Season
of service:
Not just remembrance, but promise for future
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
“We don’t just deliver services — we serve.”
That’s the spirit in which employees of the Archdiocese’s
Secretariat for Catholic Human Services (CHS) have rededicated themselves
to their work — serving the people of God — in answering Cardinal
Justin Rigali’s call to a Season of Service to celebrate the Bicentennial
of Philadelphia as a diocese.
CHS consists of Catholic Social Services (CSS), Catholic Health Care Services
(CHCS), Nutritional Development Services (NDS) and the Office for Community
Development (OCD).
Edward J. Lis, director of Catholic Mission Integration for Catholic Human
Services, is proud of the fact that those who work for CHS are serious
about serving others.
For a rededication initiative, participants attended a prayer service
and completed a personal rededication card that included a component of
the Bicentennial theme, “Serving the People of God in the Beginning,
Now and Always.”
On the first line of the card, next to the words “In the Beginning,”
they wrote the date they began working for the Archdiocese. On the second
line, next to the word “Now,” they wrote the current date.
On the third line, next to the words “And Always,” they signed
their name.
In signing the cards, employees pledged to continue to adhere to the core
values of their divisions.
“In considering the theme of the Bicentennial … it seems very
clear to me and to my colleagues that this was not simply a remembrance,
but also a promise for the future — to celebrate that which has
been, and to give gratitude to God for the great blessing, honor and privilege
it is to serve people in His name,” Lis said.
He said that includes helping those in need to achieve greater well-being
and a sense of health, safety and wholeness in their lives.
Through His followers, “Christ continues to touch the world with
tender mercy, with compassion, with concern for just treatment,”
Lis added. “That was our hope — that people would see that
connection and realize that ‘the history of the Archdiocese includes
me, right here, right now.’”
Divine Providence Village in Springfield — a division of CSS’
Mental Retardation Services Division that serves women between the ages
of 18 and 70 who are developmentally disabled — has also stepped
up to the Season of Service challenge.
Residents and staff assembled and delivered Easter baskets for youth with
mental and physical disabilities who reside at St. Edmond’s Home
for Children in Rosemont. The baskets were stocked with coloring books
and crayons, bath products, dolls, stuffed animals and other playthings.
The project was an illustration of what Lent is all about, said St. Joseph
Sister Mary Veasy, pastoral associate at Divine Providence Village.
“Jesus reached out and helped everyone and loved everyone.”
Residents at Divine Providence also made 130 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
— the supplies were donated by staff — for a homeless shelter
in Upper Darby.
“I explained to them how so many times people give things to us
— and we have a home to live in, we have food every day —
but that there are people who don’t have those same privileges,
and, one of the things that we can do is reach out and do something for
someone else.
“They understood what we were doing,” Sister Mary said. “They
knew they were helping people who were hungry. They have such compassion
for other people.”
Combining the Season of Service with CHS’ Servant Leadership Initiative,
administrators, staff and residents at Divine Providence Village have
been sharing a number of meals together.
Depending on the individual ability levels of the Divine Providence Village
residents, the initiative — which runs through March 28 —
involves a collaboration among residents, staff and administrators in
cooking meals , having meals delivered, sitting down to specialty meals
prepared by the cooks on staff or dining at a restaurant off-campus.
Held from Jan. 5, the feast of St. John Neumann, to March 3, the
feast of St. Katharine Drexel, the “Bicentennial Season of Service”
honored the Archdiocese’s two canonized saints, who were renowned
for their charitable service to others. For more information, visit the
archdiocesan Web site, www.archphila.org, and click on “Bicentennial
Season of Service.”
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.