Love, hope and self-worth all in one bundle.<\/p>\n
Students at Our Lady of Assumption School in
\nCalgary are gifting blessing bags this Easter to homeless men and women staying
\nat the Mustard Seed emergency shelter.<\/p>\n
Erin MacLachlan, the school\u2019s principal, who
\noversees students from kindergarten to Grade 9, praised her students for putting
\ntheir faith into action.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year we survey our students on a
\nvariety of topics (related) to their education,\u201d said MacLachlan. \u201cWhen it
\ncomes to faith formation, they were asked \u2018how do you feel most connected to
\nGod or to (your) faith?\u2019 Overwhelmingly, students said they feel closest to God
\nwhen they’re actively serving others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kindergarten kids and pupils in Grades 1, 2
\nand 8 are filling bags with warm socks, gloves and toques. Grades 3, 4 and 9
\nclasses are offering toothbrushes, travel-size toothpaste, lip balm and lotion.
\nThe Grade 5 and 6 students will supply travel-size deodorant, wet wipes and
\npocket tissues. And Grade 7 boys and girls are contributing soft granola bars,
\nfruit snacks and water bottles.<\/p>\n
Grade 7 student Payton (last name concealed
\ndue to Calgary Catholic School District privacy policies) has visited The
\nMustard Seed before and came away impressed with the services for Calgarians
\nexperiencing misfortune. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey always provide meals and housing for
\npeople who can\u2019t afford it,\u201d said Payton. \u201cI know they have an upper room for
\nfamilies with children, and that is a great help.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
MacLachlan said The Mustard Seed is an
\nideal cause to champion because of the Christian non-profit\u2019s \u201cmain focus being
\nmaintaining the dignity of every person, regardless of their background, and
\ntruly acting as Jesus would.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Register has engaged with The Mustard
\nSeed multiple times in recent years about the efforts of its staff and
\nvolunteers to serve the vulnerable. Along with offering food and shelter, the
\norganization\u2019s wellness centre delivers medical care, mental health support,
\noccupational therapy, tax clinics, ID services and more. The chaplains on the
\nspiritual care team lead Bible studies and Alpha courses, offer prayers and
\none-on-one counselling. This suite of services is rounded out with an
\nemployment support program for both guests and local partnering businesses and
\nnon-profits.<\/p>\n
Alongside Calgary, The Mustard Seed is
\nestablished in Edmonton, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Kamloops and Saskatoon. According
\nto theseed.ca, in 2025 the organization served more than 980,000 meals, offered 765
\nshelter spaces daily and supported 1,466 clients into stable housing. <\/p>\n
The 320 Our Lady of Assumption students had
\nuntil March 30 to submit their designated goods for the blessing bags. Then the
\njunior high kids on the student leadership team worked with the younger
\nstudents to bag their items and the kind notes they wrote for The Mustard Seed
\nguests.<\/p>\n
April 2, Holy Thursday, was delivery day. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
MacLachlan shared how the blessing bag initiative
\ninstilled an important Lenten value within the students. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur
\nstudents are learning a lot about almsgiving,\u201d said MacLachlan. “They’re (seeing
\nthat) we’ve got to turn our focus from inward to outwards and that true service
\nrequires intentionality. At this point in time, as we head into the Easter
\nbreak, students are understanding that they’re offering the Easter promise of a
\nnew beginning to those people in the community who are most in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)<\/p>\n
A version of this story appeared in the April 05, 2026, issue of The Catholic Register with the headline “Calgary students put faith in action for Easter”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love, hope and self-worth all in one bundle. Students at Our Lady of Assumption School in Calgary are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-575476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}