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Web Journal of an Alien Street Priest
This blog is about the daily activities of Fr. Damien Sims of San Francisco and his work on Polk Street with prostitutes and the punk culture.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
what kind of society, one that is the wealthiest in the world, would let a person who is covered in KS sleep on the streets? tonight as i walked up the street i saw 24 year old j in the doorway in a sleeping bag. i have known him a number of years, he has been hiv positive for 10, and now has full blown aids. he is covered in the ks spots, his face is all purple, there are spots on his arms. he was kicked out of his hotel for not enough money, he is on one waiting list after another for housing, yet he is on the street until then. the early christians made an impression because of their love for each other and others. in a time when there was little empathy christians loved everyone. where is that love today for people like j who sleeps on the front doors of our churches, who asked me when i will serve a meal at a local church tomorrow, a church that is teetering on the brink of closing their homeless program because of "those people". where is the church today, where are the people who call themselves christians? matt the othernight commented--"U know people like u do ur thing and help people, but why can't everyone do that, if they did no one would be on the streets, no one would go hungry?" Peter Maurin reincarnated in my fifteen year old friend, who struggles with the wealth of his peers at school and what he sees here with me. ultimately in the end--all i can do is my thing, as matt calls it--, but where is the church? where are people who care? Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

posted by River  # 2:01 AM
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i am stressed, and simply worn out. church synod is this week along with celebration. and i have discovered that for the most part church people could care less about anything accept themselves and preserving their own way of life. today svo, 19 clung to me everytime he saw me. saw me reading in a cafe, i bought him lunch. high on speed, desperate, just so needy. d, has had a second miscarriage, constantly needing a blanket; mick, 22, wants me to find him a good job, of course he is so strung out he has trouble remembering where he is. today stevo asked me to rub some sun screen on his back and i thought to myself--this is the body of the broken Jesus, what a privilege to be able to actually touch the back of Jesus. and so it goes.. .Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

posted by River  # 12:42 AM
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Gospel Jn 12:24-26Jesus said to his disciples:"Amen, amen, I say to you,unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,it remains just a grain of wheat;but if it dies, it produces much fruit.Whoever loves his life loses it,and whoever hates his life in this worldwill preserve it for eternal life.Whoever serves me must follow me,and where I am, there also will my servant be.The Father will honor whoever serves me."

today has been a day of constant pressure and intenseness, juggling one crisis after another, trying to get ready for my celebration and synod. told a friend he could not come in, and am having to limit time with another. both i hate to do, i like being with them both, but am so frayed. people are just nuts, just nuts.

J, 30 screamed at me tonight: "I saw u in a new car, u should spend ur money on us," the new car was a rental car someone else rented for me to go to LA on a task for them for which i was paid. M, 19 comes in paranoid, seeing everyone after him, D, 27 thinks she has had enough miscarriaged, 2nd pregnancy in three months, bleeding, did not want to go to hospital; Ja, 30, whom i have known for years, shows up at my door, covered in KS, talking of new treatment, needing food.

so this is my day, and the scripture for today is a reminder to me that we are called to wear ourselves out, to give our lives away in the end, for only in that giving do we truly find life. i find that the more i give, the more i feel worn out, that when i look back i see the Christ ever present who allows me to find rest and refreshment only to go on again, to the ultimate giving of death. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

posted by River  # 12:54 AM
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
i am tired. been to LA to find kid for a court case; come home to just craziness. people screaming at me, high out of their minds on drugs. people just become animals with drugs and their desperation. i feel like crying. deo gratis, thanks be to God

posted by River  # 12:59 AM
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CONTACT: Father C. River Sims
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San Francisco, CA 94109
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