Washington Region Volunteers at L'Arche

On July 10th seven Malta volunteers from Holy Trinity parish had the privilege of providing, serving, and eating dinner with the residents of a L’Arche home in the Adams Morgan section of Washington. L’Arche Greater DC is a community of people with and without intellectual disabilities sharing life together in a number of homes. There are four L’Arche homes in greater DC. 

The Malta volunteers—Maury Devine, Cathy MacFarlane, Barbara Jones, Rich Landfield, Diane Oakley, Clarion Johnson, and Philip Kao--sat at two tables of residents. The meal began with a grace, which was a gospel passage read in Spanish by one of the residents and translated by another resident. The meal ended with a prayer as a candle was passed from person to person. The prayer was a kind of Ignatian examen, where each person told about one time during the day when he or she felt isolated from God and one time during the day when he or she felt close to God. The prayers of all, as the candle was passed, were very different and very inspiring. 

Dinner was lasagna, Caesar salad, and yummy ice cream. During dinner there were wonderful discussions of the activities of various residents of the home. Some proudly showed their art work. The L’Arche community and the volunteers all agreed that the evening was a great success and should be repeated. Malta volunteers from Holy Trinity have also been involved in gardening projects at other local L’Arche homes.