Law school comes with a lot of pressure to prioritize big things at the expense of small kindnesses, so I organized my Wednesdays as a weekly reminder of why I’m here. I spend the morning in the STM Soup Kitchen, rush off to class for the next seven hours, and then end the day back at Mass, where we remember the day’s guests during the prayers of the faithful.
You feed the hungry, you study the system that has left so many hungry and then you pray for them.
These days, I’m praying for a lot of things. Most of them have no obvious equivalent to “and then you feed them.” I cannot heal the sick; I cannot employ the unemployed; I cannot socially distance the prisons; I cannot get adequate PPE to those on the front lines. There is so much wrong, and I have so little to offer. My refrain has instead become, “I pray for an end to the pandemic. Then I stay home.”
Except on Wednesdays.
The kitchen and dining hall are strangely empty now as we work. The number of volunteers is kept to a minimum. The laughter and camaraderie are muted through the cloth of homemade masks. Our guests pick up their meals—and a mask, if they need one—outside.
Even in the midst of unprecedented times and overwhelming challenges, it remains true that people get fed one person and one meal at a time. There is no other way: You pray for the hungry and then you feed them.
Jacqui Oesterblad joins Fr. Karl Davis and recent graduate Joshua Garcia in preparing lunch in the STM Soup Kitchen.
