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Defying Gravity!
Defying Gravity!
Upon encountering Fr. Henri Nouwen's writings, I found his understanding of life as a trapeze act to be an apt image for my journey, which has spanned three decades.
In the past six months, as I have struggled with PTSD and Religious Trauma, his words: "but I was suddenly confronted with the other side of this air-ballet, not simply the dangers of physical harm, but the experience of failure, shame, guilt, frustration, and anger."
These feelings have come as I have moved further away, unintentionally, from friends and colleagues who follow a traditional path of ministry. With the attacks on LGBTQ people, undocumented migrants, the homeless, and all disenfranchised, I have come to realized that with all the divisions in our country and religious groups, and the constant accusations and threats against me, the only guideline in life which makes sense is to follow the command "Seek first the Kingdom of God", following Christ in simply following his way of love. All of us are merely God's children, all broken. Following Christ is moving away from trying to construct people in our own image, by letting them be whom God has created them to be. As Nouwen commented:
"Many of my books no longer express my spiritual vision and although I am not dismissing my older writing as no longer valid. I feel that something radically different is being asked of me. My many encounters with people who have no contact with any church, my contact with AIDS patients, my experience in the circus and the many socio-political events of the past few years all ask for anew way to speak about God. This new way includes not only content, but form. Not only what I say but also how I say it should be different. What mostly comes to mind is stories. I know I have to write stories."
Remembering the words of Charles Spurgeon: "A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't," I have let the Holy Scriptures speak more and more to my mission in the life which remains. One of the ordination vows I pledged was "to be a keeper of the mysteries," and in being loyal to that vow, I see Scripture as being one of three aspects of faith, "reason, and experience" being the others. Coming together, on the high trapeze of compassion, we become fully immersed in the condition of being human; in the words of Wendell Berry:
"Care rests upon genuine religion. . .To answer to the perpetual crisis of our presence in this abounding and dangerous world, we only have the perpetual obligation of care."
True religion is beyond doctrine, system, government, wealth, poverty, sexual orientations, and racial identity, but is found in "the perpetual obligation of care!"
"I have caught a glimpse of the mystery of being the Beloved. . .in which letting go of everything and being connected with everything no longer elude each other"(Nouwen), is where I find life, letting go of my petty concerns, my pain, and fears, and enter into the connectedness with my brothers and sisters.
We are all in an open-ended story. In these times of fear and isolation, Jesus offers us a way to reimagine our local and global interdependence and to continue the surprising spiritual story Christ lays before us in his words:
"Then the King will say to those on his right.
Come you who are blessed by my Father,
Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you
from the creation of the world.
For I was hungry, and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger, and you invited me
into your home.
I was naked, and you gave me clothing.
I was sick and you cared for me.
I was in prison and you visited me.
I tell you the truth,
when you helped one of the least
of my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me."
(Matthew 25:39-36, 40)
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
----------------------------
Temenos
"Where Jacob Wrestled With God!
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
(PayPal)
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______
We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
========================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!
WE ARE SHORT:
$150.00: counseling insurance, 501 ( c3) Fees
Annual fees; so please, if you can open your hearts, it would be greatly appreciated!
-----------------
Dear God
Speak gently in my silence.
When the loud noises of my surroundings and the loud inner voices of my fears keep
pulling me away from you,
help me to trust that you are
still there even when I am
unable to hear you (Henri Nouwen)!
-
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Feed My Sheep!
Temenos
"Where Jacob Wrestled With God!
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
(PayPal)
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______
We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
========================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!
WE ARE SHORT:
$150.00: counseling insurance, 501 ( c3) Fees
Annual fees; so please, if you can open your hearts, it would be greatly appreciated!
---------------------
Give Them Something to Eat!
June 22, 2025
"The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ!"
Luke 9:11-7: . ."Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. Then they all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets."
===============
In Mark's account, the disciples and Jesus set sail towards a deserted area near the town of Bethsaida. The multitude follows, and Jesus, tired though he is, welcomes the crowd and begins teaching and healing. When the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowd away because there are not enough resources to feed everyone. Jesus challenges them, "You give them something to eat!" And then Jesus blesses the five loaves and two fish. and gives them back, multiplied, for "the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were fed!"
We can be overwhelmed by the vastness of the need. So many people are detained and deported—so much violence. There are so few resources available for those in need of healthcare, housing, and food security. So much harm to our Mother Earth. Or we can place our resources in God's hands and trust that God will place them back in our hands, multiplied more powerful than we could imagine, so that "we can give them something to eat!"
Last week, as the San Jose police were enforcing the city's new laws on camping, forcing people to pack up and leave their homes on the street, a gentleman was cooking food, as he had done since his retirement a year prior. Mr. S. said in a sad tone, "My homeless friends have no place to go, the city talks of housing, but does not provide, and now they are driving them out of the only place they called home. My friends will move each day, because rather than talking to them, helping them, and simply getting to know them, the citizens will push the city government to treat each one as if they do not matter, or as criminals."
Mr. S. follows the orders of Jesus: "You give them something to eat!" And Mr. S. described how his heart has changed in feeding the hungry, becoming more open, understanding, and finding an invitation to love.
The invitation of Jesus to love is a call to trust in the seed of our goodness.--that saintlike quality that has been planted in our beings. There in that sacred place, we begin to understand that hatred only holds us in bondage, while forgiveness and love set us free. If we make every effort to trust that the love of Christ is truly flowing through us and out of us into the lives of others, we will begin to experience the blessing of newfound freedom. A deep peace settles over us. We, too, are loved amid our sinfulness and inadequacies.
We will never grasp the wonder of our souls and our vast capacity for love until we learn to open our hearts to the people we are becoming. It is as though we are waiting for ourselves to arrive. We are watching ourselves emerge from the womb of our becoming. We are opening our lives to the love that is flowing through our being. Somewhere in the midst of this, we discover that just as we can not become holy on our own, we cannot love at all alone. Together, we are a vessel of this tremendous love.
Recently, while walking near the donut shop, a voice called out to me. Turning, I saw a gentleman in rags, pushing a shopping cart. "Please buy me a donut, I have had no food all day!" And from around the corner came five more, begging for a donut. I smiled and said, "Come on down!"
As I walked into the shop, a lady standing on the sidewalk approached me and said, "Let me help you, please!"
With her help, we bought each one a two-ham croissant, juice, and coffee or
juice. They were happy, and the lady was beaming!
The Divine within us invites us to truly find freedom and joy by "giving them something to eat!" Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
=================================
Enough for Everyone!
"Your banquet is spread before us, Lord, acres of bread and vast jugs of refreshing water, barrels of beer and vats of fine wine. There is enough for everyone.
Your banquet is spread before us, Lord, the grapes hang heavy and ripe for the picking, and the fruit drops from the laden trees. There is enough for everyone.
And yet, the cry of a hungry child breaks the silence of plenty and rebukes the powerful,
Those who withhold their wealth.
It scatters the dice of the gamblers who bet on the price of food, and overturns the traders' tables
to send the rich away
---------------------------------------------------
Your banquet is set before us, Lord.
There is enough .
For everyone.
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The Call of the Lone Wolf
Temenos Catholic Worker
"Where Jacob Wrestled With God!
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
(Pay Pal)
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______
We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
========================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!
WE ARE SHORT:
$150.00: counseling insurance, 501 ( c3) Fees
Annual fees; so please, if you can open your hearts, it would be greatly appreciated!
---------------------
"The Call of the Lone Wolf!"
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control. There is no law against such things!"
--Galations 5:22-23
In the past weeks, my heart has become full of pain. My nights are sleepless, at the deaths, starvation, in Gaza, and other places in the world; as I walk in so much pain on our streets--people are starving, they have no housing, no medical care, and are treated like garbage; Walter Burghardt's definition of contemplation rings through my daily office as a long loving look at the real! I see the real, and hear the real every day in my presence!
God became obvious and ever-present. God is everywhere. At the exact moment, I experience exactly the opposite emotion. My eyes were full of tears, filled with immense sadness — a sadness at what we are doing to the earth, sadness about the people I have hurt in my life, my mixed emotions, and my selfishness. Most of all, sadness at the ones on our streets, in the richest City in the country, who are suffering!
I have progressively answered the call of the Lone Wolf through the years: "There is no courage in compromise." That call has enabled me to enter into the lives of the "lone wolves" on the street, and more importantly, to let them enter my life!
Two that come to mind are "Jeremy and Larry." Both were from loving homes in the Bay Area, and both found themselves "outside the gates", into being "Lone Wolves!"
They were seniors in one of our excellent church schools, active in their churches, with plenty of friends, and all the upper-middle-class trappings; yet each one had come to hate their lifestyles of consumption and the falseness of money. Both questioned their sexuality, and were fooling around with both sexes, and in the eyes of the Church were "sinners"! You see, they were open about their questioning of all things!
Both had met me when their youth group assisted in serving a dinner, and suddenly we were friends. We went skateboarding, to movies, and concerts, smoked pot, and I became their Story Catcher, the one who could hold their stories where they felt safe.
And so our year and a half, before they went to college, passed, and in them there was a transformation, as each began their journey home to a God outside of the traditional boundaries:
"Jesus is the host who wants to gather us around the table, the Good Shepherd who invites his people to a table where the cup is overflowing (Ps. 23). This is not a stern, harsh Lord, but the lamb of God who says 'Come home'. We can read the whole Bible with this image in mind. God is continually inviting us to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life (Psalm 27:4). The Lord wants to be our home!"
---Fr. Henri Nouwen
The lives of St. Francis, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Fr. John Dear, continue to lead us in finding our home in God through following the words of Jesus:
"One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is 'Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one: 'you shall lover the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these!"
--Mark 12:28-31 (NRSV(eu)
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
===========================
"When people become self-centered and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person's heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own, and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs (Pope Francis).
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Caged Goslings
Temenos Catholic Worker
"Where Jacob Wrestled With God!"
Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims, sfw, ssje, D.Min.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
pay pal
415-305-2124
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______
We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
========================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!
WE ARE SHORT:
$350.00: counseling insurance, 501 ( c3) Fees
Annual fees; so please, if you can open your hearts, it would be greatly appreciated!
---------------------
"Goslings In a Cage!
Romans 5: 1-5 (Net Version):"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God's glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, hope. Hope doesnot disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
===
Joshua 23:9: "See, I am very old."
==
On a sunny, bright day, in the mid-eighties,
A twenty-year-old named "Jimmy" phoned and asked to meet with me at a restaurant, where "Jimmy" shared a "secret".
"Jimmy," with much fear, started crying, saying, "I have been having sex with my college roommate, I find it fun, and I am gay."
I only heard the word "gay" in fear. So I stumbled through simply saying, "Don't worry, God is a forgiving God . . and suggested he see a counselor. Jimmy thanked me and left.
I sat, scared to death, and thinking of the Scriptures my denomination used to label homosexuality "intrinsically evil".
I knew deep inside I was like "Jimmy"!
That night, his parents called, telling me "Jimmy" had jumped from the roof of his dorm, leaving a note saying, "I am gay, I don't want to go to hell!"
The following days, sitting with his parents, holding and crying, and having his funeral, sent me into a deep depression. I was terrified of my "own secret", carrying so much grief, feeling responsible for "Jimmy's" death. I was such a hypocrite.
I was "single and celibate," as my denomination commanded, so I told my "liberal" District Superintendent in a counseling session about my fears, and he removed me from the Church, notifying all clergy not to speak to me. I was loved one moment, hated and rejected the next moment!
As the book of Hebrews tells us, I was sent "outside the gate", beginning my "coming out" process.
"Coming out" is a lifelong journey, one continuing until the day we are gathered into the arms of Jesus! "Coming out" is moment by moment, day by day, transforming every ordinary day into a series of trick questions, and innocent answers can lead to a beating and rejection. None survives unscathed.
We can have "straight alliances," remembering that they can give us compassion and understanding, but no one can truly understand because they do not experience our inner struggles.
For me, coming to follow the "Wild Goose", the Holy Spirit, and mothered by "Our Lady of Guadalupe" I foundthe promise "we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to his grace in which we stand and boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God", (Romans 5:5:1-2)
I have chosen to live as Hebrews tells us, outside the gates." With the broken, I found, in the words of my old friend, Dr. Walter Breuggemann, the truth: "The Gospel is fiction when judged by the empire, but the empire is fiction when judged by the Gospel."
I have no answers, simply a"Story Catcher", holding the inner lives of others safe as they find their answers:
"Everyone must know that within them burns a candle and that no one's candle is identical with another's.
And there is no human being without a candle. One needs to ignite one's own candle and make it a great torch to enlighten the whole world" (Rav Kook).
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
===============
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The Awakening Spirit
Temenos
"Where Jacob Wrestled With God!"
Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims, sfw, ssje, D.Min.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
pay pal
415-305-2124
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______
We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
========================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!
WE ARE SHORT:
$700.00: counseling insurance, 501 ( c3)
annual fees; So please, if you can open your hearts, it would be appreciated!
--------------------
(Riptide)
"Our Awakening in the Spirit!"
John 7:37-39, NRSV(EC):
"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed: "Let Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink, and whoever believes in me, as Scripture says, 'Rivers of living water will flow from within me!"
------------------------------------------------
The Spirit of God rushes into our lives not to create uniformity but to awaken us to a more profound unity.
At Pentecost, the Spirit draws people together across languages and cultures, creating understanding and shared purpose.
This is a return to sameness but a movement toward solidarity, alive with diversity and compassion.
It is a movement towards the Reign of God, as found in Matthew 25:31 ff, where Jesus commands us: ". . .For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."
We live in troubled times, whereas St. Paul tells us: "For I consider that our present sufferings can not even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. . . . .For we know that the whole creation groans
and suffers together until now. Now, hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what they see. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance"(Romans 8:18 ff).
All around us, we feel the instability of creation in violence, war, greed, racism, homophobia, and our infighting.
But Pentecost reminds us that these are not solely groans of despair. They are cries of something being born, a creation renewed by justice, mercy, and peace.
I experienced Pentecost in hanging out with young men like Riptide!
At the turn of the century, we had an outreach place on the edge of Hemlock Alley, and late one night, Riptide came in beaten up and high on speed. He talked of his visions of God and Satan and of how they were fighting over him. And thus began our journey together.
He had been kicked out from home over being Queer, and where he had been sexually and physically abused. His stepfather liked to visit every night and get a blow job from the time he was 12 until he left. His mom accused him of seducing his stepdad and "turning him away from the Lord."
He found himself moving back and forth between Polk Street and Santa Monica Blvd. in L.A., hustling, using speed, and being beaten up.
Night after night, Riptide would sell himself, use drugs to cover up the pain of living on the street, and his fear of "going to hell."
Some religious group once told him "your friend River is going to hell, he is unrepentent of being "queer" and being a "whore." I laughed and told him "we would have a hell of a lot of fun in hell, listening to Punk music, going skateboarding, etc., rather than being in heaven singing hymns and being with the pure folk."
He loved participating in Eucharistic services, and once told me that he cried during the giving of meals on the street when I commented we were sharing the Eucharist.
Men transformed the table meal of Jesus into a tool of conformity and elitism, but Christ offered the meal to anyone.
Jesus once had a meal with a group of religious leaders at the home of a prominent Pharisee. "When you give a banquet" Jesus said to his host, invite the crippled the lame, the blind and you will be blessed." He told them a parable about a man who prepared a banquet and invited many guests. When those on the guest list declined to attend, the man instructed his servant to go into the streets and alleyways of town and bring back the poor and the hungry. The servant obeyed, but told the master there was still room at the table. "Then go out to the roads, and country lanes and compel them to come," the master said, "so that my house will be full "(Luke 14:12-23)!
This is what God's Kingdom is like, a bunch of odd balls, screw ups, and misfits gathered at a table, not because they are rich, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there is always room for more.
I honor Jesus' transformative presence in the bread and wine, which continues to flow through the food given to the hungry.
The gospel does not require a coalition devoted to excluding wrong people. It involves a family of sinners, saved by grace, committed to tearing down the walls, throwing open the doors, and shouting! Come and eat, for this is the Kingdom for the hungry, the abused, the oppressed. No gates, come and eat!"
Riptide loved seeing me pray the Eucharistic prayer over the food we served, and being clear that it was for all, regardless of their belief, economic status, race, and sexual orientation:
"Sisters and Brothers, this is the joyful feast of the people of God! They will come from East and West, from the highways and byways, from wealth and from poverty, from the Tenderloin and Market Street, from the benches of Golden Gate Park, and the Castro, and sit at a table in the grace-filled reign of God. We are told in the Scriptures that when our Risen Lord was on the road to Emmaus with his disciples, and in the Upper Room on the last night. He took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. This is the Lord's table, mysterious in its grace and transparent in its hospitality, caring not for gender, race, class, sexual orientation, faith tradition, or marital status, exclusive only in its fierce commitment to all people!"
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
-------------------------------
"Life is a gift because as long as we are on this planet, we can grow in our ability to love. The more we learn to love, the more we will enjoy eternal blessedness with God (Blessed Carlo Acutis)."
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Riptide
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Broken Arrow
Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims, sfw, ssje, D.Min.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
pay pal
415-305-2124
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______
We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
========================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!
WE ARE SHORT:
$700.00: counseling insurance, 501 ( c3)
annual fees; So please, if you can open your hearts, it would be appreciated!
-------------------------------
We are trying a new method of doing blogs, etc, etc. People have had difficulty with words running together. I have one more way after one, then call ina professional, so please, please, let me know if you are having difficulty, asap@
======================================================
"Broken Arrows!"
--------------
"Resurrection is not a consoling opium: soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth of this life. The hope doesn't point to another world. It is focused on the redemption of this one" (Jurgen Moltmann).
---------------------------------------
Several nights ago, I was in a deep sleep, and dreaming of being surrounded by "broken arrows", lying on a train track with many trains bearing down upon me--hatred, judgment, physical threats, doubt, death, and very much alone. I found myself, as I so often do these days, feeling my brokenness.
And sitting, holding my hands, was my friend Mary, smiling, surrounded by her fellow witnesses in the Great Cloud.
Speaking softly, she said, "Listen to the Voice within, follow your heart, it knows the way. Remember you are a Story Catcher."
I opened my eyes and began crying, tears pouring held back for months--over the deaths of street people, the threats, threatening letters, emails, phone calls, fears of health and safety--remembering I am to be "all things to all humans," holding the pain of each person within, catching their stories, holdling those stories as a sacred trust, and as safe place to lay them. I remember simply sitting on the streets, listening, handing out food, and giving recognition. After I am gone, I pray you will notice the people and take my place, or better yet, join me now.
Each person is the Christ, the One broken for all. The undocumented homeless youth, LGBTQ person, black, brown, white, red, yellow, the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and all others who are suffering, all are the Broken Jesus.
These words are of a "broken arrow," broken over and over. I have learned to turn the other cheek. Walking down the street wearing a sweatshirt with Palestine written in the language, a bright, smiling, white man dressed in a suit, passing threw a cup of hot coffee in face, yelling, "You are a traitor," for in wearing this shirt I am opening my heart to the violence in Gaza, the violence in which innocent children and adults are being maimed, killed, and mentally bruised for life. At least 31 were killed and over 170 were wounded last Sunday. The desperation is so present that they are fighting over morsels of food, where it is said that they are the hungriest people on earth. So far, over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed and 124,000 wounded.
Dehumanization has become the key parable of culture. We need to take the earphones out of our ears, raise our eyes above our screens, and find our humanity in our wounds and the scars of the world. We need to see ourselves as broken arrows. Pope Francis tells us: "The only time that we are allowed to look down upon others is when we are offering to help them!"
For what I have personally found in walking with people on the street, Democrats, Republicans, Protestants, Catholics, and non-believers, people of all colors and sexual orientation is expressed by Fr. Henry Nouwen:
"For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated.
There are only children, women, and men to be loved! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
======================
"We are All One!"
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Looking in the Heart!
“Looking On the Heart!”
. ” But the Lord looks on the heart! (Samuel 16:7)
Galatians 3:26: For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Chri. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”.
The essence of Christian spirituality is a heart that is wide open to every person in the world. It is inclusive, crossing various boundaries and tribes, not erecting barriers. It goes so deep that without losing what is distinctive, it becomes universal.
We are always labeling one another into “tribes”—middle class, poor, homeless, black, white, red, some sixty-eight terms of gender reality, Democrat, Republican, and so it goes.
I become frozen when people try to stereotype me. I am angry because stereotypes have been used to harm me, and try to kill me all of my life. I choose not to fit into any tribe, to be “all things, to all humanity.”. In the words of Fr. Henri Nouwen:
"I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in God's eyes, something genuinely new, something beyond my expectations, begins to happen for me.
“Tribes” pull us into our little safe worlds, and in breaking out, we become truly free, truly loving. We come to see each person simply as a fellow human being, broken, needy, and we meet each other where we are.
Dana, as shown in the photo above, has been without housing for 10 years. She is “different” from most people and does not desire housing; she needs a place to sleep and food. We label her as “homeless”, and treat her as such, ignore her, and walk away from her, but several years ago, she was a physician. She became ill, insurance and money ran out, and her friends walked away. Dana is a sweet middle-aged woman who reaches out to others, yet she struggles day to day to keep it together. She is labeled in the "tribe" of homelessness, thus rejected by the general society.
I can understand, being “normal” one day, and being kicked out of my denomination the next, being homeless, a prostitute, and finding myself not fitting in, or as a wealthy friend once said, “River looks at things differently than we do!”
I can understand seeing our man-made fixes of various therapies, religious conversions, and stereotypes fail many, for some of us are a square peg that cannot fit into a round hole.
Bonaventure of Bagnoregio astutely connected the promise of the Holy Spirit in our lives to the promise of a new creation in heaven, saying that creation is like a promise ring of the cosmic covenant where we are called in our kinship and guardianship and care of one another as a testament to the Risen One, “he who made the promise trustworthy.”
Dana and I both follow the “Wild Goose,”, the God of three cords, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, whose cords are hard to break, flowing wherever He chooses to go, outside of boundaries of culture, race, sexual orientation, nation and state, calling each one of us to join in the healing of all. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
Temenos Catholic Worker
(Where Jacob Wrestled With God!
Genesis 32:22-32)
(founded 1994)
Member: The Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc.
(In the spirit of St. Francis, Damien of Molokai, Dorothy Day, Carlo Acutis, and St. John the Evangelist)
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Temenos Catholic Worker
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
415-305-2124
www.temenos.org
pay/pal
We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—
“Just as I also Try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Own Benefit, But the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
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We are a 501.3 Non Profit
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
(I am trying "Penzu" again, let me know if you are having trouble reading).
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Text
Every thing Changes Nothing Changes
Yet Nothing Changes”
(Dan)
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Matthew 25:31-46
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Judgment of the Nations
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”
“In one’s own way, each person must struggle, lest the moral law become a far-off abstraction utterly separated from one’s active life” (Jane Addams).
St. Gregory the Great once said: “We make our way by foot on earth without stumbling if we love God and our neighbor with our whole heart. We cannot love God without really loving our neighbor.”
Times change, Polk has changed through the years from an Irish street, to one of railroad workers, to the street of prostitution and shady bars, and now one of Asian and white upper class people, yet “nothing changes,” for people are still suffering, afraid, alone, growing old, and dying. We are humanity!
I attended the funeral of my friend Nurse Practitioner Mary Monahan on Saturday. It was a sad day, yet one felt the presence of the Risen Christ, and she was standing by his side.
I remember not long after we met, “Dan” who was sixteen, shows up at my place, with severe rectal bleeding, from being forced to have anal sex by a “john”. He would not go into the clinic, after all ‘I am not a fag!’.
I called Mary and told her what was happening. She came up Polk Street early in the evening, when all the “johns” and “hustlers” were out and the bars were full. I was nervous because I am scolded all the time about my so-called “boundaries.”
After treating Dan, Mary told me he needed to stay inside for a couple of days and have his bandages changed. Without one word, she handed me everything needed. She reached over, kissed me on the cheek, and left. And so, for three days, Dan stayed, and I treated him.
Dan and I had known each other for a year, meeting one late night when he was hanging out to pick up a “john “.
Coming from a small town in the Midwest and a good family, he found himself being abused by a pastor and peers when he questioned his sexuality. First to L.A., then to
Polk Street, he found himself hooked on speed.
Our relationship grew to one of trust and respect during our time together in the early part of the century.
One late night, I was simply doing outreach, and several people I had never seen began following me. One said, ‘The Lord is telling us to punish you. ' Suddenly, Daniel and two other hustlers appeared out of nowhere. Holding knives, they looked at the men and said, ‘Get away from a member of our crew!’ And so that was the relationship I had developed with Daniel.
The last time I saw Daniel was in L.A., sitting on Santa Monica Blvd, where I go to remember the past and recommit myself to my work. Sneaking up, with a big smile, he yelled: “Hey, I have an old hustler sitting here. Also, he is my priest; I am his pimp!” I laughed, and then he was gone!
Sometimes I see his picture, miss him, and lift him up in prayer!
Dan was broken and thrown away by his culture and our present system. He was like a round hole placed in a square one.
I have been asked how I could be friends with an Irish woman like Mary, a strict Roman Catholic, or someone like Daniel.
I am a chameleon. I can meet anyone without judgment and, if they so choose, be there for them as a friend.
Mary was like me. Her life was centered in the Eucharist, and she followed Jesus' words: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.”
Daniel and I were a like. I was a former prostitute, and I, too, always struggle; we all have something in common with one another! We are simply human!
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.
I write to commune with people not here with us right now.
I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).
Temenos
(Where Jacob Walked With God!)
(founded 1994)
Member: The Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc.
(In the spirit of St. Francis, Damien of Molokai, Dorothy Day, and Carlo Acutis)
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The Independent Anglican/Old Catholic Movement isn’t about Fixing the Past. It is about Becoming what Jesus Called us to Be: the Body of the Cosmic Christ, Alive and Loving!
"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)
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