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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Report Card Time

This past month, two polls that were taken over the past year came to an end.

In the first, we asked how well local church communities around the country care for the poor.  The Bible contains more than 300 verses about the poor, social justice, and our responsibility to them.  In fact, Jesus commands us to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty (Matthew 25:31-46). It all adds up and begs the question, “How would you grade your local church's ‘report card’ in this regard"?  Here is how subscribers, followers and readers responded:
  • 40% granted their local church a grade of “A” or “B”.
  • 52% graded themselves as a “C”.
  • 8% received a “D” or “F”.
It was also asked over the past year “Which Bible personalities experienced homelessness”?  Interestingly, the vast majority, about 80% agreed that homelessness is a mark of “holiness” in Bible personalities.  Most agreed that the following have all been both God’s chosen ones and homeless at the same time:
  • Adam and Eve
  • Abraham
  • Moses
  • Jesus
  • Mary and Joseph
  • St. Peter
  • St. Paul
Thank you for participating in these and all the polls.  Scroll down to near the bottom of this main page and vote in the others.  Your opinion counts!
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  • Invite your family and friends to Subscribe! to Homeless In America.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote in the polls.
  • List yourself as a blog follower, middle right column.
  • Donate! to the poor homeless deliveries of food, water, clothing, blankets, socks, underwear, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, pocket Bibles, rosaries and prayer cards at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
  • Post checks to - Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc., P.O. Box 42001, Los Angeles, CA 90042. All Donations are Tax Deductible

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Day by Day

Dorothy Day is a fiery Catholic 20th-century social activist who protested war, supported labor strikes and lived voluntarily in poverty as she cared for the needy.   The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted this month to support Dorothy Day's cause for canonization.

New York’s archbishop, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, has embraced her cause with striking zeal the New York Times reports: speaking on the anniversaries of her birth and death, distributing Dorothy Day prayer cards to parishes and even buying roughly 100 copies of her biography to give out last year as Christmas gifts to civic officials including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

“I am convinced she is a saint for our time,” Cardinal Dolan said at the bishops’ meeting. She exemplifies, he said, “what’s best in Catholic life, that ability we have to be ‘both-and’ not ‘either-or.’ ”

Day was born in 1897 to a nonobservant Protestant family, dropped out of the University of Illinois and moved to New York to work as a journalist for leftist publications in the bohemian literary world of downtown Manhattan. She converted to Catholicism in 1927, citing a spiritual awakening that was accelerated by the joy that she felt upon the birth of a daughter, Tamar. She said she chose Catholicism for many reasons — partly because it was the religion of so many of the workers and poor people whose cause she fought for as a socialist writer, and partly because she had lived in Chicago with Catholic roommates whose faith had deeply impressed her.

She spent decades as a passionate lay Catholic, devoting her life to the principles of social justice, including pacifism and service to the poor,  that she felt were at the root of her religion’s teachings.

Though she was traditional in her religious practices and strong in her love for the church, her relationship with the church hierarchy in her lifetime was not always smooth. Not a single Catholic bishop came to her funeral in 1980, according to Robert Ellsberg, the editor of her letters and diaries.

But some bishops now say Day’s life resonates with the struggles that they are most engaged in today: the fight against abortion and their concern about government intrusion in their affairs. In her radical rejection of government — Day believed all states were inherently totalitarian — the bishops see echoes of their fight with the Obama administration over health care.

“As we struggle at this opportune moment to try to show how we are losing our freedoms in the name of individual rights, Dorothy Day is a very good woman to have on our side,” Cardinal Francis E. George, archbishop of Chicago, said recently during a discussion of Day’s sainthood cause at a meeting of bishops.

At St. Joseph House on First Street in Manhattan’s East Village on a recent Thursday, a kitchen full of volunteers rinsed down giant stockpots and bowl-size ladles after finishing the morning’s soup line for the neighborhood poor. Around 25 residents and volunteers live in the graffiti-tagged building, relying on donations for their work. More Catholic workers live two blocks away in Mary House, the refuge where Day lived the final years of her life.

As the volunteers gathered for lunch at St. Joseph House — in a simple dining hall hung with hand-drawn pictures of Day, a portrait of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a crucifix — Carmen Trotta, who has lived in the house for a quarter-century, said that while he believed Day’s message of pacifism and works of mercy should be the focus of discussions about her possible canonization, he was confident that anyone who read her writings would understand her priorities.

“None of us really have any doubt that she was a saint,” he said.
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  • Invite your family and friends to Subscribe! to Homeless In America.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote in the polls.
  • List yourself as a blog follower, middle right column.
  • Donate! to the poor homeless deliveries of food, water, clothing, blankets, socks, underwear, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, pocket Bibles, rosaries and prayer cards at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
  • Post checks to - Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc., P.O. Box 42001, Los Angeles, CA 90042. All Donations are Tax Deductible.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Day After Thanksgiving

By Gene Arden Thompson

‘Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all through the land,
Most of the people had feasted, ’till they could hardly stand.
Tons of turkey and pumpkin pies galore,
Had everyone stuffed and prone on the floor.

When all of a sudden, there arose such a clatter,
They crawled to their windows, to see what was the matter!
When out of the sky, their eyes did behold,
Tiny parachutes floating down through the cold.

Attached to each chute was a brightly colored bag.
The mere thought of more food made everyone gag.
But true to their nature, they all had to know,
So timidly at first, they crawled through the snow.

The bags were everywhere, in the streets in the trees
And more could be seen, floating down in the breeze.
They all rushed to open them, after-all they were free.
Something for nothing, how much better could it be.
But the bags were all empty, except for a note,
Containing a message from which I will quote.

“You’ve all had your turkey, but did you give thanks
For your comfortable homes and money in the banks?
What of the others, less fortunate than you?
Did you think of their plight . . . well, did you?

The thousands of starving not a crumb to be had.
Did the thought of homeless children make you sad?
I want you to be happy, for you are my children, you see.
But please think of your neighbors, and occasionally me.

I am your heavenly Father, and as such I truly care.
If you learn nothing else, please learn to share.
Christmas is coming, the day of my birth.
Another day of feasting, merriment and mirth.

Families will gather, and songs will be sung,
And on the mantles, stockings will be hung.
Please take this bag, although it be small,
And fill it with love, and caring for all.

Give it to someone you know to be in need.
Make this a day of love and not one of greed.
And now with my blessings, I’ll be on my way.
I’ll leave just this message . . . Peace be with you -
Go on your way!

Would anyone reading this like to help out the Servants of the Father of Mercy homeless Thanksgiving or Christmas day $5 Subway sandwich card giveaway?  Sponsor two cards or more?  Donate on line at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
_______________     
  • Invite your family and friends to Subscribe! to Homeless In America.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote in the polls.
  • List yourself as a blog follower, middle right column.
  • Donate! to the poor homeless deliveries of food, water, clothing, blankets, socks, underwear, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, pocket Bibles, rosaries and prayer cards at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
  • Post checks to - Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc., P.O. Box 42001, Los Angeles, CA 90042. All Donations are Tax Deductible.

Monday, November 12, 2012

A Brief History of Power and the Powerless

“Jesus, being in very form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped at for his own advantage; rather, he emptied himself by becoming a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6-11

Wealth is all about power isn’t it?  “The person with the most toys wins”, we often say!  Wealth is about someone winning and someone losing.  Wealth and poverty is also a story about power and the powerless.  Scripture often groups together widows and orphans as images of the poor and powerless.  Society more often than not is unwilling to protect them from exploitation and starvation.

The Apostle states in Philippians that Jesus, taking on flesh chose radical human powerlessness; poverty from the manger to the tomb, in order to defeat the powers of sin and death.  He delivers us all from the profound dearth of our helplessness in the face of these “powers." 

Overall, the Bible is a most extraordinary text because again and again it exalts not the powerful, but invariably the powerless — from Abraham to Moses to Jeremiah to Job to John the Baptist to Jesus.  God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  God humbles, only to exalt.

After a while we might get tired of the rejected one, the younger son, the barren woman, the sinner and the outsider becoming the chosen one of God.  It is God’s little way, a biblical pattern — which some may prefer not to see.
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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Plan Ahead to Eat in Heavenly Peace this Thanksgiving Day

Over the past seven years, athough we never ask for financial support for the production of Homeless In America, today goes out an appeal to each and every one of our followers, subscribers and readers – dedicated or casual.  Please donate online now $10 to our annual Thanksgiving Day $5 Subway sandwich card giveaway to the thousands of homeless we serve here at the Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc.

Last year, one tearful and grateful homeless man in particular was so hungry at the time he received his card, he was pointed immediately to the nearest Subway, which was only a block away and was conveniently open too!  He is only one of more than seventy-thousand homeless living in the Southern California region.

Why help out?

1.  You and your family will eat in heavenly peace this Thanksgiving knowing that you have helped two hungry homeless persons to eat at the same time you do.

2. Subway is open on Thanksgiving with many locations to serve all the hungry and lonely.

3. The 7th graders at St. Mary Magdalene’s school are making handmade Thanksgiving cards for the homeless, but the children need your donation to include a Subway gift card in each.
 
4. Subway does not help in any way and do not discount the cards’ purchase.

5.  One hundred readers donating $10 each will supply 200 homeless men, women and children a $5 sandwich gift card.

6.  The Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc. (the creators of Homeless In America), is an IRS 501 ( c ) 3 tax-exempt, nonprofit organization and a private association of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  The organization is listed in the Official Catholic Directory (OCD).  Your gift is tax deductible.

Here is the link to donate on line:  http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless

If you prefer, please mail to:

Servants of the Father of Mercy
P. O. Box 42001
Los Angeles, CA 90042

God bless you and thank you for your compassion and mercy for the poor homeless we serve.
 
Ps.  Make a donation of $20 and give the homeless sandwich gift cards on Christmas day too!  Make a donation of $1,000 or more and you can help double the number of homeless that will be served.
_______________     
  • Invite your family and friends to Subscribe! to Homeless In America.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote in the polls.
  • List yourself as a blog follower, middle right column.
  • Donate! to the poor homeless deliveries of food, water, clothing, blankets, socks, underwear, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, pocket Bibles, rosaries and prayer cards at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
  • Post checks to - Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc., P.O. Box 42001, Los Angeles, CA 90042. All Donations are Tax Deductible.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Election Day 2012 Liberals and Conservatives Inspire Poll

With tomorrow being Election Day 2012, there has been lots of talk lately about “liberals” and “conservatives”.  And so, a new poll is inspired by it all and is being launched today here at Homeless In America.  Please scroll down to near the bottom of this main page and vote.  Your opinion counts!  Respond to the following:

In your opinion, which of the following types of Christians most definitely go to heaven?
  • A Christian conservative.
  • A Christian liberal.
  • All Christians who are forgiving, loving, merciful and compassionate.
  • None of the above.
Look forward to counting your vote!
_______________     
  • Invite your family and friends to Subscribe! to Homeless In America.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote in the polls.
  • List yourself as a blog follower, middle right column.
  • Donate! to the poor homeless deliveries of food, water, clothing, blankets, socks, underwear, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, pocket Bibles, rosaries and prayer cards at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
  • Post checks to - Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc., P.O. Box 42001, Los Angeles, CA 90042. All Donations are Tax Deductible.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Urban Campers' Cooking Guide


There are lots of “on the run foods” out there that don’t need to be cooked or refrigerated, so let’s start there with a few menu ideas:
  • Apple slices or celery sticks with peanut butter.
  • Chunky-style peanut butter with slices of banana sandwich.
  • Raisins, apple slices and walnuts.
  • Cheerios with rice or soy milk topped with fresh banana slices.
  • Fresh fruit salad: chunks of orange, apple, banana, nuts and sprinkle with granola mix.
  • Fresh garden salad: mix iceberg lettuce with tomato and onion slices, top with fresh squeezed lemon, vegetable oil, toss and sprinkle with with salt and pepper.
  • Crushed no-salt Saltine crackers topped with soy or rice milk and sprinkled with sugar.
  • Tuna salad: Add a small can of tuna to the fresh garden salad and mix.
  • Chicken salad:  Add a small can of chicken to the fresh garden salad and mix.
Sometimes a meal just tastes better cooked.  Having a method to cook or warm food comes in handy:
  • Aluminum foil seals heat in.  Wrap a loaf of bread and place it in the sun or on the dashboard of your car in the sun for an hour or two for fresh-baked flavor.  Top with your favorite butter, jam, cheese or cold cuts.
  • Stop in at the local convenience store or gas station to warm up soup, sandwiches and entrees in their microwaves.
  • Build a small, discreet fire. It will keep you warm, as well as cook your food.  You are going to want to overcook your food before you eat it; especially if you got it out of a dumpster somewhere.
  • Make a temporary stove out of tin cans.  You can get heat by burning small sticks, using Sterno cans, or candles to make heat. There are even small fold up stoves for under twenty dollars.
  • Candle stoves are pretty easy to make. Take a large tin or coffee can and poke a bunch of holes in the sides. Then nail three or four long nails through the bottom (so that the pointy ends are inside the can) and spear some long emergency candles onto them. Light the candles and place your bowl or pan or whatever on top of the can. The holes in the sides will provide the flames with oxygen.
God bless your urban camping, your meals and nutrition!
_______________     
  • Invite your family and friends to Subscribe! to Homeless In America.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote in the polls.
  • List yourself as a blog follower, middle right column.
  • Donate! to the poor homeless deliveries of food, water, clothing, blankets, socks, underwear, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, pocket Bibles, rosaries and prayer cards at http://servantsofthefather.org/donate_2_homeless
  • Post checks to - Servants of the Father of Mercy, Inc., P.O. Box 42001, Los Angeles, CA 90042. All Donations are Tax Deductible.