The Easter Feast

After the Easter Vigil service on Easter Saturday night, Fr. Nico invited the “helpers” into the Middle Hall for a little refreshments. Wow, the tables were most beautifully decorated with vases of handmade (by Fr. Casimir and, maybe his busy elves?) colourful chickens and eggs on lollipop sticks, all in the Polish tradition. Fr. Casimir introduced the Polish tradition with a blessing of the food.



We were all encouraged to taste the Polish food. To start off we were led to a large tray filled with several items of food with their Easter symbolisms:

1. Colourful eggs - reflected the new life in the risen Christ.
   
2. Dish of salt- (to accompany the sausages and eggs) - symbolised the risen Christ
   
3. Horseradish – bitterness, resembling the sorrowful passion of Christ.
   
4. Sausages- showing the generosity of Jesus Christ.
5.  Bread - a symbol of the Bread of Life.

Father Casimir had cooked over 4 days the delicately favoured Bigos, the traditional Polish sauerkraut stew with Polish sausage, meat and cabbage served with Polish bread. Most of us tried out this dish, it went down well with a glass of wine and we tasted the most delicious cakes, again mostly baked by Fr. Casimir, our resident chef and his band of merry elves!

At the end of a most enjoyable evening surprisingly enough we had a lot of food leftover and Bill, Daniel, and “the gang” kindly took these over to the Julian Trust Homeless Shelter. Thank you to Fr. Casimir, Averil, Nicole, and all the helpers for their part in preparing the evening and to Mary, Reggie, Gabriel, George, and Airam for all the clearing and washing up!!

Thank you Fr. Nico, Fr. Rudy and Fr. Casimir for being here for us at St Mary’s and to all the many helpers who have given St. Mary-on-the-Quay a helping hand with a big smile!! (By Guay Tan)