It was my privilege yesterday to be the presenter at a retreat day for the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in the Twin Cities area. The IVC provides opportunites for those who are aged 50 and older to engage in service activities for the poor and otherwise marginalized. IVC volunteers spend two days a week engaged in service (placements include criminal justice ministry, programs serving at-risk youth, programs for people with mental illness, advocacy for workers rights, and many others) and meet monthly to pray and reflect on their experiences. Yesterday was their end of year retreat day.
I built the day around several themes contained in Shaine Claiborne’s, The Irresistible Revolution, about which I’ve posted before (and which is described on the Recently Read page), which was the book the volunteers read and discussed together during the past year. The day consisted of several periods of input, individual prayer and small group sharing.
Many things strike me as I sit this morning reflecting on the day. I titled this post Giving and Receiving because one of the things I heard many times through the course of the day in different ways from the volunteers was their sense that they benefitted from the service they engaged in during the year at least as much as those to whom they ministered. And I heard in so many ways how grateful they were for the experience.
I think all of us who are engaged in ministry, whatever form that ministry takes, understand exactly what the IVC volunteers were expressing. Coincidentally, I attended an evening of reflection in my parish earlier this week on charity and justice and the people who described their volunteer activity that evening made the same point – we get so much more than we give.
It is in giving that we receive. And so give. Give generously. We can’t all afford to give two days a week of our time like the IVC volunteers do. But a few hours here or there can make a lot of difference – to those we serve and to ourselves.
