As plans for SERVE 2011 begin to take shape, I am brought back 20 years, to May and June 1991 when I myself was a participant in SERVE 1991. 1991 was a groundbreaking year for the program which continues today to welcome young adults from all across the country to participate in several weeks of community, prayer, and service with the goal of personal and spiritual growth, leadership, and fostering a heart of compassion for our brothers and sisters that we meet each day.
SERVE (Summer Endeavour in a Redemptorist Volunteer Experience) began in 1988, welcoming 12 young men for a six week period at Gerard House on Howland Avenue. The program went co-ed in 1991, welcoming 6 young men and 6 young women from across the country. This was a new experience of living community for both the participants and the Redemptorists who facilitated the program in partnership with our Lay Collaborators on Team.
Each one of us came from a different part of eastern Canada: Sudbury, Chatham, Windsor, Toronto, Sydney, Dunnville, St. John’s, Clarenville, Hamilton and Coburg.
Many things marked that journey of six weeks for us in a way that has left lasting impressions on us, and has become the fruit of many memories shared through casual reunions between “SERVE-ites” from over the years:
- a sense of welcome
- creativity through song and prayer
- sharing the burden of loss of family members
- supporting each other through life-changing journeys and engagements
- hearing that the Redemptorists wanted to dialogue with us young people to listen to us, to our needs, our questions and find in them a hopeful, respectful ear
- understanding that I can make a difference in someone’s life and knowing that through our encounters, they make a difference and impact my life
These are the seeds of building the Kingdom of God. As I look back on that 20 years later, I see how important that time was for each one of us, for our sense of self and for our hope to transform the world through one relationship at a time; through each encounter calling us to see Christ in the other, and Christ in ourself. 20 years later, and our world and our young people still hunger for this sense of belonging within the community of faith, and yearn to understand how they can make a difference through service and through working for justice. They yearn to be Christ’s hands and feet here on earth, to this broken world.
SERVE 1991 was (as one SERVE-ite said quite often) “a journey like no other”…. For me, it was a short experience that called forth in me a desire to serve, to evangelize and to be evangelized, to respond to that God-given gift of love shown to me and experienced each day in the community and at Providence Centre (which was my 6 week apostolate), and know that God was calling me to more.
As a priest, I’m often asked, “How did you know you wanted to be priest?”, or “Tell us about your vocation story?”. Well, my journey with the Redemptorists, just like several of us young Redemptorists, began with walking into the door of Gerard House on Howland to be a participant on SERVE. It has been that opportunity to listen, to share, and to challenge that voice of God speaking to my heart, guiding me in the direction of responding with the gift of my life through love of my brothers and sisters, to be that image of Christ’s Hands and Feet in our day to day life, and in the future wherever God has called me be.
SERVE 1991 was marked by joy, fun, tears, laughter, prayer, respect, compassion and gentleness. For almost 500 young adults, Redemptorists and Lay Collaborators, SERVE, over its 23 year span has continued to be a beacon of light in the life of the Church, and has been an inspiration to the SERVEites, to the people we have encountered at soup kitchens, nursing homes, drop in centres, schools, children’s programs, hospitals, treatment centres, and to the Redemptorists who each year welcome the opportunity to open our doors to the young people with whom we journey.
I leave you with some inside jokes, comments and phrases that marked our 1991 experience. Perhaps they ring true to your experience and journey of faith. Perhaps they ring true from when you were on SERVE yourself. At the bottom of the page, we invite you to share your favourite memory of your SERVE experience (even if it was from 23 years ago). Christ’s journey in our lives is timeless and priceless, and can always speak to generations, even when the Gospel is proclaimed anew!
Remembering SERVE 1991
- “La Look”
- Celebrating Graduation from Universities 2000 miles away
- “A journey like no other”
- Diana Ross impersonations
- Hey Ducky!
- “Let me see you buggalo”
- Killer Ken, the Busdriver to St. Louis for Dialogue 1991
- 9 hour bus break down on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor – and crashing at Assumption!
- Fr. Laso, Superior General – an inspiration to all in his time
- St. Alphonsus, “The Rock” Church in St. Louis. This is too “rock’n” to be a Catholic Church?!?
- Scott Mission, Our Place, Providence Centre, Sick Kids Hospital, L’Arche Daybreak and St. Francis Table
- Ena, our house cook – Chocolate Chip Cookies!
- Nights at the Brunie!
- Weaving the Loom of our Life
- Spending the night at Holy Redeemer College, Windsor
- Late nights on the roof
- “Be my gift O Lord, be what I have to give”
- “Friends are friends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them”
- Mississippi River Boat Cruise during Dialogue 1991
- Kleenex stock went up as a result of Thursday Nights!
- “Can we ever get a good picture without someone making a face!?!!?”
- Thunder storms, lightning and flooding from horizontal rain – what a mess!
- Surviving the heat of summer
- “Ain’t no mountain high enough”
- Homemade Rosaries
- Cosmo and Damian – our plants in the front garden
If you participated in SERVE over the last 23 years in either Toronto, Edmonton, Saskatoon or Sudbury, and you would like to extend best wishes and greetings to this year’s participants, send your letter by email to: serve@plugintochrist.ca , and we would be happy to send it along when SERVE takes place!
SERVE is taking place in Toronto: April 30 – June 4, 2011 for five weeks.
The Team consists of myself and Sr. Maureen Baldwin CND. We are welcoming 8 participants to Redeemer House this year, 4 men and 4 women! We look forward to five wonderful weeks.
In the Redeemer,
Fr. Santo Arrigo C.Ss.R.
SERVE 1991 participant and Coordinator of SERVE 2011
(Also SERVE Team 1997 and 2010)
I made S.E.R.V.E. 1991 in Toronto. It does not seem possible that it has been 20 years! I remember walking into Gerard House thinking ‘what have I gotten myself into’?But through my experiences I realized that I have a heart for the poor, the lonely, the elderly, the disabled, and that I am a worthwhile person (sounds cliche I know but I entered S.E.R.V.E. a very insecure, shy person, who honestly thought I had no value). My experience led me to Scott Mission Soup Kitchen. What an eye opener that was!Imagine my surprise when I was suddenly feeding so many people that we had to do two sittings, and then make 500 bag lunches daily! The biggest surprise was the families that came to us regularly. Many had to make the choice between food and shelter so came to us when there was no money left to feed their children. Being on S.E.R.V.E. definitely helped define who I would become. I went to college following my summer in Toronto, and now work with families who have children with needs. My ‘kids’ are all ages preemie to 5, and have varying degrees of disability, making them technology dependent and/or medically fragile. Every day I get to be “the hands and feet of Jesus” as I care for these young ones, and give their parents the break they need. Without my experiences during S.E.R.V.E., I don’t know if I could have done this job so lovingly and happily. To all the Servites and Serviettes of 2011, I wish you the experience of a lifetime. Please be open to going where ever you are placed with an open mind, a willing heart, and be ready to continue the tradition of being Jesus’ hands and feet.
Some of my memories of SERVE 1991:
• the buggaloo- oh my goodness people thought we had three heads when we all got up on the side of the hill and ‘performed’ this lovely little whatever it is prior to the fireworks. It was definately better received in St. Louis!
• Ena – cook extraordinaire! I loved the peach cream cheese muffins!
• Ducky – you know I didn’t ever really think about it, but I call my little ones Ducky Doo alot.
• late nights on the roof, and tanning on the roof by day. Bob and I were sunburned right before Dialogue! I peeled 4 times!
• late night music – because I was on the third floor at the front of the house, I would get serenaded regularly by street performers playing soft guitar and flute as I drifted off to sleep. Or was that Santo practicing and I didn’t know it?
• Blueberry Hill – FROZEN YOGURT!
• Homemade rosaries – Bob was the best. I still have mine.
• Gerard House – it was such a magical place, but also a place of peace and tranquility. Remember that first night at supper when Anne said that it was the quietest meal ever, but it would be the only quiet meal we would have? How right she was!
• Mass – for me, living in a small community, each local church offered the same style of service, but while in Toronto, we visited different Parishes and got to experience Mass in different ways. It was so cool!
by Maureen MacDonald about 776 days ago
Being a part of S.E.R.V.E in ’91 was absolutely a life-altering experience. To be privileged to be part of a community of believers who wanted to take their faith further and put it into action was unbelievable. I knew it was special at the time, though I wasn’t fully aware of just how special it was.
Twenty years later, with the clarity of hindsight, I can see that what was happening during this time was the formation of roots – roots of faith that would solidify my certainty in being a child of God, and one with a mission.
The intimate sharing of the life lessons we were learning at our placements is one of my favourite memories, along with the memory of a fine senior resident from Daybreak who regularly proposed marriage to me. I’ll never forget Roy. Oh, I can’t forget graduating from MUN (with Kim) in St. John’s while in the dining room of Gerard House.
One of the great gifts of the L’Arche community to me was the incredible joy to be had in each moment if one truly accepts and lives that moment. Each moment is a gift, if we see it that way.
Everyone who sets out to minister to another ends up being a receiver. Service is the road to humility and humility to grace. At least that’s how I see it post-S.E.R.V.E.
The riches of my S.E.R.V.E. experience are too numerous to put into words. I carry those roots of faith into my family life, my parish, my community every day.
Enjoy every moment. This experience is a gift to you. God has great plans and this can be a great beginning! Peace.
Michelle (Sullivan) Mackey
by Michelle (Sullivan) Mackey about 774 days ago
Serious things…
I had a moment of denial faced with the fact that this took place 20 years ago. I went to look back at my photos and yup, I was undeniably that young. Looking back at my SERVE experience, I honestly believe that living it has made me, somehow, special. It was deeply moving, but also deeply challenging. It can be so easy to hope sometimes that faith will show you a straight, well-lit path, and yet that is not always the reality (well, maybe never the reality!). Living my faith during SERVE forced me through lows, made me face my inner frailties and selfishness, brought me face to face with the stark reality of sadness and illness and loneliness in the world, and the multiple ways we are capable of neglecting and hurting one another. It also showed me that a loving community can provide the strength to turn those challenges into gifts, made me stronger, made me forgiving of myself, made me appreciate the astonishing and glorious greys in the world. It turned my faith from the faith of a child to the faith of an adult, steeped in reality but still open to wonder. The fact is, service doesn’t demand that you be perfect – it only demands determination, faith and respect. And love, of course. That realization helped me understand what role I could play in my community and family, and what kind of person I wanted to be, what the world and God deserved from me. There was something about coming home at the end of the day to that lovely house, and those lovely people, that was so very peaceful. Something about the songs and the prayers, the discussion and the engagement, the tears and laughter and hugs (I won an award for hugging, btw. That needs to be noted). It was like being tuned, in a way, all the wrong notes put to right. Every second of this experience was worth it, infinitely worth it, and for those of you just starting out with this, I urge you to breathe deeply, and maybe spend some time writing things down (?Ducky? I don’t remember Ducky…) And certainly don’t stay up all night without first taking out your contact lens (haha… another insider story eh). But seriously, breathe deeply. Here are some silly things…
- “Good morning Sunshine!”
- Getting stuck at the top of the CN tower and having to walk down the stairs.
- Brother Charles and Renato from St. Francis table doing an exquisite re-enactment of the Ben Kenobi vs Darth Vader lightsaber fight. Brother Charles was Ben of course… he was dressed for the part.
- Why did Steve dress in drag so much?? (I have photo evidence…)
- Singing the Lion Sleeps Tonight… one of our first dinners I think?
- Oh yes, I set my hair on fire during a candlelight ceremony (taking Children of the Light a tad too seriously eh).Yeah, don’t do that.
- Bob teaching me Croatian (I still have my rosary too).
- Eyes the bye?? I’s the … what now?
by Vicky Bryant about 774 days ago