I.  Volunteer Opportunities -- An Overview

 

Despite the closure of Blessed Sacrament Parish on July 1, 2005, St. Luke Parish continues to minister to the North Lawndale area of Chicago. This relationship has been active since the 1970's.

     

Our monthly blue envelope generates support for varied efforts; most notably, The Learning Center - House of Connections. Under the guidance of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, the Learning Center provides much-needed educational opportunities for neighborhood adults wishing to elevate their status in life. Using the impressive environment of the former Blessed Sacrament rectory, students form no-charge daytime and evening classes. The Center thrives on prayers, financial help, and the glorious St. Luke parishioner-tutors who help with assistance in preparing for the G.E.D. (High School equivalence diploma), reading, math, computers, and English as a second language (ESL). More tutors are always welcomed!

 

Additionally, the monthly blue envelope collection supports efforts of the Youth Center, which continues to operate on the Blessed Sacrament campus. 

 

St. Agatha Catholic Academy located at St. Agatha Parish (just northeast of Blessed Sacrament) also benefits from the monthly blue envelope collection.

 

The Tuition Assistance Program actively involves families while providing educational aid to high school students. Started in 1980, the Tuition Assistance Program offers scholarships to those who once attended Blessed Sacrament, or another Catholic grade school, and are continuing with Catholic high school education. Opportunities include making monetary contributions and establishing person to person contacts between student families and St. Luke families.  We are also helping St. Agatha graduates.

 

St. Luke parishioners weekly and annually contribute food, clothing, furniture, and Christmas gifts.

 

The Feed the Hungry ministry was formed over 25 years ago for the sole purpose of providing a way for the parish to respond to the Gospel imperative to "feed the hungry". Any member of the parish can participate by bringing non-perishable food and personal care items to church and placing them in the baskets provided and by participating in the Turkey Sunday food collection the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Cash donations can be given by writing a check to St. Luke Parish and putting "Feed the Hungry" on the note section of the check. The food and personal care items collected and any cash donations go to the food pantry at Blessed Sacrament. The pantry serves the poor in North Lawndale, one of the poorest communities in Chicago.

 

The committee also works on the systemic causes of hunger in this country and worldwide by sponsoring with the Peace and Justice Committee the annual Offering of Letters on hunger issues. The Offering of Letters is performed in conjunction with Bread for the World, a Christian voice for ending hunger for 30 years. The Offering of Letters is held every year in May or June and involves writing letters to our Congressmen and Senators on a bipartisan legislative initiative before Congress affecting the hungry here and around the world.

 

For more information, contact Bob Nickels at 771-1937, Paul Faherty at 771-5986, Annemarie Valenti at 771-3186, or Tony Graefe at 848-9753.    

     

 

 

II. The History of the St. Luke and Blessed Sacrament

Sharing Relationship

 

The relationship between St. Luke and Blessed Sacrament began at the end of the turbulent 1960s. When the relationship started, Fr. John Fahey was the pastor of St. Luke, and Fr. Edmund Burke, a former student of Fr. Fahey's, was the pastor of Blessed Sacrament. In the late 60s the problems of poverty and race were on everyone's minds. The two pastors had a faith-based response to the problems, the forging of a relationship between an inner city parish at Cermak and Central Park in the North Lawndale section of Chicago and a west suburban parish in River Forest.

 

As Monsignor Egan at Presentation Parish and Fr. Koenig at St. Joseph's of Libertyville had done before them, Frs. Fahey and Burke had a vision of a sharing relationship which could benefit both parishes. Blessed Sacrament would benefit because the parish could continue its ministry, especially the school, even though it no longer had the economic resources to do it alone. St. Luke would benefit because we would have a way of responding to the gospel imperative to share our abundant blessings with others. Both parishes would benefit by building a bridge between people of different races, ethnic backgrounds and economic status. The relationship was referred to as "twinning" because both parishes were equal partners vitally interested in the well-being of their twin.

 

The relationship begun by Frs. Fahey and Burke has endured and grown over the years because it . . .

• Provides a vehicle for Catholics to experience our unity and diversity as members of the Body of Christ;
• Offers a concrete way to live out what Pope John Paul II calls the "virtue of solidarity";
• Opens the eyes of parishioners from both parishes to the beauty of our diversity and what we can learn from each other;
• Demonstrates the Church's "preferential option for the poor" while upholding the dignity of all; and

• Challenges each of us to follow Jesus in compassion, service and generosity in the gifts we have to share.

   

   Please get involved in our relationship with our sharing parish, Blessed Sacrament. Through sharing, all our lives are enriched.