Happy Thanksgiving!

We are ready to feed 400 guests today at the Inn a dinner of turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, cornbread and pie. Later today, the permanent team will be having their own meal. Thea has to prepare the turkey and Mark is making mashed potatoes.
We have so much to be grateful for this day. We are thankful for each other and all of our family members. We are so appreciative of our friends, especially those of you who have sent cards or commented on our blogs. Your prayers and words of encouragement have meant so much to us. We are thankful for the team here and all they have done to welcome us, to be patient with us as we make mistakes, and show us what it means to live simply with the poor.
This morning at Mass, after the homily, a guest named Rhonda told everyone how grateful she was to God who had helped her through her addiction, healed her when she was expected to die from a gunshot wound to the head, and brought her to an existence where she no longer lived on the street. Her testimony was powerful and pointed to the goodness of God and her total reliance on Him. Both of us were humbled by Rhonda's absolute trust in God's mercy and goodness. Everything we have and are comes from God; for Him we are most thankful.

Pink Footed Goose

Lest you think that our lives here are all work and no fun, I (Mark)am here to correct that misconception. Thea and I have had lots of outings to local museums, parks, gardens, and some (inexpensive!) restaurants. However, without a doubt, our most fun outings have been to "chase" new birds. We are on a number of list serves which report rare bird sightings in all of the northeastern states from Delaware north to Maine and even southern Canada. Thea or I check them every day to see if there is a bird of interest reported, and if it is nearby, we drive out to try to find it. So far, we have added 8 new species to our life list and are now up to 658 North American birds (target: 700 before we die!!).

Our latest "chase" was last Saturday. We had planned to go to a local park on our day off, but on the morning list serve for New York, Thea found a report of a single Pink Footed Goose (that's the species' actual name -- I am not making this up!)from the Sunken Garden State Park on Long Island. This is about a three hour drive from Philly, and before you think that we are absolutely crazy, let me say that the same bird had been report two other times in recent weeks at the very same location, always mixed in with flocks of Canada Geese. So, we knew that this Goose was probably staying around for the winter, or at least for a while.

It was already pretty late for us (8:30 AM), and so we quickly changed plans, packed a lunch, filled the car with gas and headed to New York. The route took us through Northern New Jersey up the Turnpike, past Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and finally onto the Long Island Parkway. We arrived at the state park at 11:30 and immediately saw a group of about 100 Canada Geese and began scanning them for one with pink legs and feet. No luck -- these were all regular Canada Geese. Since the Pink Footed Goose had also been seen on the athletic fields at a nearby high school, we drove there. Even worse luck: there were no birds at all on the fields. Disappointed, we drove back to the Sunken Gardens Park and began a systematic search of the area. We ran into several other groups of birders, also looking for the Goose. Together we scanned group after group of Canda Geese with no results.

Why, you ask, are we and all these other people looking for this one bird? Well, the Pink Footed Goose nests in eastern GREENLAND and is only very rarely seen in the US. The American Birding Association ranks birds from one to six in order of their difficulty to see. The "sixes" are mostly extinct; the fives have been reported in North America, perhaps, a single time. The Pink Footed Goose is ranked as a "four". Thus, this sighting is a moderately big deal in the birding world: over the course of the morning and early afternoon, Thea and I ran into people from New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania who were also searching for this one goose.

By 1:30 PM, we (collectively) still had not found anything and Thea and I decided to try the high school again. This time, we really combed the place, pulling into restricted parking lots and even the bus maintenance facilities so we could get good looks at ALL of the athletic fields. Still no birds. By 2:00, our hope was fading, but we decided to try one more time at Sunken Gardens before heading home. As we approached the park office, we noticed that there was a large group of Canada Geese in the field to the left. More interesting was the fact that one of the birding couples (from New York) that we encountered during the morning was scanning the flock carefully. We watched as another car, presumably with other birders, rolled up to the flock, paused for a moment and then moved on. Thea and I figured that this meant that there was no Pink Footed Goose in flock and, mindful of the three hour drive back to Philly, went to the park's rest room, before leaving to come home.

Exiting the rest room, we decided to go over and scan the flock "just in case", noticing that a small group of new birds had just flown in to join the flock. As we approached and got out our binoculars, we saw that the couple from New York were wildly waving exitedly and pointing. Sure enough, there in the midst of, perhaps, 200 Canada Geese was a single Pink Footed Goose. Despite the humorous name, the Goose is really beautiful. It is the size of Canada Goose but browner with a delicate white edging to its feathers. The beak is stubby and a beautfiul shade of pink at its base, and the bird's legs and feet are (indeed) bright pink.

We stayed for another 30 minutes reveling in the bird that was a thousand miles off its migratory path. As we drove home, Thea and I relived the excitement of finding the bird, against pretty steep odds. In talking with the other birders from New York, we found out that the Pink Footed Goose had flown in with the last group of birds, just as Thea and I exited the restroom.

The moral of the story: in birding as in life, persistence pays, and sometimes, you need a little luck too!!

By the way, while we were watching the bird, the folks from Texas and New Jersey also showed up, and so everyone got to see the Goose!

"...by sharing in their struggle for justice."

The third ministry guideline of the St. Francis Inn says "we wish to make a special effort to serve our sisters and borthers by sharing in their struggle for justice." Feeding and clothing the poor is essential, but in an ideal world there would be no need for the St. Francis Inn. Mark and I want to spend some of our time here learning how to have real change in our society, not just short-term solutions.
We have not been very successful tapping into the groups in the Philadelphia area that promote justice and systemic change. However, there is a Catholic Worker House in our neighborhood, and in addition to running the free medical clinic on our street, the Catholic Workers at this house work with immigration, peace issues and have an outreach clinic in Haiti. Last week we attended a talk by two of the Workers, Katie and Johanna, as well as Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. Bishop Gumbleton is familiar to many because of his work with Pax Christi USA and Bread for the World, as well as being a frequent columnist for NCR. It was a thrill to meet him, as well as hear about the clinic. Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere, with 80% of the people making less than $2.00 per day. The clinic began at the request of a Catholic priest in Cite Soleil, the huge slum in the capital. The group decided the way to make systemic change was to train "health agents" who would do low-tech education and wellness strategies. They talk to their neighbors about handwashing and boiling water. They distribute mosquito nets and ibuprofen. Pretty simple compared to western medicine, but even these simple techniques yield big results.
Monday we skipped our own community meal and went to the Catholic Worker House for a roundtable discussion with Bishop Gumbleton. In September he was part of a group that visited northern Iraq. He was hosted by Chaldean Catholics, and spoke to both Christians and Muslims about life in the Kurdish north. Most of what he said was familiar to us, such as the desire of the Kurds for an autonomous state, but it was interesting to hear him talk about some of the internal peace initiatives that were not being brokered by the U.S. or United Nations. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of time for questions and answers, and both Mark and I had many questions we wanted to ask. We will continue to look for opportunities such as these during our stay in Philadelphia.

A Thing as Lovely as a Tree

One of the things Mark and I miss the most is our yard. We love to sit on our screened porch, watching the birds at our feeders, saying hello to our wonderful neighbors, and glorying in the many trees in our yard through the seasons. Most of our neighborhood is treeless. Today I had the opportunity to make that change by planting trees throughout our zipcode area. Through a variety of groups and grants from the state horticultural association, 75 trees were planted along the sidewalks in our area. I met some really neat young people, including the president of our neighborhood association. Young people are moving into our neighborhood, buying their first homes, and fixing up the neglected rental properties. It makes the neighborhood safer and stronger. I was able to talk to them about the Inn and our guests and how we might all work together to make the neighborhood cleaner and more cohesive. While it was not direct service to the poor, I hope that by making the environment more natural, those who live here will feel more in touch with the One who created it all.

"Why me, God? Why not someone else's child?"

Yesterday evening I was assigned the job of office person, and Mark was the coordinator for the evening meal. About 5:30 a woman named Desiree came up to Mark and made an unintelligible statement, and then burst into tears. Mark ushered her into the office. We managed to learn that her 5 year old son Matthew had died in a car accident last Friday. The boy's father had been driving under the influence, had not put a seat belt on the boy, and the car had crashed into something, sending Matthew flying through the windshield.
Since the office had people in it waiting to use the phone and get mail, I suggested that I take Desiree upstairs to a more private place. I offered her the use of the chapel, and she asked if I would pray with her. I felt utterly helpless, not knowing what words I could offer that could in any way help her pain. I prayed that God would hold her son for her, and that she would feel peace, knowing Matthew was happy in heaven. She calmed down and added her own prayer, but then wailed out, "Why me, God? Why not some other mother's son?" I told her it was okay to be angry with God, that He did not make this happen, but she might feel like she was being punished in some way. I also told her that God loved her and would help her through this grief. We also spoke of practical things: did she have any friends or family she could stay with, did she have a social worker helping her with the funeral expenses and grief counseling, etc. Desiree went back and forth between violent sobbing, and rational planning. All I could really do was put my arm around her, cry with her, and be present to her. Finally, she said she was ready to leave, and went home. The funeral for her little boy is Friday morning. Please keep Desiree in your prayers.

Group Support

Serving a meal at the Inn requires the work of a large number of people. We are blessed with an abundance of local volunteers who come on a weekly or monthly basis and act as servers, bussers, dishwashers and cooks for the meals. In addition, there are groups that come from far away parishes, such as Canton, Massachusetts or New Hampshire on a regular basis, stay for a weekend or more, and help out. We have housing on the block for groups of 8-10 individuals. Last week we had a group arrive from St. Francis of Assisi parish in Raleigh, NC. Mark and I have visited that parish on several occasions and attended a hunger conference there last February, so we had a connection with the group. Several members of the group were engaged in the Just Faith program at the parish; others had seen the announcement in the bulletin and were interested in serving at an inner city soup kitchen for a few days.
It is a positive experience for me when we have a group come for a few days. First of all, it allows others the chance to serve in a way that they might not be able to in a more affluent setting. The enthusiasm of the group rubs off on us and makes us more attuned to the guests and their needs. I was particularly happy to have two women from the group go with me to St. Benedict's Thrift Shop and assist the guests, especially the men, who were in need of coats, shoes and pants. When I am at the shop, I cannot leave the front desk area because I am the only one allowed to handle the money. So often people come in, want something, but will leave saying that there is not anything in their size. By having extra volunteers present, customers were able to find the things they needed in their size. Finally, this group came while the Team was on retreat. The ten people from St.Francis could be used at the meal to help replace the ten Team members who were gone.
The sheets were barely dry, and another group arrived, this time from Bonaventure College in New York. I believe that these groups get much more than they give when they spend time here in Kensington.

The Most Unwanted Guests

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness. In comparison, only 6% of Americans are severely mentally ill (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). In a 2008 survey performed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 25 cities were asked for the three largest causes of homelessness in their communities. Mental illness was the third largest cause of homelessness for single adults (mentioned by 48% of cities). For homeless families, mental illness was mentioned by 12% of cities as one of the top 3 causes of homelessness.

Here at St. Francis Inn, there are guests who are mentally ill. Some of these come daily to our meals, get toiletries, clothing vouchers and are shown respect and kindness. Some function well enough with medication that they can pay bills, have housing and lead fairly normal lives. Others are so ill that they are disruptive in their behaviors, end up in jails (where there are high populations of the mentally ill), or are easy victims for more lawless individuals.

Our first encounter with such a guest was "Jaime." "Jaime" stands on the street corner a good part of the day and reads loudly from the Bible. As he reads, he also reads out the name of the punctuation in the sentence, such as "Let there be light period." Other guests were disturbed by his reading during the meals, so he has been asked to come by at meal time and get a dinner "to go." He often attends daily Mass, and will comment on the homily. He is a veteran, has been institutionalized and often makes comments that seem much saner than many of the people who are "in charge" in this country.
Another guest is "Deacon." One of the first days that I was working at the Inn, the doorbell rang and a very nicely dressed man asked timidly if we had a pen and paper he could have. I knew there were school supplies being collected upstairs, but I felt I needed to ask the coordinator if I were allowed to take something. Sister Mary said that "Deacon" was ill, and thought he was writing a book. He sits on the corner and writes all day long in his notebook. When one looks at what he has written, it is gibberish. Once he fills up a notebook, he starts with a new one. "Deacon" is under a doctor's care, and we keep a pill counter with his weekly pills in our kitchen. When he comes for his meal, we also give him his daily allotment of pills.
"Bettie" is another guest who is tormented by inner demons. She is a beautiful, tall, willowy woman, who could pass for a runway model. However, she is continually walking about, talking out loud to the voices she hears in her head. She sometimes asks to use the phone, will dial a number, quickly leave a message, then hang up. She has family somewhere, but doesn't seem to want to stay with them. She appears very vulnerable and when she disappears for a few days, I worry that some harm has befallen her.
Because these people are not a threat to themselves or others, they are not institutionalized unless they wish to be. They could benefit from counseling and medication, but lack of transportation, funding and mental health workers or concerned family members/friends keep them from getting the services they need. We can only be a stopgap, taking care of their most basic physical needs like food and clothing. These people are the truly marginalized in our society, through no fault of their own, and deserve the same help we would extend to a person ill from cancer or diabetes.

The Museum in Heaven -- what would you put on exhibit?

Yesterday at Mass, Fr. Michael gave a homily on the Widow's Mite gospel. He made the usual points about giving out of our want rather than just from our excess, etc. and then moved on to what I found to be a fascinating "sidebar". He said that if there were a "Museum in Heaven", he was certain that the Widow's mite would be one of the exhibits -- because these three coins represented what Jesus wants our attitude to be about material possessions. Fr. Michael also thought that the alabaster jar of aromatic oil that the women broke to anoint Jesus' feet and the glass used by the righteous to give water to Jesus "When I was thirsty" would also be key exhibits. Obviously, as a former museum director, I found this whole line of thought compelling, and I began reflecting on what I would include in this heavenly exhibition if I were the Curator. What would I think were the essential objects needed to tell the story of Christ's life on earth?

The centerpiece of my Museum in Heaven would certainly be a piece of the Calvary cross, the physical place where Jesus sacrified His life for our salvation. I would also include one of the linens that was left behind in the tomb -- perhaps the head cloth would be best, to represent His resurrection, the key experience of hope for all Christians. To represent the miracles, I would probably choose one of the large jugs that Jesus used to change water into wine at Cana, and a facsimile of the drawing that Jesus traced in the dirt in front of the woman caught in adultery.
From Christ's early life, there would be the manger from his birthplace, some tools from Joseph's carpenter's shop, and perhaps a piece of bright cloth from the caravan that Jesus left when he returned to the temple to begin learning about his Father's business, to the distress of his poor parents who didn't know where he went.
To represent the apostles, I would exhibit one of the fishing nets that Peter and his partners left when they first were recruited by Jesus, and the pouch containing the 30 silver pieces that Judas used to betray Jesus. For His battles with the Pharises, I would include the scroll that Jesus read from when he spoke in the temple for the first time and declared: "Today this reading (the coming of the Messiah) is fulfilled in your presence", and some of the wheat which His desciples threshed by hand on Sabbath, in violation of the strict Jewish law. And finally, I would include a copy of that Jewish Law itself, all 600+ tenets and juxtapose this to Jesus' law of the two great commandments to love God and love your neighbor.

As I read this list, I am struck by how small this exhibition would be! Jesus didn't leave behind many physical traces, or is my list here too limited? What you YOU include in the "Museum in Heaven's" artifact list?

Visit to Amish Country

We were short-staffed for 4 days this week while some of the full-time workers were on retreat. So Mark had to do pick-ups for 3 of 4 days, and Thea had to be the assistant cook for 2 days. Both cooks made soup, so Thea's job entailed chopping endless numbers of potatoes, onions and peppers one day and snapping green beans for 2 hours on another. It was with real relief that we had today free. Thea's former student, Brenda Sallee, is working in Reading, and suggested we contact her and she would take us around Lancaster County. There are about 37,000 Old Order Amish (drive horse and buggy), other Amish (drive cars ) and Old Order Mennonites (no cars) that live in the county. We went to a hand-twisted pretzel factory, a quilt museum, and drove down the small 1 lane roads through the orderly farms of the Amish and Mennonites. We saw a man drive with his daughter in a buggy to Walmart, where they have buggy parking for the Amish. We also were amused by watching a carriage go through the "drive-through window" of a bank. The weather was sunny and about 50 degrees, so it was a perfect day for a ride in the country. We enjoyed a lunch at a country restaurant, served family style. We sampled homemade sausages, ham loaf, potato stuffing and shoo-fly pie. It was only a little over an hour from our home to Lancaster County, yet we felt like we were in another era.

Philadelphia Strikes Out

This posting is not about baseball, although the Phillys did lose to the NY Yankees in the 6th game of the World Series. The strike I am referring to is the SEPTA strike; these are the workers that keep the buses, trollies and subway/el train running. The strike began in the middle of the night Monday after the baseball game ended. Commuters coming in on the light rail were shocked to reach the subway and find it was not running. There are 35,000 public school children who use public transportation to get to school, and thousands more who attend private/parochial schools who walked, biked, skateboarded or found a car ride to school.
Apparently when the new contracts are negotiated every 4 years, terms are not met and the strike occurs. The length has varied from just a few days to 100 days. So how is the SEPTA strike affecting St. Francis Inn? One of the most obvious is the low numbers of senior citizens who are coming to eat. We had less than 50 seniors last night, compared to our usual 100. Since seniors can ride the buses for free, many of our guests who live more than a mile away depend on the buses to get them to the Inn. Likewise, we have had several of our most dependable daytime volunteers call in and say they could not come and help. The last two days there have been only 2 or 3 of us who have prepared the food, taking most of the 6 hours we have available before mealtime. The roads are in gridlock, because commuters are being forced to drive to work rather than take mass transit. As a result, pickups of the bread and baked goods are taking longer.
The strike has brought out the worst in people.There are all sorts of stories of road rage, motorists and cyclists battling out space, and people getting up at 3 am to make the commute. There are stories of kindness,too. A man told me this morning he was driving home yesterday and saw some elderly people standing on the street corner. He thought maybe they didn't know about the strike. So he rolled his window down and asked them if they knew the buses weren't running. They replied they were waiting for a cab as they had to go to the hospital. It turned out that the hospital was close to his home, and he ended up driving the couple to their destination.
We hope that a just mediation of the contract will occur very soon.

The Ties That Bind

When Mark and I first discussed giving a year of service after retirement, we considered going outside the U.S., perhaps with the Peace Corps or Franciscan Mission Service. Our younger daughter, who had recently produced our first grandchild, was appalled. How could we go off for one or two years, missing out on all the landmark events of a young child? For that reason and various others, we amended our search to locations east of the Mississippi.
In the past 3 weeks, we have been thankful we did. First, our second grandchild arrived, two weeks early, and I was able to go down to Athens, Ga and assist our daughter Andrea with little Katie. Right before I was to leave, our daughter Angela called, quite distraught, because her son Cade had H1N1 flu, and she had been unable to get the vaccine. Since she is pregnant, this was a matter of concern. Mark was prepared to get in the car and drive 8 hours to Raleigh to take care of the boy. However, the other grandparents generously drove from Hickory to get him and kept him the remainder of the week. Thankfully, Angela did not have any symptoms of the flu.
It is all well and good for us to care for the people of Philadelphia, but our first priority has to be to our family. Several of the people who are long time volunteers at the Inn have taken leave of absence to care for ill parents or other relatives. I can understand better the sacrifice priests, religious and lay missioners make when they go far away from home and family for several years at a time. Likewise, those members of the armed forces who are serving overseas are making a great sacrifice. Our nephew Will is currently serving in Iraq, and was unable to attend his brother's wedding last Friday. He called from Iraq and was able to speak to many family members. We were happy to hear his voice, but will be happier when he returns to us safe and sound.