A Soup-Making Evening at St. Lucy’s

On Monday evening, November 10, the Troubadours of St. Clare traded our usual fraternity gathering for aprons and soup pots. Colleen Serra led us in a soup-making evening at St. Lucy’s in St. Clair Shores — an evening’s work in support of Franciscan Ministries and the neighbors it serves.

Everyone had a part. Members arrived with soup pots, knives, and aprons — and, as Colleen’s invitation put it, a big heart. Albert Titran brought fresh vegetables, given by his benefactors, and gift cards donated by our members helped Franciscan Ministries cover the costs. Then it was chopping and stirring, pot after pot, until the kitchen smelled the way a kitchen should.

The soup goes out through Franciscan Ministries to our brothers and sisters across southeast Michigan who are homeless or in need — the same neighbors the ministry’s food trailer serves all year. It is a small thing, an evening’s work. But Franciscan joy has always travelled in small things: a pot of soup, carried with love, tells a person they have not been forgotten.

Thank you to Colleen for leading us, to Albert and his benefactors, and to every Troubadour who picked up a knife or a ladle. It is in giving that we receive.

— Mike Carsten, OFS