The Night a Homeless Man Changed My Life

By Katrina Stull

It was a chilly winter December night and time for our annual trip to Christmas in the Park. This year we had our first, new baby girl, to share the sights and sounds with and were looking forward to sharing it with her. I had worked retail for many years, so to me the holidays did not mean much except extra work . . . put the decorations up for this holiday, take them down and redecorate for the next. In addition, anyone who has worked retail can tell you about not only the hustle and bustle with customers and stocking shelves (in my case setting up our floral department and keeping it fresh), but about the extra-long hours that come with the job or late hours. For this reason, I dreaded them and they seemed like any other day.

This particular year though, somehow things would be changing about my view of Christmas and little did I know that our traditional visit to Christmas in the Park would turn out to be a reminder of what the season truly means.

After bundling everyone up and packing the diaper bag and stroller in the car, I made sure the camera was full to take lots of pictures to remember our daughter's first Christmas. The Bay Area is notorious for traffic in the evenings, but this night it was fairly light and before we knew it we were in the streets of downtown San Jose. We had opted to park in the Local 428 lot, which was next to the Union office and one of the fancy hotels downtown.

It was a wonderful night with my daughter getting her picture taken on Santa's lap, eating warm Churros and strolling through the walkways filled with animated scenes. I was very much there, but as the evening winded down, my mind was beginning to wander about work the next day. We listened to the music, the children laughing and watched our own daughter's eyes light up every time she saw the lights on a tree or watched one of the musical moving scenes.

We came to the Nativity scene, which I always take a few extra minutes to enjoy and say a little prayer in my head giving thanks for the miracle of the season and we all just stood there for a while. No sooner did we leave; it was the end of our tour and time to get back in the car and head home. To avoid the normal traffic of getting on the freeway, I drove through the streets between 7th and 11th. There are really beautiful old homes out there in some of the area, so we might have even got to see some house lights.

As I turned onto a street near a college bookstore, I saw a homeless man walking on the street. I do not know what happened in those moments, because all I remember was thinking I had an extra blanket I always carried in the car and it was extremely cold outside. Suddenly I pulled my 89 Ford Escort over to the side of the street and my husband at the time (now my ex) had asked, "What are you doing". It had to be evident I was pulling the car over so I replied, "pulling the car over. I have a blanket in the back."

He looked at me as if I was crazy and was really getting out of the car to take the homeless man a blanket? Yes, I was and I got out, opened the hatchback and I pulled out my "extra", not being used, clean blanket and slowly walked toward the homeless man. As I cautiously approached him, he just kept pushing his shopping cart filled with what few belongings he had.

"Excuse me... hello", I called out to him.
He kept walking and I followed and tried to call him again.
"Excuse me, Mr.", I called out and he finally turned around.

For some reason I was no longer nervous and I remember looking into to his eyes when he said, "you talking to me?" He was unkempt and his skin looked leathered, as if he had been in the sun all of his life. As I took a few steps closer, I saw his basket filled with a piece of cardboard, some clothes with holes and few dirty blankets. Nonetheless, I just had a gut feeling he was suppose to get this blanket tonight and I was the one who was going to give it to him.

I put the blanket across both my arms and reached it out to him. "Here this is for you," I said.
"But I already have some blankets", he said.
"This is a clean blanket, it is for you, and I want you to have it."
"For me?" he asked.
"For you, for Christmas", it blurted out of my mouth and I warmly smiled.
"You're giving this to me for Christmas", he asked?
"Yes, this is for you", I replied and reached it out even further.
When he took the blanket from my hands, I felt the touch of his hands on mine and he looked up and said kindly, "thank you". Again I looked at him with a smile and I said Merry Christmas. He replied, "Merry Christmas and God bless you."

As I got ready to turn away, I answered back "God bless you too."

Then, I began walking back to my car and I climbed in. Just before we were ready to go I had looked back at him through my rear view mirror. In the reflection, I saw the homeless man, standing there alone, in the cold, on the street and he was holding the blanket I had just given him across his arms, just as I had presented it to him, up to the sky. He was praying, and I looked out the window, back at him, seeing a sky filled with stars, and watched him give thanks to the Lord. I got a tear in my eye and suddenly, the true spirit of Christmas filled my heart and soul. "This is what Christmas is truly about" I said silently to myself as I gently cried.

That very evening, that very moment, I had yearned for all my life, when I would feel the true spirit of Christmas had just touched me and overflowed into my soul. In giving that night, I received the greatest gift and those memories still live on in my heart today. The homeless man had nothing but what he carried in his cart, but he had God and was truly richer than anyone on the outside looking in could see. That night, the homeless man touched my heart and my life in a special way. Every Christmas season, I think of him and that beautiful experience that was a turning point in my life. I still get a tear in my eye every time I remember that night and what I learned from the homeless man I gave that blanket to that night.

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God Uses All Things for the Good

At one time, these people had it all - a home, car, family, friends, possessions, bank account and most importantly their freedom. Now they are homeless – having liquidated everything they own like a hobo hopping a cross-country rail – they live meagerly with few possessions. As pilgrims on their way home, they while away their remaining life’s hours in a wheelchair or pinned to an invalid’s sick bed. In their emptiness, they wait for footsteps - anyone’s, to bring a word, cheer, a prayer, a song and hope.

Many thanks to Our Lady Rosary Makers, Claire in San Luis Obispo, Rosemary in San Leandro and Irene in Seattle who stocked the Servants of the Father of Mercy choir with 100s of rosaries to give out to the poor forgotten elderly at area nursing homes. In a matter of just a few days, the rosary makers responded in full force sending large boxes of their handiwork to give out this holiday season. As the choir made the rounds and sang Sunday 5:30pm Christmas concerts at Twin Pines, Santa Paula, Treacy Villa, Ventura and Cypress Place, Ventura - Claudia’s 11 year old daughter Cynthia and 5 year old Valerie went bed to bed, room to room and made sure everyone received their hand made gift. It did not matter if a person was Catholic, Protestant or confused, everyone gladly grasped onto the crucifix and many hung the rosaries about their head as if it was a million dollar necklace. These nights, now they have no doubt slept in heavenly peace.

God uses all things for the good, doesn’t he? Because of sudden and unexplainable changes, the Servants of the Father of Mercy choir were recently dismissed after four years of leading Sunday 10am Mass worship. However, the hardworking all volunteer choir of 14 + with singers and instrumentalists are now freed up to spend their time singing for the elderly, the homeless, lost and broken. There will be no unemployment here, the need is eternally great. As the Christmas Holidays come to an end soon, the choir is getting geared up to go on tour to area nursing homes again in February with God “love songs” in celebration of Valentine’s Day. Handmade Valentine’s Day cards will be gifted to the elderly upoon arrival. The choir is also planning free concerts in the park for the homeless this summer.

Would you or someone you know like to join the band? The Servants of the Father of Mercy choir is currently in need of more singers of all ages, families, electric guitar player, violin, flute, brass and more. Email us at Contact@ServantsoftheFather.org and make a difference in someone’s life with your voice and musical talent.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

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Mixed Messages

Christmas is about poverty, isn’t it? We all know the story – the poor Christ child, born in a barn, no room for him in the inn, he left his wealth in paradise and became one like us. How did Christmas ever become the season of wealth? We all know the story – black Friday, Christmas shopping, biggest retail season of the year, buying gifts and going into credit card debt.

The prophet Isaiah speaks above the noisy hoards . . .

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1

Christ’s soon coming is good news to those who are aware of their poverty, brokenness and emptiness. For them, Christmas is a cause of rejoicing. However, for those who are perishing in their pride and arrogance, who are filled with self-importance and possessions, it spells eternal loss. What is up is down and every valley will be raised and every mountain made low.

Isaiah thunders . . . For this is what the high and exalted One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is crushed and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the hearts of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
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The Continuing Poverty of the First Christmas: Forgotten, Neglected and Scorned

By St. Bridget

I am the Creator of heaven and earth, one in divinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I am he who spoke to the prophets and the patriarchs, the one whom they awaited. For the sake of their longing and in accordance with my promise, I took flesh without sin, without human relations, entering the body of the Virgin like the sun shining through the clearest crystal. The sun does not damage the glass by entering it, nor was the Virgin's virginity lost when I took my human nature. I took flesh but without surrendering my divinity. I was no less God, ruling and filling all things with the Father and the Holy Spirit, although I, with my human nature, was in the womb of the Virgin. Brightness is never separated from fire, nor was my divinity ever separated from my humanity, not even in death. Next I willed for my pure and sinless body to be wounded from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head for the sins of all men, and to be hung on the cross. It is now offered each day on the altar in order that people might love me more and call to mind my favors more frequently.

Now, however, I am totally forgotten, neglected and scorned, like a king cast out of his own kingdom in whose place a wicked thief has been elected and honored. I wanted my kingdom to be within the human person, and by right I should be king and lord over him, since I made him and redeemed him. Now, however, he has broken and profaned the faith he promised me at baptism. He has violated and rejected the laws I set up for him. He loves his self-will and scornfully refuses to listen to me. Besides, he exalts that most wicked thief, the devil, above me and pledges him his faith. The devil really is a thief, since, by evil temptations and false promises, he steals for himself the human soul that I redeemed with my own blood. It is not because he is more powerful, as it were, than I am that he is able to steal it, since I am so powerful that I can do all things by a single word, and I am so just that I would not commit the least injustice, not even if all the saints asked me to. However, since man, who has been given free will, voluntarily scorns my commandments and consents to the devil, then it is only just that he should also experience the devil's tyranny. The devil was created good by me but fell through his own wicked will and has, as it were, become my servant for inflicting retribution on the wicked. Although I am now so despised, nevertheless I am still so merciful that I will forgive the sins of any who ask for my mercy and who humble themselves, and I shall free them from the evil thief. But I shall visit my justice upon those who persist in holding me in contempt, and hearing it they will tremble and those who experience it will say: 'Alas, that we were ever born or conceived, alas, that we ever provoked the Lord of majesty to wrath!' (The Revelations of St. Bridget, Book One – Chapter 1)
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Preparing a Home for the Poor Homeless Lord this Christmas

By St. Bridget

I stand before [you] like a visitor saying: 'Friend, supply the basic needs that I lack, and you will receive the greatest reward from God!' But in return for my sheeplike simplicity they drive me away as if I were a wolf lying in wait for the master's sheep. Instead of hospitality they affront me like a traitor unworthy of hospitality and refuse to take me in. But what will the rejected visitor do? Should he bring out arms against the householder who drives him away? By no means. That would not be just, since the owner can give or deny his property to whomever he wants.

What, then, will the visitor do? He should certainly say to the one rejecting him: 'Friend, since you do not want to take me in, I will go to another who will take pity on me.' And, going to another person, he hears from him: 'You are welcome, sir, all that I have is yours. May you be the lord now! I will be your servant and guest.' Those are the kind of lodgings I like to stay in, where I hear such a voice. I am like the visitor rejected by men. Although I can enter any place whatsoever by virtue of my power, still, under the dictates of justice, I only enter where people receive me with a good will as their true Lord, not as a guest, and surrender their own will into my hands.” (The Revelations of St. Bridget, Book One – Chapter 48)

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Just in Time for Christmas Giving - The Afterlife Comes to Help the Homeless - Check it Out!

How to Find Meaning in Suffering

By Victor Frankl
Composed while prisoner of a Nazi death camp, Auschwitz

Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself – be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself . . .

In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as a meaning of sacrifice . . . In accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment, and it retains this meaning literally to the end . . . My comrades’ . . . [Their] question was, “Will we survive the camp? For, if not, all this suffering has no meaning.” The question that beset me was, “Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance – as whether one escapes or not – ultimately would not be worth living at all”.
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A, B, C, D, F?

Just as the commercialism of Christmas season can in its very nature deter the Christian from seeing Christ in Christmas, so too the business of our daily lives can lead us to forget to seek Jesus in the poor. Of course, we rely on our local church, pastors and leaders to help keep us focused.

Recently a new poll was launched. The following question is asked: Jesus commands us to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty. How would you grade your local church's "report card" in this regard?

Please scroll down to near the bottom of this main page and cast your vote. Participate in this and all the Homeless In America polls. Your opinion counts!
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The Holy Humility of the Common Poor

By Caryll Houselander

Other mothers, seeing such singular gifts that Christ must have had, such gifts of mind and body, such skill and such brilliance of thought, would surely have fretted if such a son had not shown more ambition, had not made a name for himself. Why be a humble carpenter? For example, with his ability, and his imagination, he could become a famous wood sculptor. Another mother would have complained that so brilliant a boy could surely better himself and her family fortune at the same time! Had she not seen with her own eyes that even the proud Rabbis were awed and silenced by his uncanny wisdom? Was it not the duty of such a son to provide a little comfort for his mother’s old age?

But for Mary of Nazareth, it was enough that her Son was about his Father’s work. That is what he had said and his word was good enough for her. She knew that if he chose to be a poor working boy, absorbed in his trade, putting all that was in him into his humble job as an ordinary woodworker, if he was content and proud to bring home his laborer’s pay towards their daily bread, then most certainly that was God’s work. “He has put down the mighty from their seats and hath exalted the humble.”

He obeyed her because he trusted her, because she never resisted the Holy Spirit by whom she had conceived him, because she was passionately devoted to the will of God, because she loved the world. Her values were his values. Their own miracle went on, and it went on as mysteriously and secretly as a pure bright stream running underground. Just as Christ had received God’s love from Mary in his infancy, now he did God’s will in the little acts of obedience that filled the loveliness of their lives between the loss in the Temple and the temptation in the wilderness.

Caryll Houselander (+ 1954) was a British mystic, poet and spiritual teacher.
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Wealth, Seduction and Happiness

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mt. 19:21

We must take care to guard against greed, for though one may be rich, life does not consist of possessions, Jesus warns us in Luke 12:15. Our happiness lies in God alone. Those who are rich in goods and prestige would do well to devote all they have to the service of the Lord. Seduced by money and fame? Better yet, become seduced by the riches of the Gospel. Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Mt. 19:23-26
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