Canterbury House hosts a growing community of mutual aid & neighborhood support for migrant familiesWhat began with a pregnant woman coming to the door for help, has become so much more. Through a collaboration with Mary, Mother of God Parish and the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, Canterbury House serves as a temporary home of Maricarmen, Jean Pool, and their four children. The family is originally from Venezuela, but after a grueling multi-year journey recently arrived in the United States. Their story is not unique. Thousands have fled unrest in Central and South America seeking safety and stability. All new arrivals are looking for basic necessities but also to build connections in their new city. This is why Christians must rise to the occasion. As Christ said in Matthew's Gospel, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me." In the spirit of Christ, Canterbury House Director James Murphy, with help from Maricarmen and Jean Pool, have been hosting a dinner for other migrants every Wednesday. Many who come for this home-cooked meal are staying in local shelters. James said Canterbury House offers respite for these guests who are seeking a welcoming community and enjoy hanging out and cooking together. “They make this big house feel alive,” James said. “They have so little, but they share it with each other. They bring a lot of joy and Wednesday nights are hilarious.” “This is a group of people who really depend on and love one another. They depend on God and are filled with faith." Several neighbors and parishioners have also stepped up to welcome the migrants and help translate during these dinners. “There are multiple layers of emotions and things going on at the same time,” said Mercedes Mac Laughlin, a Mary, Mother of God parishioner. “There are a lot of kids running around having fun so its loud sometimes. There is stress. Parents are looking for jobs to provide for their families and there is an underlying fear of being denied asylum.” Mercedes admires the way everyone comes together to encourage each other. She said each family is at a different stage of settling-in, but they all have the same goal: to try to give their kids a better future. “There is a lot of solidarity – sharing resources, information, trying to help each other,” Mercedes said. “There is also a lot of gratitude and faith. The first time my husband and I went to a dinner, the blessing of the meal that Jean Pool did blew me away. He had an amazing trust in God and appreciation for the small things.” With the help of each other and Canterbury House, these families have access to food, clothing, and friendship. For the children, the past few months have been the most stable time of their lives, and they really appreciate going to school. “This is a group of people who really depend on and love one another, and they worship together,” James said. “They depend on God and are filled with faith. They walked thousands of miles with nothing but faith.” “Seeing their resilience, their faith, their joy, and solidarity towards those that have less, has been a lesson on what is important." Every Sunday, the families and James go to Mass together. They have also hosted a Christmas Novena and a huge party for the Feast of the Epiphany and Easter at Canterbury House. Many are also preparing to receive the Holy Sacraments. Five of the adults have entered RCIA and meet before dinner for catechetical instruction. (RCIA is the Church’s formation program for adults entering the faith and this iteration has been adjusted for the families who may have to move if work takes them elsewhere.) Six of the children are preparing for Baptism, two will be making their First Communion, and three will be Confirmed. They will all receive their Sacraments on the Feast of the Corpus Cristi on May 30th. “Seeing their resilience, their faith, their joy, and solidarity towards those that have less, has been a lesson on what is important,” Mercedes said. “We should all be providing food, giving rides, and walking with them in their faith journey. These are ways that we can be supportive and help integrate them into our community.” With this support, Jean Pool and Maricarmen are adjusting to their new life in Chicago. Recently, Jean Pool passed his driver’s license test and started delivering food to local restaurants. The job came from one of the vendors that support the Parish’s Soup Kitchen, and the connection was made as Jean Pool helped James pick up food donations. Maricarmen is forming a worker-owned cooperative cleaning business along with two other migrant mothers. Be on the lookout for updates as the business launches and they start accepting clients! By far, the biggest need for migrants is jobs. Both men and women need ways to earn money to meet their housing, food, and transportation needs. Unfortunately, many of those who are working are already experiencing exploitation, being paid significantly below the minimum wage. If you or someone you know, has work that needs to be done or if you have a lead on jobs in the city, please contact Director James Murphy. All information is helpful. Secondary needs include women’s hygiene products and baby items like diapers, strollers, and car seats. “When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such a one. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.” - Leviticus 19: 33-34
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As Catholics, our faith is sacramental: we recognize the relationship between the physical and spiritual reality of our world born out of our awareness that Jesus Christ was both Divine and human. This is why witnessing and creating Sacred Art helps us encounter God. “Just looking at and praying with art can help us to grow in our faith,” said Sarah Crow, the artist-in-residence at St. Gregory’s Hall. “By experiencing beauty, we come into relationship with God who is the source and end of all that is good, true, and beautiful.” Crow said this relationship is not abstract, that our hearts are often deeply moved and softened by beauty to become receptive to God’s mercy. 10/26/2023 1 Comment Canterbury House - One Year LaterIt has been just over a year since Mary, Mother of God parish launched Canterbury House. This ministry strives to build Eucharistic community – a coming together of people transformed by the presence of Christ to become His hands and feet in the world – within our parish. Outreach is done through prayer, fellowship, service, and studying Catholic thought. Director James Murphy said the idea for Canterbury House, located in the rectory next to St. Thomas of Canterbury church (4833 N. Kenmore), is heavily inspired by the Catholic Worker movement. Founders of the movement, Peter Maurin and Blessed Dorothy Day, viewed the Church’s social teachings as a much-needed answer to the injustice and challenges of modern society. Day said, “God meant things to be much easier than we have made them,” and Maurin wanted to build a society “where it is easier for people to be good.” 8/14/2023 0 Comments Mass setting for the Vigil of the Assumption highlights the mystery of the Solemnity
"Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves." On Tuesday, June 13, St. Gregory's Hall hosted a special choral Mass for the Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, 13th century Franciscan and Doctor of the Church. You teach at DePaul University and are a scholar-in-residence at St. Gregory's Hall. What is it that you teach at both of those places, and how did you come to teach it? I'm an associate professor in the Catholic Studies department at DePaul, where I teach classes in Catholic Theology, Church History, and Religion and Literature. The scholarly work I do is primarily about early Christianity, specifically how folks in roughly the first seven centuries of the church interpreted the Bible and what that meant for the life of the Church. St. Gregory's Hall has been awarded a Worshiping Communities Grant by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The grant will support a year-long project of developing the Sacred Music Program at St. Gregory's Hall. With the help of composer-in-residence Kevin Allen, St. Gregory's Hall will use the grant to continue the work of promoting the Church's traditions of sacred music. Employed in the proper liturgical context, these traditions serve a valuable tool for prayer, worship, and living engagement with our Catholic faith. In addition to special choral liturgies offered for parishioners and the wider community throughout the year, the project will include a series of presentations on sacred music by Kevin Allen and guest speakers, and a weekend-long gregorian chant workshop for church musicians and parishioners tentatively planned for summer 2024. Since it began in the year 2000, the Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants Program has awarded more than a thousand grants to churches, schools, organizations, and teacher-scholars across the United States and Canada for projects that generate thoughtfulness and energy for public worship and faith formation at the local grass-roots level. We are grateful to the Calvin Institute for Worship for their support of this project and look forward to continuing to expand our impact as a Catholic center for culture.
"Bring your hand and feel the place of the nails, and do not be unbelieving but believing, alleluia." Communion Antiphon for Divine Mercy Sunday
On Sunday, April 16 we held a Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday with Bishop Joseph N. Perry (Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago) presiding and music by St. Gregory's Schola and the Vox Fidelis Children's Choir directed by Kevin Allen (composer-in-residence). The Mass was held at 3:00 p.m., which is the customary time for the praying of the Divine Mercy chaplet.
Music for the Mass included a setting composed by Kevin Allen, "Missa de Sancte Nicolai," and works by Guy de Lioncourt (1885-1961) and Leone Lioni (c1560-1627). On display was a reproduction of a Divine Mercy painting by artist-in-residence Sarah Crow, the original of which was commissioned for the Divine Mercy Shrine at St. John Cantius in Chicago. The second Sunday of Easter, also known as Low Sunday or Quasi Modo Sunday, was declared the Sunday of Divine Mercy by St. Pope John Paul II in 2000 when he beatified Sr. Faustina Kowalska. St. Faustina was an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread. “Christ’s whole life is a gift to the Father and to mankind; His death represents the ultimate concretization of His continuing gift of self offered throughout all time to all people, and comes to each one of us especially in the Eucharist.” - Sofia Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child On January 13 and 14, catechists from around the Chicago area gathered for a short overnight retreat at the National Shrine of Saint Maximilian Kolbe in Libertyville. 12/21/2022 0 Comments December 11: Convivum Marianum: A prayerful contemplation on the Blessed Virgin Mary in Scripture and Song.To honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Gregory's Hall hosted a special lessons and carols service that reflected on episodes from her life. Readings and prayers covered the Immaculate Conception, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Coronation, complemented by beautiful Marian carols in Latin and English. |
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