High schoolers participate in Christian Servants at Work

By Greg Bernard | Special to The CFP

The week of July 28 to Aug. 1 was a special one for youth and their adult leaders from the parishes of St. Brigid and Our Lady of the Assumption in Millbury. The 27 participants in Christian Servants at Work (CSAW), answered the Lord’s call to go out to love and serve those in need – and do so without their phones and devices!

CSAW is a program the parishes have offered to high school youth each summer since 2008, even in 2020 and 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic, but with no overnight stays. This year Anna Maria College in Paxton was their home for four nights.  

During the day on CSAW week, the group spends time at local agencies and organizations that help provide for individuals and families fighting food insecurity and homelessness. Some of these people may not have resources to provide for themselves or may be at risk of not having what they need.

This year CSAW started on a Sunday afternoon with community-building icebreakers and Minute-to-Win-It Olympics.

The whole group worked in the fields at the Community Harvest Project in Grafton for two mornings. On those afternoons there was free time, when the teenagers could reflect by doing journaling if they so chose.

At the Community Harvest Project they harvested two-and-a-half tons – yes tons – of onions, tomatoes, squash and beans, yielding more than 20,000 servings of vegetables for those in need. Most of the harvest was then collected by the Worcester County Food Bank to provide healthy and fresh produce to people throughout central Massachusetts.  

The CSAW group also spends one day in small groups, directly assisting local agencies and ministries. On July 31, this year’s five groups each learned about and aided one of the following places in Worcester: The Mustard Seed Catholic Worker food pantry and summer camp; St. Peter Parish’s food pantry; The Little Store thrift shop of Urban Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope; Visitation House for women with unplanned pregnancies and their babies, where the CSAW participants did yard work; Annunciation House of Worcester, where they did gardening for the hungry and cleaned up a chapel, and a Habitat for Humanity ReStore (“reuse store”).  

Evenings were spent building community, visiting St. Joseph Abbey in Spencer, participating in a penance service and Mass celebrated by Father Daniel R. Mulcahy Jr., pastor of the Millbury parishes, among other activities.

The Holy Spirit was alive and well for CSAW.

 The biggest blessing is taking the teenagers out of their comfort zones and away from the distractions of daily life. They receive something they might not receive elsewhere. We call these God-moments. Each day we spend time reflecting on what those experiences are.

After going to the sacrament of reconciliation and spending time in solitude at St. Joseph Abbey, a lot of the young people came away with a different presence than what they exhibited earlier in the week.  

At the abbey they were invited to sit in solitude for five minutes; the adults were having a hard time pulling them away from that solitude after 15 minutes. The youth didn’t want it to end.
May God continue to bless these young people, their leaders, and all those they served.

– Greg Bernard works in youth/adolescent ministry and young adult faith formation at St. Brigid and Our Lady of the Assumption parishes, Millbury.