So I got up at 3:45 to start preheating the oven for two French Toast Casseroles. This weekend is the Women's CRHP ( prounounced "chirp") Retreat. They have to begin breakfast by 6:00 in order to be done in time for the hour fast before the 7:30 Mass that they'll attend. Our team serves breakfast this time and Joan and I have to be there by 5:15 to start the big 100-cup coffee pot perking. We're wondering if 5:15 is early enough but its too late to change it now as that is when the Kitchen Coordinator has her alarm set for and will unlock the back door for us.
Then we'll serve breakfast, clean up, attend that 7:30 Mass, and I'll do a 1 hour security shift beginning at 9:00. Yesterday, as part of the Continuation Committee, Joan and I were at the church at 6:00 making coffee, slicing bagels, making fruit salad, etc. for the welcoming breakfast buffet that kicks off the retreat. Short on sleep this weekend? Yes! But I remember how wonderful it was having a big, hot breakfast on Sunday. The retreat is intense and you get very little sleep attending it. You need that big, hot breakfast to keep going.
I never realized what someone else went through to give us that breakfast when we attended and on the one that we gave. It is worth it to offer it to these women as a small contribution to what Christ is doing in their lives this weekend. When I took coffee to one woman yesterday morning she sat all by herself at a table and shyly confided, "I don't know anyone else here," as we looked over the room of 70 other talking women. I told her, "Neither did I when I attended my retreat, but by the time you're done you'll know them all ... and you won't believe the difference this will make in your life." Just then four women pulled her into their conversation and I left. Those are the moments that make the early mornings worth it and take me back to what this all meant to me. How wonderful to be allowed to contribute to it happening in others' lives ... even if it is just making sure the coffee is made.
No comments:
Post a Comment