Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Parish gathers recipes to celebrate priest

Fr. Casavant's passion for cooking prompts parishioners to give him a cookbook as he leaves for Rome

WCR PHOTO | CHRIS MILLER Linda Sorenson shows the display promoting the CWL recipe book, Gather and Celebrate, designed to say "farewell" to Fr. Sylvain Casavant.

EDMONTON - So many families have gathered and celebrated with Father Sylvain Casavant, that as a special tribute, recipes are being compiled into a cookbook for the departing pastor.

It's a fitting tribute to a pastor who loves to cook and who will leave in mid-July for a year of studies in Rome.

"The youth had a spaghetti supper here June 1, and one of the things auctioned off was for Father (Casavant) to cook a meal for a group of people," said Linda Sorenson, who has been coordinating the project.

"He does that. He likes to cook and entertain."

Parishioners were asked to share their favourite family recipes for the new cookbook.

"We asked people to submit holiday celebration-type recipes. We've received quite a variety, like breads, snack foods, desserts," said Annette Patterson, with the parish's Catholic Women's League.

"Father Sylvain enjoys cooking. The last six years he's been here, for every Holy Thursday he organizes bread baking. The bread is given out on Good Friday," said Patterson.

OFF TO ITALY

Casavant's last weekend in the parish is July 10-11. He is a member of the Sulpician Fathers, a society dedicated to seminary teaching.

Following meetings in Montreal in August, he travels to Florence, Italy, to take a month of Italian.

By the end of September he will be in Rome, studying at the Teresianum, and completing his degree in spiritual theology. He will be granted his degree in about a year and expects to be back in Canada by August 2011.

Gather and Celebrate is the second cookbook produced by the St. Thomas More Parish CWL. The first book, titled Gather at the Table, was printed five years ago and contains 344 recipes.

Both books are sold to raise money for sacramental gifts. Everyone receiving the sacraments, such as Baptism, First Communion, first Reconciliation and Confirmation, receive congratulatory gifts from the CWL. The babies receive little white garments, children get medals and newlyweds receive the cookbooks.

Casavant wrote an introductory message in the first cookbook, asking people to pray for the person who supplied the recipe. The book also contains the parish mission, a grace to say before meals and a photograph of the church.

LAST SUPPER

This newest book will include an image of the Last Supper, the same as the stained glass window above the entrance to the church.

Sorenson, a pastoral assistant at the parish for 10 years, said she knows all of the hard work that the priests do for the children and families, bringing Christ into their lives. "This is what Christ calls us to do - to gather and celebrate."

As of June 22, about 125 recipes had been submitted, but with a last-minute blitz, Sorenson remains hopeful that they will reach their goal of 300-plus recipes.

East Indian and Filipino parishioners contributed meals of their own culture. Several gluten-free recipes were also submitted.

"This one guy - he's 80 years old - and he wrote on his recipe that this is what led him to 80 years of good health. It was your basic rolled oats with fruit in it. I guess we'll have to put that one under extra special," said Sorenson.

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