Peniel
February, 2020
“Where Jacob wrestled with God.”
Temenos Catholic Worker
Father River Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
temenos@gmail.com
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Journal of An Alien Street Priest:
As we prepare to enter Lent we are living in a time of much fear. Fear draws us to the center we have created, the ego self. Divine Love expands from our real center, our true self.
The true self is a rainbow of colors and expands so that we can experience our whole being, and allows us to feel the pain of others, so that we can reach out and help without discrimination due to their pain.
Meister Eckhart suggests the best means to enter into our true selves, is to Relax into God, “to sink down out of something into nothing.” In “relaxing into God,” we let go of our false concepts of race, creed, color, economic status, and religion, and see people as beloved of God.
To see people as beloved of God changes our attitude, we move into seeing them simply as human beings on the same journey needing support as we need support. Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker shared how he would go out on the streets of New York to mingle with the workers and the unemployed, hoping through his presence to share God’s love with each one by what he called “practicing the art of human contact.”
During this Lenten time one suggestion is simply to accept yourself just as you are, where you are. Be observant of your feelings of lust, fear, over eating, anger, being shy and withdrawing from people, notice them, sit with your feelings , and after each observation without emotional reactions, let them go, move to the center of Christ, where divine love is found, give time or money to someone: a homeless person, your child, spouse, or friend, and in that present moment of giving we can find happiness, for we begin to see others as the Christ and in the words of Jean Vanier, “We are not called by God to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.” Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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ASH WEDNESDAY
February 26, 2020
In the last couple of months we have been reminded daily of our mortality. Wild fires in Australia, the military action in Iran, and the deaths of people on the street. Social media brings death home to us each moment of the day. We can become immune to its presence or we can think of our own deaths.
Life is fragile, it is short. On Ash Wednesday as the ashes are placed on our heads and we hear the words, “Remember O man you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” let us remember our humanity and pray the prayer:
“God of the desert, as we follow Jesus into the unknown,
may we recognize the tempter when he comes;
let it be your bread we eat,
your world we serve and you alone we worship.”
Join us at 5:30 p.m. in front of “Bob’s Donuts“ as we walk and talk to people in our door ways, on the street, and the alleys, and impose the ashes at their request. Come join us and see our mortality in a more graphic light, and in doing so “Remember O man, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
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WE ARE BEGGARS!
Recently fundraiser evaluated our ministry, and scratched her head–she said, very politely, “Frankly I do not know how you raise money, you do not show results.”
Our ministry is to “Preach the Word, using as few as words as possible,” and administer the Sacraments! We provide food, socks, and a sacramental presence to street youth, and any one with whom we come into contact with.
So with that in mind, we invite you to share of your financial resources with Temenos Catholic Worker. We are a 501 c 3 religious non-profit.!
You may give through snail mail or through pay pal found on http://www.temenos.org
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