Good morning…
Yesterday, I enjoyed the privilege of attending the Kitchen Cura graduation at the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Kitchen Cura is a six month culinary internship program which empowers individuals recovering from addiction and homelessness by teaching scratch-cooking, developing knife skills, and mastering the ability to host nutritious meals in hopes of building hospitality careers. The participants earn an hourly wage, complete ServSafe certification, and receive mentorship from Executive Chef Calisha Smith and her team.
The program’s name was inspired by the Jesuit concept of “cura personalis,” which in Latin means “care for the whole person,” a concept honoring the individuality of each person as a beloved child of God. During the program, the participants not only developed marketable skills in the kitchen, they also tapped their God-given gifts and built community with one another and the Ignatius House staff. Over the six months, they learned resilience, stick-to-it-ness, and financial management skills. Each participant regularly engaged in individual spiritual direction sessions to help discern the guiding voice of God in their daily lives.
Yesterday’s graduation celebrated the amazing accomplishments of Chef Shannika, Chef Carrie, and Chef Charese. All three of these women attended an Ignatian Spirituality Project (ISP) retreat, so each of them have received a welcome bag created by women from our Northside Church family and our SueToYou community. The ISP program has benefited greatly from our generous donations. How fun it was to see beautiful fruits blossoming from the small seeds we have planted semester by semester!
During the encouraging ceremony, various speakers shared words of wisdom with these special women they have grown to adore. God’s love in the room was palpable! Each woman wore a chef’s jacket with their personal name stitched on it and in the end they were gifted their own set of knives. After the fun festivities, we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by the humble hands of these talented new chefs.
How wonderful to see with my own eyes the way God is at work in our community, building up and maturing his deeply loved children.
These words of blessing from Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) were spoken over Chef Shannika, Chef Carrie, and Chef Charese, as they were anointed with oil, preparing them for their fertile future with God.
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Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all
the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
******
Master, when did we find You hungry and give You food? When did we find You thirsty and slake Your thirst? When did we find You a stranger and welcome You in, or find You naked and clothe You? When did we find You sick and nurse You to health? When did we visit You when You were in prison?
I tell you this: whenever you saw a brother or sister hungry or cold, whatever you did to the least of these, so you did to Me (Matthew 25:37-40, VOICE).
Like these three inspiring Kitchen Cura graduates, might our hands, our feet, and our eyes embody the power of the living Christ in our midst?
…Sue…
P.S. The entryway into the Kitchen Cura experience comes through the Ignatian Spirituality Retreats which we support each semester. If you feel drawn to donate funds to bolster this life-giving opportunity for more courageous men and women recovering from homelessness and addiction, please use this link: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/ispretreats/
