Volunteers from several parishes become like family while preparing, serving their first community Christmas meal

Everybody forgot that they belonged to this parish or that parish and remembered they belong to one Catholic Church.”

The people interviewed for this story asked to remain anonymous:

There was plenty for everybody.

Plenty of food. Plenty of work. Plenty of grace and fellowship.

Plenty of Christmas cheer to go around.

“For me, this was the best Christmas ever,” said the pastor of several rural parishes in neighboring counties in the Jefferson City diocese.

“Between the Masses — all full — and how this came together and the enthusiastic response of my parishioners, I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” he said.

Members of the parishes, along with a few Catholics from a bit greater distance, pitched-in to prepare, serve, deliver and clean-up after more than 400 hot meals on Christmas Day.

Each consisted of baked ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, dinner rolls and desserts.

Several people enjoyed the meal in the festively decorated confines of a local community center.

Others accepted their meals and took them home to their families.

A battalion of parishioners turned out to visit residents of both counties who requested to have their meals delivered at home.

Many who asked for delivery are elderly, homebound or in need of material assistance.

Meals were also dispatched to the Christmas shift of deputies and staff of the local sheriff’s department, people residing in the jail, staff of the local hospital and emergency room, staff of six local nursing homes, 911 dispatchers, EMTs, local police and other community servants.

“Basically, if you had to work on Christmas and we knew about it, you got a meal,” the pastor stated.

Trays of cookies were also delivered to the staff of the nursing homes, law-enforcement, the hospital and a children’s home.

“We had a constant 20 to 25 volunteers on the premises at any given time,” the pastor noted. “We also had more drivers than we knew what to do with.”

Some people arrived to set up at 8 a.m. and stayed until the clean-up was completed at around 4 p.m.

“It was amazing!” said the priest. “We had people of all ages from each of the parishes. Some were meeting each other for the first time and jumping right in and helping and getting to know each other.”

It was as if the parish boundaries had dissolved for the day.

“Everybody forgot that they belonged to this parish or that parish and remembered they belong to one Catholic Church,” said the priest.

“That’s what we were hoping for,” he stated. “Not just feeding the masses but building communion among these people.”

“Why not?”

All of this came together in about three weeks, beginning with a rollicking staff meeting.

“We tend to use those meetings as an incubator for ideas,” the pastor said. “The idea came up to serve a hot meal on Christmas.

“There are parishes in the diocese that have been doing this for years,” he noted. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Why not? Let’s try it.’”

He presented the idea to parishioners in homilies at all Masses on the Second Sunday of Advent.

He summoned volunteers to a leadership meeting at one of the parishes the following Thursday.

A handful showed up, “and they took off with it,” said the priest.

From that point forward, “everything just kind of naturally fell into place,” he said.

A parishioner who orders the food each year for the Altar Society’s annual fundraiser took on that assignment for the Christmas Meal.

“Basically, all I had to do was call and make sure the door was open when the deliveries came,” she said.

It came to pass

For one parishioner, helping wasn’t just a great way to honor God, dish out a delicious meal and make new friends.

It was also a much-needed lift.

“I figured it would be better to stay busy this time of year than not to be busy,” said the parishioner, whose mother passed away in October.

As it turns out, that mother enjoyed entertaining guests, while the daughter was better suited to helping out behind the scenes.

“From the time I was a little kid, this kind of fell into what I’ve always done when Mom would entertain,” she stated. “I would be in the background getting things done, making sure the food was out and the dishes were getting done.”

So, that’s what she did this Christmas.

The pastor chose a central location to serve and dispatch the meals.

The kitchen was not large, but the volunteers adapted to the environment.

“It got to be kind of playing chess,” he said.

As things got underway on Christmas, the priest reminded everyone of one of the rules in the Rule of St. Benedict: “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ.”

“They really got that,” the priest said.

Organizers gave clear directives to the people delivering to homes:

1) A lot of smiles, “Merry Christmas” and open arms;

2) Accept no donations;

3) When someone asks who’s responsible for this, just say, ‘This free meal is for you. Enjoy it, and enjoy Christmas.”

“We didn’t want to go into their homes, blowing a trumpet ahead of us,” the priest explained. “We didn’t want this to come off as a PR move or a way to fill our pews.

“We wanted to let the good we were doing speak for itself,” he said.

“This way, we’re keeping the focus where it belongs,” one of the parishioners stated. “It’s like, ‘You may be thanking me, but you’re really thanking God. Because it’s all from him.’”

That’s why the pastor and parishioners agreed to speak anonymously for this story.

Wondering eyes

Children at a local Catholic school and from the parishes’ CCD programs made greeting cards for every nursing home resident.

People began arriving at the hall to cook and heat the food at around 8 a.m. on Christmas, with more arriving to help after the 9 o’clock Mass.

“There were Knights of Columbus already there slicing hams up and trimming them and putting them in roasters to get that warmed up,” a parishioner recalled.

“People were starting the vegetables to get that warmed up and cooked,” she said, “and making mashed potatoes and setting the tables, getting them decorated, and packaging the desserts and cutting them up.”

A man who moved into one of the parishes two years ago organized all the deliveries with laser precision, using a color-coded list according to address.

The atmosphere throughout the operation was light and joyful.

“I was just amazed at how easily everything flowed, even as they were trying to tackle not seeing something coming, or space being at such a premium,” the pastor said.

One of the organizers said it was great to meet and visit with people from other parishes while stirring mashed potatoes or heating green beans.

“All the while, people were so willing to do whatever you needed them to do,” she said.

Some of the deliverers were greeted with tears from people who were happy just to be remembered on Christmas.

“It was exhausting but very good,” one parishioner stated.

She was overwhelmed by the number of people who came to help.

“Even with the short notice, the turnout was wonderful,” she said.

Growing family

“I believe that we were definitely God’s family while we were doing this,” one parishioner stated.

Another said she was convinced that God was present in the project from its inception.

“He was there in our midst and in every person who came to work and in every person who got a meal,” she said.

“I’m a strong believer in you don’t ever look in the eyes of another person who God doesn’t love,” she added. “And you never know when you’re going to cross paths with Jesus.”

“It was a very special day,” said another parishioner. “I came home and thought to myself, ‘I feel completely blessed today. I met a bunch of people, and I came out with more family and more friends than I had before I got there on Christmas morning.’”

Weary world

The pastor preached at all the Christmas Masses about being a sign of hope.

He drew a lyric from the beloved Christmas hymn, “O, Holy Night” — “The weary world rejoices.”

“There’s a lot of darkness out there,” he stated. “And we know this time of year, lots of depression, sadness, isolation. We are called to be a light of hope in the midst of that.

“That’s why we didn’t put our names on the dinner,” he said. “We want the actual deed to be the sign of hope.”

The priest is convinced that the Christmas meal might have been a turning point for the parishes.

“Not that we had a bad dynamic before,” he noted. “But if you were an outsider watching, you wouldn’t have known that all of these volunteers were from five different parishes. You’d have thought they had known each other from time immemorial.”

He’s convinced that setting the standards high draws the best from people and gives them an incentive to show up and help.

“After two years of preaching stewardship and the idea of parishes as centers of mercy and charity, this Christmas project told me they’re hearing the message,” he said.

He believed the homily he’d give the following weekend might be one of his most important.

“Basically, ‘Look at what happens when we act as a family,’” he said.

He talked about how everybody who showed up to help had a distinct contribution to make, and all of it was from God.

“Everybody stepped up and did their thing,” he said. “Everyone came away from that event tired but happy. And as a pastor, I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

Committed individuals

One of the organizers said her prayers on Christmas Night were songs of praise to God for everything that got accomplished that day with his help.

She’s noticed that the parishes are feeling less separate and more like one family.

“And we’re continuing to build on that family and that community feeling among ourselves,” she said. “We’re definitely very blessed.”

She believes any parish that has parishioners who are generous with their time and their treasure can do something like what these parishes did on Christmas.

She pointed to a statement by social activist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

“It proved to be most definitely true on this day,” the parishioner said.