Journals (hidden) - Temenos Catholic Worker

Today as I moved serving people, I found it difficult, both emotionally
and physically.

Physically, it is cold, and with the wind blowing it is colder than 59 degrees, and emotionally I see hundreds of people huddled on the street, without much covering. All I can do is listen, give them socks, food, and harm-reduction supplies.

They are ignored by the people who walk past them in jackets and sweatshirts, talking on their phones, laughing!

They are judged over and over, and many are afraid when someone speaks to
them.

ore people than ever say nasty things to me, I am threatened by nicely
clothed people for feeding the homeless.

Thomas Berry once said:

"We should be clear about what happens when we destroy the living forms of this planet. The first consequence is that we destroy modes of divine presence."

By ignoring, mistreating our brothers and sisters on the street we are
destroying them. We are destroying "modes of divine presence."

The one thing I believe with all of my heart, given my life to, and will die for, is that God in Christ calls each us to a resurrection, one that unites and heals people. And that resurrection begins now, not in the "ever after".

John Boorman says to each one of us:

"What is passion? It is surely the becoming of a person. Are we not for most of our lives marking time? Most of our being is at rest, unlived in passion, the body and the spirit seek expression outside of self. Passion is within us and calls out for expression".

There was a time, a lifetime ago, when after failing in conversion therapy, I as offered a choice going to a State Hospital, where I would continue that therapy and possibly have electrotherapy or losing my salary and benefits.

An older man who had been in the hospital for ages said to me one day, "Hey kid, don't let them fool you, get out and live, so what if you don't
want to have a girlfriend." (People wonder why I am not very trusting of the mental health system and always question, this is why, I suffered immensely).

I slipped away one night, and never looked back as I headed to LA. The rest is history; my passion was born!

So I invite each of you to move out in passion to work with the suffering around you! Thousands are freezing tonight! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

"Creating God, your reign of love makes all things new; Plant seeds of confidence and gladness in our hearts, so that trusting your word we may
live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and was raised for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath

In the beginning God created[a] the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit[b] of God was moving over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

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

The Creation story is a myth, a story which describes how we evolved over millions and millions of years.

In the movie, "Gorillas in Our Midst!" Susan Saran played a zoologist who fought to protect the gorillas in Africa, resulting in her being murdered for those efforts. She showed how really brilliant gorillas are, how loving and tender, our ancestors.

Through studying gorillas we learn of how our own intelligence evolved, they take care of their whole family, of all gorillas, and they are kind and gentle. They have no "rights" just the obligation of caring for their brother and sister.

We are animals, yes, but in our evolution, God has chosen to place his spirit within us. To make is 'sapiens' wiser creatures.

Meryl Streep says "The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy."

In Jewish Law, we see that we have no "right" to claim anything from the community of faith. Rather the community is built upon the obligation to take care of each other.

The community is obligated to provide food, health care, equal housing, mental health care, equality, and inclusion.

This is our modern obligation whether we are Christian, Buddhist, etc. We are told "To Love our neighbors as ourselves," to provide for each human being as we take care of ourselves.

On Facebook I never hear anything hardly about homelessness; poverty; racism; homophobia.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, we read about the good times and crime, but little about homelessness, unless you want to clean them off the street.

To "cure" homelessness is a "community effort", an effort where we all pitch in, give of our time, money, and provide for our neighbors. Until the day where we are willing to treat each homeless person as our own brother and sister, get out of our tribes, and face individuals, touch them, look them in the eye homelessness, pain, and suffering on the street will continue.

"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy."

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Fr. C. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
--------------
Our finances are down! So please we beg send us what you can!

This all reminded me again of Matthew 6, when Jesus says,
“Do not worry about your life, ….Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.!"

Wednesday I had a meeting with a newly ordained priest, who shared with me his plans for the future.

Sounded like me—I was going to have a large church, and then twenty-nine years ago, coming to San Francisco, imagining a large agency being well known and respected. (LOL)!

Lately there have been threats on Facebook, phone, and mail, homophobic, the majority from Christians, and criticism from others over not "doing enough!" Like I was told when I first came here, I would be like a guy standing on a rail road track with ten trains coming at him, blinded by their lights! And how true that is! And I am reminded of the words of Mother Teresa: "If you judge people, you have no time for them."

Recently, while walking around a mall in Palm Springs, I noticed a bird walking beside me, eating the crumbs from my sandwich. For the next hour, he followed me in my walking, dropping him food. We talked to each other, and in those moments, my ears were opened to the many birds singing.

The birds are singing, whether we notice it or not. Hearing them is a pleasure we can ignore or indulge in. It is difficult to tune in and pay attention when I am also wondering why someone isn't returning my texts, phone calls, etc. It is difficult to tune in when you are "ghosted" by reading comments people write that are negative.

This all reminded me again of Matthew 6, where Jesus said:

"Do not worry about your life, ….Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.!"

I think that maybe Jesus gets that the beautiful items of creation are meant to be enjoyed today! No judgment! But appreciated and loved!

So I like to think that Jesus' thing about not worrying and then inviting us to consider birds and notice lilies is both permission to let go and an invitation to joy and even pleasure!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
----------------------------
Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
=================

Nothing's made in vain, Sirach insists. Each in its turn is good. Embracing the splendor of youth is easy. We must also make friends with the graceful, gracious surrender of our lives to aging, and of our wishes for a changed universe to the slowness of time as well, and to struggling generation after generation.

All aspects of creation is a changing universe! Thus we are changing in every way!

We surrender in the sense of seeing life as a part of one great universe and seeing ourselves as a part of one Great Rainbow.

As Eric Fromm says:

“Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.”

As we enter Pride Month, and remember tomorrow wearing orange to symbolize "Gun Safety in Every town let us remember love is an "act of faith!"

The Original Sin of Humanity!

I am a "grocers" son, and I learned from my dad the lesson of not practicing "othering".

He ran a grocery business and Dad told me from the very beginning that we did not talk about religion, race, and political views in the business or outside on the street. He said: "All who come through our doors are equal and deserve the same service." At his funeral were people of all races, economic status, and religions. He did not practice "othering".

The word "othering" is a trendy term in academic circles, an updated version of words such as prejudice, discrimination, difference, bias and scapegoating.

Othering defines and secures one's identity by distancing and stigmatizing another. Its purpose is to reinforce notions of our own "normality" and to set up a difference of an "other" as a point of deviance. It is a process of being 'other-ed", meaning marginalized, dis empowered, and excluded socially.

Othering is very visible in our nation in all of our divisions. We see it now in the political ads. The "haves' and the "have nots", all racial discrimination and so on.

In San Francisco it is seen as bright as the sun in the treatment of homeless, poor, people of color; especially in the Mayor' s statement on the drug use in the Tenderloin: "It is time we throw out compassion and use force to solve the problem," not looking at the causes around drug use, and compassionately working in that realm.

In the Haight my young adults are simply and completely ignored. Personally I experience "othering" day in and day out.

We begin "Pride Month" the first of June, raising up the LGBTQ and Questioning community. I will wear a LGBTQ tee shirt each day to remind others of our "othering".

So what can we do to bring us into a circle of differences, caring for each other, and working out all of the problems, from climate change to extreme poverty?

A prayer by Justin McRoberts says the best way of action of all:

"May I have the strange courage
to embrace a world
I know will hurt me,
offering myself to people
I know will let me down
and giving the best of my energies
to plans that will not work out.

I want to choos
to love the world as it is,
just as I know I am loved as I am.

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

----------------------------------
As of now I am planning to attend the following course, as my sabbatical as I enter our thirty years of ministry. Would love for someone to join me in this adventure:

The thirteenth Annual INTERNATIONAL COURSE in INDIA
“Gandhian Nonviolence: Theory & Application”

COST: Tuition, Room & Board FREE (though donations are accepted); all other expenses regarding travel to & from India, visas, healthcare, & other spending is the responsibility each course participant. Once in India, a total personal expense budget equiv. of $300 per month would be reasonable (less, if one is very frugal).

DURATION: 4 months (Sept. 30 th , 2023 thru Jan 30 th , 2024). A Course Diploma will be issued in a final graduation ceremony at Gujarat Vidyapith.

LOCATION: Gujarat Vidyapith, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, (see: www.gujarat vidyapith.org ) will host the first 2 months of the course during which International Students attend classes weekdays, have housing on campus, are provided vegetarian meals, and are given access to exercise facilities including a large indoor swimming pool (free of charge). Centered in the historic city of Ahmadabad (pop. 7.7 million), the urban campus enjoys a mild autumn climate and is near Gandhi’s Sabbatical (Satyagraha) Ashram where the 1930 Salt March began. Faculty associated with India’s oldest Gandhi Studies Program will teach the course while assuming little or no prior knowledge of Gandhi or India. To better understand the application of Gandhian nonviolence theory to practice, December and January will include course field trips involving 5-10 days each at a Nephropathy Center, an Organic Farm, the Institute of Total Revolution at Vedchi, the Gandhi Research Foundation at Jalgoan, and other experiential learning travel opportunities. Students will be accompanied by the Course Coordinator and/or another faculty member with transportation & on-site expenses free of charge.
ACADEMIC CREDIT can be earned via arrangements that may be made by each student with an educational institution in their home country. Examples of mechanisms which may exist to be utilized have included credits awarded for “Independent Study”, “Cooperative Education”, “Service Learning Internships” or other devices negotiated by a student with their home institution prior to their departure to India. Such arrangements need not require MOUs for credit transfer.

APPLICATION
SEND TO: registrar@gujaratvidyapith.org with cc to: doctorjhaveri@gmail.com
NAME (First, Middle, Last): ____________________________________
Address: __________________________________________ Country: _________
Email: ___________________________ Cell Phone: ________________________
Brief Bio (including educational background & activist profile):
Why I am interested in taking this course:
SIGNATURE: __________________________________ Date: ____________
DUE DATE: May 31, 2023.
(If accepted, a $20

Acts 1:12-14; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11!

National Mental Health Month!

There is a motto on one of the buildings at the Jesuit college in Santa Clara that reads: For the Greater Glory of God! I often asked my self the question: "What Doe It Mean to Glorify God! In our Gospel today Jesus talks of glorifying God.

Is glorifying God simply singing praises or playing loud music?

What if we define glory in a different way? What if glory is the revelation of God's inclusive love for all? Glory in the inclusive love of God for every creature!

If glory is clapping and joyous music we can glorify God in quiet ways. The purpose of the Church,to be the Church we pray, meditate and go forth and do justice.

We give glory by speaking to a homeless person, a neighbor, we give glory by sharing food with a person who has none, we give glory by our protests against injustice. We give glory by loving, and giving to someone in need!

There is no dictionary needed. Pentecost is God pouring out the Spirit of Inclusive Love to all! Good Mental Health is the ability to share inclusive love to another! Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to God!

As of now I am planning to attend the following course, as my sabbatical as I enter our thirty years of ministry. Would love for someone to join me in this adventure:

The thirteenth Annual INTERNATIONAL COURSE in INDIA
“Gandhian Nonviolence: Theory & Application”

COST: Tuition, Room & Board FREE (though donations are accepted); all other expenses regarding travel to & from India, visas, healthcare, & other spending is the responsibility each course participant. Once in India, a total personal expense budget equiv. of $300 per month would be reasonable (less, if one is very frugal).

DURATION: 4 months (Sept. 30 th , 2023 thru Jan 30 th , 2024). A Course Diploma will be issued in a final graduation ceremony at Gujarat Vidyapith.

LOCATION: Gujarat Vidyapith, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, (see: www.gujarat vidyapith.org ) will host the first 2 months of the course during which International Students attend classes weekdays, have housing on campus, are provided vegetarian meals, and are given access to exercise facilities including a large indoor swimming pool (free of charge). Centered in the historic city of Ahmadabad (pop. 7.7 million), the urban campus enjoys a mild autumn climate and is near Gandhi’s Sabbatical (Satyagraha) Ashram where the 1930 Salt March began. Faculty associated with India’s oldest Gandhi Studies Program will teach the course while assuming little or no prior knowledge of Gandhi or India. To better understand the application of Gandhian nonviolence theory to practice, December and January will include course field trips involving 5-10 days each at a Nephropathy Center, an Organic Farm, the Institute of Total Revolution at Vedchi, the Gandhi Research Foundation at Jalgoan, and other experiential learning travel opportunities. Students will be accompanied by the Course Coordinator and/or another faculty member with transportation & on-site expenses free of charge.
ACADEMIC CREDIT can be earned via arrangements that may be made by each student with an educational institution in their home country. Examples of mechanisms which may exist to be utilized have included credits awarded for “Independent Study”, “Cooperative Education”, “Service Learning Internships” or other devices negotiated by a student with their home institution prior to their departure to India. Such arrangements need not require MOUs for credit transfer.

APPLICATION
SEND TO: registrar@gujaratvidyapith.org with cc to: doctorjhaveri@gmail.com
NAME (First, Middle, Last): ____________________________________
Address: __________________________________________ Country: _________
Email: ___________________________ Cell Phone: ________________________
Brief Bio (including educational background & activist profile):
Why I am interested in taking this course:
SIGNATURE: __________________________________ Date: ____________
DUE DATE: May 31, 2023.
(If accepted, a $20

"But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people." John 2:14.

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

"Being a Ghost"--Have you ever thought of yourself as a "Ghost?" For each time we simply stop speaking to another we are a "Ghost".

Before the word "ghosting" came into existence as "cutting people out of our lives by no longer talking to them and simply walk away without a word." I experienced "ghosting" by a denomination, and have through the years here been "ghosted" by long-time "friends" simply ceasing communication.

It hurts, hurts like hell, and at first you never want to speak to that person again

In John 2 we hear: "But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people." John 2:14.

My approach is expressed in those words, and in doing so I can see the broken humanity as well as my own, and find healing and keep my heart open to always receive the person back with open arms.

You can be truthful with yourself. What is the truthfulness with yourself? It is you are an infinitely precious broken person. The infinite love of God permeates your brokenness through and through. It is with you unexplainably forever.

All of us "ghost", sometimes we are unaware: when we walk past a homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk outside Walgreens, and we come out with food and simply pass walk past not even seeing the person--that is being a "ghost"! How often are we ghosts in that way?

We are all broken human beings, we all need the infinite love of God, which starts with our love towards another!

The essence of good mental health is found in having a healthy relationship without judgement! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
----------------------------------
As of now I am planning to attend the following course, as my sabbatical as I enter our thirty years of ministry. Would love for someone to join me in this adventure:

The thirteenth Annual INTERNATIONAL COURSE in INDIA
“Gandhian Nonviolence: Theory & Application”
COST: Tuition, Room & Board FREE (though donations are accepted); all other expenses regarding travel to & from India, visas, healthcare, & other spending is the responsibility each course participant. Once in India, a total personal expense budget equiv. of $300 per month would be reasonable (less, if one is very frugal).

DURATION: 4 months (Sept. 30 th , 2023 thru Jan 30 th , 2024). A Course Diploma will be issued in a final graduation ceremony at Gujarat Vidyapith.

LOCATION: Gujarat Vidyapith, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, (see: www.gujarat vidyapith.org) will host the first 2 months of the course during which International Students attend classes weekdays, have housing on campus, are provided vegetarian meals, and are given access to exercise facilities including a large indoor swimming pool (free of charge). Centered in the historic city of
Ahmadabad (pop. 7.7 million), the urban campus enjoys a mild autumn climate and is near Gandhi’s Sabbatical (Satyagraha) Ashram where the 1930 Salt March began. Faculty associated with India’s oldest Gandhi Studies Program will teach the course while assuming little or no prior knowledge of Gandhi or India.

To better understand the application of Gandhian nonviolence theory to practice, December and January will include course field trips involving 5-10 days each at a Nephropathy Center, an Organic Farm, the Institute of Total Revolution at Vedchi, the Gandhi Research Foundation at Jalgoan, and other experiential learning travel opportunities. Students will be accompanied by the Course Coordinator and/or another faculty member with transportation & on-site expenses free of charge.
ACADEMIC CREDIT can be earned via arrangements that may be made by each student with an educational institution in their home country. Examples of mechanisms which may exist to be utilized have included credits awarded for “Independent Study”, “Cooperative Education”, “Service Learning Internships” or other devices negotiated by a student with their home institution prior to their departure to India. Such arrangements need not require MOUs for credit transfer.

APPLICATION
SEND TO: registrar@gujaratvidyapith.org with cc to: doctorjhaveri@gmail.com
NAME (First, Middle, Last): ____________________________________
Address: __________________________________________ Country: _________
Email: ___________________________ Cell Phone: ________________________
Brief Bio (including educational background & activist profile):
Why I am interested in taking this course:
SIGNATURE: __________________________________ Date: ____________
DUE DATE: May 31, 2023.

"Good mental health is a state of well -being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community." World Health Organization."

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

"Good mental health is a state of well being in which a person can cope with the stresses of being homeless, sleeping on the streets, not having family or have society to care for one as a person and is able to measure one's worth not by successes or failures, but simply but by one's ability to survive day to day ! (Fr. River Damien Sims).

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

"But I do not count my life any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace!" Acts 20:24.NRSVeu

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

As I looked at Heather's story I thought of the mental health of LGBTQ kids and adults.

In my story on the our website of www.temenos.org, I glorify my years on the street, and coming out. The truth is the years on the street, and coming out have been pure hell, and it was Christ who is my foundation. I only found one therapist, a psychiatrist, that for ten years lead me through my coming out process.

There is so much homophobia in our churches, even the ones that pride themselves on being open and affirming that it is impossible to truly be open. I know of no church that have youth groups for LGBTQ kids.

No place in the institutional churches for their meeting to discuss their issues.

People often say "You are against the Church!" LOL! What I am against ARE churches not being open to youth, especially LGBTQ youth. I love the Church. I am a priest and very honored and proud to be one!

Today our ability, to "survive day to day" is the mental health gift we can give to youth and adults. Personally, for me that is enough!

Walking the way of the Kingdom is truly being open and in doing so assisting others on their journey of mental health

Like Paul, my time is coming to an end as all of our times are, and like Dorothy Day I feel each day that "I try". So join together in that "trying", and in walking, with others day to day. We are all clinging to The Thread of Life!"

"But I do not count my life any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace!" Acts 20:24.NRSVeu.

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

"Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." John 21:19.

=====================
The past few days I have spent in solitude reflecting on the death of Banko Brown, whom I have known through the years.

My sister, whom I have not spoken to in years, recently sent a text message, in which she spoke very harshly, with extreme judgment on homosexuality and me having a Satanic ministry. Her words hurt, even after all of these years. And I thought of all the people hurt by such views in the Church, one of which was Banko Brown.

A priest in the Roman Catholic Church announcing a rally for the coming Sacred of Heart of Jesus in June yells, "Let us turn the thoughts of people away from the homo- sexual celebration (Pride Month) to Jesus."

All of this leads to harm of others. This is not the Jesus we know.

The Dodgers have withdrew the invitation of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in response to the complaints of religious people. Again this is not the Jesus I know.

For our faith journey entails many "not as before" experiences. A child's faith gives way to a more nuanced faith of the adult. It is the same faith, yet different and deeper.

We are like Mary Magdalene, who on that first Easter morning was so concerned about finding the missing body of Jesus that she failed to recognize the risen One even when face to face with him. But when he spoke her name, she underwent a "not as before" change of awareness. Her heart turned from love of the dead Jesus to love of the living One. It is the same love, but so much deeper than before.

Through the years of our journey we have traveled a life of a changing, evolving faith. A faith that views a rainbow of many colors.

It is a rainbow with the colors of many faith expressions of which Christianity is but one, all expressing the presence of a God of love. It is a rainbow of many colors of people, and many colors of sexual expressions.

Today is the Ascension and I believe it signifies Jesus becoming the Cosmic Christ, who embraces all in many Names. There is One God, but a God who meets people where they are. All are welcome into the arms of God.

In The Instruction Manual for Receiving God, we read:

"The Whole program of creation is to bring us back into contact with God.
Within each one of us is the eternal program of repair. Do not ever forget that left to your own devices, left to your natural inclinations, your body desires, to heal. To be broken is the only way to understand wholeness. To be separate is the only way to return to the One. Your whole life is about your repair and return. Whether you sit in meditation facing a wall or pray in the sanctuary to God your soul already knows that all brokenness leads back to home, that "brokenness" and "home" arise together, like sun and sky, like river and water. All creation was made for this purpose. Everything else is commentary on the search for the eternal."

"I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you; In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will.. . .John 14:15-21.

I remember my mom, she was gentle, kind and driven to push me through school. In my worst moments I see her in the Great Cloud of Witnessing pushing me forward. She once told me, "You will always be more of a mother than a father to people in your ministry."

On Mother's Day I was across the street at "Toast" eating breakfast, and "Diego" walked up to me with a bouquet of flowers, smiled, and said: "River these are for you, for you have been more of a mother than I have ever had"

Diego walked across the border from Guatemala when he was 15, and was given asylum, the local gangs wanted him dead; for 12 years he has lived in San Francisco, needing support along the way. It has been rough, but he continues to tough it out. His mother kicked him out of the house, and so he survived on the streets until he came to the U.S.

The majority of youth on the street have no parents, they have been abused, sold, and simply kicked out because the parents had no money.

Steven Kierkegaard comments : "Life can only be understood backward but it can only be lived forward."

This Mother's Day I vow to live my "life forward", being a "mom ", caring, seeing each as a child of God.

I close with a prayer sent to me by my friend Jay Swanson that summarizes theology in a nutshell:

commoners_communion. True compassionate prayer stands with God, and before God as the other.

It cries their tears, grieves their pain, repents for their sins, seeks their healing.

Christ often ministered from compassion(co-suffering) and his ministry had power precisely because he entered into the pain of the world.

Love is what made his prayer powerful.

When we pray for others we should pray from the heart, not from the head. Allowing ourselves to enter into another's experience where we feel God's desire for them, then pray from there.

When we do we co-labour with God.

We not only intercede for another but go deeper into God himself."

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:12-13). NRSVue

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

On this day, May 12, many years ago, my second year in seminary, I was driving home from my rural church's youth group on a rainy night. My car slid off the road, killing, Stacy, 15, and injuring myself. An accident that haunted me for years.

Several days later a minister friend shared with me some advice that has never left my mind:

"In time you will have two decisions you are faced with:

1. Continue in the ministry, close yourself into the institution, never question anything else in live;

2. Let yourself loose, questioning, challenge, everything and do something crazy like another friend who suffered a similar situation: he went out and raced cars with young adults."

Ultimately the second was chosen, bringing freedom of living a life of ministry, looking at all sides. A life of good mental health.

In Evie Yoder Miller's book, Volume 1: Shadows, Scruples on the Line, Miller presents a nation at the beginning, and the next two years of the Civil War, as divided in so many ways, culturally, politically, religious belief with many, many different denominations. Jumping a 160 plus years later we see the same in our society.

Character, J. Fritz-Chicago, responding to a partners comments:

. . .He would rather talk about a new repeating rifle being made to kill more people, rather than discuss freeing slaves. .

...white people specifically are supposed to save the world.. .when death comes they go to a higher place."

He still believed "making money is a sacred trust, do it to the best of your ability. ."

I am sitting in the midst of "Toast" restaurant as I write, and around me people are simply talking, about money or politics! Not much has changed!

This book is an excellent start to a three volume series.

My own resulting life from the aftermath of Stacie's death were horrible. At the time the Church simply wanted me to move, finish school, and "be strong" as an example to others.

Two quotes come to mind as I remember that time, and the journey through the years:

"Resilience is the ability to brush off pain," Kristen Roupenion,"

and James Baldwin:

"You can not love, without until you truly love yourself within."

Mental health is made up of these two quotes, and
and working with others with them. We all have a shadow, and we need to work on it all the time!

Happy Mental Health Month!
Happy Our Lady of Mary Month!

a blessing for those who care about strangers

What a waste.

That wasn’t going to get you a nicer apartment.

Bless those who give their health in service of patients who might not even deserve it.

What if that patient took unnecessary risks or was selfish or was never going to say thank you? You could have been protecting yourself or God forbid, sleeping through the night.

Bless those who listen to long, winding stories from lonely hearts.

Instead of rushing off to more interesting friends.

You picked boredom or patience instead of the warmth of being known.

That was your time and you’re never going to get it back.

Bless those who loved people who weren’t grateful.

The sick who endangered your health,

The deeply boring, who know you have things to do.

Loving people can be the most meaningful thing in the world, but it can also be hard and scary and boring and disgusting or sad or anxiety inducing with zero overtime.

Thank you to all those who make these bad investments.

Those acts of love that are not going to add up to success in the way that the world sees it.

You, my darling, are the definition of love.

This blessing was inspired by my conversation with nurse and writer Christie Watson

A blessing for those who care about strangers.

What a waste.

That wasn’t going to get you a nicer apartment.

Bless those who give their health in service of patients who might not even deserve it.

What if that patient took unnecessary risks, was selfish, or was never going to say thank you? You could have been protecting yourself or, God forbid, sleeping through the night.

Bless those who listen to long, winding stories from lonely hearts.

Instead of rushing off to more interesting friends.

You picked boredom or patience instead of the warmth of being known.

That was your time, and you’re never going to get it back.

Bless those who loved people who weren’t grateful.

The sick who endangered your health, the deeply boring, who know you have things to do.

Loving people can be the most meaningful thing in the world, but it can also be hard, scary, boring, disgusting, or sad, or anxiety-inducing with zero overtime.

Thank you to all those who make these bad investments.

Those acts of love that are not going to add up to success in the way that the world sees it.

You, my darling, are the definition of love.

This blessing was inspired by my conversation with nurse and writer Christie Watson.

Newly published CDC data found that 1 in 4 teenagers identified themselves they were attracted only to the opposite sex; this does not include transgender, non-identifying numbers of youth.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24 and the Trevor Project found that LGTBTQ youth are four times as likely to attempt suicide, 1.8 million and at least one every 45 seconds, and 45% LGBTQ considered attempting suicide this past year.

Messages such as the one I received today from my sister is similar to the message many youth receive from others. I have not talked with her in forty years, and she has refused to talk with me:

"River Sims You are my brother. But the sin you live in and condone goes against what Paul wrote in Romans 1:26-27, which was inspired by God. God does not accept homosexuality. You were not born this way. You made a bad choice."

One's sexual orientation is not "chosen," it is one we come with at birth. And after ten years of tough therapy with a well-known shrink, I came to truly understand the words of Jesus:

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

And true mental health as:

What is good mental health? In his book, Ash Wednesday, J. R. Mabry has the Sheriff say: "If I have learned anything from my mother, Jake, it's there are no good people. There are only people in various stages of being fu. .cked up. Some less, some more."

Good mental health is the ability both to value life and to engage in a life of affirming other people and creatures and value their lives as we do our own, seeing them as independent from us.

Good mental health means the ability to behave differently depending upon the circumstances and not expect every thing go our way.

Good mental health is our ability to see everyone, regardless of social status, sexual identification, and color, simply as a fellow human being.

Messages like the one I received can truly hurt people, and push some towards suicide. I have had kids become suicidal, and they truly do not forget them. What I have learned to do is the message of Jesus:

"But Jesus, on his part, would not entrust himself to them because he knew all people." John 2:24

Words hurt more than a knife. My friend and Spiritual Director Jay Swanson sent me this poem to close with:

A blessing for those who care about strangers.

What a waste.

That wasn’t going to get you a nicer apartment.

Bless those who give their health in service of patients who might not even deserve it.

What if that patient took unnecessary risks, or was selfish, or was never going to say thank you? You could have been protecting yourself, or God forbid, sleeping through the night.

Bless those who listen to long, winding stories from lonely hearts.

Instead of rushing off to more interesting friends.

You picked boredom or patience instead of the warmth of being known.

That was your time, and you’re never going to get it back.

Bless those who loved people who weren’t grateful.

The sick who endangered your health, The deeply boring, who know you have things to do.

Loving people can be the most meaningful thing in the world, but it can also be hard, scary, boring, disgusting, or sad, or anxiety-inducing with zero overtime.

Thank you to all those who make these bad investments.

Those acts of love that are not going to add up to success in the way that the world sees it.

You, my darling, are the definition of love.

This blessing was inspired by my conversation with nurse and writer Christie Watson.

River's Creed:
"I write because this is the way I protest."

"Ministry on the streets is the way I resist, doing what I can to proclaim the Gospel of Love to every human being without judgment."

"Now I hand down to you what has been revealed to me: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures."

Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
Temenos Catholic Worker
Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc
Po. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
punkpriest1@gmail.com
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

"You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures." Elizabeth Gilbert

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity." Pema Chödrön

". es, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” Pema Chödrön

(from the Washington Post)

Our Lady of Mary's Month!
Pray the Rosary!

Mental Health Month!
Jesus the Way to the Father

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe[e] because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me[f] for anything, I will do it. (John 14:1-14 NRSVEU)

Mental Health Awareness Month
What it is: May is mental health awareness month, making mental health and suicide prevention bigger topics than ever. #mentalhealthmatters has around 42 billion views on TikTok, and #mentalhealthawareness has racked up 20 billion.

Why the conversation is changing: The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior survey showed that suicidal ideation, especially for teenage girls, is continuing on a concerning trajectory. In 2021, 30% of girls said that they had seriously considered suicide in the past year, and 24% said they had an actual plan to end their life. According to data published by Mental Health America, 16.4% of youth reported experiencing a major depressive episode within the last 12 months. This news comes at a time when adults are feeling so lonely that the US surgeon general has declared loneliness a public health emergency. Stigma around mental health topics appears to be eroding, but that isn’t necessarily leading to better mental health outcomes for teens and for the population at large.

Conversation Starter: What do you think are the biggest contributors to mental health issues for your generation? (Check out our new video series on Mental Health for more help having this conversation!)
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What is good mental health? In his book, Ash Wednesday, J. R. Mabry has the Sheriff say: "If I have learned anything from my mother, Jake, it's there are no good people. There are only people in various stages of being fu. .cked up. Some less, some more."

Good mental health is the ability both to value life and to engage in a life of affirming other people and creatures and value their lives as we do our own, seeing them as independent from us. Good mental health means the ability to behave differently depending upon the circumstances and not expect every thing go our way. Good mental health is our ability to see everyone, regardless of social status, sexual identification, and color, simply as a fellow human being.

"In Christ there is no east or west. in him no pride of birth, the chosen family God has blessed now spans the whole wide earth. For God in Christ has made us one from every land, race, and sexual orientation, has reconciled us through the Son, and met us all with Grace."

We live in America's loneliest era. Our country is so divided, we stay buried in our social media and do not talk to one another, and most importantly listen. Good mental health means to"shelter our souls." For me it means to dwell in Jesus. "Dwelling in Jesus", means to be open to all, to listen, letting them find good mental health, and a "dwelling in whatever their belief in the Higher Power."

Recently a young man came to my place. He was well dressed, and he said don't you remember me, and I said, "Well, I am not sure," "You knew me as "Chaos", who at fifteen had been high on fentanyl and knocked me down, sending me on a two year journey of recovery. He said:

"You simply forgave me, and continued to be my friend...and for the next year you simply listened when I came to your house, even in pain you listened." Through our listening I found a Higher Power in AA." I went home to my parents, and am now in college. I keep a photo of you in my wallet to remind me you care and you listen, never judging."

Listening saves lives, simply listening with out judgment.

The word "dwell" is related to an old English word for "heresy" or "madness". Perhaps it is a sort of insanity to believe that God dwells here, with us.

Or that, somehow, resurrection is an end to our exile, and an invitation to come home to God. If so, the madness is the long-lingering hope of the human race, the dream to dwell. Not only a hope, however it is hard work, this effort to shelter our souls.

To "dwell" means we struggle as a family with all people in finding safety in life, in finding "good mental health".

None of us are "good", but we try as hard as we can and move from the stage of evil ultimately into the fullness of God, the fullness of accepting all as a reflection of Jesus of Nazareth--black, white, brown, blue, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning and all in between. The fullness of good mental health.

In the midst of our fears and uncertainty and old Methodist hymn, one upon which I was raised and one that will be sung at my funeral rings out:

"O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home."

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
--------------------------

Acts 2:42-47

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Life among the Believers.

Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

I have known John (JR Mabry) for many years now. When I first met him we attended a Holy Communion Service, and he took his dog for the Sacrament, shocking people, and lead me on my journey of being a vegan. He truly practices the resurrection!

Mabry's story is situated in Central California, where he describes a variety of people from conservative Christians to Satanists, and Witches not unlike our population. in San Francisco.

I am going to focus on Peg, a Congregational minister, who once was a drug addict and prostitute.

This is a creed of human solidarity for the newly baptized Christians.

Practice Resurrection. It is not a long to -do list. It is not the work we have to do. It is a call to live. It is a call to live as humanly as we possibly can with and for one another and for the life of God in the world. This is the story of John's book, read it!
Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

=======================================
Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
punkpriest1@gmail.com
415-305-2124
River's Creed:

Success!

"You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures." Elizabeth Gilbert

“You’re lost in the desert with nothing but a map and a compass. To the north, there’s a city just an hour away—salvation. To the east, you’ll find a train station that will eventually get you home. There’s an oasis to the west (but it’s in the middle of nowhere) and nothing but certain death to the south.

So which direction are you walking? It seems simple enough: Walk north for an hour and you’re saved. Everything else is a waste of time and/or resources—or worse.

The Life Compass is the tool that can point you in the right direction for you and your life. Find your north (The Desire Zone) and enjoy ample time to grow your good life and have a life outside outside of your job. Get caught up at the oasis (Distraction Zone) and you’re just wasting your time not making progress toward your goals. The train station (Disinterest Zone) might eventually get you where you need to be, but you’re going out of your way to get there. The Drudgery Zone is death for your productivity and life balance.”

I get frustrated when I am asked, "How can the homeless situation be solved?

A recent study has shown that the present situation with the Mayor and Governor-- bringing the National Guard in to solve the fentanyl "crisis" and the sweeps by the police taking the possessions and moving the homeless to other places lower the life expectancy and increase mental health issues for those who live on the streets.

"Success", is best explained in this quote by

Michael Richard Green Lauts whom himself was once homeless:

"I repeat this so often …. Love thy neighbor as thyself! I try and try to live this as I have taken so many people into my home and fed them and bathed them and housed them in hopes to help them…. Until we all realize we are one family, the children of God, we will continue this destructive spiral of hate…. Our love can change the world, but our love is too passive…. We are too cowardly to commit our heart and soul to our family and therefore we fail." Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Fear is a powerful motivator in the Church.

But fear functions in unproductive ways. We, humans, have long feared the behavior that is within all of us around sexuality.

The questions we need to ask: Is this a real fear or a manipulated one? Is the threat genuine or ginned up? Does my fear of this particular thing make me give up in despair or feel empowered to make a difference? Is my fear based in reality or not? Is fear real or faked?

This book brings out the fear the Church has towards facing sexual abuse and sexuality in honesty.

Think about how many churches offer support groups for people who have experienced sexual abuse. How many churches have a youth group that is open, really open to discussing sexuality? To discussing in all honesty LGBTQ issues? How many Churches are open to discuss these issues with adults? Frankly I have been in a lot of churches and few have youth groups, and certainly will not mention the word sex in the ones that do. Sexual abuse issues are certainly not discussed, and victims find themselves suffering on the backside of the cross.

The Backside of the Cross brings this vividly into the light of day, and points out that the Cross is redeeming to all people, and that redemption must be found through the Church truly working with victims of sexual abuse and have youth groups that work on the same issue and sexuality.

This is an excellent book, sad in many ways, and goes into vivid detail, really an excellent book! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

The Backside of the Cross may be found on Kindle as well as hard copy!

"God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction." — Meister Eckhart, sermon on Romans 8:18

In his writings and sermons, medieval mystic Meister Eckhart (1260–1327) counseled detachment from anything that would separate us from God, whom he understood as the very ground of our being.

I am coming to the end of my three-week break, a time of weeping over four young men who died, and weeping over how the crackdown by the Mayor and Governor are effecting people on the street.

My colleague Rev. Keenan Kelsey use to say to me, "You have a different message than me and others." What she was saying in other words is that I am called to "Bear witness!

To bear witness to the words of Philip Berrigan, "The institutional church is a major bureaucracy and major bureaucracies are disobedient to the Gospel." Bearing witness of one who is "outside the gates", as the book of Hebrews tells us.

I bear witness in saying that "presence" and truly "listening" are the cornerstones of spirituality.

Simply living in the present moment, being present, and "listening" to others deeply.

We live so far in the future worrying about "everything" and we spend all of our time on social media we lose sight of the pain of the person next to us.
Finally, bearing witness that we should be present to the people on the street, and stop counting on the government, National Guard and police of "solving the problem."

Instead go out, see people as simply human beings and listen to them, simply listen. As Jesus tells us "Become like a little child," and listen deeply.

I close with a poem of unknown origins that sums up a way of life, a way of being present, of finding the "ground of our being.":

Luke 24:13-35

"The two were walking in the wrong direction but they were on the right path."

"There have been crucifixions, too, in our town — innocents gunned down in their doorways or in school halls; or radiations black outlines, three crosses marked a sisters chest: no wonder we walk in quiet rage, musing. Or the tents in every doorway on the street, or the endless homeless hid in Marin? And who, on this road, will join us, seeming unaware of the worst news in the neighborhood, but spelling out the history of the prophets and a future: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? Could our hearts still burn within us?

Will we ask the stranger to stay? Break bread? And how will our well-hammered and nailed kitchens and bedrooms appear to us when we understand who he is just as he steals away?"
— Sandra R. Duguid, “Road to Emmaus”

The scene of Emmaus has the men walking in the wrong direction, but on the right path.

In the midst of homelessness growing throughout the nation, the repeated violence on the streets and in our schools let us invite the--the homeless person at our door in for a meal, the immigrant, the people of whom we are afraid; let us open our eyes in our neighborhoods and see ourselves as a part of the problem, in our greed, and endless need for money and big houses; how do we treat youth, as persons or objects to be moved; do we lift our faces from our social media and and talk to one another; let us ask ourselves the question of "Who are we?"

"Only the truth of who you are will set you free."

Eckhart Tolle

For me the question of the heart, the uppermost question in my mind for years now, is how can I "break bread" and be an example of Jesus to every individual I meet of rich, medium income, the homeless, the person of color, the immigrant, and all in pain? By taking the binders off my eyes do I practice the resurrection.

And the question for you the reader to ask yourself, and answer for yourself is:

How Do I Practice the Resurrection?

"Which commandment is first of all?. . ." you shall love 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 12:29.

Through the years reading books on St. Francis, one is taken by his weeping daily. People would question him daily about weeping worrying about him.

I cry a lot, and throughout Lent and Easter and now I weep more than ever, but have learned my weeping, like that of Francis is different from a method of fixing.

I have let go of my mode of fixing, and am growing in the mode of letting go, of seeking to understand, and simply forgiving and see every person as a broken body of Jesus.

I understand why Francis wept so much. When we go to the place of tears it is an inner attitude where when I can't fix it, when I can't explain it, when I can't control it, when I can't even understand it. I learn I can only forgive it. Let go of it, weep over it.

It is a different mode of being. To forgive the man who murders one's son, all the criticism and hate thrown our way, the young men who have beaten you up, that is freeing, and worth weeping for! Weeping frees us!

This is the year of the Water Rabbit in the Chinese Lunar New Year, a year of hope, a time to slow down and strive for balance. A symbol of peace. And it is my time to strive for balance, to slow down, and be peaceful.

Lent, with four deaths, so much pain on the street, and an ordination literally wore me out. I have been at home accept for two days the last two weeks, and on the ocean in Pacifica resting, praying constantly, and simply just being and weeping.

One night, watching the Pacific Ocean through my motel window I fell a sleep and found myself surrounded by so many people I have known through the years, those who hate me, those who do not give a damn, and those who love me. Suddenly there was love all around me, with every one smiling.

I knew in those moments like the Water Rabbit I move deliberately and slowly in my ministry, and all is well. St. Therese of Lisieux tells us to do the"little things," and

Winston Churchhill, "We make a living by not what we get, but we make a living by what we give."

And most importantly from weeping, one learns to love and respect everyone , to attend to their needs, to be ready to respond and to understand.

The most difficult part of spiritual practice is to open our hearts and suffer with all people including our enemies.

And our greatest teacher is Jesus:

"Which commandment is first of all?. . ."you shall love 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 12:29.
Weep and, let everything go, and care for others

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

In the early church little else was preached except the news of Jesus’ resurrection. For the first Christians, who were the poor and disenfranchised, it was the one central theme heard over and over again. The resurrection wasn’t just a part of the faith, it was the central content of the faith. It is important to realize the early followers of Jesus didn’t believe in the resurrection because they believed in Jesus. Rather, as Martin Marty said, "they believed in Jesus because they believed in the resurrection." And yet, 2000 years later I think there are many modern Christians who almost feel embarrassed to talk about the resurrection.

It is too supernatural, too out of the ordinary, too far out. But the message – Jesus Defeated Death, Jesus rose from the grave, Jesus lives, and we too will live with him – is central to our faith. There is no Christianity without it. There is only the interesting story of an interesting man who lived once upon a time long ago.

Quite honestly, every bit of hope I have is wrapped up in this day. Today is the reason I can stomach reading the newspaper or watching the news on television. Today is the reason I can still have hope when precious, innocent children are shot and killed at school, when tens of thousands die in earthquakes, when thousands suffer because of war. The resurrection is the reason I can walk the streets each day and see the pain of the homeless.

This is what holds many homeless together, who will never have housing.
The lady above fines joy in her life, even though she lives on the street.She shares that joy in that dress and decorating her dog. She goes and sleep in Golden Gate Park at night.

The good news of Easter day declares that suffering and death, disease and injustice, are not the way things are supposed to be, nor are they the way things will be forever. As

Jurgen Moltman once said: “Our Easter faith recognizes that the raising Jesus from the dead provides the great alternative to this world of death.”

87
Our faith understands the risen Christ as God’s protest against death, and against all the people who work for death. For those of us who claim the message of the empty tomb as our own, who find good news in the promise of Easter, our job is to live in such a way that the miracle of this day can be seen in our lives.

Remember, when you forgive your enemy, when you feed the hungry, when you defend the weak – you proclaim the resurrection.

When you work to repair broken relationships, when you sacrifice for the sake of others, when you take time to support a friend – you proclaim the resurrection. When you stand up for the truth, when you refuse to compromise your integrity, when you love the unlovable – you proclaim the resurrection.

This is our job as Christians – to declare with our lips and live with our lives the hope of Easter in a world, where for many, hope can be difficult to find. He is risen!

Thank you for your gifts. River+

On Holy Saturday, we find our selves in a liminal space between the already and not yet. That is the Jonah story, my story and your story in one way or another.

Jesus used the Jonah story to tell of his on fate and as the pattern of death and resurrection, that each of us must walk as Jesus did.

It is that story that describes my life. Yesterday in the middle of the "Stations of the Cross", seen above, I received a phone call from a friend, and he was asking me how who I saw the crucified Christ in.

The truth is I see the broken face of Jesus in every person I encounter, rich, poor, caring,uncaring, criminal or non criminal. I do not like every one, but I show them the love I have for each person.

I entered into the "belly of the whale" when I was kicked out of the Church, family turned on me, and totally alone becoming a whore on the streets of L.A. I wanted to run away from God for years, and through a slow process came back, and am still in that process. We are all broken people on the journey.

There is no judgment, and I see only the broken body of Jesus, try to love it in each person with all my heart, mind, and strength.

In the coming out I encountered Jesus, in whom I placed my complete trust, and through whom the two chief Scriptures that I believe in and seek to practice are:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, heart, and soul and your neighbor as yourself." and Matthew 25-31-46.

So on this day of days and on Easter Sunday come to faith in God, not through an institution but through your heart. I am presently wearing a sweat shirt saying, "Jesus I Trust in You." He is all I have to truly trust in! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 7170151
https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Christian discipleship is a way of life--doing and undoing, a going and an undergoing.

No ritual practice can match the majestic symbolic sweep of the Triduum undergone in three short days, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Since March of 2020, with the virus, injury, and much pain, I have found that there is no logic in understanding that the Siren-Spirit was calling me into the heart of the Pascal mystery with its odd thinking that the way of new life goes through and around our disabilities and fears.

The First Act Holy Thursday: we are going to serve sandwiches as our Holy Communion to avoid the anger of so many have against the Church, with a blessing and pair of socks. In doing so, reminding them that the Lord's Supper is about love, not division and condemnation.

The Second Act Good Friday: We will lift up the cross in the Tenderloin, reminding ourselves of the Haunting that we turn away from in the persecution of homeless individuals. We call people to become one with them as Christ is one with us and all people.

The Third Act: In the great Vigil of the Spirit, we walk the Tenderloin and Haight Street in early morning, giving candy, a blessing, and close with a service of celebration, the Holy Eucharist, and breakfast in the Haight!

And so we stumble into the dawn of Easter morning--under the weight of fear, homelessness, aging, and illness to bask in the promise of the resurrection that is indeed our inheritance.

He is risen! And so shall we be! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Fr. River Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
Temenos Catholic Worker
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, California 94164-2656
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

"You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures." (Elizabeth Gilbert)

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity." (Pema Chödrön)

"The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently." (Pema Chödrön)

Dear Friends,

“Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour?”

These words of Jesus were affixed artistically to a poster board. Below them was a sign-up for the annual Holy Thursday all-night prayer vigil at my parish. Something stirred in my 16-year-old heart, and I wrote down my name to fill the early morning hour at 3 AM.

I’m not exactly sure how my father felt when I told him I needed a ride to church in the middle of the night that Holy Thursday, but he got up, and he drove me. We were silent in the car, but it was an attentive, prayerful silence. When we arrived, I walked quietly to the front of the Church and, kneeling down, prayed my hour before the altar of repose as my dad sat in the back. I am sure he was praying, too.

You never know what a simple invitation may stir in someone’s heart—even if it is by way of a poster board!

We are at the threshold of the holiest days of the liturgical year. Jesus is speaking the very same invitation to us that he spoke to his apostles over 2,000 years ago: “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test” (Matthew 26:41).

Let us watch and pray with Jesus—not only to be safe from the powers of sin and death, but most of all to adore Jesus, to love him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength! Let us together keep watch with him: in the garden, in the prison, along the streets of Jerusalem, on Calvary Hill, and in the silence of the tomb and in that silence let us be haunted by the homeless on the street, ignored, forgotten about going hungry as we sit down to our tables of ham and trimmings

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the
power of human investment. 415 7170151
https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

In 2006, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg published The Last Week. The book begins with an unforgettable image:

“Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in the year 30. . . One was a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mouth of Olives, cheered by his followers. . . On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial calvary and soldiers.

Jesus’s procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire.”

I’ve no idea how many thousands of sermons have been preached on this passage in the years since. In the last fifteen years, I’ve never not heard a Palm Sunday sermon allude to it, borrow the image, or quote it directly. The “two processions” have become nearly a commonplace in liturgical and liberal churches.

This year, I’ve wondered about the crowds watching the processions. Matthew depicts the throng cheering, waving branches, and singing hosanna. The author interlaced the Jesus procession with a prophecy from Zechariah. In the Hebrew scriptures, Zechariah envisioned a humble king who arrives in Jerusalem on a donkey and a colt. That king will end all war. No more chariots, warhorses, or battle-bows. This king commands peace.

Of course, Pontius Pilate wasn’t a king of peace. He commanded an army on behalf of Caesar. But he and that legion were there to keep the peace during the holy days of Passover — making sure the Jews caused no trouble for their Roman rulers. As his procession made its way to the city gate, most likely no one cheered him. The crowds hated and feared him.

Perhaps a few paid supporters were sent out to shout Ave Pilate — Hail Pilate — as he entered — to soothe his imperial ego. Maybe a few powerful people in Jerusalem actually approved of him, or wanted something from him, and shouted their praise. Chances are, however, the road to the west gate was relatively deserted as the Romans approached. The only sounds were the dreaded clomp, clomp of armored horses and chariot wheels traversing the cobblestones. Pilate, in regal splendor, probably wanted to be home in his seaside villa instead of here, with the unruly Jews.

Meanwhile, at the eastern gate, Jesus’ noisy supporters were crying out Hosanna! Save us! Please save us now! They weren’t asking for some sort of spiritual salvation, for a place in heaven, or for eternal life. They wanted to be saved from Pilate, from the legion entering the other gate, from Caesar, and that faux peace of Roman swords. They knew there was no Pax Romana, it was nothing but misery and death.
Hosanna Jesus! Free us, we pray you! Deliver us! Save us from Pilate and Caesar and the misery of Rome! Hosanna, hey sanna, sanna sanna ho! Now, Jesus, now!

There isn’t an ave or an alleluia to be heard. These branch-waving protesters were begging to be rescued from oppression and injustice, shouting for liberation from the forces of violence and death.

Palm Sunday has always confused me. When depicted as a jubilant crowd, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But, if the crowd is understood as desperate subjects of a bloody empire, Palm Sunday comes into better focus. Why do they later turn on Jesus? Well, once the Roman soldiers enter the fray, and once their hoped-for savior is arrested, the reality of their situation sets in. No amount of hosannas can free Jesus from his Roman fate. But they could still save their own hides and hope for better when the next promising savior arrived. They didn’t really betray him. They did what fearful subjects of a brutal regime usually do — they capitulated to their overlords who had thousands of chariots, warhorses, and battle-bows at their command. The Romans essentially forced them into the imperial procession. By Friday, they weren’t begging Jesus for salvation; they were praying they could avoid being crucified with him.

We are frail people after all.

But Jesus will save them from violence and death — although not as anyone hoped or expected — by drinking Rome’s bloody cup. The journey to the anti-imperial kingdom will be marked by a cross. Palm Sunday is the first step along a way that will end with a stunning event in a cemetery garden.
And yet, even after the tomb: hosanna still sounds. In a week, we may shout our Easter Alleluias, but the truth is that our days cry out hosanna. Children and teachers die in pools of blood at school, homeless people lay in the dirt on the street, lies pervade and divide a desperate people, the rich steal everyone’s share, courts unwind decades of justice, and even a poisoned earth and sky rage against us. Pax Americana? We may have believed that once, subject to its deceptive promises. But the mask comes off and a faux peace makes itself known. A peace enforced by fear and violence, a peace of privilege and guns. Hosanna, Jesus, hosanna! Save us, NOW!

Honestly, I’m stricken by the bodies and blood, the price of empire. I’ve got no alleluias left. But I can wave my palm in protest, and I can still shout: Hosanna, hey hosanna, hosanna hosanna ho / Sanna, hey, sanna hosanna!
And that chorus is needed now more than ever. The road to the eastern gate beckons, opening to the commonwealth of God. Sing with me.

Two processions entered Jerusalem on that day. The same question, the same alternative, faces those who would be faithful to Jesus today.

"Which procession are we in? Which procession do we want to be in?
This is the question of Palm Sunday and of the week that is about to unfold."
— John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, The Last Week.

We all are in the dust and dirt! Shed Your Fears! Hosanna in the Highest! See your brothers or sisters before you in the dirt, remember the day is coming for each of us to be dirt!

Let us talk to God, or anything with which we find union! Let us let go, feel the pain and exhaustion and take a chance on being loved, and in so doing remember the words of Dorothy Day: "In each person I find the Christ." Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

I return to the Galilee of the Tenderloin and Haight Street, and I simply do what I was called to do some twenty-eight and six months ago now—to be a friend in the lives of the homeless young adults and older adults.

For in each person, you see the broken body of Christ!

Each pair of socks, every sandwich made, and in the minutes and hours spent with each of these persons, the pastoral care we give shows our respect and appreciation for each one!

I invite you, personally, to see in each of the faces on the next page the face of Jesus and to join me on this journey into Galilee and provide the finances needed for our work!

In Jesus, Street Person, and Rebel,

Fr. River Sims

Dear fellow companions along the way,

I am the Rev. Michael Mallory. On April 5, 2023, the second Sunday of Lent, I was ordained a priest of The Society of Franciscan Workers by Fr. River Sims. It was an outdoor ordination hosted by the San Francisco Night Ministry Open Cathedral at the UN Plaza. I was so blessed to have so many people attend and give me encouragement to continue on with that insistent calling from God—to simply be friends and find family in the people that the world has declared unworthy—the hungry, the stranger, the penniless, and the imprisoned.

The Rev. Lyle Beckman, preaching at the ordination, said that being a priest is like being a gardener. The daily task of tending, nurturing, and patiently waiting for the garden to grow As a person of God, I have experienced firsthand how God has tended, nurtured, and patiently waited for me, as God does for all of Creation. I believe the realm of God to be the same as that beloved community that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed and that no one will reach it until we all do.

When will that day come? No one knows the day or the hour. But I believe that every time we see in strangers’ eyes an image of ourselves and recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters, that day draws closer.

May God bless you this Easter season! Be bold and have no fear, for we belong to him who created us all. When the journey seems long and unforgiving, remember that we are together in Christ, and only together will we reach that distant shore.

With all my heart,

Thank you to all who have called, given gifts to Temenos, and provided me with a wonderful birthday!
--------------------------------------------------------------
John 11:25ff

“Unbind him and let him go". We see in John's account of the raising of Lazarus the power of Christ to bring life out of death. It was Jesus who gave Lazarus his life back, who created for his friend the possibility of a new beginning. But it was not Jesus who unwrapped the shrouds of death from Lazarus, it was instead Lazarus' friends, the members of his community, who unbound him and let him go. Let me share with you a story.

One day, a man wanders into a Cathedral in LA. It is the middle of the morning during the week, but the weekly celebration of the Eucharist is taking place inside. Not quite knowing why, he sits down and begins to listen to the liturgy unfolding around him. His life is in shambles. He was kicked out of church for being gay, became a prostituted.. Since that time, each day has been a struggle. He stays through the entire service, not because he wants to, but because this seems like a safe quiet place. After the service, as he is leaving, a woman of the parish approaches him and invites him to the weekly Bible study that follows the service. Having a few free minutes, and glad to be able to spend some time with people older, he agrees. During the Bible study, he meets other members of the parish who show an interest in him and who seem pleased that he has joined them.

This celebration of the Eucharist was for this man a kind of new beginning. He returned to the church and after some time, he learned to like and eventually love this parish and the people in it. They helped Him to cope, they gave him their love, and they shared with him their lives. Just as Jesus saved Lazarus and gave him new life, I believe Jesus saved this man and gave him a new life. It was Christ's redeeming grace that directed him to the church that morning. Grace brought him to the church, but it was up to the members of the church, to unwrap the shroud and the bandages from him so that he could live. It was the men of the parish who first approached him, and the members of the Bible study, who first began to unbind him. Christ made his new life possible, but it was the people in the church.

to take off his cord and unbind him.
The good news is that through Christ there is indeed always the reality of new beginnings, of new life. Christ's own journey to the cross has made that possible. But as members of Christ's body, we must take that new gift, given to each of us, and unwrap its glory. Ask yourself this morning, how do I need to be unwrapped? Moreover, what can I do to help another to realize their new beginning, their new life. In Christ, everything is possible, in Him life abounds. But it is only through our love for each other that this gift of new life can be fully unwrapped and fully realized. Amen.

"Today I choose.

Today I bear witness to grace.
Today I practice kindness.
Today I choose love over fear.
Today I am not afraid to be generous.
Today I belong to the whole world, not merely a portion of it.
No matter what others around me choose, today I choose to live in peace."

Steven Garnaas--Holmes

Fr. River Damien Sims sfw, D.Min, D.S.T,
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
The Twenty Second Annual Stations of the Cross
"Our Haunting!"

April 7, 2023

Civic Center
Noon-2 p.m.

Food Provided By:

AUNT BARBARA’S KITCHEN
GOOD FRIDAY IRISH SODA BREAD BLITZ ON POLK STREET
in alliance with Fr. River Damien Sims of Temenos
https://www.temenos.org/

Please help support a Good Friday initiative. Fr. River Sims aims to serve 200 folks with Irish Soda Bread, the food that supported many Irish during hard times. It’s in the spirit of community and nurturing.

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.
$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Fr. River Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
Temenos Catholic Worker
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, California 94164-2656
415-305-2124

"You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures." Elizabeth Gilbert

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
(Pema Chödrön)

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” (Pema Chödrön)

Self-esteem is the commitment to treat yourself in a kindly, loving manner when you're alone. This is an active process that requires effort and energy.
-- David Burns, Intimate connections, 1985.

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.”

I finished Dr. Planter's book with much sadness, for in many ways, it is a memory of what was, and a memory of my life.

Li Po, 8th-century poet, once said:

"The birds have vanished into the sky, and now the last closed cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains."

I live on Polk the mountain, in the midst of a world where I feel very uncomfortable--upper-class, white people, for the most part, who knows nothing about what has been, and want the homeless moved out. I am not well-liked by many of these people, in fact I am a threat by my presence.

I am a threat by my going up and down the street feeding, and caring for the older homeless, taking them into restaurants to eat, and being their friend. I am threatened, hated, or simply ignored. The mountain and I remain.

And so, not much has changed in my life through the years. I grew up in a small town, where I was taught to have any other sexual feelings accept for a girl was wrong, and where one friend of mine was murdered because he at 14, was caught having sex with a guy. I had a son at 15, to have him adopted out, and the secret kept. I entered the ministry, and for 17 years suffered in the closet, and then kicked out, and found myself on the street, a prostitute.

When I came back it was as an Old Catholic/Anglican priest, for outside of the Metropolitan Community Church, all other denominations were basically homophobic.

My calling was to work with youth, and as a result I found myself being 'promoted' to a Bishop in the Old Catholic tradition because like all churches my church of ordination was afraid to work with kids, which is why the established church is dying.

I have friends ordained in the Old Catholic tradition who remain in their other denomination, never fully coming out for who they are, and wanting to be a part of the mainstream, even when I could have come back, I refused, for I am as the book of Hebrews tells us "outside the gates", the kids on the street are. Therapy never really works with them, for like me, they too are a
square peg that will not fit into a round hole.

That is the main reason I do not apply for grants, they are from the establishment that desires based on the idea of the established upper class, and I can not lie, and take money it is impossible for me to use in line with their goals.

Yesterday, on Haight Street, I visited with two 19 year old, Craig, and John, from
South Carolina. Young, "travelers", no interest in services, simply traveling around the country, living a 'hippie' lifestyle.

One called me later, and we met again in the Haight, and shared with me of sexual abuse by his stepfather, discrimination for liking both boys and girls. He loves traveling. The boy gave me a huge hugged and took off.

Polk Street has older men who sleep in the doorways at night, they are "the ones who are dangerous to customers" these guys are struggling to stay a live, not harm to anyone.

Today is the Feast of St. Oscar Romero he exemplified what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the modern world of poverty and violence, and challenges both the church and the world to stand for justice for the poor, those on the street, those without housing, He calls us to pay up personally:

(1)

The Stations of the Cross

Introduction
People, who live on the streets, the homeless, have haunted me all of my life. From the time I was six years old, driving late night through Sequoia National Park, seeing an old homeless woman walking up the road, and when I was seven walking across the street with a homeless person begging for money.

Haunting is the relentless remembering and continue reminding that will not be appeased the propaganda of assistance and care or the promises of our city, state, and national Governments that all will be well. In over twenty years in San Francisco we have seen the problem grow immensely, with tons of money being spent.

Haunting is both acute and generally are haunted, but that haunting comes from the haunting of society. The (2) United States is permanently haunted by the homeless, its massive population of poor and the violence intertwined in its past, present and future days.

Haunting’s aim is to wrong the wrongs, a confirmation that the rich and middle class hope to evade.

On Good Friday the cross call’s us to look at its “backside”, the side that points us seeing the homeless from their perspective, not one judgment, but one of love, and to work to end homelessness.

The First Station

The Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took with him Peter and James and John and began to be distressed and agitated. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” 35 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the (3) ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 He said, “Abba,[ a ] Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me, yet not what I want but what you want.”

Jesus felt sorrow and dread over what lay ahead of him of him. He prayed for the burden to be lifted and the cross to be removed. He accepted his future, “:Not my will but your will.”

We are haunted by the pain of the homeless, and as we see them around us we feel dread and fear. In our haunting we are pushed to walk with them and help them. “Not my will but thine be done.” (Mark 14:43-46).

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. And follow me.”

The Second Station

The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

43 Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived, and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” 45 So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. 46 Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. 47 But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 48 Then Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a rebel? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 All of them deserted him and fled.1 A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.” (Mark 14:42-46)

Rejection always hurts. It tears at our self-esteem, makes us feel like we are nothing, and leaves us doubting who we are. Homeless people are rejected all the time. When people walk by and do not even see the person on the side walk they feel like they nothing. May we be haunted by the feeling of rejection, as we look at our neighbor before us.

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. And follow me.”

(4)

The Third Station

The Sanhedrin Condemns Jesus

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

53 They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes were assembled. 54 Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest, and he was sitting with the guards, warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. 56 For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony did not agree. 57 Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, saying, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ” 59 But even on this point their testimony did not agree. 60 Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?” 61 But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah,[ k ](5) the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’ ”
63 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? 64 You have heard his blasphemy! What is your decision?” All of them condemned him as deserving death. 65 Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” The guards also took him and beat him.(Mark 14:55-63),

Envy and jealously can be like a cancerous disease, They haunt us, spreading through our bodies leading to destruction. Gossip and false accusations, leads us to push aside the homeless, in much the same way the Sanhedrin pushed aside Jesus. We are haunted by only listening to gossip, accusations, and the fear of others in pushing homeless individuals aside.
All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. and follow me.”

(6)

The Fourth Station

Peter Denies Jesus

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

66” While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the female servants of the high priest came by. 67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I do not know or understand what you are talking about.” And he went out into the forecourt.[ a ] Then the cock crowed.[ b ] 69 And the female servant, on seeing him, began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. Then after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and you talk like one.”[ c ] 71 But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know this man (7) you are talking about.” 72 At that moment the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. Mark 14:66-72.”
We are all like Peter. We deny our friends and lie when placed in a fearful situation. We are always for ourselves. We are haunted by these denials. We are haunted by the denials of caring for homeless people on the street. Like Peter if we return in faithfulness to Jesus, he will use our haunting on raising people on the streets into a new life.

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. and follow me.”

The Fifth Station

Pilate Condemns Jesus to the Cross

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation. (8)
15 As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” 3 Then the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

“6 Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. 7 Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder during the insurrection. 8 So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. 9 Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. 12 Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do[ a ] with the man you call[ b ] the King of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the (9) crowd, released Barabbas for them, and after flogging Jesus he handed him over to be crucified” Mark 15: 1, 6-15.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer critiques unconditional forgiveness in his book, The Cost of Discipleship as “cheap grace” and tells us, “cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism with out church discipline, communion without confession, and forgiveness without absolution.

Forgiving someone without requiring repentance in action, allows them to continue their abusive behavior and allows continued suffering.”

As we see Jesus condemned, and our condemning by cheap grace let a remember the words of St. Oscar Romero: “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.”

Leader: Lord, may we looking at the cross hear the voice of Jesus calling us to turn our eyes to the sidewalks, the alleys, and street corners, and see your children, and our brothers and sisters. Amen. (10)
All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Sixth Station

Jesus is Scouraged and Crowned with Thorns

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“Then they took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, ‘Hail King of the Jews!’ And they struck him repeatedly.” John 19:1-3

Pilate had Jesus scourged, a truly brutal punishment. He was probably stripped to the waste and bent over a short pillar. The pain was excruciating.
James, 55, was in a doorway, with his belongings and a policeman told him to move, James said ‘It is raining’ and the policeman struck him with his baton. (11)

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

Seventh Station

Jesus Is Mocked by the Soldiers and Given His Cross

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.
All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of
creation.

“The soldiers lead him away inside the palace, that is the praetorian, and assembled the whole cohort. . They begin salute him. . .and beat him. . . And when they had mocked him they stripped him of his purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes and led him out to crucify him.” Mark 15:16,18a19-20.”
The City has proposed to build some housing for homeless people, small houses in several of our neighborhoods, the residents are screaming, “No homeless housing in our neighborhood.”
(12)
The homeless remain silent, so different from us who are housed and have money.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

Eighth Station

Simon the Cyrenian Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.
All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of
creation.

“They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.” Mark 15:21

Those in charge of the crucifixion of Jesus compelled Simon, a man from the country. They had to compel (13) Simon, he knew little of Jesus, but what about us? We know all about Jesus, and his ministry of serving the poor, and yet we have to be compelled to house, feed, clothe, and provide health care to our homeless neighbors, and little at that.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Nineth Station
Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said: ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.’” Luke 23:27-28.
(14)
Compassion means literally, to suffer with someone. Empathy means to feel with them. These women displayed both qualities as they accompanied Jesus. We are called to show both of these qualities in our accompanying our homeless neighbors on their journey.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Tenth Station

Jesus Is Crucified

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull). They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it. Then they crucified him and divided his garments by lots for them to see what each should take.” Mark 15:22-24 (15)

First they drove nails through his hands and feet. Then they raised him on the cross, where he hung painfully for three hours. Pope John XXIII had a crucifix on his bedroom wall. He prayed in front of it before retiring, upon arising, and whenever worries awakened him during the night. “A cross,” he said, “is the primary symbol of God’s love for us.”

I wear a silver cross with an Amherst in the middle. The Amherst was given to me by a young man, sitting on Haight Street. James place the Amherst in my hand after turning down a man’s offer of $100.00, saying, “River this is for your love for us street kids,” and I placed it on a silver cross to remind me that serving homeless kids is more valuable than money, power, prestige and security.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Eleventh Station

Jesus Promises Paradise to the Penitent Criminal

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.(16)

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and two criminals there, on his right, and the other on his left. . Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus. .The other, however rebuking him,
said, ‘Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation?. .And we are condemned justly.’ Then he said: ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom,’ and Jesus replied, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’

One criminal said, ’no’ to Christ, the other ‘yes”. To the one who said ‘yes’ he promised immediate entrance into “Paradise”. We are asked today to say ‘yes’ to caring for our homeless neighbors, and Christ’s promise is we enter into the reign of God here on earth. For the Kingdom of God is here now, and in service we have a taste of Paradise.(17)

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Twelfth Station

Jesus Speaks to His Mother and to His Disciples

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother’s and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman behold your son.” Then he said to the disciple, ’Behold your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple too her into his home.” John 19:25-27.

With these words Jesus gives Mary to us, making her our mother, who reminds us to unite our sufferings with her son on the cross and her at the bottom of the cross. In so (18) doing we share in Christ’s work of serving others. Jesus calls us to serve the those who are most ignored in our society, and we see the homeless on our streets. Let us bring Christ’s love and grace to our homeless brothers and sisters.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Thirteenth Station

Jesus Dies on the Cross

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.’ .. .Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. (19)

Jesus, as faithful Jew, would have prayed the Psalms regularly. It is no surprise that these words from Psalm 22 are in his mouth in those painful last moments. Shortly afterward he surrenders his total self to God with these words: “”Father into your hands I commend my spirit.” May these words at our last be on our lips when we breathe our last. And may they come after a life of service to him in the broken body of Christ as seen in those who sleep on the street. For each day we see the broken Christ in each homeless person we meet.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Fourteenth Station

Jesus Dies on the Cross

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.(20)

“When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the Kingdom of God. . .courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. .he gave the body to Joseph. Having bought a linen cloth he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.” Mark 15:42-46.

Starting on Good Friday we enter into a period of silent grief, a time of mourning that looks with hope to the joy of the resurrection that begins at mid-night on Sunday. We grieve in much the same way when someone we love dies. There are tears and sorrow, of course, but rays of hope and belief in new life in Christ that is to come.

On this day as we return home, let us look at Christ dead in our midst, in those on the street, and let us pledge to (22) bring them new life in our care of them in the days ahead.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

The Fifteenth Station

Jesus Rises from the Dead

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

“. . . .When they looked up, they saw the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth. He has been raised, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.” Mark 16:1-6

Hallelujah Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! (23)

His triumph is ours as well. On Easter Sunday, and in the many other Easters of our lives, we rise above our failures, our burdens, and our struggles, we too emerge victorious. Throughout our own Good Fridays, the risen Lord is by our side, pledging that we too, will rise again, and enter his Reign on earth, and unto eternity.

Through the years I find the majority of youth and adults who are on the streets have poor experiences with Christians. Christians are the unseen. Not welcome in local churches, and the direct persecution through trying to remove them from their neighborhoods.

As we enter the new life of Easter let us hear the words of Jesus, and asked ourselves do we honor his commands:

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 (24) 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 (25) 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 (25)
these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.

All: Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

I would like to invite any one to come forward if you would like to be anointed with oil, and given the body of Christ in the Eucharist.

Thank you for coming and may you have a Happy Easter!

"Today I choose.
Today I bear witness to grace.
Today I practice kindness.
Today I choose love over fear.
Today I am not afraid to be generous.
Today I belong to the whole world, not merely a portion of it.
No matter what others around me choose, today I choose to live in peace."

Steven Garnaas--Holmes

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org , pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

John 5:1-16

THE EIGHTH STATION Simon the Cyrenian Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
MARK 15:21

Leader We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.
All Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in
from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.
Leader Those in charge of the crucifixion of Jesus compelled Simon, a
man from the country. They had to compel Simon, he knew
little of Jesus, but what about us? We know all about Jesus, and
his ministry of serving the poor, and yet we have to be
compelled to house, feed, clothe, and provide health care to
our homeless neighbors, and little at that.

All Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them
deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

10

THE NINTH STATION Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
LUKE 23:27-28

Leader We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.
All Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.
A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said: ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.’

Leader: Compassion means literally, to suffer with someone. Empathy
means to feel with them. These women displayed both qualities
as they accompanied Jesus. We are called to show both of these
qualities in our accompanying our homeless neighbors on their
journey.

All Jesus said: “If anyone wants to become my follower let them
deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me!”

"Short shifted" is a word that means "to pay little or no attention to a subject or person."

But what I did not know was the "formal", "archaic" definition of "short shift". It shocked me: "Barely adequate time for a confession before execution."

Figuratively this is the way many homeless people feel. They are treated differently, people really never treat them as "human beings". I remember a time in Portland being very sick, a minister "friend" told me he could pick me up after his dinner, meaning I would wait two hours; a homeless friend ran and got his car and took me to the hospital, and my minister friend commented later, "how could you ride to the hospital with a person like that?"

My friend was "short shifted." I have been talking to several elderly on the street. They sleep in the doorways of closed businesses, and I am told how they are simply ignored and sometimes spat upon. This is "short shifting".

St. Clare of Assisi tells us: "We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become."

On Good Friday as we begin the Stations in front of City Hall, we enter the Tenderloin, a stand end for ancient Jerusalem, where Christ is right in front of us and see him crucified every day on the streets, he is real, and calls us to a life of compassion meaning literally, to suffer with someone. Empathy means to feel with them!

In doing so we will be "short lifted" with Jesus! But O what a great time we will have!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org , pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

"In Kids on the Street Joseph Plaster explores the informal support networks that enabled abandoned and runaway queer youth to survive in tenderloin districts across the United States. Tracing the history of the downtown lodging house districts where marginally housed youth regularly lived beginning in the late 1800s, Plaster focuses on San Francisco’s Tenderloin from the 1950s to the present. He draws on archival, ethnographic, oral history, and public humanities research to outline the queer kinship networks, religious practices, performative storytelling, and migratory patterns that allowed these kids to foster social support and mutual aid. He shows how they collectively and creatively managed the social trauma they experienced, in part by building relationships with johns, bartenders, hotel managers, bouncers, and other vice district denizens. By highlighting a politics where the marginal position of street kids is the basis for a moral economy of reciprocity, Plaster excavates a history of queer life that has been overshadowed by major narratives of gay progress and pride."

THE SEVENTH STATION Jesus Is Mocked by the Soldiers and Given His Cross
MARK 15:16-20

Leader We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

The soldiers lead him away inside the palace, that is the praetorian, and assembled the whole cohort... They began to salute him. . .and beat him. . . And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of his purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes and led him out to crucify him.

In his book Dr. Joseph Plaster presents and excellent sociological perspective of Polk Street through the years. He points out that until LGBTQ entered into the mainstream Polk Street was stigmatized, poor, and seen as the area were queers were to hang out and now Polk Street is simply an upper middle class straight street.

In his chapter on "Street Churches" and talking about three street ministers through the years, of which I am the "last one", he describes our ministry as: ""the anarchist Catholic Worker Movement. devoted to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, and serving people on the margins; and the Old Catholics, a religious underground that claims ecclesiastical. . authority through and unbroken chain of ordinations stemming from the apostles. . .River approached street kids as 'sacred figures' and the Tenderloin as 'a sacred space.' Taking as his inspiration the life of Christ, he 'sought out the most loathsome and unclean' and created a ministry identified with those 'who find themselves abandoned and isolated in their suffering.'' Each year using the Tenderloin as a standard for ancient Jerusalem he made the Stations of the Cross, reenacting the journey of suffering that marked Christ's last hours.s 'People think about the crucifixion in terms of the past, something that is back there two thousand years ago,' he said,'But to me, Christ is right here. I see him being crucified everyday on the streets of the City.'

No one wants people who are poor, who are homeless around them--put them "somewhere" else.

Polk Street is a common example. As primary upper middle class people moved in, the inexpensive SRO's were moved out. Housing is now expensive, surrounded by coffee shops; The citizens of Haight Street would not allow an area for assisting homeless individuals, and now a high rent apartment building is being constructed. Street kids are shunned.

The cross points to the crucifixion of Jesus in our very midst and summons us to ask: Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
Psalm 51

THE SIXTH STATION Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns
JOHN 19:1-3

Leader We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

Then they took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, ‘Hail King of the Jews!’ And they struck him repeatedly.” Leader Pilate had Jesus scourged, a truly brutal punishment. He was probably stripped to the waste and bent over a short pillar. The pain was excruciating.

Like most laments Psalm 51 begins with a cry directly to God. We call out with four imperatives: have mercy, blot out, wash and cleanse. But in the middle of the section we admit we are our on worst enemy: "I know my evil well; it stares me in the face."

Day before yesterday I went to Kaiser for a check up and walked passed some forty people who have no health insurance; my evil stares me in my face.

I walked passed Jamie, a sixty year old man last night begging me for socks, and I should have taken my socks off and given them to him--my evil stares me in my face.

I have let my own pain, and tiredness get in the way.

I need to trust God completely! It is not easy to trust God this much! It is not easy to let the potter start over with the clay. Looking ahead, this is why I think the resurrection is Jesus' greatest act of obedience--and ours too! It is total surrender to God's gift of life, to God's creating hand! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

The Fifth Station
"Pilate Condemns Jesus to the Cross"

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.
All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

15 As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” 3 Then the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

“6 Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. 7 Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder during the insurrection. 8 So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. 9 Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. 12 Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do[ a ] with the man you call[ b ] the King of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them, and after flogging Jesus he handed him over to be crucified” Mark 15: 1, 6-15..

Dietrich Bonhoeffer critiques unconditional forgiveness in his book, The Cost of Discipleship as “ cheap grace ” and tells us, “cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism with out church discipline, communion without confession, and forgiveness without absolution.
Forgiving someone without requiring repentance in action, allows them to continue their abusive behavior and allows continued suffering.”

As we see Jesus condemned, and our condemning by cheap grace let a remember the words of St. Oscar Romero: “ There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.”

Leader: Lord, may we looking at the cross hear the voice of Jesus calling us to turn our eyes to the sidewalks, the alleys, and street corners, and see your children, and our brothers and sisters. Amen.

Daniel 3:25, 34-43; Matthew 18:21-35

In Daniel , we see Daniel in the furnace, and Azariah prays from a furnace which would make some of us self-obsessed. With no human rituals left, he asks for the balm of God's mercy. He focuses on God's wonders--and when he is delivered (3:52-90), Azariah sings praise to stars, snow, clouds, hills, rivers, birds, even "fire and heat"(66). What could destroy, instead transforms.

When we look at the homeless, drug addicted, mentally ill, the young and old on our streets and are haunted!

It is time that we lift our heads and look around us at the trees, hear the sounds of babies, and people, and see in them the beauty of God's creation, and turn our eyes to the street, and be a transforming agent. or as Oscar Romero tells us: “ There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.”

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Yesterday there were around thirty people at the funeral of Alex Jones in the park in front of City Hall. Around us was the majesty of the City, and the children's park where Alex once took his little child.

The people present were people I have known through the years on the street. Like Alex they are on the side of the "chasm" where most people will not go, the "chasm" of poverty, drug use, homelessness. Like Peter we deny the existence of Jesus on the street.

During our sharing time in the service each one shared of Alex's goodness, the "starfish" on the sand he threw back into the sea of life. It was a very moving service.

Talking about the future we must take seriously the question of justice. If our hope for a better future is dismissive of the Alex's of the present than we have not understood the message of Jesus.

Eternal life in God is a gift that we can embrace or refuse. It is a gift that begins in the here and now of our lives, and receiving it in fullness involves considerations about our existence as a whole. Homelessness is growing, they have little excess to health care, food, and housing.

We can listen to the wisdom of Jesus on how life decisions, just and unjust, play a role in defining our ultimate relationship with God. Or we can listen to other voices, the choice is ours! You can be a Peter who denies Jesus or one who follows him!

Yesterday I was experiencing eternity, and the presence of God at Alex's funeral! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

The Fourth Station
Peter Denies Jesus

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

66” While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the female servants of the high priest came by. 67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I do not know or understand what you are talking about.” And he went out into the forecourt.[ a ] Then the cock crowed.[ b ] 69 And the female servant, on seeing him, began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. Then after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and you talk like one.”[ c ] 71 But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know this man you are talking about.” 72 At that moment the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. Mark 14:66-72.”

We are all like Peter. We deny our friends and lie when placed in a fearful situation. We are always for ourselves. We are haunted by these denials. We are haunted by the denials of caring for homeless people on the street. Like Peter if we return in faithfulness to Jesus, he will use our haunting on raising people on the streets into a new life.

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. and follow me.” Deo 'Gratias! Thanks be to God!
=================================
Fr. River Damien Sims sfw, D.Min, D.S.T,
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

The Twenty Second Annual Stations of the Cross
"Our Haunting!"

April 7, 2023

Civic Center
Noon-2 p.m.

Food Provided By:

AUNT BARBARA’S KITCHEN
GOOD FRIDAY IRISH SODA BREAD BLITZ ON POLK STREET
in alliance with Fr. River Damien Sims of Temenos
https://www.temenos.org/
Please help support a Good Friday initiative. Fr. River Sims aims to serve 200 folks with Irish Soda Bread, the food that supported many Irish during hard times. It’s in the spirit of community and nurturing.

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.

They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes were assembled. Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest, and he was sitting with the guards, warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. 56 For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony did not agree. 57 Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, saying, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ” 59 But even on this point their testimony did not agree. 60 Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?” 61 But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah,[the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 Jesus said, “I am, and you will se the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’ ”

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy! What is your decision?” All of them condemned him as deserving death. Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” The guards also took him and beat him.(Mark 14:55-63), Envy and jealously can be like a cancerous disease, They haunt us, spreading through our bodies leading to destruction. Gossip and false accusations, leads us to push aside the homeless, in much the same way the Sanhedrin pushed aside Jesus. We are haunted by only listening to gossip, accusations, and the fear of others in pushing homeless individuals aside.

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. and follow me.”

Tomorrow we are having a memorial service for Alex Jones in the park across from City Hall--a cross from the citadel of power that has ignored
Alex. He was 49, and I have known him for nearly 28 years. The following is my meditation:

A Reflection:
We walk in the footsteps of Damien of Molokai, St. Francis, Dorothy Day, and all the saints and have become simply a piece of sand, seeping into the sea, and now we see the faces of the lives that have been touched by Alex. We remember the words of the poem “The Starfish Story:

IT ALL STARTED WHEN…
A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference for that one!”
The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.

Today as we remember Alex I remember him as one in the midst of simply a man who was kind to me, a mixture of the good and bad, as we all are, picking up starfish along the way and casting them back into the ocean. Yes he was addicted to drugs, yes he was homeless, having to survive the best he could, but Alex had a good heart, and I have seen him cast many starfish back into the ocean! And I know that Jesus has a room for him!

Alex died in a "drum" suffocating from a gas heater he and his dog, he was not found for a week, and people went in and out stealing his belongings, simply picking over his body. We live in San Francisco, a wealthy City, and yet it is as if we are in a third world country.

I weep for Alex, and I weep for the thousands who simply are not seen, and suffer every night.

And all I can do is simply each day throw a starfish back into the ocean, until I too flow into the ocean of God, my work done! That is all we have to do, one "starfish" at a time, and one would be surprised at how much society will change! So try it-! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Fr. River Damien Sims sfw, D.Min, D.S.T,

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

415-305-2124

The Twenty Second Annual Stations of the Cross

"Our Haunting!"

April 7, 2023

Civic Center

Noon-2 p.m.

Food Provided By:

AUNT BARBARA’S KITCHEN

GOOD FRIDAY IRISH SODA BREAD BLITZ ON POLK STREET in alliance with Fr. River Damien Sims of Temenos.

https://www.temenos.org/

Please help support a Good Friday initiative. Fr. River Sims aims to serve 200 folks with Irish Soda Bread, the food that supported many IrishIrish Soda Bread 2.5 lb. loaf image 1 during hard times. It’s in the spirit of community and nurturing.

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.
$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164 Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen

Matthew 7:7-12

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Ask, Search, Knock
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? 10 Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? 11 If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

I spent the afternoon with Carolyn a young lady on her spiritual journey, presently at the Zen Center. She has been with me a couple of times on the street and very easy to work with and very caring in working with everyone.

Today looking through our many photos taken through the years Carolyn commented: "You have lived such a full, inspiring, giving and beautiful life."

Carolyn does not know how much her words meant to me. A friend once told me "You are like a mountain and you can only view from a distance to see the beauty of your ministry." Li Poe wrote:
"The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains."

Lent reminds us that our time will come, and we too will vanished, I am very aware that my time is coming.

And as it comes I will continue to practice faith summed up in this quote by Leonard Boff:
"Spirituality is that attitude which puts life at the center, and defends and promotes life against all the mechanisms of death, desiccation, or stagnation. "

The life I have asked for has been given to me, sought has been found, and the door has been opened. And as an old Buddhist saying says:
"Don't make yourself small for anyone.
Be the awkward, funny, intelligent,
beautiful little weirdo that you are.
Don't hold back weird it out."

Lent invites all of us to be "little weirdo's for Jesus, and for all other faiths as well or non-believers-our time is short, "weird it out" for when you "ask, seek, you will find", and God surprises us!

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

Fr. River Damien Sims sfw, D.Min, D.S.T,
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.
$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.
The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build
a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers
her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model
of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the
power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Leader: We adore you O Christ, and we praise you.
All: Because by your Holy Cross you have saved all of creation.
43 Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived, and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” 45 So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. 46 Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. 47 But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 48 Then Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a rebel? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 All of them deserted him and fled.1 A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.” (Mark 14:42-46)

Rejection always hurts. It tears at our self-esteem, makes us feel like we are nothing, and leaves us doubting who we are. Homeless people are rejected all the time. When people walk by and do not even see the person on the side walk they feel like they nothing. May we be haunted by the feeling of rejection, as we look at our neighbor before us.

The Trevor Project's latest report examining the Mental Health of Black Transgender and Nonbinary Young People reveals one in four, of their group as compared to twelve percent of the cisgender and LGBQ groups have higher rates of victimization, attempts from others to change their sexual orientation and housing instability.

We have failed to see one of the understandings of our evolution as human beings is the various gender differences; and the Church in particular continues its journey of bias, transphobia, and homophobia. We are still racially discriminating. A recent study show that 50% of blacks have no faith in their white brothers and sisters.

When we fail to acknowledge the racial discrimination, fail to even seek to understand, and ignore the rejection and discrimination of trans and nonbinary folk we are betraying Jesus in our midst!

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. And follow me.”

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

Fr. River Damien Sims sfw, D.Min, D.S.T,
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all.

things are possible; remove this cup from me, yet not what I want but what you want.”

Jesus felt sorrow and dread over what lay ahead of him of him. He prayed for the burden to be lifted and the cross to be removed. He accepted his future, “:Not my will but your will.”

We are haunted by the pain of the homeless, and as we see them around us we feel dread and fear. In our haunting we are pushed to walk with them and help them. “Not my will but thine be done.” (Mark 14:43-46).

All: Jesus declares: “If anyone wants to become a follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross. And follow me.”

The Reverend Canon Dana Corsello of Washington National Cathedral wrote this piece based on Matthew 25:31-46 which summarizes our First Station:

"I know many of you heard about the “true angel in Buffalo,” Sha’Kyra Aughtry, who with her partner, Trent Alls, Jr., rescued a man standing outside their home in a raging blizzard at 5 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Joey White, a 64-year-old mentally disabled man, became disoriented and lost while walking home from his movie-theater job that evening. He was on the brink of severe frostbite when Sha’Kyra looked out the window and saw him staggering in the elements. They took him in and nursed him until a band of Good Samaritans could make their way in a 4X4 truck to the Emergency Room two days later.

I share this story with you because of what Trent said to David Begnaud of CBS Mornings when David surprised them with Superbowl tickets courtesy of the NFL and Delta Airlines. Trent confessed that he may not have opened the door if Sha'Kyra hadn’t prodded him.

What really convicted me was his confession, “Before this incident I only wanted to help people when it was convenient for me.” That sentence and sentiment hit me hard. Convenient for me. How many times have we seen people in need and kept walking or driving down the road? I have even said to myself, “Surely someone will help them. I can’t today. Too busy, too much going on.” And then I am wracked with guilt. How about you?

“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?” 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.” Friends, let’s commit to taking risks and becoming “helpers” this Lent. It’s not about getting treated to the Super Bowl or Disneyland for our good deeds—it’s what Jesus calls us to do!".

Omniscient God, guide us, nudge us, protect us as we open our hearts and minds to serve those in need. May we trust Christ Jesus in you to always lead us where we need to go and how best to love our neighbor. Amen.

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.
The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build
a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers
her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model
of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the
power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

People, who live on the streets, the homeless, have haunted me all of my life. From the time I was six years old, driving late night through Sequoia National Park, seeing an old homeless woman walking up the road, and when I was seven walking across the street with a homeless person begging for money.

Haunting is the relentless remembering and continue reminding that will not be appeased the propaganda of assistance and care or the promises of our city, state, and national Governments that all will be well. In over twenty years in San Francisco we have seen the problem grow immensely, with tons of money being spent.

Haunting is both acute and generally are haunted, but that haunting comes from the haunting of society. The

United States is permanently haunted by the homeless, its massive population of poor and the violence intertwined in its past, present and future days.

Haunting aim is to wrong the wrongs, a confirmation that the rich and middle class hope to evade.

On Good Friday the cross call’s us to look at its “backside”, the side that points us seeing the homeless from their perspective, not one judgment, but one of love, and to work to end homelessness.

As we enter Lent I meditate on how we are all haunted by hour own ghosts! One ghost that has haunted me since being smiled at by a homeless person in Memphis when I was six are the homeless. All my life the ghost of homelessness has followed me.

I was without an address for two years in L.A., yet I was not homeless making enough money to have a hotel room every night but always afraid I would be without food or a place to live, I struggled like hell everyday?
There are times these two ghosts haunt me--over eating for fear of not having enough money for another meal, always worrying about losing my housing and not having enough money to find another place in San Francisco or anywhere. Being homeless leaves scars, severe scars.

For nearly thirty years I have sought to confront the ghost of homelessness, using all my strength to walk with youth and adults who have no homes, food, health care, and friendship.

The words of Sr. Marie Augusta Neal, raises a question for all of us in her words:

"When the poor reach out to take what is rightfully theirs, what does the gospel mandate the non-poor to do? To let go our grasp on the things the poor need in order to survive."
Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
----------------------------
Fr. River Damien Sims sfw, D.Min, D.S.T,
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.
$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org, pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.
The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather's iron skillet with the intention to build
a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers
her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model
of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the
power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Concerning Alms giving
6 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[a]

Concerning Prayer
5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and

Concerning Fasting
16 “And whenever you fast, do not look somber, like the hypocrites, for they mark their faces to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[g]

As a child, I was warned to be careful in my grandmother's living room not to break her porcelain figurines, "Don't touch, Don't touch!"

We do the same in our churches, warning God's children not to touch certain valuable items! Orderliness and not rocking the boat are the norm. We are trained to have a life of orderliness and control.

Lent is a time of examination of our own actions. What actions have hurt our brothers and sisters? Maybe it is time to break something? Take notice of your surroundings and act!

Maybe it is time to break open our church doors and let people of different races, genders, LGBTQIA+, and homeless in? To let them be themselves and meet them where they are?

Pope Francis gives us some suggestions of how we can observe Lent, with several added by Father River: to break our habits of apathy and indifference and break the culture of turning a blind eye to those in need, breaking through to a better world by looking inside our heart, speaking out, and speaking up for our brothers and sisters who need our help:

"Feed the Hungry"
As a part of your fast for Lent, save half of food you are eating in a restaurant and take out to a homeless person, and talked to him;
"Welcome the Stranger":
Welcome an undocumented person into your home and church; welcome an LGBTQlA+ into your church and home;

Welcome the Homeless":
Take a homeless person out for a meal; sit with a homeless person on the sidewalk, take her out for lunch;

"Visit the Sick":
Visit the homeless in the hospital; visit the aged, the housebound who are ill.

Let us renew ourselves this Lent and breakaway from a culture of indifference to one that cultivates encounters and welcome!

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the good fairies are released. We like to believe in that.

$15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org , pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164.

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/.

"In the last days it shall be as God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophecy, and your young men and women shall see visions, and your old men and women shall see dreams."
Acts 2:17

The Bushmen of Africa talk about two hungers:

The Great Hunger.
The Little Hunger.

The Little Hunger yearns for food, while the Great Hunger, yearns for meaning. Only a life that yearns for the hunger for purpose is truly fulfilled. Only a life that has the Great Hunger is truly human! Priest the Dreamer!

One night a young twelve you old,sitting around a campfire at summer camp, felt his "heart strangely warmed", called to ministry, and thus began his journey to fill the Great Hunger, in the search for meaning! Priest the Dreamer!

His journey took him through college, seminary, and ordination into ministry, following the Great Hunger, of the Dream. At his ordination, his bishop challenged the ordinals, "you are called to wait tables." Priest the Dreamer!

"To wait tables!" "Preach the Word and Administer the Sacraments", the Dream became a covering of hope and meaning! Priest the Dreamer!

And the Dream brought him to San Francisco, becoming visible in those we serve! Priest the Dreamer!

The dream is seen in the young man who pulls a knife, and spits in anger at the priest who sees the face of the broken Christ! Priest the Dreamer!

One sees the dream in the man stabbing this priest with a syringe full of blood, giving him malaria, and later murdering the priest's son, leading to the priest learning the meaning of Jesus's command to forgive! Priest the Dreamer!

The dream is seen in the young boy, high on drugs hitting the priest with a club and the days following not knowing whether he would be able to walk again! The dream was seen on the boy's face when told he was forgiven! Priest the Dreamer!

My dream has been sustained, supported, and this is why in the best and worst of times I see the Dreamer leading me into Galilee

What is your dream? What sustains you in the darkest of times? Find the dream that feeds the hunger for meaning! Priest the Dreamer!

Lent begins Wednesday, and is a time of reflection! A time to enter into the heart of the Great Dreamer, finding the Dream meaning! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

"Our Haunting!"

April 7, 2023
Civic Center
Noon-2 p.m.

Food Provided By:
AUNT BARBARA’S KITCHEN
GOOD FRIDAY IRISH SODA BREAD BLITZ ON POLK STREET in alliance with River Sims of Temenos https://www.temenos.org/
Please help support a Good Friday initiative. Fr. River Sims aims to serve 200 folks with Irish Soda Bread, the food that supported many IrishIrish Soda Bread 2.5 lb. loaf image 1 during hard times. It’s in the spirit of community and nurturing.

There’s a legend that when a cross is made in each loaf before baking, all the goodfairies are released. We like to believe in that. $15/loaf payable through www.temenos.org , pay pal, or Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen/Temenos Catholic Worker, P.O. Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94164

Aunt Barbara’s Kitchen is a Cottage Food Operation from a home kitchen in Marin County.

The business started with $10 and Aunt Barbara’s great grandfather iron skillet with the intention to build a business model that feeds the hungry and revenue that goes to youth in college. The owner volunteers her time to this endeavor and takes no revenue for herself, at this time. She hopes to reshape the model of what businesses can create for communities, especially our youth, to cultivate and showcase the power of human investment. 415 717 0151 https://barbaramcveigh.com/aunt-barbaras-kitchen/

Sirah 15:15-20;I Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Gospel readings for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time focus on the commandments. Jesus revisits the Jewish Law offering another way of thinking about them. Jesus does not condemn those who do not follow the commandments. He recognizes that we as humans are not perfect beings. Instead, he gives us a lesson on humility by pointing out that we are all broken in some way. He urges us to understand the imperfections in ourselves, which allows us to understand the imperfections in all broken human beings. If we want to follow Jesus, we must love each other despite our brokenness. We have a very, very difficult time loving our brothers and sisters. We judge, we criticize and when I judge I am reminded when am pointing one finger toward another, there are three which point back at me. "Holy Moments!"

Recently I was eating on Mission Street, and a lady spoke to me, I did not recognize her, a stunning woman. "You do not recognize me? I am Delila, one of the working girls?", laughing. "You saved my ass on Polk Street many a time?" We talked, and she shared her work with sex workers in the Mission, and handed me this poem laughing, the girls and I call you the "rent boy priest", you are our priest:

Rent Boy

I used to have a room

Somewhere I could call all mine

I was alive and happy

I was doing fine.

I turned to my Dad and told him I was gay

He beat me, scolded me and threw me away

ashamed and disgusted that

I his son was gay.

Cast aside like yesterday’s trash

Once a loved child until that day

I came out and told him, ‘Dad, I’m gay’

Shunned by religion

Told by the Church of England to go away

I slept on the streets

I sold my body for food

Yeah I bought a sandwich

For which I let myself get screwed

You may find my language wrong, or think I am crude

Well, I make no apologies,

Living on the streets you have to be shrewd

Come on captain, vicar, teacher, and whoever you are

Sure you can wear your shoes

You don’t have to pay me more

I am a boy that cannot refuse

After all sex with you

Buys me my food.

I used to be someone’s child

Yes someone’s son, a brother,

cousin, nephew and so on

Here I am selling myself to you for sex

But hey ho its the way life goes,

Working the streets yes the sluts, whores, rent boys and

Ho’s

Come on minister

You can wear your shoes

Your office, home, a hotel you choose

If you are paying for me

I ain’t gonna to refuse

I can even do a bargain discount

on a blow job up against the wall

You choose Sir

Anyway at all.

I used to have a home

I used to be someone

Now all I am is a rent-boy

Homeless

A nothing

A Nobody

That’s right

No one. . .!!!

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

Billy De-Vere

"Holy Moments!"

Yes, this morning brought back memories, very painful memories, and good memories. I have learned that happiness is not black and white but comes together in the middle and you see both feelings, simply as one entity complementing the other. One can come to simply see life in the present, and each moment is a Holy Moment, bringing a transformation to our lives. I was raped, physically and emotionally abused, and yet I experienced much goodness in my fellow sex workers, 'johns', and many others. "Holy Moments!"

It was through the process of coming out of sex work. Jesus was present and brought me back to a new life, and ministry that is far more rewarding than my ministry before. Each moment is a "Holy Moment!"

Coming to San Francisco I was divided, resentful of the Church, depressed, anxious, and afraid, as I began this ministry. And into my life came a psychiatrist, Dr. William Anderson.

Dr. Anderson simply listened to me through the years and guided me into seeing the wounds that I suffer, as a part of one broken jar, healed together, making a beautiful piece of work. For his patience, giving me a low fee, and most of all love I will always be thankful! Each moment is a "Holy Moment!"

I am proud to be called the "rent boy" priest, for in woundedness comes healing for others. Ha! Holy Moments!

My former denomination literally crucified me for being gay, making up rumors, to cover their tracks. I have one friend now from those days who could not have been my friend before he retired. I was thrown out on the streets, and I hated, literally hated the Church, and God. "Holy Moments!"

But in allowing myself to let the Spirit of God move, my love for the Church has returned, the Church I serve like John Wesley is "outside the Gates". "Holy Moments!"

Each week as the Eucharist is celebrated on Haight Street with homeless young people and adults, and in my apartment with individuals who work the late shift in the surrounding hospitals the Church is present. "Holy Moments!"

Sitting with a family whose brother has just been found dead in a storage container he rented, and was locked , the Church is present. "Holy Moments"!

The following Ode is a reminder the Church is made up of broken people:

Ode to the Church.

How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you!

How you have made me suffer much and yet owe much to you.

I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.

Never in this world have I seen anything more obscurantist, more compromised, more false, and yet never in this world have I touched anything purer, more generous, and more beautiful.

Many times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face – and yet how often I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even though not completely you.

Then, too – where would I go? To build another church?

But I cannot build another without the same defects, for they are my own defeats I bear within me.

And again, if I build one, it will be my Church, and no longer Christ’s.

No, I am old enough to know that I am no better than others.

I shall not leave this Church, founded on so frail a rock, because I should be founding another one on an even frailer rock: myself.

And then, what do rocks matter?

What matters is Christ’s promise, what matters is the cement that binds the rocks into one: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit alone can build the Church with stones as ill‐hewn as we. Carlo Carretto.

Life is a "Holy Moment!" Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

----------------------
Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
---------------

Dr. Anderson, I hope you are reading my blog, for I want to truly thank you for all the Holy Moments you gave to me.

Then God said,
"Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other."
And so it happened:
God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it.
God called the dome "the sky."
Evening came, and morning followed–the second day.

Then God said,
"Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear."
And so it happened:
the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared.
God called the dry land "the earth," and the basin of the water he called "the sea."
God saw how good it was.

Then God said,
"Let the earth bring forth vegetation:
every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it."
And so it happened:
the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed–the third day.

Then God said:
"Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night.
Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth."
And so it happened:
God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed–the fourth day.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c R. (31b) May the Lord be glad in his works.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
You fixed the earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever; With the ocean, as with a garment, you covered it; above the mountains the waters stood.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
You send forth springs into the watercourses that wind among the mountains.
Beside them the birds of heaven dwell; from among the branches they send forth their song.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.
How manifold are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all— the earth is full of your creatures; Bless the LORD, O my soul! Alleluia.
R. May the Lord be glad in his works.

Alleluia Mt 4:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 6:53-56
After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
=========================
Remembering the Emmaual AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 offering nothing but words of forgiveness towards Dylan Roof, I see and hear Jesus saying: Humans are not made for the Sabbath: the sabbath is made for humans."

This proclamation by Jesus is not to be confined to a narrow interpretation of Jewish law, but a cosmological statement concerning the relationship of each and every human being to all institutions. Institutions are made for humanity or as one seminary professor once proclaimed: "Jesus came to put an end to religion."

Institutions have become instruments of death. Their preservation has become the a form of idolatry, we raise millions for their survival ignoring the homeless, the handicapped, all they have been created to serve. Institutions have become more ineffective and corrupt. Basic human needs are ignored for their survival.

In the last twenty years, sexual abuse rings through all institutions because we have endowed them with magical, life-changing power, and because we place the "Divine" within the Church, the Church has hurt millions. I love the Church, and see its human form, but also see her as my Mother in the service of feeding the hungry etc. I do not give her magical power over me, but work in service.

We must begin to look at our expectations of institutions and see how we project life-giving qualities within them, thus setting them up to have power over us.

Jesus would have us withdraw those projections we place on institutions and place those expectations within ourselves. We must include whatever we project onto the institution of Jesus; each of us must come to know himself or herself as priest, anointed one, prophet.

If we fail to withdraw our projections and continue to endow institutions with magical-divine power they will kill us.

Jesus never intended to found a "religion", he intended for us to encounter the Divine, bring the Divine within ourselves, and serve others. As the Buddhists say: "There is a time on the spiritual journey when a person must decide never to belong to anything else ever again.

Temenos is formed as a religious, church, non-profit, for tax purposes, at my death its money will be given for socks, food, and other supplies for street kids, and then dissolved. I am a priest, ordained as a sign of my calling, but the priesthood to which I am a member is that of the "priesthood of all believers."

In the beginning, all was good, and in the person of Jesus he came to love, heal, and show us what the Kingdom of God truly is, not an institution for the reign of our God! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
-------------------------------------
Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
temenos.org
415-305-2124
------------------------------
If you want to be a prophet don't belong to an organization!
Daniel Berrigan.

Each day, in the words of the Eucharistic liturgy the words "Be what you see, become who you are," ring out as a reminder in that we are the salt of the earth, we should permeate all of creation with sermons being preached in acts of care, we are called to be instruments of God's work in the world, actively attending to the concrete needs of others. God is the deep origin of all that we do. The light of our concrete actions illuminate not our heroism and sanctity, but God's activity in and through us.

My late friend Dr. Michael Dwinell wrote a book entitled Being Priest to One Another! One chapter is entitled: "Priest as a Fool," I will relate as it affects me, and I invite you to reflect on how you see yourself as a priest in the "priesthood of all believers".

With all, I pour myself out into a powerful and passionate proclamation that the celebration of the Eucharist represents and demonstrates the heart of the drama of creation itself. I speak of death, of a raging death of violence. In lifting up the bread, and saying: "This is the body of Christ". I proclaim the absurd! It is even more absurd to remind that we are commanded imaginary and sacramentally to eat the dismembered limbs and spilled blood. Yet, even more, absurd is to proclaim that this is the food and drink of eternal life, of heaven, the very act of becoming one with Almighty God. This proclamation overturns our aesthetic taste, and our moral values, beyond reason. Either the declaration of a priest is the ravings of a lunatic or they are the absolute truth.

If the witness and proclamation of the priest are of truth then the world is not what we think it is. Our modes of perception and our definitions of reality are grossly deficient and disturbed.

The fool is one who takes the entire worldview, the whole view, turns it upside down, in and out, and throws it in the air, so that we understand what we take for granted is a mere fraction of reality. "Priest feeds us with brokenness and splits and death, and we are saved by cannibalizing brokenness and splits and death."

I am always being asked questions about my relationships with institutions, and why I am not afraid of rumors and accusations, of being a "friend" to people I hang with. I see no divisions, no fear of anyone, but simply as children of God. I take all lightly and center in the Eucharist. I am a "fool for Christ." Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
----------------------
Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
temenos@gmail.com
=========================
My thanks to Fr. Stephen Bartlett-Re and Bill and Dina Tiege for their support and care in my recovery from surgery!

by: Charles Timothy Brooks (1813-1883)

Majestic stream! along thy banks,
In silent, stately, solemn ranks,
The forests stand, and seem with pride
To gaze upon thy mighty tide;
As when, in olden classic time,
Beneath a soft, blue Grecian clime,
Bent o'er the stage, in breathless awe,
Crowds thrilled and trembled, as they saw
Sweep by the pomp of human life,
The sounding flood of passion's strife,
And the great stream of history
Glide on before the musing.
There, row on row, the gazers rise;
Above, look down the arching skies;

O'er all those gathered multitudes
Such deep and voiceful silence broods,
Methinks one mighty heart I hear
Beat high with hope, or quake with fear;--
E'en so yon groves and forests seem
Spectators of this rushing stream.
In sweeping, circling ranks they rise,
Beneath the blue o'erarching skies;
They crowd around and forward lean,
As eager to behold the scene--
To see, proud river! sparkling wide,
The long procession of thy tide--
To stand and gaze, and feel with thee
All thy unuttered ecstasy.
It seems as if a heart did thrill
Within yon forests, deep and still,
So soft and ghost-like is the sound
That stirs their solitude profound.

More poems by Charles Timothy Brooks

Copyright (c) 2007 - 2023 Black Cat Poems. All rights reserved. Browse poems by poet | Browse poems by subject

These days I think of my life like the Mississippi River, a mighty river, one that at 15, a friend and I canoed from New Madrid, Missouri to New Orleans, Louisiana.

We told our parents we were finishing our canoeing merit badge, and in the days before social media left them a note telling them our real plans.

It was going to be a fun trip, only taking "a week" but it was the first real-life lesson we both would experience, a lesson that would prepare us for real life. We both were raised in well to do families, and given anything we wanted, in otherwords, we were entitled, spoiled rotten kids.

It was a beautiful June morning as we pulled away from the New Madrid levy. Sunny, beautiful blue sky, And as we paddled further we encountered heavy currents, and through the next ten days found ourselves fighting heavy currents, and two thunderstorms. It was dangerous.

There was much beauty, the trees, the wild ducks and geese, all varieties of birds, plenty of snakes, rabbits, and other creatures. We ate plenty of catfish and carp. We ate craw dead's. And as we entered the New Orleans harbor we could see the Gulf of Mexico looming ahead and the Mississippi joining the Gulf.

Sitting at Toast eating a beautiful, healthy lunch, I experience guilt passing by people sitting on the street and only giving them a candy bar. I experience guilt in my warm apartment every night, and in having excellent health insurance. We all deserve food, housing, and health insurance. Every last human being deserves these rights.

I was asked the other day for the umpteenth time, "What is your legacy going to be?" Donations have been withdrawn because I am not making any "progress" with getting the homeless off the street (hilarious with all the money the City has spent the last thirty years to do just that)! My legacy, is "I try!"

My life tumbles hits the banks of the river, is knocked around by rocks and fallen branches of doubt, disappointment, people's judgment, anger, and hatred. Like all fish in the stream, I am bruised, and injured, by illness, and age. And like all fish, who fight the harshness of the river, I ultimately will lay down my life and enter the Gulf, the Great Sea, the presence of God. We become one with the Source and all of our anger, hatred, and prejudices disappear in that Great Love!

One day Dorothy Day responded to some harsh criticism with these words: "I try!' Getting nearer to flowing into the Great Gulf/Sea of Life, I too respond with all of my heart and being, "I try!" to practice Matthew 25:31-43:

Matthew 25:31-46:

“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. 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, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 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, 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.’ 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? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 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.’ 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?’ 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.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

"It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings us no pleasure on the world." John Steinback (East of Eden)

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Ash Wednesday!
February 22, 2023
Anointing and Imposing of Ashes
On Polk: 8:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m.
and Haight Street 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

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

We beg for gifts to provide pastoral care, food, socks, and other needs!

You May Give By Mail:
Temenos Catholic Worker
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164

Pay Pal

If anyone needs a tax summary for 2022 please email River!

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

"I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine, and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like walking from a dream of separateness." Thomas Merton

The Visit of the Magi: Matthew 2:1-9
2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east[b] and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah[c] was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd[d] my people Israel.’ ”

7 Then Herod secretly called for the magi[e] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east,[f] until it stopped over the place where the child was.

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

We now enter the season of Epiphany, the season in which we celebrate Christ being the Light of the World.

The reality is his light is covered by shadows. We live in Shadow Land. All around us are the shadows of violence, fear, climate change, homelessness, poverty and so many more.

The Shadow Land seen in Rebeca Shaw's words "tells us that human activity is driving plant and animal species to extinction at a rate not seen since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago. The biannual Living Planet Report from the World Wildlife Fund estimates that vertebrae populations have had an average decline of 70% since 1970."

One report estimates that 40% of youth suicide are LGBTQ-related, and 10% of those are transgender.

In the past three months, there have been two deaths of transgender youths. Both committed suicide. Their parents wanted nothing to do with them. We recently walked out on the Golden Gate Bridge, and with the "Service of Committal" cast their ashes into the sea, into the arms of God. A little of me dies with each person I know who dies.

These shadows have been allowing our compassion to remain in the Shadow Land. It has been strange trying to share my grief, about my two young friends, who have died of suicide in the last 2 months. When asked why I am sad, and I am honest, faces turn the other way, and the subject is changed.

They do not understand about why a person wishes to change their gender expression, and become transgender. For me it is seeing each person as a human being to be loved, allowing them simply to be a child of God.

Many people are breaking traditional gender norms: young goth youth are wearing eyeliner and fingernail polish. I wear fingernail polish. We need to simply enjoy the child of God in each person.

Several friends have talked to me about "retiring" and recently I read you become "elderly" when you have no mission or hope, and simply let yourself begin to die. There is a fire of love that burns within me and until that fire dies, I will not be "elderly" and retire.

We live in the Shadow Land when we stay in our own"little tribes" and do not step out into the light of love for each person we encounter.

So the question and challenge to us comes in the words of Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez Merino"

"So you love the poor? Then tell me what are their names?"

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

Fr. River Damien Sims. sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

The Visit of the Magi
2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east[b] and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah[c] was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd[d] my people Israel.’ ”

7 Then Herod secretly called for the magi[e] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east,[f] until it stopped over the place where the child was.

----------------------------------------
Dorothy Soetile reminds us that following the Star is a lifelong pursuit:

"The frightened shepherds become God's messengers. They organize, make haste, find others and speak with them. Do we not all want to become shepherds and catch sight of the angels? I think so. ...Because the angels sing, the shepherds rise, leave their fears behind, and set out for Bethlehem, wherever it is situated these days.

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

On the night of the birth of Jesus, there were three Wise Men, three Kings, powerful men, all they had to do was wiggle their little fingers, and all would be given to them.

When they approached Jesus each offered a gift and walked away empty-handed.

They were the first to acknowledge our call to leave our fears behind and set out for Bethlehem, wherever it is situated these days.

Fr. Louie Vitale, from a wealthy family, a bomber pilot in the Second World War, followed the Star, leading him to his Bethlehem, turning his life upside down and leading him to the priesthood of working with the homeless and a non-violent advocate; The Reverend Glenda Hope, following followed the Star to Bethlehem was ordained the first woman in the Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, spending her life working with the homeless.

Rio following the Star encountered Bethlehem in his call to ordination, the Star which led him through rejection and abandonment and brought him out of prostitution, to ministry with the homeless youth in San Francisco.

Following the Star to Bethlehem does not make life easier, but centers us in Christ, allowing us to see the Reign of God where all will be healed!

All three have seen the "Slaughtering of the Innocents" on the streets of San Francisco spending their lives in service. The "Slaughtering of Innocents" continue on the streets of San Francisco, and throughout our nation and the world!

So Happy New Year! My NewYears Resolution is to continue to follow the Star which I found in Bethlem on the streets of San Francisco and to follow these concluding words:

Hildegard Von Bingen

"As the light begins to return in this circle of the seasons, we have spent some necessary time in quiet contemplation, not the simple vows of silence that are part of our normal waking and working hours, but the solitary contemplation that comes without distractions.

My thoughts have often considered the many trappings and traditions of our church that rule the day-to-day moments of our lives. I imagine most religions have these and I question their relevance and purpose except to control the lives of the participants in some way. More and more I feel the need to ignore all the little “do” and “do nots” preached with the fiery threats of some hellish afterlife if we do not comply. The important basics only remain, to treat all of creation with respect, compassion, and above all, love. God is love. God loves all. We are asked to love all as well."

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

Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw. D.Min, D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

We are beggars! All gifts are tax-deductible in 2022!

The Birth of Jesus Luke 2:1-14

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.[a]

The Shepherds and the Angels
8 Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,[b] the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,[c] praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

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

Two days ago I was having breakfast at a "Toast" across the street and in comes a man wrapped in a "tiger skin" blanket, with nothing underneath. The manager tried to rush him out, so I got up and ordered him breakfast and we sat outside.

He introduced himself to me as "God", so for an hour we sat and talked about creation and his love for humanity.

The police arrived and told the manager there was nothing they could do, "People run around in San Francisco naked all the time, he is apparently using drugs, but no threat to anyone."

The comments of people walking by were very negative, many of them had been drinking, and several were smoking marijuana. There is a mushroom shop in the Haight, and I only know five or six people who are "straight edge", doing no drugs.

We live in a drug culture, yet we criticize and try to run homeless people away when they are 'high'. I see naked men in the Castro all the time, but they are not homeless either, so that is ok.

To me "God", in our photo is a sign, and he is a sign which means a great deal if we truly understand. We do understand it if we do not merely hear these tidings: This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger,” but also have in our hearts the light which appeared with the angels.

He appeared with light when these tidings were first proclaimed to make us realize that it is only those who have the spiritual light in their minds who truly hear.

This Christmas when you see homeless individuals on the street, in your heart see "God"! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

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

Personally, I would like to wish each one of you a very Merry Christmas!

"May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. May the Lord lift up his countenance and give you peace." Amen.

Gospel Lk 1:46-56

Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm and has scattered the pride in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”

Mary remained with Elizabeth for about three months
and then returned to her home.

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

What Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary all have in common, what allows them to sing in harmony is that they know they have received God's blessing, Each one of them has carried the blessing around in their body, kicking and growing until no one who looks at her can miss it.

For Mary, there is a great blessing, and hope for the future, there is great fear, and yet great trust in God. Mary has been embarrassed and afraid of the most miserable of the miserable, but God has blessed her in her low estate and has made her a promise she believes, and that is the living definition of faith, faith that gives substance to our hopes, faith in things not seen.

Today we think of the mothers on the border, cold, afraid, and not knowing what tomorrow may bring. They come bringing such hopes for their children, facing a government that appears not to care. They come to a country they believe bears hope for everyone, yet are met with indifference, and uncaring.

Today we think of the young men and women living on our streets, cold, afraid, rejected, treated with indifference, and ignored.

Today we hear the cries of the 44% of LGTBQ youth who are considering suicide, the 62% who have not been able to receive the mental health care needed, the 50% not in an LGBTQ life-affirming school, and the 70% who experience discrimination based on sexual identity or gender identity issues. These percentages are for California alone.

Today Mary stands with her arms open, reminding us that we are all, men and women, mothers of all who live in despair, fear, and hopelessness, calling us to cast down the mighty from their thrones, to lift up the poor, bringing housing. health care, food, and equality for all. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Luke 1:26-38

Meister Echart wisely said, "Do not cling to the symbols, but GET TO THE INNER TRUTH. ."What good is it if Mary is full of grace IF WE ARE NOT FULL OF GRACE? And what good is it if Mary is the Mother of God? IF WE ARE NOT ALSO THE MOTHERS OF GOD?"

Yesterday I completed the "Forty Mile Challenge" of the Trevor Project, by walking out to the center of the Golden Gate Bridge, where it was breezy and freezing cold.

Praying the words of the Office of the Dead over the ashes in my hand of my young transgender friend I cast them over the Bridge into the Sea, and wondering at the same time if there was hypocrisy in doing so because those words come from the prayer book of a branch of religion he felt rejected him.

Looking at the "inner truth of the Gospels," we see a Jesus who loved the poorest of the poor, the most broken, and never condemned anyone because of their sexual gender, in fact, he never mentioned it, calling each one of us into becoming "mothers of God."

Redemption is not being "saved" from our "outward sin" but the liberation of our hearts from within to remove discrimination, hatred, and injustice from our hearts.

"Redemption is the journey of being reconnected to the light of God within. It is a journey home that takes us through what seems like unknown land. Redemption is not the bringing of light into a creation that is essentially dark, but rather the liberating of light from the heart of life."

J. Phillip Newell.

Rather than telling me "how sorry" you are for my feelings, donate to the Trevor Project, double my donation of $500.00.

This Christmas go out on the streets, and look, look closely and you will find Transgender individuals, go to the Trangsgencer bar in your community, and take one individual out to lunch or dinner. We do not understand what we do not know! Push aside your taught beliefs by homophobes, and transphobes, and crack open the shell to new understanding and new life! Deo Gratias!

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

"Together, we can make sure that LGBTQ young people who need support know they are not alone. Your support will help us provide them with the affirmation and love they deserve--every single one. Your gift also helps Trevor to:

Advocate against anti-LGBTQ laws and work with policymakers to pass legislation to protect LGBTQ youth
Connect LGBTQ peers through TrevorSpace, our safe space social networking site
Conduct original research to capture the unique experiences of LGBTQ young people

Will you consider a monthly gift? By giving each month, this will help us ensure we’re able to reach every single one of the young LGBTQ people who reach out to us all year round.

For questions about giving or website issues, please contact us at development@thetrevorproject.org or (212) 695-8650.

The Trevor Project is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and your gift is tax-deductible!
==================================

Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656.
San Francisco, CA 94164.
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124.

December 12, 2022

"So Fill Our Imaginations!"
Judith 13:18-19

"Then Uzziah said to her, "O daughter you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth. . ."

On this day of celebration let us "So Fill Our Imaginations" with the God who in various and sundry ways appears to us at the times needed. Our God reveals himself in many forms, and in the greatest times of need.

Juan Diego was a simple man. He was Our Lady of Guadalupe's kind, "To him, she entrusted the delivery of a message instructing his bishop to build a sacred sight that would serve as a place of refuge and peace--a place where her Son would give the people his help, compassion and protection.. When the bishop turned him away, Juan Diego begged Mary to choose someone of status or nobility to do the very important work of God. "I am a nobody," he said, nothing, like a pile of sticks." But the Blessed Mother picked him up from his knees and commissioned him to go.

Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, came to the people of Mexico, the native Mexicans, who had been raped, murdered, and beaten down. The people were a mixture of Spanish and Native American blood, considered nobodies. They had no rights. Mary came to give them hope, to raise them up. She brought a sense of identity that transformed the country.

Our Lady of Guadalupe has through the centuries continued to identify with the "nobodies": in their struggles; the poorest of the poor. In every major social justice struggle, her image leads the poorest of the poor.

On a cool night in Los Angles, a young gay sex worker rested before her statue and heard her voice reminding him, "You were called to preach in your mother's womb, pick yourself up, go preach, let no one stand in your way," thus began his journey back to full-time ministry, a "nobody", but one who had a God-given purpose.

The message of Guadalupe our mother, is for us to continue building a world in which all God's children will be well fed and safely sheltered, will have access to good health care, housing, and schools--will be treated with the same dignity and respect as the Son of God she bore.

May God fill our imaginations with Our Lady of Guadalupe, who comes to the most oppressed, and the poorest of the poor in the world!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Book Review
"So Fill Our Imaginations

The Words and Play of A Year of Preaching

Mark Lloyd Taylor

Dr. Mark Lloyd Taylor is Professor Emeritus at Seattle University, and has taught theology, worship, and preaching there for twenty-five years. He is a lay preacher at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. The sermons are from the years 2016-2017.

Dr. Taylor preached from the Lectionary Cycle A. His sermons are well written and are very academic in presentation.

The only criticism is that during the election year of 2016 and the year that followed he was very blunt about his feelings about the President in a very negative manner.

What that raised in my mind was how the other

parties' supporters were effective. My own practice is not to share my own beliefs about political issues within reason. I have donors from all sides and I show respect for them. We can not put others in the same bucket. Polarization is destroying our society, and we need to come together in a common space.

Overall this is a good book, and Mark in his experience makes a good presentation.

"John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching.
."Repent of your sins, and turn to God, for the Reign of God is at hand.
Matthew 3:1-2."

Last night I sat with a seventeen-year-old transgender man* *as he died
from an overdose of fentanyl; on November 20 we had the Club Q massacre in
Colorado Springs, LGTBQ Club, and two were transgender.

I thought of my own complicity in the discrimination of being an ordained
priest; of my own pain caused by the Church. I thought of the pain the
Church had inflicted on me as well!

Dr. Megan Rhor writes: "Churches always want to welcome queer people but
do it quietly to avoid the bullets, bullies and rage and all who blame
queer people .for every problem in society."

I have no adult friends who are active in local churches with whom I can
comfortably about talk queer youth or even adults. Churches are always
silent when it comes to LGTBQ issues, especially youth!

When denominations open to LGBTQ they push everything behind the door and
move on without being inclusive of education and talking about feelings and
pain resulting from past discrimination. All is well as the sins of the
past continue to corrode and destroy.

Drug use is growing among youth. A recent study tells us that over half of
California youth over 12 drink alcohol, and twenty-percent smoke marijuana.
Personally, I only know six who are straight-edge and who are homeless or
housed and I know hundreds.

Our woundedness can only be healed as we grieve, and then put our lives
back together. In doing so we can become wounded healers. For wounded
healers embrace and move through their pain.

Jesus accepts all of us equally, he loves each one of us equally and cares
for us as his brothers and sisters without judgment.

Join me in the Trevor Project, focused on suicide prevention efforts among
LGBTQ youth. Their stated goals are to provide crisis intervention and
suicide prevention services for people under twenty-five. The heaviest
rates of suicide are among LGTBQ youth, forty percent of the total number.

During December the Trevor Project is sponsoring a "Forty Mile Challenged
Walk", walking forty miles during the month with individuals donating for
each mile. Each mile is walked in support of LGBTQ youth. You may donate
to me on Facebook or send a donation on their website:
www.trevorproject.org.

Join in making the "Reign of God come near!"

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

Advent Study

Advent in Narnia

Reflections for the Season

By Heidi Haverkame

Get a copy of the book and follow our reflections during the week.

We are studying The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

Read Week One.

Fr. River Sims

Paintner presents an introduction to Mary as one who gives birth to the Holy in the early part of the Gospels and at the end surrenders herself to something she never ever could have imagined, to be the human Mother of the Messiah, of God.

In Birthing the Holy, Paintner presents the manifestation of a prism of Mary which continues to reflect the many forms of the love of Jesus.

Cynthia Bourgeault writes that mystical hope "has something to do with presence--not a future good outcome, but the immediate experience of being met in communion, held in communion,by something immediately at hand."

It was Mary, in the manifestations of "Our Lady of Guadalupe" and "Mary the Untier of Knots" through whom Christ kept me close to him when I wanted to run away. Those manifestations remind me of the words Dorothy Day about the Church: "She is both a whore and our Mother."

Mary is why I am still a priest.

Thirty-four years ago I left another state for Los Angles, broken, defeated, and hating the Church and Christ. My sexuality had turned the treasures of my life against me. I was removed from the ministry and marked with a scarlet letter. I vowed, I swore I would never go back. To make a living, and frankly, giving the Church and God a finger I became a sex worker.

But God was not through with me, for through my Hispanic sex worker friends I was introduced to "Our Lady of Guadalupe", the racially mixed Mother of God, who lead her people into struggling against injustice. She transcended all boundaries. As I experienced the presence of the archetypical Rose, I found Jesus again, the Jesus who accepts all. And in the early morning light before her statue, my heart felt that strange warmness, that once called me to ministry, and I left sex work and began my move once again to ministry.

Secondly, "Mary, Untier of the Knots" through the years has been very meaningful. The knots are those things within our lives that keep us tied up.

The heart of healing work is the transformation of our wounds and self-imposed limitations of grief and loss that enslave us. The Wounded Healer, as so beautifully expressed by writer Fr. Henri Nouwen, points to the way that our own healing is broken open through our woundedness and allows us to become healers.

Mary pointed me back to Jesus, my Hope and Redeemer. Jesus who is not judgmental accepts all of my spots and transforms them into tools of love.

This Advent I encourage all of us to read Birthing the Holy and allow these manifestations of Mary to embrace each of us, allowing us to see Jesus, as our Healer, Redeemer, and the One who loves us with all of his heart. Julian of Norwich sums it all up in her poem:

“God chose to be our mother in all things and so made the foundation of his work, most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin’s womb God, the perfect wisdom of all arrayed himself in this humble place. Christ came in our poor flesh to share a mother’s care. Our mothers bear us for pain and for death; our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life. Christ carried us within him in love and travail, until the fulltime of his passion. And when all was complete and he had carried us so for joy, still all this would not satisfy the power of his wonderful love. All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God, for the love of Christ works in us; Christ is the one whom we love.” Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

One rainy day Lucy finds a wardrobe all by itself in an empty room full of coats and as she enters she finds herself in the middle of a snowy forest.

Lucy was the "Holy Thief" walking into Advent, similar to walking into the wardrobe. Lucy did not belong in the wardrobe, nor in the forest, she was not invited, just walked in. This was Narnia.

In San Francisco, we often forget what cold and snow feel like. Advent in Narnia is being set apart from ordinary time, with a glimpse of a more kind and caring world. the "Holy Thief" sneaks into our lives quietly, bringing us a glimpse of Narnia.

And in that glimpse, we see with our hearts homelessness, hunger, destruction of our environment, and global catastrophe. And move forward being a vision of transformation into Narnia.

.Each day as I walk into Golden Gate Park, hang on the Haight, and walk through the darkness of the Tenderloin I always return more hopeful, for there I meet brothers and sisters who look death in the face and yet remain hopeful and joyful. God stealing in! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Luke 23:35-43

Jesus might have been a more palatable earthly king if he bothered to act like a King. In the same way, I might be a more acceptable priest if I acted like a priest.

In the past two weeks, I have been very ill, with one of "three new viruses" now going around, my doctor says: "Nothing I can do, simply wait and rest it will move out!," really very comforting and hopeful.

Several street kids from the Haight have brought me food twice a week, soups, etc. One had called to ask for some socks and I told him I was ill, and suddenly they appeared on my doorstep with food.

During the same period, a "friend" of mine, an analyst appeared at my doorway simply wanting to ask me to sign a petition for the Senatorial primary in Georgia. I declined, and all I remember is being told I needed to express my political opinions, so in pointing to the white/pink colored rose on my desk I smarted off: "I vote the color of that rose, as it symbolizes the blood of Christ flowing out to feed, and house the homeless, etc. She arose, and said: "If you do not vote blue I am no longer your friend!" She is one of many who have walked away through the years because I choose the marginal way. And more interesting she never even seem to notice how sick I was.

Last night watching the cars drive by on Polk in the dark of night the thought traversed through my mind of how in the darkness we all are the same. We have fun the same way, we hurt, we suffer, and we die. In the end, we are the same.

Rather than judge others for the color of their skin, what they wear, where they live, and how they dress, we should see each person simply as we are, a created child of God.

When that happens the differences disappear, the person living in the tent disappears, and instead, we find ourselves joining arms with one another in bringing healing, and provision to all. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Matthew 5:3-12

New Living Translation

The Beatitudes

3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,[a]
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
4 God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,[b]
for they will be satisfied.
7 God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
9 God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

Two days ago as I turned onto Hwy 121 and headed into Napa Valley, I began relaxing and smiling, experiencing the smells and sights of Autumn as the fall colors of the grapevines dashed before my eyes much like the leaves of the trees of my childhood in the south and midwest. Followed by the taste, and smell of the new wine. In those moments, I had a glimpse of entering Narnia.

The dream continued as I presented the stories of our homeless adults and youth on Polk and Haight Streets to the sixth-grade students attending St. Apollinaris Catholic School. There were no cell phones, no texting, and all were bright-eyed and attentive, asking questions well beyond their maturity, and retaining child-like qualities. There was no judgment, no classism, simply concern and compassion for our street youth and adults. Concerned only with the moment.

These were "Narnia" moments with Aslian, the Great Lion-- the Divine Heart (Jesus) smiling at each one of us. These were moments of the Reign of God in all of its fullness. My heart was uplifted, and the tiredness within my bones vanished.

On All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day we remember all the Saints (both named and unnamed) who have crossed into Narnia, (the Reigh of God), and surround us in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, supporting and cheering us as we continue our journey.

For we are called to bring the sunshine of Narnia into our world, feeding, being present to others, listening, and simply caring.

Let us remember the words of St. Clare of Assisi: "We become what we love and Who we love shapes what we become," entering into the Divine Heart (Jesus), and loving others. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Parable of the Yeast
20 He also asked, “What else is the Kingdom of God like? 21 It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough."

Through the years I have lost donations, with comments like: "You do not do anything about the big problems and have results for our money."
The truth is there is no way I can "solve" or "fix" people or the problems of homelessness, they are just too big.

What I do is simply show love to each person at a time, listening, caring, giving them socks, and most importantly friendship, a ministry of presence!
Our Gospel describes how our little acts of kindness will grow to fruition. Keanu Reeves comments: "The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way." Paying attention to someone on the street and to our friends and neighbors takes us a long way.
Ultimately Jason Shulman in his book: The Instruction Manual for Receiving God, gives a good summation of viewing life and of simply being a seed of compassion:

Let us say that the individual person is a drop of water. . Standing beyond this drop is the ocean: the entirety of All That Is. There are no drops of water in the ocean, of course, just water and more water. So there seem to be two worlds: the world: the world of the individual drop and the world of the ocean. It is tempting to think that the single drop is "my individual ego" and the ocean is God. But this is not true, "God in you and you in God" is the truth. It is as if you awoke to find yourself capable of knowing simultaneously that you are a separate bit of water --glistening, wet, fluid, and alive--and that this "drop" is just a moment of separation in an ocean of water. This ocean is the source of all drops. It is life unending. Knowing both the drop and the ocean is living the life of the Divine Self. It is one world. One life. One God. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
---------------------
Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

Luke 18:9-14

Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[a]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
================

During the writing of the dissertation for my doctorate several years ago, I interviewed approximately one hundred and fifty people including teenagers seeking to find out how church denominations affected their lives, only five had a positive response, and the remainder had no response.

In asking each to share their different journey and yet similar, one could hear the Pharisee speaking to each one: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

They left or were kicked out for a number of reasons: in an evangelistic church they disagreed with the theology; several were lesbian or simply female and called to professional ministry; others came out as Queer, and some for refusing to vote for Donald Trump. For all of them: their churches raised money for their building, and simply ignored the poor.

In talking with street youth and adult homeless, churches ignore them, reject them, and for many were sexually abused by ministers, priests, or church members.

Overall the denominational church has no meaning in their world. In fact, Christianity has no meaning in their lives.

Looking into the eyes of each one, seeing their pain, one can hear the words of Jesus:

I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

And the Divine One stands with a smile, that radiates across the wounds of each one, with his wounds visible, not from dying for our sins, but as the healing accepting Abba saying: " How I have wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers her children under her wings." Safe in the arms of Jesus and our Mother God with their wounds healed. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
-----------
Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

Quiet the opposite. In this context, fire is not destructive but cleansing. Jesus is taking a prophetic stance, crying out for a new world order that will begin with an ultimate judgment, one not to be feared but yearned for, a blazing love that sets right and heals the world. He is crying out not in anger, but anguish(12:50) giving us a glimpse of his own inner turmoil. For this fire can only be unleashed through his death--"the baptism with which I must be baptized"-which will set in motion the cleansing and renewal of those who follow him, and set them on fire.

His call is for each human being to be loved as a child of God. A call to see through the evil present in people, and see the broken face of Christ. It is an invitation to bring this blazing fire to others.

My friend Mike, in the photo above, last week as we were on the street, walked over to the elderly gentleman. He gave "Jim" some food, knelt down, and with tears in his eyes, looked at Jim's feet, the skin broken from walking, with sores, from not having fresh socks. He held the feet in his hands and placed a fresh sock on each foot with loving care!

This is the "blazing fire of love", to individually help someone, putting oneself in another's place, and without worrying about personal harm assisting that person.

This is the "blazing fire of love", to see each person as precious in God's sight! To take risks to serve!

This morning at 5:30 a.m. as I prayed the "Vigil" in the "Daily Office," awaiting the dawning of the day, signifying trusting God to bring another dawn, my mind centered on the recent slayings in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I cry for all who are suffering; I cry for those murdered, for their families, and for the local community. All are broken, and all are in need now, and in the days ahead of the blazing fire of the love of God in individuals to take them into their arms, to hold and, to bring hope and love, and finally I cry for Austin, a young man so overcome with the evil of mental illness he hurt so many.

May the blazing fire of love push our society to have mental health for all, and each of us to brings the blazing fire of love in caring for adolescents. In helping them find care and meaning in their lives.

And may we remember the words of Father Ronald Rothlheiser:

"Whenever we are discouraged in our faith, whenever our hopes seem to be crucified, we need to go back to Galilee, back to the dream and the road. .that we had embarked upon before things went wrong."

And in closing let us pray the prayer in today's Vigils:

"Hidden God, ever present to me,

may I now be present to you,

attentive to your every word,

attuned to your inspirations,

alert to your touch.

Empty me that I maybe filled with you alone.

Amen."

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

Father Christian River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

415-305-2124

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

I have started addressing Christmas Cards, and if you do not believe I have your snail mail and would like to have a card please email me. Thanks!

2 Timothy 3:14-17

New Living Translation

"14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work."

Fr. Henri Nouwen writes of living in gratitude, and one might ask "How can we live in gratitude? Every day we have death around us, and as I walk the streets and see the pain of homelessness, I have pain and now the long-term effects of the Coronavirus.

We look back and we can divide our lives into good things to be grateful for and bad things to forget. I have found when that in dividing the past in such a manner leaves me limping toward the future.

Fr. Henri says gently: "True spiritual gratitude embraces all of our past, the good as well as the bad events, the joyful as well as the sorrowful moments. From the place where we stand, everything that took place brought us to this place, and we want to remember all of it as a part of God's guidance. That does not mean all that has happened in the past was good, but it does means that even the bad did not happen outside the loving presence of God..Once all of our past is remembered in gratitude, we are free to be sent into the world to proclaim the good news to others."

I look back and see my life in the closet, as a minister, my life as a whore, on the streets, all of which brought me here as a priest. My life good, and bad, has been a blessed life. My life in the injuries has been blessed.

In working with people, I share their life experiences and share with them the love of Asian, "The Lion of Judah", and Christ in The Chronicle of Narnia ( The God who loves them no matter what, and does not judge them). The God who is with them now in their pain, and fears, and always is holding them in his arms.

The photo above is of Asian, the Lion in The Chronicles of Narnia, who represents Jeus, and

He is strong, nurturing, and always there.

The photo was given to me by Tony, who calls himself, "A renaissance man," ( Harlem Renaissance that is). Tony is a young black man, and sees himself as the "personification of African-American culture, an artist, activist, B-Boy, Beatbox, Emcee, Father-Healer, Motivational Speaker, Teacher, poet, Spoken Word Artist, and Vegan." He chooses to live in his van, where he makes art and paints shirts and sweatshirts with the same pictures. He is a large man, always happy with a loud voice. Tony tells me he gave up on the Church a long time ago, "they preach judgment, hellfire, and tell us how to live in their middle-class ways when all we have to do is love one another". Tony does not want to house until "everyone has housing." He is getting me blankets, and jackets to give away. Tony is an example of being grateful for his life, he takes it as it comes and is grateful!

As I have let go of the judgment garbage Christianity and embraced the giving non-judgmental love of Jesus, my life has become grateful, and that is what I share with the people I work with. For Asian (Jesus) teaches that we are all precious, so precious in the eyes of the Living God, for in the words of Dorothy Day, "He is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth!

And each day as I lift the Bread and Wine, I am reminded that Jesus gave his life, that all might have a life! Be grateful! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

415-305-21124
punkpriest1@gmail.com

"The whole program of creation is to being us back into contact with God!" Jason Shulman

My own journey can never be separated from my faith in Jesus. It is that relationship that has sustained me all of my life in the good times and the bad times.

In the southern town in which I was raised, all were Christians, and the battle was between those who were really saved, the Baptists or the Methodists. I have gone to many a revival where all of us young guys went forward to be saved from the sins of masturbation, cussing, smoking, etc. This happened every spring and fall.

When I became a Methodist minister the sins became a little more sophisticated, namely, homosexuality was an "intrinsic evil". I found myself out on the streets when I came out.

The "coming out" event began my evolution of faith. I have come to see that " to be human is to lose our way and to find it again..to fall and to get up again."

Heaven and hell as we have known it has been tools used to control humanity. Jesus loves every last one of us. Life is about remembering to whom we belong and to our call to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Time and again we forget who we are, we fall down into living lives of destruction but are invited each time to rise up. To claim our humanity and the love awaiting us.

When we forget our humanity we fail to remember our connectedness to each other and harm ourselves, and the environment. We fall when we hurt others. We can get up again and begin anew, we are imperfect.

Come out--be human! Recognize the LGTBQ community as simply human beings, as well as all other communities of ethnicity, color, economic status, and religion.

"To Fall Is To Be Human,
To get up again is divine!"

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Father River Sims

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

415-305-2124

punkpriest1@gmail.com

Journal of An Alien Street Priest:

Sloughing Towards Bethlehem!

As I read Joan Didion’s essay, “Sloughing Towards Bethlehem”, I find myself thinking of Haight Street then, and Haight Street now.

The neighborhood of course has changed, the “hippie” culture is now a part of history, and it has been romanticized; Jerry Garcia’s apartment is now over an upscale apartment store; clean cut tourists with their cameras are everywhere. Apartments are rented for thirty to forty times the price of that era.

But what remains are the street youth/adults who are on the street pan-handling, smoking pot, and struggling with their issues. Their needs are the same as that era, trying to find a place to belong, parents who abused them, rejection, and always being preyed upon by predators. Our society is filled with a sense of meaninglessness, godliness, and materialism, that dominated the Ms. Didion’s reflections.

The streets of San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angles, Chicago, and all our major cities—not just a California “thing”-are filled with the poorest of the poorest, homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill, and all who do not make enough on minimum wage to have housing. In San Francisco, alone, we have twenty thousand-plus unhoused people. And people who are housed simply walk by, without giving a nod or a glance.

During these seasons of “Gratitude” and “Advent” let us join together in reading Hebrews 11: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” and with a child’s awe of the reading of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicle’s of Narna, in particular, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and envision the Reign of God, “Narnia”, in which we see our friends, and loved one’s in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, calling us forward in struggling for the healing of our communities.

Calling us to advocate with our leaders to turn their eyes to the streets, and pour out our taxes for food, housing mental health, physical health care, and treatment centers for all; calling each one of us to look at every corner of our streets and see the suffering of individuals in our midst, and provide food, and the presence of ourselves to each one.

I would like to invite each and every one of you to purchase (if you can not afford the book, I will gladly give you one as a Christmas gift) Advent in Narnia: Reflections for the Season, by Heidi Haverkamp, and meditate on each day of Advent.

In our childlikeness in the midst of our Narnia winter let us look for the green leaves, hear the birds singing, see the flowers blooming, the trees putting on fresh leaves, and know the winter is over and the “the White Witch” (evil, hunger, and all forms of degradation) is on the run, her sled is useless, and she must walk. Finally, her dwarf declares: “This is no thaw, this is spring. What are we to do? Your winter has been destroyed. I tell you! This is Aslan’s doing” (See chapter 11 in the book). On Christmas Day Christ is born!

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EVENTS

All Saints and All Souls Days—November 1 and 2nd:

On November 1 and 2nd we will remember in thanksgiving our loved ones who have died and entered into the Great Cloud of Witnesses, who now surround us encouraging us on our present journey, with anticipation of our joining them.

At 5:00 p.m. PDT. November 2, "All Soul's Day, we will have a Zoom “Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving” so please join us, and send your email to Temenos@gmail.com. or call 415-305-2124.

Gratitude Day, November 24, 2022:

On November 24, 2022, we will celebrate “Gratitude Day” by serving a hot meal of Vegan Turkey on the Haight and Polk Street, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Any one who would like to volunteer you are invited to join me at 4:00 p.m. Maxes

at Opera Plaza for a Gratitude meal and join in serving our meal. Allow until

9:00 p.m. This invitation is for anyone who is home alone and would like to join us as well.

Christmas Eve:

Mobile Christmas Eve Eucharist at 5:00-9:00 p.m. Haight/Polk

Followed by gift-giving on the street!

Gifts of Sweat Shirts, Long Sleeve Shirts, and/or Jackets are needed!

Thank you! Thank you! To the Eight Grade Class of St. Apollonia Middle School in Napa for their sock drive!

On this day in 1998, Matthew Shepherd was murdered. Remembering his death confronts us with what it means to be in the closet as LGBTQ. Matthew paid the price, as so many others continue to suffer. Matthew calls us "out" no matter who we are to be open and affirming of all.

Frankly, to be honest, youth who are homeless, queer, and counter-cultural, are basically ignored in our society. Being gay is counter-cultural in many ways. Matthew Shepherd reminds us of the detrimental consequences of not dealing with our own uncomfortably to our young people who are "different".

The book Loving the Present by Sarah Huxtable Mohr is about her journey through mental illness and addiction. She shares the limits of psychiatry and mental health providers who do not understand spirituality and trust solely in medication. Mohr shares how spirituality through the Twelve Steps saved her life and has given her the opportunity of working as a therapist herself.

A young man, whom I will call Jeremiah, reminds me of Matthew's story. Raised in a small town, he was unable to be out, but in the end, as he entered adolescence he shared his struggles with his minister.

The minister told Jeremiah's parents who insisted on placing him in therapy. The therapist who himself was homophobic diagnosed Jeremiah as "depressed' and placed him on drugs.

Jeremiah kept his mouth shut and became "straight", and continued his path to college, seminary, and ministry.

Jeremiah was in ministry for ten years and continually struggled with his sexual identity. He requested his immediate superior to send him to a counselor to help look at his sexual identity to work on those issues, and the counselor informed his boss he was gay. Immediately Jeremiah's superior dismissed him as being "intrinsically evil".

Jeremiah found himself on the street, being a prostitute, using drugs, and attempting suicide a number of times.

A friend challenged him to attend a Queer Twelve Step Program. In the first meeting, Jeremiah felt loved and accepted for who he was and began working the Twelve Steps.

The Twelve Steps brought him face to face with his issues, and ultimately he came back into a relationship with Christ, with whom he could relate and lead him into an acceptance of himself. For many, they find their spiritual relationship elsewhere. Jeremiah sees beyond homophobia, to the Jesus who loves each one of us.

The Twelve Steps continue to sustain him and his ministry.

On this day we remember Matthew Shepherd in his suffering, and our prayer is that in the Great Cloud of Witnesses he continues to call us to be open to the equality of all and that he walks with every young person who is struggling with his or her sexuality. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Father Christian River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA
94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

Our reading for the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time is from the short book of Habakkuk, just three chapters, and is entirely devoted to a dialogue between God and the prophet. Habakkuk's name means "to wrestle and embrace," and in this book, he is wrestling with God, and also embracing him.

When Habakkuk was writing, Israel was under corrupt leadership where injustice, evil, and tragedy were the norm. Habakkuk saw the injustice happening around him and questioned whether God even cared. His heart ached for the people and the oppression they were facing. In the midst of the injustice, Habakkuk was trying to reconcile who he believed God to be and what he saw in front of him. It is a familiar dilemma that many of us have faced, wondering where God was in the midst of pain and sorrow and whether God truly cared.

Against all odds, Habakkuk decided to wait faithfully for God's response to his lament. When God finally answered, Habakkuk heard this command, "Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run," and God promises, he/her "will not disappoint" and will come at the "appointed time."

We too see injustice, oppression, and discrimination around us. Homelessness is growing every day in the City and across the nation. Each day as I walk down the street, there are ten or so people frankly out of it, either on drugs or mental illness or both; working every day I see hundreds without clothing, sleeping equipment, and food. Housing being built is for the upper classes, there is hardly a middle class in San Francisco, the very rich or the very poor. The police are harsh with people who are homeless and are discriminatory and do not deal with mental illness or drug users well. People without housing are seen as a "problem" and are pushed from place to place. We walk by and ignore the one in front of us in need. The politicians are so polarized, and divided, that nothing is done. The religious community keeps their doors shut, and complains about homeless people sleeping on their doorsteps. This is not God's vision!

God's vision is not found in our sitting back, and whining, but is found in "wrestling with the issue, and embracing God" in action.

We are called to meet the needs of people without housing outside of our doors; to feed them; give up our money and our time to provide food and clothing for them; to advocate and fight for their needs in society and other issues; to open our doors to the needy of the neediest.

St. Clare of Assisi once said: "We become what we love and Who we love shapes what we become." Sr. Helen Prejean, in the photo above, is a living example of that phrase. In 1993 she was a school teacher nun in New Orleans, and in an experience of seeing Christ in a condemned prisoner, she experienced a new conversion of the heart, and her life has been given to advocating for the end of the death penalty. She has become who she loves.

God's vision asks all of us to show up and speak up for justice, and do justice! We must trust the vision of justice will come, even if we have to wait. We are simply carrying the torch until we pass the torch forward.

Martin Luther King, Jr. eloquently said: "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice."

As the consecrated Bread and Wine are lifted at the Holy Eucharist, the words are uttered: "See who you are, become who you see!

Let us lift our eyes up to the homeless, the poor, and see the broken body of Jesus, and minister to him, let us become who we see! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

John 1:47-51

John Shulman writes in The Manual For Receiving God,

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him: Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him. . .

"God receives us just as we are. But we don't receive ourselves in the same way. We don't love ourselves as we are. Our deepest work is not so much to improve ourselves as to realize ourselves, to see ourselves clearly and dearly."

I have spent the better part of my life trying to meet the expectation of others. And the result has been simply being a mess. But as I have come to love myself what gives my life meaning and purpose is merely to practice kindness to who and what I am, and in so doing I practice kindness and love towards everyone meet, a message I heard from our Lady of Guadalupe at the Cathedral of the Angels in Los Angels on a night of working as a sex worker, many years ago: "Jesus loves you as you are, get on with the ministry of loving others."

Yesterday was the feast of three angels, which brought to mind the angels, the angels who are "Angels Unaware" that have come through my life.

One of those angels was Damien, whom I first met in 1992, in Minneapolis, a young man, who struggled with his sexuality, being kicked out of his home because of that sexuality, and living on the street, hustling, and doing whatever he had to do to survive.

He was an "Angel Unaware" to me and others. I struggled with my own sexuality, trying to find my way in a world without the institutional church, friends, and family, Damien walked with me, and from him, I "began to see myself more clearly and dearly." He died of AIDS and now is a part of the great Cloud of Witnesses that surrounds us.

Damien lived out the tack that Jesus taught in the Gospel. One person approaches another, engaging in simple conversation, dignifying his existence by simply recognizing the fellow human being before him. Only then does Jesus speak of angels.

Perhaps we would do well today to treat our pesky emails and texts, phone calls, and surprise visitors in this way. Don't keep looking for the next message, put down your games and snap chat; be present to the person on the other end of the one you just received. After all, you may unknowingly be entertaining an angel. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

One rainy, dark night, coming home from dinner with friends, waiting to cross the street, a young guy named"Shaggy" pulled on my jacket. He was wet, and begging for socks.

Looking down I saw soggy, wet, socks, looking like they had been worn forever. So I took my shoes off and handed him the socks on my feet.

That began a journey of examination of the importance of wearing socks, and how difficult not having clean socks are for people who live on the streets to obtain. Few people give socks in donations, and they are expensive.

When one walks the streets of Polk and Haight in San Francisco, one sees a
variety of people--tourists, bright-eyed, awed by the buildings, art on the
walls,cable cars, our multi-colored culture in general, people who are
housed, middle class to the wealthiest, and people who have no housing.

Estimates tell us in San Francisco alone there are twenty-thousand plus
people without housing,and one-fourth of which are young adults--from
12-23. For the most part, they are sight unseen, no one seems to see them,
the invisible population of the City.

This is my parish, my church, a ministry of presence with people,
especially youth without housing. It is alistening ministry, simply
hanging out, making no judgments, and along with the listening food is
given, and always the number one request-- socks.

I have given you a pair of socks, take them in your hands (they will be
given a pair of socks), feel and, smell their pleasant order, experience
the soft touch, and imagine how comfortable your feet will feel when they
are placed on your feet.

Imagine wearing those socks for six or seven days, and imagine the smell.
Imagine wearing wet socks.

Socks are more than comfort, when feet are injured from not wearing socks
or from dirty wet socks it leads to poor health through sores and infected
feet which spreads throughout the body. Socks are an item of providing good
health.

Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement once
reflected on prayer to a group of teens who asked her how often she prayed:

"Does God have a set way of prayer, a way that He expects each of us to
follow? I doubt it. I believe some people--lots of people-pray through the
witness in their lives, through the work they do, the friendships they
have, and the love they offer people and receive from people. Since when
are words the only acceptable form of prayer."

My invitation is to each of you to give the prayer of clean socks! Clean
socks save lives!

Reading 1 Jb 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23

Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
Job spoke out and said:

Perish the day on which I was born,
the night when they said, “The child is a boy!”

Why did I not perish at birth,
come forth from the womb and expire?
Or why was I not buried away like an untimely birth,
like babes that have never seen the light?
Wherefore did the knees receive me?
or why did I suck at the breasts?
For then I should have lain down and been tranquil;
had I slept, I should then have been at rest
With kings and counselors of the earth
who built where now there are ruins
Or with princes who had gold
and filled their houses with silver.

There the wicked cease from troubling,
there the weary are at rest.

Why is light given to the toilers,
and life to the bitter in spirit?
They wait for death and it comes not;
they search for it rather than for hidden treasures,
Rejoice in it exultingly,
and are glad when they reach the grave:
Those whose path is hidden from them,
and whom God has hemmed in!

Suffering is not a subject we want to think of, even bring up, let alone talk about, when all of us suffer in one manner or another.

Job was suffering over the death of his kids, and he went back and forth in his questioning and doubts about God.

The actions of humanity result in our suffering. Climate change, violence, and abuse are a result of human action, yet we want God to deliver us.

My young friend Damien was raised in a loving and caring home, with a conservative faith experience. At twelve years old he was "saved" in his words. He told me that from the age of nine, he knew he was gay. In adolescence, he would sneak around gay bars, and parks where men cruised, and had sex.

Damien began to have symptoms of HIV at sixteen and went to a doctor who diagnosed him and told Damien's parents.

Telling his parents, refusing to repent he was kicked out of his home and found himself hustling on the street. He was free, cute, and he lived wild.

He converted to AIDS at twenty and experienced severe depression, had no faith in anything, and became suicidal. But in his struggle, found faith in a God of love, and he moved into being present to others. He was safe in his sex life, and with hustling clients; Damien worked with others suffering from AIDS, and volunteered in a hospice; he died in peace at San Francisco General Hospital at the age of 23.

Through his struggles with doubt, rejection, and in despair without hope, the resurrection of the Crucified One, turned defeat into triumph, ugliness into beauty, despair into hope, and the cross into faith in the resurrection. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:30-31). ESV

Death is inevitable, we can not escape death. As much as I watch my diet and stay at the proper weight, check my glucose, exercise, and get the proper rest, I will die.

We have "little deaths" in our lives, preparing us for our final moments, and it is important we recognize and grieve these "little deaths" in preparation for living with compassion now! In my own life I remember many:

My grandparents

my parents,

losing my first career in coming out,

my friend Brandon in the photo,

my son Zack,

my friend Vicki Yeley,

my friends Ken and Rose Innes,

the thousands through the

years of my ministry,

and

the thousands of friends who move through my

life

the gentrification of the City, little deaths, much grieving.

Death weaves within our lives every day, we can run, we can try to hide, but death is present.

Many times I am asked: exactly what do you do? How many people do you get off the streets? Tell me of someone you have really helped.

My ministry, (our) ministry is not about providing material items, they are secondary, necessary for survival, and heart warming, it is one of spirit, being present with individuals in their lives in general, holding their hands, simply listening as they struggle with living on the streets, wrestling with addiction and abuse. Listening to their wrestling with God and meaning in life, and in facing death each day on the streets. The streets "ain't for sissies".

Father Henri Nouwen in his lovely words shares his reflection on facing death:

"Real human grief means allowing the illusions of immortality to die in us. When those whom we love with an "endless love" die, something also has to die within us. If we do not allow this to happen, we will lose touch with reality, our lives will become increasingly artificial, and we will lose our human capacity for compassion."

To experience our "real human grief" allows us to open our hearts to others without judgment, in all-embracing care and love. For we see we are all on the same journey, and experience the same fate! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!"

"Where Jacob Walked With God. ."
Journal of An Alien Street Priest:

During our unusual late summer rains, I engaged in a simple ritual--walking on the beach in Pacifica, and picking up starfish washed up on the shore. A time of reflection on my twenty-eighth anniversary of coming to San Francisco, October 1, 1994.

I slowly walked the beach, free of people, except for the few walking their dogs, hearing the waves rush in, feeling the rain on my face, I observed the starfish shells, and some alive, pushed in by the waves. This was a meditative practice for me, which I realized sounds loftier than reality. I was simply picking up starfish, alive, throwing them back into the ocean.

Sometimes my attention landed on the shells, other times there were some alive, and my heart leaped as I picked them up and threw them back into the waves. It was all shocking and clear. For each one picked up my memory journeyed back through the years remembering all of the starfish on the street I have picked up, caring, listening, and throwing them into the Sea of Love.

Reading The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis for the past four weeks I have arrived at a new appreciation of life and ministry. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one reads of Lucy (one of the children allowed into Narnia) asking Aslan ( the Lion who represents Christ) how to get into "Aslan's land." His reply: "Find the land within yourself."

Eckhart Troilo's commented: "Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it." To live in the present moment, accepting it as for what it is, and walking the way of the Gospel.

And so as we enter into our twenty-ninth year we invite you to continue our journey together. The journey of following Jesus into Galilee, finding the "land of Ashlan" within ourselves, and finding the peace of God.

Thank you for your support, friendship, and prayers during these years and for continuing with me on throwing our starfish into the Sea of Love! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

The Feast of St. Francis is October 4, in which we remember Francis, this year we will celebrate on October 6, providing vegetarian sandwiches on the street.

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We Are Beggars!

We beg! We are in need of funds as always and invite you to give through the mail:

Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124

Luke 16:19-31

In the book of Ecclesiastes, we are told to "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die." It is a book that calls us to live in the present as does the "Open-Eyed Crucifix" with Jesus looking strong, arms outstretched and open eyes looking out into the world loving humanity.

The "Open-Eyed" crucifix was the one that shaped St. Francis, for as Jesus looks out he calls us to see the love in his eyes, the love that brought him to the cross, and go back and share that love with others. This is the heart of Franciscan theology.

The one event in life of Francis's, that shaped his life, was the caring for the leper and touching his wounds. From that moment forward Frances touched the wounds of all he came into contact with.

Reading The Chronicles of Narnia one is reminded of the childlikeness of St.Francis, and of how like a child he looked in wonder at the world and saw all creatures as equal.

In the words of Jason Shulman, St. Francis came to the knowledge that "knowing who you are is not a mystical thing but a matter of experiences, acceptance, honesty, and compassion. It is knowing you are small and selfish,, greedy and angry, great creative, tenderhearted, and caring"

Being "childlike" is meeting "Joey" (photo above) where he is, on his level. Joey has been on the street for over thirty years. He is always talking about his inheritance, owning a number of brand-new cars, and always offering me one. I tell him "let's go get it," which never happens. He lives in a fantasy land in many ways. Joey talks of being happy, we meet him where he is.

In seeing the evil in ourselves, the darkness that is so destructive, and comes out in divisions in our daily lives, and the good, the very best of ourselves, we see the good in others.

In seeing the good in others, we are able to say of the world, "This is good", and like Jesus, we can love each other. We are the yin and yang. We are called to be children again. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

415-305-2124

On a rainy, dark night, the phone rang and Donnie called. He was really sobbing and needed help. Donnie was young, 19, and struggling with his sexuality. In the weeks before he had been hanging out with a bunch of "fundie" Christians, was "saved", and Donnie was now "straight".

That night he had "acted out", in fact, he had been "acting out" with other men making money, and his new “friends" begged him to pray and pointed to Scripture which suggested one should "cut off" the member that had sinned. Donnie tried to cut off his penis. He had cut deep into his testicles.

When I arrived, blood was everywhere, and the young "Christians" were praying, had their hands on his head, and on his hands holding his injury.

As I helped him up to take him to the hospital one of the young girls commented, "Let him stay so we can pray the "sin out of him," and my response is not quotable.

Donnie was bandaged, healed, and spent the next five years of his life really struggling, and one night he walked out into traffic, both his legs were cut off and spent the rest of his life in a care facility where he died of an infection.

In our gospel we see Jesus praising a dishonest man, or was he not praising his ingenuity?

The renowned intellectual Bernard Lonergan once shared that he liked this text because "it is the one place in scripture where human intelligence and ingenuity are praised." The question one might raise is "Why would Jesus use an example of dishonesty to do this?"

Because what Jesus is praising here is not dishonestly but ingenuity--ingenuity as the antithesis of complaint, whining, and despair. Jesus points out that those who are outside our religious circles tend to be more ingenious in times of trouble than we committed believers who often give ourselves over to grumbling and inaction.

Our religious circles and our social circles are made up of people we feel comfortable with, usually of the same economic, and racial makeup. They are made up of the same religious, and political beliefs. To cross those boundaries makes us uncomfortable, and so we complain, groan, and act out against anyone who differs from us.

I am with Lonergan in his takeaway from this story: Ingenuity is the opposite of complaint and despair. I live in the grey areas, there is no black or white.

Our fears, complaints, and whining come from a fear of death, death in all aspects--loss of social status, friends, and life. Henri Nouwen tells us to "Befriend Death

Our first task is to befriend death. I like the expression “to befriend.” I first heard it used by Jungian analyst James Hillman when he attended a seminar I taught on Christian Spirituality at Yale Divinity School. He emphasized the importance of “befriending”: befriending your dreams, befriending your shadow, befriending your unconscious. He made it convincingly clear that in order to become full human beings, we have to claim the totality of our experience; we come to maturity by integrating not only the light but also the dark side of our story into our selfhood. That made a lot of sense to me, since I am quite familiar with my own inclination, and that of others, to avoid, deny, or suppress the painful side of life, a tendency that always leads to physical, mental, or spiritual disaster. . . .

I have a deep sense, hard to articulate, that if we could really befriend death we would be free people. So many of our doubts, hesitations, ambivalences, and insecurities are bound up with our deep-seated fear of death that our lives would be significantly different if we could relate to death as a familiar guest instead of a threatening stranger."

When we befriend death, we learn that ultimately all that matters are the words of the Apostle Paul who sums up the message of Jesus with these words from I Corinthians 13: "For right now until that completeness (the final end of our lives) we have three things to do to lead us to our final consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of these is love."

Every act we do is a cry for love. Our acts are all seeking a place to belong, and we hurt a lot of people.

My young Christian friends really, and honestly believed they were loving Donnie, but that love destroyed him.

To love is to give our lives away, not expecting anything in return, not to make a judgment on anyone! To risk crucifixion like Jesus! In so doing we find ourselves and the needs of all will be fulfilled! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Our heading tells us that over 500,000 plus people experience homelessness every night. This morning I ran across the street to the hardware store and there were six people sleeping on the street corner. Homelessness is increasing everywhere.

The Feast of the Church yesterday was the Exaltation of the Cross. Whether one is Christian or not the cross can be understood as the suffering of Jesus, for the inability of people to take care of one another. We are called to suffer with others. And each one of us can take care of one of our homeless brothers and sisters in simple acts. One of our simple acts is giving individuals socks.

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Alien Street Priest Journals

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The Third Station
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Christ the King
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