Alien Street Priest Journals

 On All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day the Christian community celebrates the Communion of the Saints by remembering the forebears of our faith who have provided great examples or, more expansively simply those who have died.

  Naming and remembering our ancestors is a profoundly political act that helps us hold together "the world we dream about and the one we live in now".

  Commemorating the saints promises us three things:

1. A just future is coming.

2. Suffering will be honored and remembered.

3. Our identity will be formed by their stories.

  I am in the process of editing my book Hustling With the Lost Boys and Girls on the Borderlands, and all but one on the cover have died.

  Each one I feel standing around me in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, cheering me on and uplifting me in our ministry. They never leave me alone, always present.

  Their journey's are similar to mine, rejection by their families, and churches, for being queer; shamed by families and churches for being LGBT+? This shame and rejection continues fiercely. Look at Instagram and Facebook, the struggles in our school boards over having Pride Flags, LGBT+? campus groups. Remember Pride Day with the Giants several months ago, wearing Christian caps, worn to shame LGBT+? The pain and discrimination has been pushed aside by their leaders. Last week there was a news article about transgender male athletes in high school changing in the male locker room and playing on the team, a school board member raging with pure discrimination.

  The Communion of Saints is a reminder that others have fought, our job is to fight like hell, and let it go, as others take up the fight and their is hope.

  In these last three months through and assassination attempt, being sick with malaria and the corona virus I am reminded that I stand between the thin spaces of life and death and that as my time is closer to the end than the beginning the saints in the Great Cloud of Witnesses give me hope.

  I am asked all the time about my belief in the "after life" and my answer is I simply have faith in Jesus, and he will do the rest.   There are days I struggle with much doubt, want to give up, but the Great Cloud of Witnesses always reminds me to get off my ass and keep working for the Kingdom.

  The Great Cloud of Witnesses through the years have given me one great lesson which is we human beings simply will never agree, we will always argue, yet in Christ we can love one another in our disagreements, by agreeing to disagree, in peace and love.

  We are all journeying towards Bethlehem and our call is simply remembering 

"The death of despair":

"We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."

-Luke 24:21

But that wasn't hope. It was wishing.

It was too small, too maybe-maybe-not.

Married to peace but flirting with despair,

fooling around with wait and see.

Listen. God's quiet presence is absolute.

"Your sins can't budge it. Death can't touch it.

Beware the illusion that the Beloved has gone that you are alone are doomed.

Even in tragedy, the collapse of everything,

the Beloved walks with you, towards grace.

Don't be afraid to go into your sadness,

to walk that long dusty road of shame.

Jesus took your despair with him to the grave, the finality of disaster, the last possible dawn.

Now the stone has been rolled from the tomb.

Longing has been raised as true hope,

trust in the One who can't be kept away from you.

Behold both of you eternally, are alive.

(Steven Garners Holmes)

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

================================

Same Energy

Luke 6:1-11

Put me in jail, then.

Throw me behind your religious bars

since you have dubbed me a breaker of your law.

I live my days in the courtroom of your criticism.

I move unbothered under the gaze of your gavel.

I have no interest in defending myself before your bench.

Go on, clench your fists, raise your voice to make your point.

Type the rebuke that you must make on my page.

Who asked you to come through anyway? Is this rage your duty?

We operate under a different set of obligations,

and get worked up to frustration for different reasons,

even though we both claim fidelity to God.

If you were interested,

which I doubt,

here is where my passion lies:

feed the hungry,

clothe the naked,

heal the sick,

defend the rights of the orphan,

plead the widow’s cause,

and woe to you who unjustly enforce God’s Law.

Why spend your energy policing me

when that same energy could be used to love, fiercely?

Justice, mercy, and humility. Go learn what this means.

Drew Jackson

==========================

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to:

Temenos Catholic Worker

Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Damien, Saint Francis, Saint Dorothy Day

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace intended for you made careful search and inquiry, 11 inquiring about the time and circumstances[d] that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings intended for Christ and the subsequent glory. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look!

A Call to Holy Living

13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;[e] discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. 14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

17 If you invoke as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s work, live in fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your trust and hope are in God.

22 Now that you have purified your souls[f] by your obedience to the truth[g] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.[h] 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.[i] 24 For

“All flesh is like grass

 and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

 and the flower falls,

25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”



That word is the good news that was announced to you.

  Halloween, "All Hallows Eve" lies in the belief that the boundary between the living and the dead is blurred on the night of October 31. Demons are swilling around, people are afraid of their own deaths, and they see their own dead friends and relatives appearing. We live in the thin spaces.

  Looking back through the years, the faces of so many appear of ones who have died on the street, many I held their hands as they died. No homes, no families.

  I see many, many, living in the thin spaces of no home, struggling for food and a place to sleep, starving for people to treat them as human beings, pushed around by the police, afraid of our government. Walk the street, look in our doorways, see broken people pass by.

  Recently the young woman who is editing my book commented, "You are deep Blue, you feed the hungry etc." My response was "No, I am covered in the deep Scarlett Blood of the Lamb of God, whom Jim White, Jr, says brings us to". . .living in God's Kingdom there's always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love."

  Viewing the Pacific Ocean the past two days from a window in my room in Pacifica, where I have gone regularly for now thirty-two years I view the ocean flowing in, and then back out. I see my own life flowing out to sea, eventually simply disappearing as God wraps his arms around me.

  Remembering the words from the Book of John, where John the Baptist answers the question of his follows of Jesus place in John's ministry, and he answered, "It is time for him to increase, and me decrease.

  And so it is for me, I am decreasing for I have done my best, and it is in the hands of Jesus. I am to let go and let God, stop worrying about the threats, the hatred, and float into the arms of Jesus. Through the demons surrounding all of us, I see the Great Cloud of Witnesses calling me to lift up my head continue on the streets looking into the eyes of my Lord and Savior Jesus of Nazareth knowing he is always with me and hearing the words of Steve Garnaas-Holmes:

The death of despair!

"We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."

But that wasn't hope. It was wishing.

It was way too small, too maybe-maybe not.

Married to peace but flirting with despair,

fooling around with wait and see.

Listen. God's quiet presence is absolute.

Your sins can't budge it. Death can't touch it.

Beware the illusion that the Beloved has gone, that you are alone, or doomed.

Even in tragedy, the collapse of everything,

the Beloved walks with you toward grace.

Don't be afraid to go into your sadness,

to walk that long dusty road of your shame.

Jesus took your despair with him to the grave,

the finality of disaster, the last possible dawn.

Now the stone has been rolled from the tomb.

Longing has been raised as true hope,

trust in the One who can't be kept away from you.

Behold: both of you, eternally are alive. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

-----

Same Energy

Luke 6:1-11

Put me in jail, then.

Throw me behind your religious bars

since you have dubbed me a breaker of your law.

I live my days in the courtroom of your criticism.

I move unbothered under the gaze of your gavel.

I have no interest in defending myself before your bench.

Go on, clench your fists, raise your voice to make your point.

Type the rebuke that you must make on my page.

Who asked you to come through anyway? Is this rage your duty?

We operate under a different set of obligations,

and get worked up to frustration for different reasons,

even though we both claim fidelity to God.

If you were interested,

which I doubt,

here is where my passion lies:

feed the hungry,

clothe the naked,

heal the sick,

defend the rights of the orphan,

plead the widow’s cause,

and woe to you who unjustly enforce God’s Law.

Why spend your energy policing me

when that same energy could be used to love, fiercely?

Justice, mercy, and humility. Go learn what this means.

Drew Jackson

==========================

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to:

Temenos Catholic Worker

Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Damien, Saint Francis, Saint Dorothy Day

Journal of an Alien Street Priest!

The Old Testament prophets have a mantra that goes like this

"The quality of your faith will be judged by the quality of judgment in the land and will always be judged by how "widows, orphans, and strangers" fared while you were alive."

Widows, orphans, and strangers, the poor. That phrase becomes code in Scripture for the most vulnerable people in any society and the prophets warn we will be judged on how well they fared while we were alive.

The most vulnerable people are the LGTBQ?, especially queer youth, and Transgender individuals; homeless, people of all minorities, people of all other faith expressions, and undocumented people.

Jesus not only ratifies this, but deepens it by identifying his very person with "widows, orphans, and strangers." In Matthew 25 (whatsoever you do to the least of children you do unto me"), he tells us how we treat "widows, orphans, and strangers" is how we are treating him.

These are words we rarely, if ever, take to heart. Do we believe that surpassing all other criteria, we will be judged for eternal life on how we treat "widows, orphans, and strangers who pass through our lives?

James, who has been in and out of drug treatment, came by last night, so I fed him and he talked. He felt all alone. I have known him for over twenty years. He was born to a mother who was an addict, always using drugs, and this has led to his brain being disabled. He needs more than housing. He needs love, care and understanding.

James invites each of to. . ."go outside to him, then outside the camp, bearing the abused experienced" (Hebrews 13:10,Net Version).

Walk among the living dead, give them life by seeing each one and acknowledging their pain; give them life by giving them food, clothing and blankets, and most of all, sit, listen, pray with them, and enter their camp. See the abused first hand, experience the pain of their abuse.

We need to turn a mirror upon our hearts, and change our skins, like a snake, and let them, be open to the hearts of the non housed , documented and undocumented immigrants, LGBT? individuals, and people of all races, creeds, and religions, the poorest of the poor.

Love, compassion, and change begin with each one of us! Let us change the river of apathy to the river of love! Let us go outside the camp! Let us find joy each day going "Outside the camp!" Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

------------------------------------------

Same Energy
Luke 6:1-11

Put me in jail, then.
Throw me behind your religious bars
since you have dubbed me a breaker of your law.
I live my days in the courtroom of your criticism.
I move unbothered under the gaze of your gavel.
I have no interest in defending myself before your bench.
Go on, clench your fists, raise your voice to make your point.
Type the rebuke that you must make on my page.
Who asked you to come through anyway? Is this rage your duty?
We operate under a different set of obligations,
and get worked up to frustration for different reasons,
even though we both claim fidelity to God.
If you were interested,
which I doubt,
here is where my passion lies:
feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
heal the sick,
defend the rights of the orphan,
plead the widow’s cause,
and woe to you who unjustly enforce God’s Law.
Why spend your energy policing me
when that same energy could be used to love, fiercely?
Justice, mercy, and humility. Go learn what this means.
Drew Jackson

==========================

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to:

Temenos Catholic Worker

Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Damien, Saint Francis, Saint Dorothy Day

My story is told in this poem,

"Before you know what kindness is you must lose things, feel the future de-solve

in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and so carefully saved

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the windows forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of

kindness you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this can be you, how he was someone,
who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know only the tender gravity of kindness, the most, profound thing inside. You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrow

and you see the size of the cloth.

And finally, "only kindness makes any sense!"

Then it is only kindness that makes sense any more

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out is into the day to gaze at bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say:

"It is I, you have been looking for

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow of a friend"(Naomi Shiah Nye)!

And k indness is most visible in the compassion of the suffering of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross. What this means is that we are called to see God's suffering in people. Every time we see someone in pain and we wonder how that person is going to live through it, know that God suffered that pain and is suffering that pain with that person; every time we see a young person suffering over being condemnation and rejection for being queer, know that God is suffering the same condemnation and rejection.

In a way the whole history is showing the depth of God's suffering. For the message of kindness, love, and caring for every creature has been diverted and used for the selfish purposes of humankind.

From a Christian's point of view, history is the unfolding of the intensity and immensity of God's suffering, but also of God's resurrection, because in the midst of all the suffering you see signs of hope again and again.

Hope is seen in our acts of kindness we give to our brothers and sisters!

Living on the borderlands on follows the Wild Goose (God) who simply only wants all of humanity to experience the kindness of love, which brings healing to all. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-------------------------------------------

Same Energy
Luke 6:1-11

Put me in jail, then.
Throw me behind your religious bars
since you have dubbed me a breaker of your law.
I live my days in the courtroom of your criticism.
I move unbothered under the gaze of your gavel.
I have no interest in defending myself before your bench.
Go on, clench your fists, raise your voice to make your point.
Type the rebuke that you must make on my page.
Who asked you to come through anyway? Is this rage your duty?
We operate under a different set of obligations,
and get worked up to frustration for different reasons,
even though we both claim fidelity to God.
If you were interested,
which I doubt,
here is where my passion lies:
feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
heal the sick,
defend the rights of the orphan,
plead the widow’s cause,
and woe to you who unjustly enforce God’s Law.
Why spend your energy policing me
when that same energy could be used to love, fiercely?
Justice, mercy, and humility. Go learn what this means.
Drew Jackson

==========================

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to:

Temenos Catholic Worker

Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Damien, Saint Francis, Saint Dorothy Day

 Jose soon discovered soon after coming to the City he had one item to offer men on Polk Street, being young and cute, his body. So he became a "hustler" (a whore). He loved women, but the dollar he loved more and so he began making a thousand to three thousand dollars a month, and finding me the only person he trusted I wired his money home each week.

  He was hurt, beat up, yet he kept making the money allowing for him to pay for their house, take care of his sisters, and have a good life. He was happy, for nothing was more important.

  He was a "faithful friend" to me as well, taking care of me when I was severely ill, pushing me away and being stabbed when a knife was drawn on me.

  Jose became ill with AIDS, returned home, and died in 2005.

  As we enter Advent a poem calls us to break out customs and fears to be the Crucified Jesus to others:

Same Energy

Luke 6:1-11

Put me in jail, then.

Throw me behind your religious bars

since you have dubbed me a breaker of your law.

I live my days in the courtroom of your criticism.

I move unbothered under the gaze of your gavel.

I have no interest in defending myself before your bench.

Go on, clench your fists, raise your voice to make your point.

Type the rebuke that you must make on my page.

Who asked you to come through anyway? Is this rage your duty?

We operate under a different set of obligations,

and get worked up to frustration for different reasons,

even though we both claim fidelity to God.

If you were interested,

which I doubt,

here is where my passion lies:

feed the hungry,

clothe the naked,

heal the sick,

defend the rights of the orphan,

plead the widow’s cause,

and woe to you who unjustly enforce God’s Law.

Why spend your energy policing me

when that same energy could be used to love, fiercely?

Justice, mercy, and humility. Go learn what this means.

Drew Jackson

==========================

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to:

Temenos Catholic Worker

Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Damien, Saint Francis, Saint Dorothy Day

“Not Me, But God”

Carlo lived his short life with profound awareness of God’s presence. He attended daily Mass, prayed the Rosary faithfully, and spent hours in Eucharistic Adoration. He told his friends, “We are all born originals, but many die as photocopies.” His simple yet powerful words continue to challenge young and adult Catholics to live authentically and pursue holiness in their own vocation.

When diagnosed with leukemia at fifteen, Carlo offered his suffering for the Pope and for the Church. He died on October 12, 2006, but his witness has only grown stronger. His in corrupt body, displayed in Assisi, continues to inspire thousands of pilgrims each year.

  Carlo came into my life five or so years ago when a friend from my growing up years sent me his biography commenting, "He reminds me of you," meaning she remembered from as long as she knew the Eucharist was the center of my life, and I was called to ministry at 12, and from that moment forward, serving Christ has been my all in all. In reading of his life, I came to see him as a reminder in our world that Christ continues to call and work with young people. I am slammed so often with the comment, "Believing in Christ is in the past!"

  In this month in which we are lifting up "Coming Out!" I am hearing of on Instagram, Facebook, and through threatening emails that the Bible says "homosexuals" going to hell.

  My response is always "God is love", and my experience is the Jesus who has redeemed me from the hatred, homophobia, and being a prostitute, continues to smile on me and says as St. Francis, "Preach the Gospel, using as fewer words as possible! for ultimately what matters is loving, caring, and serving one another. "Coming Out"means for me to witness to the Jesus, who is the Wounded Healer, knowing he cares for everyone of us. Summed up best in the words of Thomas Merton:

"It is easier to serve the hate-gods because they thrive on the worship of collective fanaticism. To serve the hate-gods, one has only to be blinded by collective passion. To serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one's neighbor."

  Carlo was like me at 15, he had not heard any of the bullshit of hatred and bigotry, but ministered to everyone, spending his allowance on feeding the hungry and sitting with anyone. On the day of his funeral the church was packed with people of all races, LGBT?, and economic levels.

  For the majority of the past summer I have been ill, and wounded, and at that time several members of the Fellowship of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican Religious Order, whom I have known for a number of years came to my aid here and in Palm Springs. I have been going through their process of joining for several years, but was hesitant, but this summer they were the living Christ present to me in some painful times.

  So Monday, October 12, at 7:00 p.m, I will be received into the Society of St. John the Evangelist and you are invited:

You Are Invited to the Investiture Ceremony

Of

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, sfw, D.Min.

Into the Society of St. John the Evangelist

On

Monday,

October 12, 2026

Victor's Piazza Restaurant

At 1411 Polk Street

7:00 p.m.

=========================

Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

   Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

Choose Love Over Hate!

In the words of Eileen Egan, "My life has had one single strain: to see Jesus in every human being." For that purpose, and that purpose only, have I committed my life the past thirty-two years. It is faith in Christ which kept me from suicide many years ago. Jesus is one of the many reflections of God in our world, the reflection of absolute and all inclusive love.

Come with me into the streets and let me introduce you to Jesus, invite you to hold his/her hand, sit with him/her as /she/he suffers from addiction, homelessness, hunger, open your heart, and I promise you a pain you have never embraced, but also a love that will carry you to loving everyone you meet. I promise you a life change. I promise you a Kingdom where there is no stranger, no enemy, only caring and love!

"The servants went out to the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests."..

The Jesus for whom I give my life is found the in the words of Thomas Merton:

"It is easier to serve the hate-gods because they thrive on the worship of collective fanaticism. To serve the hate-gods, one has only to be blinded by collective passion. To serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthiness whether in oneself or in one's neighbor."

Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

---------------------------------------------

We are called not only to care when it is convenient, clean or quick. Christ calls us into the mess of bloody wounds and bitter enemies.

----------------------------------------

You Are Invited to the Investiture Ceremony

Of

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, sfw, D.Min.

Into the Society of St. John the Evangelist

On

Monday,

October 12, 2026

Victor's Piazza Restaurant

At 1411 Polk Street

7:00 p.m.

=========================

Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

   Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

Victor's Piazza Restaurant

At 1411 Polk Street

7:00 p.m.

As we enter our thirty-third year I am forever grateful to the "Wild Goose" who brought me to Polk Street, the Tenderloin, Haight Street, and to all of you who have supported me through the years, but I am becoming more and more aware my time is short.

My intention this Holiday Season, is to remind each and every one of that:

We are called not only to care when it is convenient, clean or quick. Christ calls us into the mess of bloody wounds and bitter enemies.

Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

----------------------------------------

You Are Invited to the Investiture Ceremony

Of

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, sfw, D.Min.

Into the Society of St. John the Evangelist

On

Monday,

October 12, 2026

Victor's Piazza Restaurant

At 1411 Polk Street

7:00 p.m.

=========================

Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

   Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker: