"If you are Homeless, I am Praying for you"

In regards to A Thanksgiving Table Prayer (see, Wedensday, November 21, 2007) it resonated with some and even passed along and shared with others...

IB said... "What a beautiful prayer! I love the part about being troubled by those who have more instead of those who have less. It quickly puts things in perspective and really resonated with me."

C.B. said... "Thank you for sharing! God bless us all!" Anonymous writes... "Thank you for the beautiful prayer!"

M.P. said... "And to all those [homeless at library computers] reading this: if you are homeless, I am praying for you ..I hope and I pray that you will be blessed today and always...and perhaps we'll meet soon."

O Come, Emmanuel

Isaiah 57:15
"Thus says He who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One: On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed."

Jesus Christ the Word of God, Emmanuel, "God is with us." He was coming, He is coming, and Maranatha! He will come again. Whenever he comes, He comes to dwell among the poor, the lowly, the broken-hearted, and the crushed in spirit, bringing peace and healing to all the wounded.

Garden Roots

Could it be that the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve being driven from it (because of sin) is actually a parable of everyone’s perpetual homelessness? At one time these two characters in the story had a home. It was a nice home at that. However, being home was less about the beautiful Garden than it was about the sense of fulfillment, being at peace with the "family" they were experiencing as they lived in harmony with God as their Creator. The beautiful surroundings they enjoyed were simply sumptuous exterior signs of a lavish and peaceful interior reality they were experiencing every moment of every day. They were living the magical film about being home, “White Christmas” but actually relishing the real version of being home – not the Hollywood version.

Consider the fact that each of us is at the very least is psychologically “homeless.” Each of us lives with unanswered questions, a restlessness, an unfulfilled longing that translates into insatiable obsessions, compulsions and searches that leave us unfulfilled. Each of us is definitely psychologically homeless (damaged) and many of us are physically homeless too. No matter, all of us are homeless one way or another – all are related – brothers and sisters – hobos together. That is until like Augustine we say, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

Possibly then, this ancient story of being disbarred from Garden paradise is telling us that because of disobedience we have been ousted from our homeland – our heritage, our true roots, our big family and our home. As a result, we will always be pilgrims, always nomads – vagabonds until each makes the journey back to God – back to obedience with His will.

The Garden Eden of account in this disbarring “home-to-homeless” light begins to explain our Holy Longing as Ronald Rolheiser explains it in his book by the same name. In fact, all through history we are aware of people after people, nation after nation repeating this very same story. Once they were no people – then they became a people. Peoples were lost, found and then became sojourners once again – especially when a nation sinned in grave ways. So sin seems to be the deciding factor that helps keep us as individuals and nations on the run. Like in the Garden, it gets us easily kicked out from what we thought was home.

This is the very same story of the Jews in the desert. They lose their home in 70 A.D and never get it back. It is also the story of the Persians, Greeks, the Romans, the American Indian. Will it eventually be the story of America too?

Getting kicked out does not just happen to peoples and nations. It is also the story of every human being. Our story begins with birth in a home. Later, we leave home, go to college, etc. and become homeless. At this point in our your lives we begin to always search for our roots – lonely and restless – even to the point of depression, compulsion, ADD, ADHD, etc.

Homelessness is at the heart of the human condition and it can never be fixed until each turns their heart, their focus and wills back to God. When that is done, each is flooded with feelings of peace, solitude and rest. Then we are inundated with a sense that we belong – we have arrived. Each enters into the communion of the saints – our true family heritage. We begin to live with all those who have gone before us and who ever will – all those who also have turned to God and found home. It is in this light that each finds our family, our roots, our homeland. We find eternal rest.

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"God has Sent us the Spirit of Adoption ... whereas we cry, 'Abba Father'"

Today’s blog comes with news about Elijah and Jen, a missionary couple all the way down south in Antarctica. This past week they obediently answered a call to rescue a family of seven children from the threat of homelessness when their parents were tragically lost in a car accident. They work in Christian ministry near the South Pole Station of McMurdo (photo). Daily, the couple risks their lives while visiting community members in sub zero conditions (50 below +). They bring Christ and pastoral ministry to scientific team members and support staff working in this isolated and desolate part of the world.

The Lord recently brought to Elijah and Jennifer Maxwell an unexpected twist into their lives. Elijah writes, “Many of the supplies here at McMurdo are flown in from Argentina and Jennifer and I have been keeping in contact with a church there in Buenos Aires, the capital city. This past month we received sad news about one of the families in the church. The mother and father were tragically killed in an automobile accident, leaving behind seven children. After much prayer, Jennifer and I felt the Lord wanted us to adopt them and we finally completed all of the paperwork. We are flying out to Buenos Aires this next weekend to bring the kids back to McMurdo.” The new additions to their family are Stephen (13), Matt (12), Jessica (10), Franklin (9), Kitty (7), Ben (5), and Tommy (3).

Thinking about their heroic decision, it is remarkable as to how Elijah and Jennifer are doing the same for Stephen, Matt, Jessica, Franklin, Kitty, Ben, and Tommy as God the Father has done for us. Out of nowhere – when all of us were “homeless” while we were orphans he made us His adopted children through, by and in Christ. They are beautiful models of showing mercy to the children as we have been shown mercy by God the Father. (Romans 8:14-17, Ephesians 1:5-10, Galatians 4:4-7) The real tears in their story are not from recounting the death of the parents (they are in heaven and so we rejoice) but tears of joy that out of nowhere Elijah and Jennifer stepped up to the sacrifice – to the commitment of adopting all seven children. The children are now one family again with roots – a mother, a father and a home. A beautiful model of God’s mercy to all of humankind they have become. Please pray for wisdom and strength as the couple transitions into parenthood. We take this opportunity to celebrate with them all of our adoptions by the Father who has rescued us from eternal homelessness.

____

More on the Internet

Blog: http://www.lighttothesouth.blogspot.com/

Web Page: http://antarctic.light.googlepages.com/

Malibu Burning

Homelessness does not show Favoritism

Losing one's home is an unexpected plight of both the poor and rich alike. Take the picturesque seaside village of Malibu, California, for instance. Although home to the rich and famous, it is receiving yet another round of wildfires, instantly forcing many who normally live in paradise into desolate conditions. It has been a weekend of calamity! Hot, powerful winds fanned blazes across 4,720 acres starting early Saturday morning. Fifty homes and two buildings were destroyed on Saturday. Twenty-seven other homes were damaged and 10,000 to 14,000 people were evacuated. All of this in the wake of last month's 4,565-acre Canyon Fire that destroyed six homes, two businesses and a church, (see More than 500,000 found Homeless or Worse, Tuesday October 23, 2007). Malibu is prone to Santa Ana-driven wildfires. In 1993, a blaze destroyed 388 structures, including 268 homes, and killed three people.

Since homelessness does not show favoritism, shouldn’t our mercy and compassion reach out to all those who are homeless – regardless of their income bracket? The Malibu fires have become a reminder - “blessed are the merciful”, when they need mercy it will be shown to them as well. Possibly those of us who are wealthy can take a moment in times like this to reassess our response to the homeless around us and consider helping them in more aggressive and tangible ways. As discovered in Malibu this past weekend, we never know when we ourselves may be in a position in life to need the mercy of others to work through our own homeless conditions.

A Bing Crosby Holiday

Bing Crosby sang hope-filled songs about home and even grew the nostalgia into a hit film, White Christmas. But, anthropologists tell us that home is not only place, but it is also about kinship. It is about having both a place in time as well as enjoying a psychological bonding in familial relationships. Unfortunately, since the 1960s - the dawn of the commercial jet age, Americans have progressively lost a personal sense of their family’s homestead, kinship and homeland. The Boeing 747, then later the computer, Internet and digital ages jettisoned us into a world of transience and future shock. Jobs, careers, people, places, houses, apartments, knowledge and things now move through our lives at an alarming rate. Sinking roots into one place is no accident that many find difficult to achieve.

More and more, Americans are suffering from emotional homelessness and in some cases physical as well. Fr. Rolheiser in his book, Against an Infinite Horizon states, “When we have no place to identify with, no roots to drink from, no tree trunk to give us clear direction, it is no accident that on any given day we can sincerely wonder who we really are, what our values are … and which of our seeming multiple personalities is our true one. From lack of home we suffer schizophrenia, dislocation, and much loneliness, both psychologically and morally. “

In the 21st century, still many long for the fulfillment of Bing Crosby’s song “I’ll be home for Christmas” because it speaks to their roots. The reality is that most will never be mentally home for the Holidays (because of arguments and discord) – and others still will never be really home because of actual physical homelessness. In either case, mental or physical, the end result is the same – loneliness, depression, anxiety and restlessness.

What is the good news in all this? Is there any? Most definitely, yes! It is our very homeless condition that God uses to call us to Himself. Our roots, our homeland and the rest that we seek in our agitated aloneness are ultimately found when in our desolation we are filled by being in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Twelve distinct times our Lord Jesus said, "I Am," with reference to Himself. He said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, I am the resurrection, Before Abraham I am, I am the bread of life, I am the light, I am from above …” How much more do we need to hear? Jesus is clearly telling each of us, "Come to me" (to no one else and nothing else) because, “I am your home.”

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HIA is on Holidays and returns to publishing on Monday.

A Thanksgiving Table Prayer

A Thanksgiving Table Prayer

Let us pray ... O God, Source of all that makes life possible, Giver of all that makes life good: We pray now to give thanks, yet we confess that we have often failed to live our thankfulness. What we have, we take for granted, and we grumble about what we lack. We have squandered your bounty, with little thought for those who will come after us. We are troubled by the few who have more than by the many who have less. Forgive us, O God. In this moment of prayer, accept our thanksgiving; and teach us to make gratitude and sharing our way of life. Amen

In this Season of Thanksgiving, some have asked, "How can I help?"

It is estimated that there are 74,000 homeless children, teens, women and men living on the streets of Los Angeles. You can help provide approximately 5,000 meals a month to our brothers and sisters in need. Your help also supports a special team reaching out to 500 homeless people living under bridges and in alleys - providing food, socks, jackets, blankets, jeans, t-shirts, water, soap, prayer cards and rosaries. Every donation helps - however great or small. Thank you for your compassion.

St. Peter's Church

1039 North Broadway

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Attn: Homeless in America - GJG

Food Pantries Stuggle with Shortages

Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Doug Whiteman in Columbus, Ohio, reported yesterday that free food banks say they are seeing more working people needing assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions. "I've been doing this for 20 years, and I can't believe how much worse it gets month after month," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.

People are working full-time, that's not the problem - they just can't afford to live. One customer, Diana Blasingame has lately found herself having to go to a free food pantry once a month to feed herself and her teenage daughter. "I'm pretty good at making things stretch as far as I can, but food is so high now and I have to have gas in my car to do my job," said Blasingame, 46, who earns $9 an hour as a home health aide. "I work full time, but I don't have health insurance and sometimes there just isn't enough to pay bills and buy food."

"We have food banks in virtually every city in the country, and what we are hearing is that they are all facing severe shortages with demand so high," Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network, the nation's largest hunger relief group, said Friday. "One of our food banks in Florida said demand is up 35 percent over this time last year."

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Come, Clothe Yourself with Compassion

"Compassion is something other than pity. Pity suggests distance, even a certain condesendence. [When] I give some money to a beggar on the streets of Toronto or New York City, but I do not look at him in the eyes, sit down with him or talk with him, I am really too busy to really pay attention to the man who reaches out to me. My money replaces my personal attention.

"Compassion means to become close to the one who suffers. But we can come close to another person only when we are willing to become vulnerable ourselves [and to admit to failures, brokenness and shortcomings]. This is perhaps, the main reason that we sometimes find it easier to show pity than compassion. The suffering person calls us to become aware of our own suffering. How can I respond to someone's loneliness unless I am in touch with my own experience of loneliness? How can I be close to handicapped people when I refuse to acknowledge my own handicaps? How can I be with the poor [and homeless] when I am unwilling to confess my own poverty?" by Henri Nouwen

More than 15 days of Homeless Woes for California – 30 Days of Woes Worldwide

Apocalyptic-style fires, floods and winds have recently left millions of global village citizens homeless. In an eerie wave of natural disasters, homelessness unexpectedly came knocking, striking nearly 3 million people worldwide in the past 30 days. From raging wildfires to churning floods and hurricane force winds - natural phenomena left few options for everyone caught in its path but to pray and to mourn their loss. From the very rich to the very poor, few could escape.

Here is a recap as to how homelessness suddenly overcame so many - so unexpectedly and in a very short amount of time:

On October 20, 2007, more than 15 days of woes were unleashed upon residents of Southern California. Nearly 1 million people experienced homeless conditions when wildfires swept through affluent real estate developments from Malibu to San Diego. The last fire was reportedly contained by November 9, 2007.

On November 2, 2007, similar woes were unleashed upon residents of Southern Mexico; but this time it was not by fire, but by water. Nearly 1 million people are still homeless from the worst floods ever in the state of Tabasco.

On November 17, 2007, Bangladesh experienced its worst cyclone since 1991. Winds, clocked at more than 150 mph shredded millions of tin homes and shacks in to rubble. 1 million are presently left homeless and destitute with no immediate housing solution available. More than three-thousand residents of this already impoverished country are dead.