Hunger Awareness Challenge – Day #2

Day #2 – September 20th

What types of conversations are you having with friends, family and co-workers about what you’re experiencing and the challenge you are doing?

Typically, the conversations start off as explaining what the challenge is and the why, but it turns very quickly to the how.
What foods do you have? …. only that…. I could not live without having (fill in your blank).
This is where the reality sets in, we then talk about ways to extend the rules, how to make what we have go further and maybe how we can find a way to get more of what we want without anyone seeing or knowing.
A common statement is that at least it is only for five days … then you can go back to normal.

This is because we have not faced this situation in our own lives, and actually this challenge is tolerable because there is a limited timeframe … five days.
but what if there was no limited time offer, short term, what if this was your new normal.

The conversations change from talking about what people see to what they do not see.

Reach out to me if you would like to have a conversation …..

to be continued….

Advertisement

Agape Centre Hunger Awareness Challenge 2022 – Day #1

Day 1 – September 19th
What motivated you to accept the challenge? We all have an idea that there is a food insecurity present in our world, country and community; we have been hearing about it since the 1980’s with the Live Aid and TV commercials. This programmed us to go on about our daily lives believe that the issue was far away and sending money and aid will resolve the problem.
We believe that with all our modern technologies comforts, how can this be happening now in 2022, life is fast paced and has outpaced the income levels; online connections have replaced personal connections, so we now just see an issue to be solved and not the people affected by the issue.
We stopped talking so we do not know the stories behind the people living in our community facing these everyday struggles.
We need to learn about the people going through these challenges and treat them, not as an inconvenience but as a reminder of what our true purpose is … To love and to be loved.

How do you feel about having to eat from a limited supply of Food?
This is most likely more of my motivation to do the challenge … it is easy to say the words that people expect to hear, but it is another thing to experience the loss of freedom and choice.
Just going through the food bank and being guided through to choose 2 of these, or any three of these limited choices, was eye opening.
On the outside looking in, we can say that “at least they are getting food.”
What was most apparent was the disconnect between what is available in the grocery store, what advertisers tell us what we need to make us happy and what is available or priced out beyond our means.
We have been conditioned to see Hunger as empty stomachs being fed, but there is also a hunger for choice, acceptance and the social convention that we have adopted as necessary in our society today.

Hunger Challenge 2022

Every year, The Agape Centre invites supporters to participate in the Hunger Awareness Challenge to bring awareness to the issue of hunger in our community.

From September 19th to September 23rd, Deacon Guy will be taking on the 2022 Agape Hunger Awareness Challenge as well as fundraising for the Agape Centre foodbank while eating items chosen from our foodbank.

This means: a few bags of groceries from the foodbank, eating lunches from the soup kitchen if needed and a $10 grocery allowance to spend on any extras he might need.
This campaign brings awareness to the issue of hunger and helps our community better understand how we serve our clients.

So how does it work?

FOOD

On September 15th or 16th, Deacon Guy will visit the Agape foodbank and pick out his groceries for the week.

During that week he will follow a set of rules to make the experience as real as possible.

Rules:

He can only eat and use the following supplies.

  1. Items you pick out of the foodbank
  2. Any items he buys with the $10 grocery allowance (provided by the Agape Centre)
  3. And 10 pantry staples (oil, butter, spices) that he may already have at home to supplement your meals
  1. He is welcome to use our soup kitchen any weekday for a hot meal from 11:30am – 1:30pm
  2. He cannot eat out at restaurants, stop to eat at a friend’s or family members for dinner. This is a privilege many of our clients can’t afford or don’t have access to.

FUNDRAISING

During Hunger Awareness Week, Agape Centre asks the Hunger Champions to fundraise for our foodbank.
Use whatever method feels most comfortable to you. In previous years participants have collected cash donations, Facebook’s

fundraising option and grocery store gift cards.

donate via e-transfer they can do so by sending it to us directly at

accounts@agapecentre.ca and leaving a message stating which champion they are supporting. Ex: “Donation to the

2022 Hunger Awareness Challenge in support of Deacon Guy”

Deacon Guy will have a pledge sheet to track tax receipts.
Donations of $20 or more with complete name and

address will be issued a tax receipt.

SHARING

To help raise awareness, Deacon Guy will be sharing his experience and encourage donations by sharing your meals

and impressions. Sharing what you are doing not only helps start conversations on the issue of hunger, it also

provides an opportunity for supporters to understand what they are donating to.

Check out www.thedeaconguy.ca , each day of the week Deacon Guy will be answering daily questions to get the conversation on hunger started.

Remember that Loving God, loving your Neighbour and Leaving Peace is best lived out through the Corporal and Spiritual Acts of Mercy.

We are each called by our Baptism to live and support these acts and the virtues of Faith, Hope and Love.

Peace,

DG

August 10th 2022 – 2nd Anniversary of Ordination

Today as I begin my day, I am reminded that this is a special day. Today I celebrate my 2nd anniversary of ordination.
I am sure that for most men, as they enter into the life of a permanent deacon, they can feel overwhelmed. Luckily over the last two years, I think everyone has felt overwhelmed by everything that has occurred.
Most days I am able to remind myself of the two statements that help me maintain my diaconal identity.
1) Each time I prepare myself to proclaim the Gospel, I repeat the words that the Bishop spoke to me at my ordination: ” Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you new are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”
2) My mission is to bring the poor to the Church and the Church to the poor.

Today is a good day to reflect on how am I living out the 7 CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY:

1. Feed the hungry.
2. Give drink to the thirsty.
3. Clothe the naked.
4. Shelter the homeless.
5. Visit the sick.
6. Visit the imprisoned.
7. Bury the dead.

Taking a moment…

it has been a busy few weeks … maybe months …
winding down Lent, running through Holy Week and ramping up the Easter season.
The parish has been busy, work keeps going and home is always exciting.

When the life schedule gets all jumbled, I find myself retreating into some prayer time and podcasts …. one inspiring podcast was a ‘Pints with Aquinas’ that feature Matt Fradd speaking with Ralph Martin.
This prompted the purchase of two of his books, “A Church in Crisis” & ‘The Fulfillment of all Desire”.
Currently I am working my way through, ” A Church in Crisis”, at the point where the author points out the two biggest lies of the devil, the deception that made their way into the church.
– the assumption that almost everyone will be saved because God is so merciful.
– the assumption that sexual sins that were once considered gravely sinful are no longer so in light of “new knowledge” about sexuality.

The author then points to the idea that if hell is real and many people go there, and if our decisions in the area of sexuality indeed have eternal consequences, then we had better start taking it seriously ourselves and telling people that.

This has to make us think ….

In case you were wondering…

With everything that we have experienced in the past few years and now the crisis in Ukraine, I find myself diving into reading the life of Pope John Paul II. There is so much insight and reflection that I receive from his story.
He is the Divine Mercy Pope and if there is any statement that we need to hold onto it is, ‘Jesus, I Trust in You’, it is our best defense against the anxiety and the feelings of doubt and being overwhelmed by what is happening in the world.

A few years ago I was asked this question… so I though now is a good time to review it again …. I the answer is from FR. VINCENT SERPA O.P. from Catholic Answers

How Can We Offer Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Divine Mercy Chaplet?

Question:

I am perplexed by the phrase in the Divine Mercy chaplet, “I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity, of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.” I thought that was something only a priest could do during the sacrifice of the Mass. Surely the offering made in the Mass is different in some way than what is offered in praying this chaplet. What am I missing?

Answer:

Saying that prayer is not the same as offering Mass. At Mass we participate in the one sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But because he made that sacrifice, that perfect prayer is now ours. Therefore we can always make reference to it. It is a most powerful prayer because it is his prayer. Basically, what we are saying to the Father is: “By the merits of his Passion, we ask for your mercy!”

What I’m Reading …

As you can imagine, in my many conversations with people it does not take long for a book recommendation to be offered. I have made it a practice not to run out and by the book, but simply write it down. Once the book comes up in three conversations with three different people then I track down the book to read.

Here is what is on my book table:
The Fourth Cup by Scott Hahn
The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen
George Cardinal Pell – Prison Journal – Volume One
Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry – True Stories of Padre Pio, Book 2

Our call to shine…

Here is the Pope’s tweet for today, Feb 2,


Pope Francis@PontifexOn the feast of the #PresentationOfTheLord in the temple, we present ourselves to God with purified spirits, so that our eyes might see the light of salvation and we might thus bring it to the entire world, as the Saints did.

… today is a good day to reflect how we bring the light of salvation to all the people we meet and interact with each moment of the day.