Yes, I Moved Into a Former Crack House and Need Prayers for Discernment in the Ministry for the Poor

For some reason BlogSpot is not allowing this short video of a priest blessing a house.  Not to worry, just know that this took place and that it will be used in the witness and spirit of the hospitality of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in addition to other entities such as the highest levels of the charisms and gifts of the Holy Spirit -- praise, healing, prophetic word and visions, miracles of all kinds, and much more toward the poorest and most forgotten.  The last mentioned above parts somewhat with the focus of the Catholic Worker Movement, among other things happening in some of the more vocal houses.  Peter and Dorothy's witness though of their passionate Catholicism, and their radical 
and sacrificial love of the poor and lives dedicated to the poor, will continue through this house!  Pray along with MANY, including Benedictine monasteries and abbeys, for the canonization of Dorothy Day AND Peter Maurin!  Come, Holy Spirit, come!

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19YtFTTJtIKKhyN4eIUWNQ7Zgq5W1-6ri/view?usp=sharing

Yes, Peter and Dorothy's House of Hospitality is Really Going to Begin!!

By Monica      PDHOH    Columbus, Ohio

    God put into my hands two things within three days to point me in the directions of actually BEGINNING a community that lived as Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin lived: Peter and Dorothy's House of Hospitality!  Starting very small and aimed toward "street people," or those dwelling mostly outside, I finally am taking steps to start this mission, yayy!!
    The two thing that happened were these:   our St. Patrick's Benedictine Oblate organizer, Vicki Albright, said that the Vatican is wanting to step up the cause for sainthood of Dorothy Day, a Third Order Benedictine too!  We had all been praying and she asked us to continue since it was so close!  Msgr. Mottet always said that Peter Maurin should be canonized right alongside Dorothy because it was his idea, his push to be implemented, etc.  He only lived for the first 15 years, but Dorothy did it for almost 50 yrs!
    The second thing God used to point my attention to Dorothy was that my newly widowed 80+ year old neighbor, not a Catholic, gave me a book that her late husband had had and that she had never seen before going through his things.  It was the book, The Reckless Way of Love, Notes on Following Jesus by Dorothy Day (2017)  Ha, ha!  They are not even CATHOLICS!  I am not sure many Catholics would have such a radical book, let alone an elderly Episcopal neighbor!
     I hope to eventually add the Peter Maurin House of Hospitality, Casa de Hospitalidad de Guadalupe, and Casa de Hospitalidad Oscar Romero.
    I encourage anyone who does not know much about this Mother Teresa of New York for nearly 50 years, as I have often called Dorothy Day, please read this newest pocket-sized book, The Reckless Way of Love, Notes on Following Jesus by Dorothy Day (2017).  It is a compilation and summary of her very best inspirations!  Her life and shining witness were her greatest inspiration though, in the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi (another pacifist): "Preach at all times, only sometimes use words."
    PRAY FOR THE CANONIZATION OF DOROTHY DAY AND PETER MAURIN, please. :)

St. Francis: "Preach at all Times, Only Sometimes, Use Words"

        Monica,  Columbus, Ohio

       Beyond words was the experience last night with the homeless on Williams Rd., with the portable soup kitchen of Hope on High.  I went to be with my South side buddies, mainly the homeless who live in the woods close by, to simply sit and share lives at meal with each other.
       Aaron still struggles greatly with addiction, and all I did was listen to a litany, beautifully and eloquently spoken, of what has been taking place in the woods and his personal life through all this.  If he could only see how exquisite he is in the eyes of Jesus, which is what I prayed unceasingly while he was talking.  I have done this with him at least four or five times.  He said at the end, "Next time I see your smiling face, I am going to be clean and beginning a new relationship with my 17 year old daughter."
       Fred ("Santa") and Red, his girlfriend in a wheelchair from crushed bones in her feet (from a great height suicide attempt) were there. So glad to see them and get to catch up!  Scott came, whose girlfriend Harmony is in jail awaiting a sentencing for probation violation on March 1. He was just released the day before from two weeks in a facility for mental health (from missing her during her arrest).  I prayed with him, and ask all of you readers to please pray for Harmony.  She must call her probation officer every night at 6:15 to see if they should meet the next day.  Being homeless and having no cell phone makes this very difficult (and being surrounded by others who do not have cell phones -- and there are no payphones anymore!).
      Scott emphasized that the homeless are discriminated against every single day.  She was caught because she was breaking apart a very dangerous verbal fight between the friend and her boyfriend.  The neighbors called the police.  Pray for Harmony on March 1, please.
      "Baby," a huge man (tall and big), "fifteen years living as a homeless man," got so angry at the man I was eating and speaking with who was laughing at something separate that he pulled out a large wide knife and sat it on the table while he yelled at him some.  Scott stopped him, took his knife and put it in his coat, and almost started a real fight.  I stormed the heavens and they both took it outside the big tent and cleared it up.
      Viola was there and her boyfriend Tim! Tim broke his foot tripping on a cut-off small tree stump, and is on crutches (they were the ones living in the closet of a boarded up home).  I was able to bring four large trash bags of clothing from those who donated to the December parties we threw there.  Viola got new clothes, a coat, and a much needed blanket.  I gave them three propane cans to get them a few warm nights.  Such a sweet couple.  I gave propane to others as well, because it is still winter out there.
      Tyrell came and looks better than the last time I saw him, always smiling wide!  We sat and talked. Such a DOLL baby!! I get FAR more out of all this than they do!!  Michael did not show nor Tim Tom; and I was so sad. Tim is the one homeless even among them, without a tent, and Michael has serious spinal and other health issues. I hope they are okay, and I pray for them often.  Michael has the titanium rod along most of his spine, etc.
       Papa Bear came!!   He looks sooo different from December!  He's been very sick in the past couple of weeks.  He has lost so much weight and is weaker (in his seventies?).  Thanks to EDDIE BAUER for donating an additional 25-30 brand new winter coats!!!   All of them were taken and very well appreciated!  Papa Bear got the sassiest red and black ski jacket -- for UNDER his winter coat that was a jacket of jean material.  He said it felt much much better.
      Throughout the night I was able to take one to two groups "home" to the edge of the woods, at different openings, with all their new belongings.  My favorite trip was with Michelle, a woman I just met in her 50's whose been in these woods for a year with a 27 year old daughter, Mikaela.  We just sat at the edge of the woods and talked and talked about both our families. Words cannot describe the beauty of the conversation.  I always always pray in the Holy Spirit as I listen, and He always shows up.
     I feel God may be asking me to buy a house or two down there, with land, to possibly begin a little community of these homeless and "forgotten" people. It would be difficult for them to just be added to a middle class family, in a Christ Room that Dorothy Day promoted.  One reason is how different and even lonely they would feel apart from their friends and people who have shared their experiences.  They need community.
      They are SOOOO in need of everything though, and I want to REALLY help them, not simply say, "God bless, keep warm and well fed," as Jesus (or St. Paul?) warned in the Scriptures.  Not just to "preach" to them, or give them an experience of God then walk away, with such dire situations and circumstances.  I am speaking to myself as well.  I am guilty.
      Coming here once or twice a month and befriending them is just not enough for me at all.  Show me the way, Lord.  What do you want?
     Please pray for me!  And especially for all these people on the South side.  "We" - all 80-100 main BFF's in heaven and I - claim this South side area for Christ!  We bind and cast out anything of evil from all these woods (boy did Aaron have some stories), and all those whose mascot is the Marion-Franklin Red Devils, the school right by there that generations have gone to and heavily support!           Please God, help us claim this all back for you, especially any spirits of addictions, hopelessness, and atheism!  Come, Holy Spirit, come!!
         

Homeless People in the Woods Here in Columbus Who Need Our Help

By Monica    Columbus, Ohio

       I was able to take a hike yesterday all around a huge area where a teacher friend (here at my new school) said an entire colony of homeless people live.  Last week, on beginning to explore it by car, or find the general vicinity, I stumbled upon a security guard who told me a sad story.  He said that several establishments (businesses) were tired of these people begging for money or food, and using their facilities for their bathroom and decided to cut down much of a forest they were in behind his building.

This was not what I found, but very similar

       I cannot begin to fathom this, toward people that cannot get any lower than they are, or can they?  He motioned that they just moved farther back, but yesterday I found that they seemed to not be where he pointed. I did stumble upon a small community of between 8 and 10 people though, one seeming very very agreeable to a few of us coming back to bring hot soup, a bonfire, Christmas cookies, and many necessities that we can get our hands on for them.  I gave, without a split second of hesitation on their part, a sleeping bag and comforter that we had extra and several pairs of Dory's old soccer socks, which cover the calf.
       My nephew, Dominic Evans, who is in his second year with Christ in the City in Denver, told me that they always always need socks, gloves, underwear, and hand-warmers that they just throw into to bottom of their sleeping bags.  My Fourth Grade students came up with many other amazing ideas, like an outhouse, a firepit and wood, hair and beard trimmer kit and haircuts, water, books (that they can then use for the fire - HA), and many other things.

       I found that this camp relied on propane ("about $17.00 per month) to fuel their warmth.  This is a bitter snap right now and I hope to help them get more. I just can't imagine the bathing and bathroom part, brushing the teeth, getting any laundry done.  I badly want to buy a house nearby and start a day center minimally, like from 10:00-4:00 where they have companionship, warmth, a great large hot meal for lunch, cleaning opportunities like showering, shaving, and laundering, and just a warm welcome place to take a nap.
       I also want to get one with land -- there's a lot around there -- and farm or garden a lot there!  Hopefully even get some or many of them into a full time community with me there, 24/7, where they are family.  AI am dying to garden, farm, harvest, and can everything!  When I worked the Appalachian Project I asked a 94 year old woman what the Depression was like.  She said, "Why we didn't even know there was a Depression!  We had everything we needed right here!  We had a couple cows, chickens, our garden, canned things, drinking water from our pump, everything.
        That always stuck with me and I buy canning things at every turn.  A teacher friend who commuted from the country about an hour every day from the country caned everything for her family's whole winter in a huge garden.  How cool it that!  Msgr. Mottet loved to, and Tony Gallenstein, when he lived as one with the poor!
     Pray for guidance!  Beg the harvest Master for more workers in the field, as Jesus said to do, please.  Dorothy and Peter, please pray for me!  St. Peter Claver, St. Martin de Porres and Martin de Porres, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Vincent de Paul, please pray for me!!  St. Francis of Assissi and St. Pio too!  And especially, Mary St. Joseph, who embraces the homeless whole-heartedly! Come, Holy Spirit, come!

Archbishop Oscar Romero, Official Church Martyr, Presente!

          By Monica Siemer, Mayo Clinic Gift of Life Transplant House, Rochester, MN
         In the spirit of Archbishop Oscar Romero, especially in light of Pope Francis' recent declaration of his actual martyrdom and the status of an official Church martyr,  I reprint a section of the LCW newsletter covering our family experience, of mostly my father, peace activist Tom Siemer, and myself at the Center for Peace Studies at Georgetown University (with Rev. Richard McSorley, S.J.) of either Romero or El Salvador in an era of grave genocide against the Salvadorean people.  This is our testimony.  New information and pictures are added.  Gracias Pope Francis!

          My father actually had a conversation with Archbishop Oscar Romero less than a year before he was assassinated. We were at a synod, Celam III, of all latin American bishops and cardinals of the world in Pueblo, Mexico, outside of Mexico City. I believe it was January, 1979, when I was 16 yrs old (and I was there but standing away from him). We were appealing to Pope John Paul II and the hierarchy of the Church for Catholics to be told to have no part in weapons of mass destruction (nuclear weapons and their making, handling, potential use, etc), purposely designed to solely be used against entire populations of innocent civilians, or entire cities.  Archbishop Romero thought my father was from the press (with his "Press" badge) and begged and begged him to go back and tell the president (Carter at the time, who gave $5 million per year in "military aid") to stop funding the government with military money, which was being used against the people. 

       He explained that the money went into armaments and training of the soldiers in the military and in the juntas of the oligarchy who were terrorizing the campesinos, killing and mutilating many of them. 

        My father called over both Roy Larson, of the Chicago Sun and Ken Briggs of the New York Times to talk with Archbishop Romero.  Ken told my father later that Romero would not live long by talking like that, and my father replied, "They would never kill an archbishop!"  Our government not only did not listen, but when President Ronald Reagan became president, shortly after, he quintupled the military funding to El Salvador, giving a huge green light to those committing atrocities.  Archbishop Oscar Romero was martyred within a year. The U.N. reports that over 75,000 people, many poor women and children, were killed over the course of the next decade or so in El Salvador.   

In front of the Celam III Synod, Pueblo, Mexico, 
outside Mexico City, 1979, with a group of 
protesting mothers of the "Disappeared" in El 
Salvador.  I am at the right and my mother, 
Dorothy Siemer, at the far right in red pants.

Salvadorean mothers of the "disappeared," those
whose bodies were never found.  I am on far
right, with literature for the Pope, cardinals,
 bishops, and press against weapons of mass
 destruction (nuclear)

Mothers of the "disappeared" (sons, husbands, 
brothers, etc) desperate for help from the Church

My father, Tom Siemer, and I in Mexico City 
outside Pueblo, Mexico, 1979

         A year or so later, I worked at the Center for Peace Studies at Georgetown University with Fr. Richard McSorley, S.J.  At that time another Georgetown professor, Dr. Jean Kirkepatrick, who was a campaign advisor to President Reagan then cabinet member, blamed the murders (Dec. 2, 1980) of the three religious sisters and an American lay worker on themselves for even being there with the poor: Jean Donovan, Sr. Maura Clarke, Sr. Ita Ford, and Sr. Dorothy Kazel.  Kirkpatrick believed that, according to Noam Chomsky, "traditional authoritarian governments are less repressive than revolutionary autocracies," and so her views were put into use "most clearly in Central America, by supporting the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, and the military juntas in Guatemala and El Salvador, all of which perpetrated massive human rights violations while countering a perceived communist threat." (Chomsky, Turning the Tide, 1985).  She was not too thrilled when the United Nations Security Council came down on the United States and she talked of withdrawing much of the monetary support to the U.N., as well as for the United States to withdraw completely. This would have been quite an example of genuine virtue, Christian values, and peace to the world.

Sr. Dorothy Kazel, Presente!

Sr. Maura Clark, Presente!

Sr. Ita Ford, Presente!

Lay Worker Jean Donovan, Presente!

       I witnessed firsthand large graphic close-up glossy photos being sent to the Center for Peace Studies at Georgetown University (that I helped Fr. Richard McSorley, S.J. run in the 80's) from El Salvador.  Neutral brave witnesses and groups were trying hard to provide evidence of  the atrocities and sent these pictures to several places as documentation, including to ours.  Prior to the Reagan Administration, the bodies of the dead at the hands of the military and juntas had one form of killing done to them (besides the women always having been raped).  As Fr. McSorley always said, "When you choose the lesser of two evils, you soon forget you chose evil in the first place."  There is always a third choice.

       When Ronald Reagan became president, and particularly after the stepped-up "anti-communist counterinsurgency training," or terrorist/guerilla warfare training ("terrorist" in the true sense of the word) at Ft. Benning, Georgia of "Latin American personnel" from El Salvador at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (formerly called, the SOA), now called Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), things drastically changed.  To describe,  murdered victims appeared with three or four types of torture performed, acid in the eyes being one of the favorites. This spilled over to Honduras. Guatemala, and Nicaragua as well, sadly. 

        Many Americans turned a blind eye to all of this because of the fear whipped up by those who would even sell their soul to the devil against the "Communist scare."  One cannot say that President Reagan and others did not know because we at the Center for Peace Studies and the St. Francis Catholic Worker protested numerous times at the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon, which made it in the Wasthington Post. My favorite sign I made and carried at the time of the martyrdom of the sisters read, "U.S. Guns Kill U.S. Nuns." It fell on deaf ears for nearly a decade though, even with the hierarchy of the Church, sadly.  Many brave priests, sisters, and religious stepped up for peace though, in the spirit of Dorothy Day, Archbishop Oscar Romero, St. Francis of Assisi, and of Christ, the Prince of Peace.  Thankfully Pope Francis is balancing the scales of God's justice in deeming a martyr, Archbishop Oscar Romero, living out the call of a martyr in a very dark era in El Salvador's history and in that of the United States.  Gracias Pope Francis!

       Most of the refugees at our Catholic Worker in D.C. witnessed much of this firsthand, and yes, it was the country's military doing much of it. Huge Carlos witnessed a savage group murder from a corn field, and when he tried to run, they caught a visual of him and hunted him down.  He and his wife Maria (pregnant) got their six other children to another part of the country and ran to the U.S. where they were the first Salvadoreans to be granted political asylum.  Their baby Leonardo was baptized with my first son, Shamus, at our Catholic Worker, St. Francis Catholic Worker, in Washington, D.C. (now the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker), in a Catholic worker soup pot.  It had been the former mother house of the Trinitarian order, and they had a fully functioning chapel in the basement.

The Six Jesuit Professor Martyrs of 1989, University of El Salvador, Their Housekeeper and her Daughter,  Presente! :

• Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J.
• Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J.
• Segundo Montes, S.J.
• Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J.
• Joaquín López y López, S.J.
• Amando López, S.J.
• Elba Ramos (the cook and housekeeper)
• Celina Ramos (16 years old, daughter of Elba Ramos)

     Fr. Richard McSorley, S.J. said that over 200 Jesuits in the highest of Ivy League-type schools put in their resumes to take the place of these martyred university professors in El Salvador. 

My father, Tom Siemer, and Dom Helder Camara

         Pope Francis has preached so passionately about not being part of two great evils in the world today:  "the culture of indifference and the culture of distraction."  May we set aside our computers and cell phones for much more time spent in prayer and meditation.  They say, "Satan doesn't make you bad, he makes you busy." May all of us intervene on behalf of  wartorn areas and peoples of the world, in our prayers and in moral responses, pleasing to the Lord.   
       A final note is from the bulletin here at St. John the Evangelist Church across the street from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where I am currently.  I am still here trying to recuperate from the live liver surgery (I gave 59% of my liver to my nephew, Nick Evans in end stages liver disease) and emergency second one 4 days later for a ruptured cecum (leads into the colon) and weeks of infections.  I am at the Mayo's Gift of Life Transplant House.  Please see the Lamb Catholic Worker article, "Purify the Catholic Worker, Jesus, to be the Diamond of It's Founders," to see the main reason why I did this transplant besides trying to help save Nick.  The day before surgery Abby Evans and I went to a daily mass at St. John's and the following was written by their pastor, Fr. Jerry Mahon, about Archbishop Oscar Romero (in their June 7, bulletin we had found):
      "The recent Beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero is a call for me to live with courage and speak the truth as I discover the presence of Christ. This martyr was speaking the truth and confronting the violence of the government towards the poor, but not with a sword, but a heart of conviction with the One he loved and proclaimed Jesus Christ. The certainty of his walk, path was founded in a profound belief that Christ was present in the reality of the poor and even though he had been warned to stop speaking, he lived as so many Christians do today, with a clear desire to be faithful, and was assassinated while celebrating the Eucharist. As we have heard over the centuries, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of faith for the world and this witness of his life is a sign of being alive with certainty in Christ. There was no room for being a cynic even though there was good reason, but a fullness of life in the Spirit is full of freedom for Another."
       If you wish to follow Nick and I's progress you can go to caringbridge.org under the "search site," "monica siemer."  We try to update it from time to time.  Here is a gift to all of you who have been praying so hard for Nick and I.  Please keep the prayers coming as we are still dealing with challenges and surprises.  Here is a long praise and worship song to edify your soul:      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcnfT4arZtI
      If the link does not work, please go to YouTube and put in "I Surrender by Hillsong 2012 concert version" that is about 10 minutes long, with 43 million hits.  It has saved me here through the worst of this ordeal, as we listened and prayed it almost daily while in the hospital.  Enjoy!

      Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for us and for people of all kinds!  Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and Archbishop Oscar Romero, please pray for us!