Volunteers carry on Deacon Fragale’s mission to serve, grow in faith
Tim Miller believes that when you put your hands and feet to work serving others, good things will happen.
And soon enough, those small acts of charity become one giant labor of love, according to Miller and other members of the St. Ambrose Society.
Jim Garavaglia and Charlie Oldani sliced turkey and ham for sandwiches on Aug. 19. “This is our little piece of how we are living the word, if you will,” Garavaglia said. “It’s something that is positive for the parish, positive for people who are less fortunate and are underserved in the community.”
“When someone ends up doing charity and service work, something good will happen, and then they’ll put that together” when they realize how God has given them gifts to be shared with others, he said. “I’ve said that you don’t have to be a saint, you just have to be willing.”
An outreach ministry of St. Ambrose Parish on the Hill, the St. Ambrose Society serves the poor through the corporal works of mercy. Founded by the late Deacon Joseph Fragale in 2016, the ministry prepares and serves homemade meals at various homeless shelters and soup kitchens, assists in collecting, sorting and distributing clothes via a parish clothing pantry and organizes a home maintenance repair program, among other activities. More than 1,600 sandwiches are made every month and delivered to various places throughout the area.
Their service has rippled throughout the community through other endeavors. Over the summer, Miller and members of the St. Ambrose Society were serving a meal at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis when he asked Father Bruce Forman if there was anything else that the church needed help with.
As a matter of fact, yes, the priest said. The church basement, previously an emergency shelter operated by Peter and Paul Community Services for more than four decades, needed repairs and sprucing up after the nonprofit organization moved the shelter to a new location in north St. Louis in July. Sts. Peter and Paul Church is considering reopening the space to provide services to homeless individuals.
Union volunteers worked in the basement of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis, which formerly housed an emergency shelter operated by Peter and Paul Community Services.
Miller, a member of Operating Engineers Local 513, recruited other union volunteers via the Laborers Local 42 Volunteer Organizing Committee to help with demolition at the church. Volunteers, which included union electricians, ironworkers, painters, plaster workers, floor layers and carpenters, got to work tearing out drywall, painting walls and doing other repairs. Volunteers plan to install new flooring, replace old fluorescent lighting, make plaster repairs and give the church basement a deep cleaning. Miller organized a similar effort at Gateway 180’s emergency shelter last spring.
And while he might not use the word “evangelization” to describe it, that’s exactly what Miller and other members of the Ambrose Society are seeing in action. While doing the renovation work, some conversations on the job site have turned to faith and service, with some expressing an interest in getting involved with the St. Ambrose Society.
“All of a sudden we’re talking about it on the job site, and other people are hearing what we’re saying at lunchtime, you know?” Miller said. “Stewardship is something that we can relate to, because we’re stewards on the job — so that means we’re looking out for our guys and making sure the conditions are right. Deacon Joe showed us that when you put God first, you can be a good steward for others … That’s a conversation I can have with them about stewardship, and then you put two and two together, and then maybe you’ll go to 12 o’clock (Mass) on Sunday.”
Deacon Fragale, who died July 26 at the age of 60, clearly saw evangelization as part of the work of the St. Ambrose Society, said his widow, Suzanne “Suzie” Fragale. For example, while preparing meals for the shelters using Suzie’s recipes for Italian breaded chicken and meatballs and sauce, volunteers get to talking.
“Joe’s thinking was to provide food and clothing, and with all that, people’s hearts just grew and interest in their faith grew,” she said. “In sitting around making meatballs, discussions would turn to those things. It continues to be such a big part of the parish and has brought people together in so many ways and has grown the faith in so many ways.”
Over the years, some suggested ways to cut costs and reduce the time needed to make the food, but as Deacon Fragale would tell them: “the Holy Spirit manages my books,” Suzie Fragale said. “If He wants me to keep doing this, He will manage it.”
Parishioners Sherry and Keith Kohne, who have taken the role of co-presidents, said they rely on a list of about 150 volunteers to call on, whether that’s making food, doing home repairs or organizing donated clothing. They carry on the mission of the St. Ambrose Society, giving people a way to use their gifts — whether that’s one time for just an hour or someone who has the ability to make an ongoing commitment.
“Part of (Deacon Fragale’s) thing was that it’s not just that he wants to feed the poor, but he wanted other people to have a place to use their gifts to serve,” Sherry Kohne said. Citing Matthew 25 on the parable of the talents, in which the master judges his servants on their stewardship, Kohne said, “that was Deacon Joe’s thought and mission, and that’s what we’re trying to keep going.”
