CV NEWS FEED // While the western route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage was in Colorado this month, pilgrims joined the Denver-based Christ in the City missionaries who serve the poor and homeless for their bimonthly Lunch in the Park event.
Maria Seybert, volunteer coordinator for Christ in the City, told CatholicVote in an email interview about Christ in the City and how the pilgrims ended up joining the missionaries for the lunch on June 8.
Seybert said that Christ in the City, founded in 2010, “is a non-profit, missionary formation program who finds their call to mission in loving the poor.”
Young adults aged 18-28 can volunteer to serve full-time for up to two years. According to the Christ in the City Philadelphia location website,
Missionaries walk the same street routes, Monday [through] Friday, building friendships with the homeless. And in doing so, we are re-cultivating a foundation in someone to have hope, walking with our homeless friends toward healing and re-integration into society.
Seybert described Lunch in the Park as similar to “a family picnic.” It takes place every Wednesday and every second Saturday of the month in downtown Denver.
“[Lunch in the Park] allows us to invite our friends into a common space where we can share a meal and grow deeper in friendship,” Seybert explained. “At Lunch in the Park we see the food as being a ‘vehicle to encounter’, it allows us to go deeper with our friends by first meeting their physical needs and then aiming for a deeper need of relationships.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, the western St. Junipero Serra Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage came to the Archdiocese of Denver from June 5 to June 12, stopping at various parishes.
The pilgrims ended up joining the missionaries for Lunch in the Park, Seybert explained, “both through the Holy Spirit’s guidance and their desire to serve. As the pilgrims were planning their time spent in Denver they knew of Christ in the City and wanted to join in our mission in some way.”
Seybert said Christ in the City felt blessed that the pilgrims contacted them and that the timing of the Pilgrimage’s visit in Denver coincided with the second Saturday of the month.
The pilgrims arrived at Saturday’s Lunch in the Park and immediately began to help, serve, and talk with those present, Seyber said, adding that it was a lunch “filled with a lot of joy coming from our missionaries, volunteers, pilgrims, and our friends!”
“I know that there will be and already have been great fruits from having them all at our lunch after they have spent so much time with our Eucharistic Lord,” she added. “It was clear that through the miles and time they have already spent with Him along the way they have been so filled and because of that were able to pour out in service to our friends.”
Devotion to the Eucharist is also crucial at Christ in the City, Seybert said. The missionaries attend weekly adoration and spend an hour in the chapel, where Jesus in the Eucharist is present in the tabernacle every day.
“Our mission would not be possible both in the house and on the streets without devotion to our Lord and a surrender of our mission to His greater one,” Seybert said. “When Christ is fully found in the Eucharist it allows for us to find Christ fully in those around us, especially the poor whom we are called to encounter and love.”
Seybert highlighted that there are ways to support Christ in the City’s mission both financially and in-person.
Those interested in supporting Christ in the City financially can learn more here.
Seybert also wrote: “We love having all people come and serve with us here at Christ in the City. Our biggest opportunity is at our Lunch in the Parks which we have every Wednesday and second Saturday, and this is a space for families, young, and old to come and join.”
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