Lenten Suppers to Be Served at Diocesan Parishes

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 2/7/02)

Napoleonic legend has it that a starving French soldier, retreating from Moscow, was able to survive by recruiting townspeople to join him in making a "stone soup." He filled a pot with water, dropped in a stone and set the pot over a fire. He told villagers he was making delicious soup, but needed a few more ingredients to make it rich. With the community’s contributions — a carrot, cabbage or potato — he made soup to feed many hungry people.

The moral is strength comes when people share what they have. This lesson in community will be put into practice at various parish Lenten meals.

Our Lady, Queen of Peace Parish in Arlington will continue its traditional Lenten Friday evening Stone Soup Suppers combined with mini-talks and dialogue on the theme of "Stories from the Huddled Masses."

Soup is served in Father Ray Hall at 2700 S. 19th Street, Arlington, at 6:30 p.m.

The six-week series will include: Feb. 15: "What’s Happening in Africa?" led by Frances Michalkewicz, director of corporate planning, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Feb. 22: "What’s Drawing Emigrants from Latin America to the U.S.?" with Margie Swedish, director, Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico; March 1: "Faces of Racism" led by Msgr. Ray East, pastor of Nativity Parish in Washington; March 8: "Are Americans a Welcoming People" with Hon. Cecelia Espenoza, member, U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals; March 15: "What’s Happening in the ‘Hood?’" led by Seyoum Berhe, director, diocesan Refugee Office; and March 22: "Dismantling Racism" with Joe Szakos, director, Virginia Organizing Project. For information, call 703/979-5580.

St. Mary Parish in Alexandria will serve a Lenten Meal at 5:15 p.m. on Fridays, Feb. 15 – March 22, as it has for the past three years. Meatless soups, salad and bread or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for children can be enjoyed at the Lyceum at 313 Duke Street, followed by Stations of the Cross in the church at 310 S. Royal Street. An elevator is available in the Lyceum for the disabled.

Each Friday a different parish group — the choir, Home and School League, Catholic Daughters —will take a turn serving the meal, which is hosted by the Catholic Daughters of America. A nominal fee will be charged to benefit St. Coletta School in Alexandria. "It puts different parish groups together," said Betty Murphy of the Catholic Daughters. Delicious soup choices of clam chowder, gumbo, cream of mushroom or peanut soup have been featured, Murphy said. For information, call 703/836-4100.

Each Wednesday in Lent, except Ash Wednesday, a Lenten Soup Supper and Speakers Program will be offered at St. Luke Church at 7001 Georgetown Pike in McLean. Mass at 7 p.m. will be followed by a Soup Supper in Flaherty Hall. Each week a speaker will address some aspect of the theme, "The Eucharist as the Source and Summit of Our Lives as Christians."

Speakers include: Feb. 20: "Scripture and the Eucharist" led by Dr. Anthony Tambasco, professor of theology at Georgetown University; Feb. 27: "Relations Between Religions Since Vatican Council II" led by Brother Jeffrey Gros, associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; March 6: "Social Justice and the Eucharist" with Anne Murphy, program director for Parish Social Ministry of the Diocesan Office of Catholic Charities; March 13: "History of the Eucharist" led by Father Gerald Fogarty, professor of Religious Studies at The University of Virginia; and March 20: "The Eucharist and Liturgy" with Dr. Michael McMahon, president of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. For information, call 703/356-1255.

Lenten dinner is available for takeout or eating in every Friday during Lent at Epiphany of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church at 3410 Woodburn Rd., in Annandale. Takeout begins at 4 p.m. and dinner will be served from 5-7 p.m., followed by a "presanctified liturgy" at 7:30 p.m. For information, call 703/573-0777 on Friday after noon.

Parishes are invited to fax information on Lenten meals or speakers to the HERALD at 703/524-2782. 

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