Once again, it has been too long since I've written anything here, but that's old water under the bridge. I have a lot more to share these days, and the desire to share it. I also have developed some other outlets with an e-newsletter, and it's time for some cross-fertilization that will eventually lead to more parish response to these occasional notes. My goal: a weekly column that I can reference for parishioners who might want to engage. So, onward.



I just added a few things to my profile, and one of these was the note about JustFaith. This is absolutely the best parish program dealing with Catholic Social Justice teaching and formation that I have ever encountered -- in 40 years of ministry. I had heard of this program for the last few years, and finally made the commitment to join a group last year. Unfortunately, I could not make a commitment to meet in the evening (working for the Church, you work a lot of evenings, since that's when your parishioners can get together). I wound up in a Thursday morning group with only four other people, and the area organizers asked ME to facilitate. It was a difficult experience for me, since not only did I have to "do the work" myself, but I had to continue to stay one step ahead of the group, to organize the gatherings.



But I made it through the year, and we participants all felt pretty good about the experience; good enough to want to sponsor a group in the evening this year. We had 21 signups! That's way over the maximum recommended, but we have figured out how to make things work... and BOY is it a great experience! This program is strong on prayer, strong on community, and strong on justice formation. The resources are top-notch, and we incorporate field trips (called "Border Crossings") and guest speakers, a retreat at the beginning and one at the end, and 30 weeks of meetings, each 2 1/2 hours long. It takes a commitment, obviously -- but the effort is transformative! A few words about the recent past...

A week and a half ago we had two guest speakers -- Pat Graham, the Director of the Frederic Ozanam House, and a gentleman named Gary, one of the residents. First Gary spoke very directly and honestly about his own alcoholism, and how it had destroyed much of his past life. He was very "up-front and personal," answering all of the group's questions. Then Pat spoke about the Ozanam House, which provides housing to men who would otherwise most likely be homeless, out on the street. The House, named after Frederic Ozanam, is a program of the Archdiocesan Housing Authority -- the link above directs you to a page describing many of the archdiocesan housing projects. Most people, including most Catholics, barely realize how much the Church is involved in combatting homelessness!



But I digress. Gary's honest sharing of his own problems was really the heart of the meeting for most of us, and disarming for us all. One after the other, group members shared how they would now look differently at that person on the street corner holding a sign. It's really only a small step away for any of us. I could easily have been born into his (highly disfunctional) family instead of my own.



Then last Sunday evening half of the group made our first "Border Crossing" -- showing up at a NE Seattle church kitchen to rub elbows with people at a free meal program. Most of us brought food and helped prepare the dinner, but our real purpose was just to sit and eat afterwards with those at the meal -- some 90-100 people -- to listen to their stories. It just so happened, too, that "Tent City" had moved to that church's parking lot that week, plus it was a very rainy evening -- all of which brought home to us the stark reality that faced many of these people. There were a few younger people, and a few women, but most were male adults, some even seniors. Some had apparent psycho-social problems, but others were well-educated, well-spoken people. There were a lot of great story-tellers in the group! And very many had health issues that were part and parcel of their poverty.



And then last Monday night (that's the night we meet regularly), after some processing about how well our members listened to one another and created the opportunities for all to share, we broke into small groups to dialogue about "Amazing Grace," by Jonathan_Kozol. It's the story of life in South Bronx. It's an easy book to read, in that the narrative is very easy to follow. But it's also a hard book to read -- it's truth is dark and hard to look at. Our discussion, especially after our recent experiences, was full of sharing about these sad truths of a world that is not light-years away, but practically in our back yard. And finally, as our last exercise of the evening, we watch a DVD called "My Own Four Walls," a simple but brilliantly done series of interviews of children who were homeless or who had recently been homeless, sharing in a surprizingly eloquent way about what things were like for children: loss of friends, a constant uprooting, a series of restrictive rules or policies of whatever temporary shelter they found themselves in, the constant exposure to strangers, little or no privacy, and on and on. Our short discussion afterwards was almost hushed; to think that children had to be homeless was almost too much to talk about -- it's a side of homelessness that is seldom discussed in public forums.



Our concluding prayer reflected what we had witnessed in the past 8 days. Within us all there was much sadness and grief, some lights of hope, some swirlings of resolve. And the certainty that this JustFaith journey was an important one.



I'm sure I'll share more about this as the year goes on.