Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time!
Soon to be (Saint) Carlo Aucutis
Saints Damien of Molokai; Francis, and Teresa of the Little Flower!
June 9, 2024
Same Energy
Luke 6:1-11
6 One Sabbath[a] while Jesus[b] was going through some grain fields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful[c] on the Sabbath?” 3 Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 How he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?” 5 Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
A River Runs Through It!
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Rereading “A River Runs Through It” during the summer feels like a spiritual retreat. Reading becomes a meditative practice, allowing me to pause and absorb the wisdom in Maclean’s words. The experiences of these characters with universal loss reflect universal truths about human existence.
Reading this book reminds me of the importance of patience, acceptance, and the beauty of life’s impermanence. The river’s flow teaches me to relinquish my need for control and trust in life’s natural progression.
People often ask personal questions seeking to understand why I live, and do my ministry; as I was once told, “You will be standing in the middle of railroad track with twenty trains coming at you,” (in the last year it has felt like a hundred, running me down!), and being asked personal questions, I simply rebel, because despite the thoughts my life is an open book to everyone it is not, and especially out of curiosity. My cousin being a scientist, and researching family history has asked questions that I have never wanted to talk about, and I snap, and so it goes. And I feel lousy, really lousy, for my purpose is to let the past be the past. I care about the present moment! In many ways, I am a very private person, especially since my public life is on display for judgment all the time.
Usually, I do not want to be questioned where there is no reason, for life is impermanent. And most of the time there are no black-and-white answers, in fact, in my life there are none.
Several aspects of life have shaped and molded me; At 15, I made a girl pregnant, she was moved out of town quietly until after the birth and adoption, and no one knew; my father had I am told multiple affairs, resulting from one was a young boy of color, whom when his mom died, my mother and I took him in when I was in seminary, one rainy night in a car accident with me, he died; moving to a new parish three years later, the very day, the man who was called the “town bully” was murdered in public, and no one saw one thing, no minister would have the funeral and I was warned it would very likely ruin my ministry in the community, I could do no other, my call is being a pastor regardless of who, which resulted in two and a half years of hell; and finally the whole process of coming out.
These events have been the catalyst of my trust in God. As Francis Thompson says in
The Hound of Heaven:
“I fled him down the nights and the days.
I fled him down the arches of the years.
all which thy child’s mistake. Thou savest me.”
I do not believe in God, for beliefs change but in, the God I KNOW, who never lets anyone go. I believe in the God who in Jesus walks among the poor, the disenfranchised, and all rejected by society without judgment, and loves, loves, and loves! And when God loves us, we can do no other but love without judgment!
Easy to love–ha!ha!ha!–let me tell you a little secret not one of us is easy to love, no not one!
And so I close with this poem by Drew Jackson, one that expresses with every fiber of my being my commitment to God, to life, and to ministry:
SAME ENERGY!
Put me in jail, then.
Throw me behind your religious bars
since you have dubbed me a breaker of your law.
I live my days in the courtroom of your criticism.
I move unbothered under the gaze of your gavel.
I have no interest in defending myself before your bench.
Go on, clench your fists, raise your voice to make your point.
Type the rebuke that you must make on my page.
Who asked you to come through anyway? Is this rage your duty?
We operate under a different set of obligations and get worked up to frustration for different reasons,
even though we both claim fidelity to God.
If you were interested,
which I doubt,
here is where my passion lies:
feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
heal the sick,
defend the rights of the orphan,
plead the widow’s cause,
and woe to you who unjustly enforce God’s Law.
Why spend your energy policing me
when that same energy could be used to love, fiercely?
Justice, mercy, and humility. Go learn what this means.
Drew Jackson
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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Dr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
Post Office Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
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415-305-2124Alcohol and Drug Addiction Counseling Certificate
Certificate in Spiritual Direction
Certificate In Religious Trauma
(30th Anniversary Celebration!)
October 5, 2024
5:00 p.m.
Victor’s Pizza
(Where Bought Youth First Pizza!)
Prayer of St. Brendan!
“Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways and break fresh ground with You. Christ of the mysteries I trust in You to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know that my times, even now, are in Your hands.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You”
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(Temenos and Dr. River seek to remain accessible to everyone. We do not endorse particular causes, political parties, or candidates, or take part in public controversies, whether religious, political or social–Our pastoral ministry is to everyone!
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TEMENOS CATHOLIC WORKER 
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