Greetings Friends of St. Bakhita Catholic Worker Community,
Early morning, July 6th, 2022 is a day to remember. Not just because it was my birthday, though I admittedly do love birthdays . . . all birthdays. But because it was a moment in time that I pray will always stay etched in my entirety. Two of our future community members, survivors, walked through the door to help paint their rooms. As they passed through the first-floor hall of St. Bakhita House a look of joy and astonishment washed over their faces as they uttered “It’s so big”. . . “There is so much space”. . . “It’s so beautiful”. Words that fill the soul. The earliest and best birthday gift, perhaps, ever. But it was more than that. These beautiful women just seemed so at peace. All is grace.
Thank you for helping to make this come to fruition. There have been so many people who have painted, cleaned, hauled, donated and prayed. The lovely women from the Cathedral, pictured in this post, did an amazing job deep cleaning our kitchen and laying shelf paper. . A multitude of wonderful individuals, groups and families have contacted us and faithfully shown up to help out. So much so, that we have not really felt the need to send out a Sign-Up Genius. But we do anticipate the need to have a major clean up party once we wind down our painting and room updates. Please consider being a part of this grand effort!
In other important news, It was a joy to share our mission during a presentation at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Madison this June. In July, we are blessed to be the recipient of St. Roberts Parish 5th Sunday Collection and we will be briefly speaking at every weekend Mass prior to the 5th Sunday to inspire generosity. In September, we will be sharing our journey at Our Lady of Lourdes GIFT faith formation gathering. We also have our first retreat booked in our beautifully refreshed community space. And last, but certainly not least, we celebrated our first Mass at St. Bakhita House this week– Fr. Bill, Rosie and I! We hope you can join us soon once our chapel is finished being adorned with a fresh coat of paint
And finally, we are profoundly excited and reasonably sure, barring some Titanic like anomaly, that our Open House date is Sunday, September 25th, from 11am-2pm. Pre-Packer game of course. Bishop Jeff will gift us with a blessing at 12:00pm. Come check out our beautiful home–our Catholic Worker sanctuary where we live in hope and peace with women survivors of the Clare Community. We would absolutely love to share in this long-awaited moment with you!
For now, we hold you in prayer. May your heart be filled with the joy of a blessed morning where everything feels big, spacious and beautiful!
Peace and all good,
