Mending Cafe

Laudato Si is an encyclical written by Pope Francis in 2015 on care for our common home. Laudato Si Week is a reminder of our call to care for our world and each other. Laudato Si addresses the many crisises facing our planet. Sadly, theses remain much the same more than a decade later. However, the overwhelming message of the letter is one of hope. There is always something we can do.

At the Easter Vigil, we began in total darkness. Then the Easter candle was lit. A single flame. From that one flame, light was passed from one candle to the next until the whole church was aglow. That is what we are challenged to do this Laudato Si Week. Light one flame. Choose one action. Take one step in the direction of a cleaner, safer, more equitable world.

As part of this call to action, Holy Spirit Parish will be hosting a Mending Café, Tuesday May 19 from   7-9pm. This will be an informal gathering where you are invited to bring items in need of mending and learn some simple techniques or share your skills and knowledge. Materials will be available, but feel free to bring your own supplies such as needles, thread, buttons and fabric scraps. Projects might include: ripped knees (especial in kid’s pants); missing buttons; fallen hems; open seams. Bring what you have, and we’ll see what we can do.

Mending has been shown to be good for mental health, it keeps clothes out of landfills, and it builds community when we mend together. Mending is also a tangible reminder the what is broken can be repaired. Not just our clothes, but also our relationships, community and world.

We hope you will join us on May 19, but if you can’t, please choose another action, read or listen to Laudato Si, or pray St. Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures which inspired the name of the encyclical. Laudato Si = Praised Be You!

“Praised be you, my Lord, with all our creatures…”