I think sometimes the Lord makes you hear some things which make you think about how He has worked in the past, and brings back appropriate memories, making you want to thank Him more.
Two songs which are poles apart- “Make me a channel of your peace” (sung at Mass) and “In your Easter Bonnet”(heard on the radio) made me think of when we first had Easter celebrations at the hostels, and in particular our very first celebration, at the women’s hostel in Inglefield Street.
We had, of course, always done Christmas dinners(and no doubt nearer the festive time we’ll have some memories of them!) but it was suggested to us in the early 90s- by a young, ideological student- okay, Kevin!) that we should maybe think about doing Easter celebrations as well.
We chose Inglefield Street on the 1st Wednesday after Easter, because the women there liked their parties, and also because one of the women, Brenda, had recently adopted “Make me a channel of your peace “as her party peace, and the other women all seemed to enjoy her rendition of it- so, if we needed a bit of religious music to mark Jesus’ Resurrection, there we had it.
On the night, Margaret Forsyth, one of our members at that time- sadly, no longer with us- and who had previously worked in catering previously- took great delight in setting up tables in the tearoom, with beautiful crisp white tablecloths, and she enlisted the help of some of the hostels’ younger residents in setting up plates of chicken, salad, finger rolls, ham- and of course, both chocolate and hard boiled eggs- as I said, Inglefield Street had recently become home to a number of young residents, girls in their 20s who had obviously known well the harsher side of life- and it was a great delight to see these girls totally immersed in painting these hard boiled eggs!
After the meal, Brenda gave us “Make me a channel of your peace.” and as expected, all the women were in party mood- there were some right good singers among their number, and they all gave us a turn- and of course, to finish off with, Margaret Forsyth danced all around the room with her rendition of “In your Easter bonnet.”!
We also got a chance to remember the reason for the season at the end when one of the women decided to chance it, and reminded us that 2 Mondays time was also a bank holiday, and would we be doing this again. I told her no, this was to specially celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection- and she seemed happy with that reply.