needed work. However, it is also important life changing work for the one who ministers. Through my relationships with my guests I have learned so much about gratitude, blessing, and grace. It has taken years to seep in to my soul but it has changed how I see the world, and God in the world. Every morning at least one of my guests tells me s/he is just glad to be alive, and glad that the sun has risen again. Many are grateful to be, “on the right side of the dirt.” This has been a daily reminder for me to practice gratitude in my own life. As a result I tread more lightly through life, thank God more frequently, and pray more often throughout each day. Also, a friend recently told me that I laugh more than I used to, and laugh more frequently than most people she knows. Laughter can also be a gift from God.

I’m glad I was able to share the joys and necessity of serving our sisters and brothers as well as the call to do justice in our world today. But what people will have to come and see for them selves is that serving the least is a way we can all “walk humbly with our God.”

Incase you haven’t seen the video yet here is the link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YJDzPauQmMY&feature=youtu.be