Family Time

About a month ago, the rectory was blessed with a visit by four of my family members- my mom (Judy), sister (Breanna), aunt(Tammy), and cousin (Allie).  They arrived on Friday afternoon, the weekend of Halloween.  Fortunately, I am free on Friday afternoons and was able to spend it with them.  I gave them a tour of our rectory, introduced them to the parish chef, Karen, who was as usual, very warm and fun to be around, and we ran a couple errands for Karen so she could finish the meal she was preparing for our community dinner.

 

 

We came back from the store and after meeting Sr. Barbara, my coworker and head of the Senior Ministry at St. James, we started the evening like every Friday evening, with vespers (evening prayer), something new to the four girls.  They took very well to it, getting lost only a few times. Following vespers we had some appetizers in the common room, before heading into the dining room.  We had a great evening filled with great food, many stories of my home and family, as well as stories about the parish and Chicago life.

 

 

The next day we took advantage of a lazy morning and didn’t have a full breakfast until we got to the Polo Café for brunch around eleven. After stuffing ourselves with Polo’s great food, we made an adventurous trip on public transportation to Millennium Park, giving us the chance to take some fun pictures with “The Bean” (CloudGate).  Then we took a walk up and down the magnificent mile stopping only a few times—one stop being at Garrett Popcorn to get pick up some caramel-corn and cheesy popcorn. That evening we had the Chicago classic—deep-dish pizza (The girls are going to wait to try a Chicago-dog the next time around).  We enjoyed it amongst the company of the other men of the rectory and once again shared many-a-story—as they say, “good times were had by all.”

Beautiful trees in Millennium Park just before November!

On Sunday, we went to 9:30am Mass which gave me a chance to introduce the girls to all of the wonderful people I’ve been meeting here in Chicago. This was followed by a quick breakfast before the girls got on the road.  Which completed a memorable weekend—hopefully they’ll be able to make it down again soon, because I know they all would be warmly welcomed.

Just keep singing, just keep singing, just keep singing, singing, singing…

Since I had been in Men’s Chorus all four years at St. John’s, I am now accustomed to making music—a habit I am unwilling to break.  Therefore, when I came to St. James I was looking for a way to keep making music.

St. James’ Choir

God blessed me with a great church to keep doing so, because St. James has a vibrant choir that, with fervor, proclaims their praise of God through song.  This means, every Wednesday evening I have the pleasure gather with a group of twenty St. James parishioners to rehearse, converse, and make beautiful music.

On top of our Sunday Masses at 9:30am and 11:30am, the choir sings for events around the Chicago area.  On November 6^th, we have the honor to sing at the Chicago Catechetical Conference (say that five times fast), where we will provide music for Mass.

Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz Gospel Messiah Choir

Every year, the Auditorium Theatre of Chicago presents a high-energy show called Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz Gospel Messiah. I was not aware of this performance until I had the opportunity to attend a fundraiser for it a few weeks back.  There I spoke with the director of the Too Hot to Handel Choir.  After I told him I had experience singing with the St. John’s Men’s Chorus, he immediately asked me if I would be interested in joining them.

Now, at this point I had had a long week and felt overwhelmed simply thinking about the possibility of “giving up” one of my nights to something other than rest. But, after speaking with Fr. Edward, who was in full support of me joining, and reflecting on how cathartic choir rehearsals in college were, I decided to join the choir.

So, every Monday and Wednesday night, I get to make music, again—what a great way to take time.

 

Here are a few videos to check out Too Hot to Handel (Note: The Ad is for a previous year this year’s performances are on January 15th and 16th)

An Unexpected Call

October 1- In the post “Visitors” I spoke about a parishioner of St. James Parish, named Dave Samber, who owns the restaurant Polo Café and Catering. He is a man full of faith, passion, and compassion.  This post revolves around how my rectory community and I were of service to Dave and his compassion.

Every year the AIDS Foundation of Chicago hosts the AIDS Run/Walk Chicago, and for some years now, Dave offered his culinary services for the event by giving the runners and walkers a snack after finishing.  Last year Dave offered what the organizers asked for—hotdogs. This year, he asked the organizers if he could take the snack to a new level by offering steak sandwiches.  Needless to say, the foundation was ecstatic about Dave’s offer and were all for it.

 

Anthony attempting to tenderize me

 

This meant Dave had the daunting task of making over 5000 steak sandwiches for the event.  In order to do this, he and his crew tenderized, seasoned, and cooked for over 24 hours (it also must be mentioned that Dave served these sandwiches at the walk/run the next day—quite the hard worker).

Part way through this process, Dave stopped by the rectory to pick up a few things he needed for the preparation, and told us about the work he was doing.  My housemate Matt told him that if he were in need of some extra sets of hands around the kitchen, we could help.  Taking Matt’s offer lightly, Dave said he could definitely use the help and if we felt moved to come by, we should around 9pm.  It was 6:30pm when he told us this—just before dinner. By the time dinner was up we had all made the decision to lend a hand.

 

Matt REALLY enjoying his seasoning job

 

When we arrived at Dave’s Restaurant and walked into his kitchen, he grinned as one of the other chefs declared, “Dave, your troops have arrived.”  We were immediately assigned jobs—Father and Anthony on the defrosting crew, and Matt seasoned the meat after I tenderized it.

We worked for over four hours and were able to help Dave meet his goal of 5000 steak sandwiches, and in doing so helping the AIDS walk/run raise money for their noble cause.

Thanks for letting us help, Dave.

Find out how you can support this noble cause at http://www.aidschicago.org/home/index.php

 

An Eventful Weekend

 

The Wrigley Building

 

September 17-19
On the evening of Friday, September 17th I was invited on a charity boat tour of Chicago for the Brothers and Sisters of Love. At night the city is beautiful and the Chicago River, which we navigated, allowed us to see the buildings in all their glory. The tour included the Trump Tower, the Wrigley Building, and the Tribune tower just to name a few. After boating up and down the Chicago River we made our way onto a choppy Lake Michigan, which gave us a great view of the city.

 

Sr. Barbara and her award!

 

Since the cruise honored the work of one of my fiends, Sr. Barbara, many other friends I have been making were on the cruise, allowing me the opportunity to enjoy their company. I also made a couple friends while on the tour. One of which was originally from Eau Claire, WI—it’s a small world after all.

Saturday, September 18th was my birthday. In order to celebrate this occasion I slept in until 10am and watched TV shows on my computer until about noon.

In the evening I made plans and went out with Peter. First we went to a Mediterranean restaurant called Zaytune, where we ate delicious, football-sized wraps with a side of rosemary fries. After that we went to a place called Maria’s Packed Goods and Community Bar—a place I had been looking forward to explore for about two weeks leading up to this night out. It is what, I believe, the owner of the establishment called a “slashy,” which means liquor store/bar. The floor plan has the liquor store in the front with access to the bar behind through a door in the liquor store. This, I admit, seems sketchy, but I think that was part of allure.

 

Football-Sized

 

After taking the plunge, Peter and myself were pleasantly surprised by ambiance of the bar. It was dark, but it was intimate. The pleasant surprise given by this “slashy” in Bridgeport is that they had a beer list with 150 different types on it. There Peter and I topped off our evening with a couple good beers while listening to a DJ spin an eclectic mix of vinyls.

 

Maria's Packaged Goods and Community Bar

 

Sunday, September 19th was like most Sundays—wake up at 8, prayer at 8:30, breakfast at 8:45, Mass at 9:30 and 11:30, and lunch following. My rectory-mate, Matt, had been away for the weekend and returned early evening and apologized for forgetting my birthday—he had texted “Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday!?” the day before. So he took me out for a Guinness Grace O’Malley’s, an Irish pub fifteen blocks north of us.

After a couple drinks we decided to hop the CTA back to the rectory, where, to my great surprise was a group of friends all ready to celebrate my birthday—quite the surprise! We had a wonderful meal, which included porcupine balls, sauerkraut, pork chops, and dumplings (all favorites from home) prepared by Karen, the parish chef. I couldn’t have been more surprised and more welcomed by my friends here in Chicago—talk about Benedictine hospitality!

Visitors!

September 3-5- My junior-year roommate, Brandon Drazich, spent the night at the rectory on his journey out east. Brandon arrived late Friday night, so on Saturday morning we went out for brunch at Nana’s and enjoyed some time frolfing at IIT. Throughout this adventure Brandon snapped a few shots that were used in the movie The New Volunteer Coordinator Part 1 of 3: Meet Alex Schafer, and when we were back at the rectory we shot the video for the same movie.

As Brandon was about to leave we decided to give Shaun Crumb, a mutual friend of ours, a call. Shaun is studying in the Maryknoll Missionary Seminary in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Fortunately, we were able to reach him and went down to visit him.

This weekend was marked with more visiting friends. On Saturday night Peter Wawire and myself went out to an Irish pub on the North side and met up with Joel Coleman, Heidi Sutter, and Meghan Krantz. Meghan lives here, in Chicago, and Joel and Heidi were making their yearly migration to the windy city.

Joel and Heidi Visted!

That night we enjoyed each other’s company and the next morning Joel and Heidi came to Mass at St. James, after which we went out to the Ramova Grill and Millennium Park. It was great seeing friends from a place I called home for the past four years

August 27-29- My parents, grandparents (Schafer), and great aunt (Brenda) came down to the Chicago area for a family wedding. Being this my first full weekend in Chicago I told Father Edward I was going to stay at the rectory (instead of travel an hour away in order to attend the wedding with my family), but after he insisted I go if I wanted, I changed my plans and went to the wedding. I had a wonderful time at the wedding and was able to convince my family to come visit St. James for 9:30am Mass on Sunday. After Mass I introduced my family to many parishioners, coworkers, and friends, as well as show them around the rectory and the office.

One of the parishioners we talked with, Dave Samber, is the owner of the Polo Café and Catering Bridgeport U.S.A.. Since my family had enough time before they headed back home, we asked him if he was open for brunch. Unfortunately, he was not open, but he was able to suggest the long-established, Chicago restaurant Ramova Grill. After taking the five-minute drive over to the neighborhood of Bridgeport we arrived at the grill.

The Ramova Grill

My initial take on the Ramova Grill was a dubious one— we were met by a woman and man (who, come to find out, are our waitress and cook) smoking at the door as we entered the restaurant and we were required to split our group because they did not have six seats together. Fortunately, we made the decision to stay, because the food tasted great and the service was prompt and friendly–our waitress characterized our experience well when she said, “I believe the food tastes better when it’s served with a smile”.

Fruits of My “Labora”

Here are some videos I have created, or helped to create, for my work (I will post more of these videos as I complete them).

This video is the first installment of three that explain to the volunteers of St. James Social Care who I am, what volunteer organization I am from, and what is my position in St. James Social Care.

Here is a sneak peek at next month’s video on the BVC (Ben, you may like this for promotional purposes )

Finally, here is a slideshow of this past month’s hardworking Mobile Food Pantry volunteers.

Enjoy!

Alex Schafer

The Rundown…

< 

 

I have been here for three weeks. I will not be able to tell you ALL about those three weeks. Instead, I will give you a rundown of details surrounding my being here, in Chicago, at St. James Parish:

Keeping my roots

The place I am living: I live in the rectory of St. James on Wabash with four other men–Father Edward Linton OSB, the pastor, an Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) student named Anthony Basil, Jason Neale who is a recent graduate of IIT, and a seminarian from Mundelein Seminary named Matt Jones. The parish community here is very strong, diverse and welcoming. The first Mass I attended her was wonderful. Their Mass has a vibrant liturgy and inspiring music. After the mass Peter, my new boss, introduced me to A LOT of parishioners who all gave me a warm welcome which I have been receiving ever since. The church itself is quite historic, being the first church on the southside of Chicago over 150 years ago… I will speak more to the history of the church in a future post.

Where I work and what I do: I am the Volunteer Coordinator for the St. James Social Care Program. Specifically, I work at the St. James Parish office, which also houses the parish food pantry. The pantry serves over 1,600 families (about 3,000 individuals) in the 60616 and 60605 area codes every month. On top of that the pantry hosts an empowerment program to assist certain volunteers in gaining skills necessary to obtain and maintain jobs. As the Volunteer Coordinator I am in charge of a number of different projects including the development of this empowerment program, creating a monthly volunteer e-newsletter (if you are interested in receiving the newsletter please comment below with you email address or email me at aschafer@stjameswabash.org), and recruiting, training, and maintaining all volunteers. On top of the pantry, the St. James Social Care Program includes a mobile food pantry once a month, a senior ministry program, and a senior delivery program.

 

Cathy, the Food Pantry Manager, myself, and Sr. Barbara, the Senior Minister

How I got here: Last summer I worked with an organization called Youthwokrs! in Chicago. My work allowed me to work with new groups of youth every week, helping place them at different service sites throughout Chicago. Through this service I become very attached to Chicago, so when I started my student job at SJU Campus Ministry as a Social Justice Coordinator I decided to plan a service trip to Chicago. The planning involved finding a place for 10 volunteers to stay for a week. Fortunately, I stumble across St. James and Father Edward, in all his Benedictine hospitality, immediately said, “Yes!” After planning our stay with father Edward and after staying in the rectory for only a few days during the service trip, Father Edward asked me if I would be interested in a position they were creating at the pantry. After a couple months of discernment and planning with Brother Paul Richards, Father Edward, and Ben Demarais, I made the decision to come to St. James through the Benedictine Volunteer Corps.

 

The guys and Father on the Men's Chicago Service Trip over Christmas Break

 

I hope this blog post meet you well.

Alex Schafer

Greetings, at last, from Chicago…

Hello all!

After almost an entire month in Chicago I have decided to start blogging about my experiences.  It will be here, quite plain and simple, once a week, updating you on what happens in my life down here in Chicago.  I hope you enjoy…

Love,

Alex