This is Joan Chittister's modern-day version of the Apostle's Creed, re-vamped to appeal to who we are as Christians and what we are called to be. It's a bit long, but stick with it, it's really good!!!

I believe in one God

who made us all

and whose divinity infuses all of life

with the sacred.

I believe in the multiple revelations

of that God

alive in every human heart,

expressed in every culture,

and found in all the wisdoms

of the world.

I believe

that Jesus Christ,

the unique son of God,

is the face of God

on earth

in whom we see best

the divine justice,

divine mercy,

and divine compassion

to which we are called.

I believe in the Christ

who is One in being with the Creator

and who shows us the presence of God

in everything that is

and calls out the sacred in ourselves.

I believe in Jesus, the Christ,

who leads us to the fullness

of human stature,

to what we were meant to become

before all time

and for all other things that were made.

Through Christ

we become new people,

called beyond the consequences

of our brokenness

and lifted to the fullness of life.

By the power of the Holy Spirit

he was born of the woman Mary,

pure in soul

and single-hearted--

a sign to the ages

of the exalted place

of womankind

in the divine plan

of human salvation.

He grew as we grow

through all the stages of life.

He lived as we live

prey to the pressures of evil

and intent on the good.

He broke no bonds with the world

to which we was bound,

He sinned not.

He never strayed from the mind of God.

He showed us the Way,

lived it for us,

suffered from it,

and died because of it

so that we might live

with new heart,

new mind,

and new strength

despite all the death

to which we are daily subjected.

For our sake

and for the sake of eternal Truth

he was hounded

harassed

and executed

by those

who were their own gods

and who valued the sacred

in no other.

He suffered so that we might realize

that the spirit in us

can never be killed

whatever price we have to pay

for staying true to the mind of God.

He died

but did not die

because he lives in us

still.

“On the third day” in the tomb

he rose again

in those he left behind

and in each of us as well

to live in hearts

that will not succumb

to the enemies of life.

He changed all of life

for all of us thereafter.

He ascended into the life of God

and waits there

for our own ascension

to the life beyond life.

He waits there,

judging what has gone before

and what is yet to come

against unending values

and, in behalf of eternal virtue,

for the time when all of life

will be gathered into God,

full of life and light,

steeped in truth.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the breath of God

on earth,

who keeps the Christ vision present

to souls yet in darkness,

gives life

even to hearts now blind.

Infuses energy

into spirits yet weary, isolated,

searching and confused.

The spirit has spoken

to the human heart

through the prophets

and gives me meaning

to the Word

throughout time.

I believe in one

holy and universal church.

Bound together by the holiness of creation

and the holiness of hearts forever true.

I acknowledge the need

to be freed from the compulsions

of my disordered life

and my need for forgiveness

in face of frailty.

I look for life eternal

in ways I cannot dream

and trust

that creation goes on creating

in this world

and in us

forever.

Amen.

Amen to creation, to the God who is life, to courage, to hope, to the spirit of truth, to nature, to happiness, to wholeness, to the place of women in the plan of God, to the Christ who calls us beyond the boundaries of ourselves, to forgiveness, to everything that makes living the first step in the stretching of the heart to the dimensions of God. Amen. Amen. Amen. In all of this we can surely believe. As God has.

In Search of Belief, Joan Chittister

“They didn’t have much to give except the name of Jesus.”

Pentecost

There’s so much to be celebrated about this day... the feast of the Holy Trinity, the birthday of the Church, the adoption of the Sinai covenant for the Jewish people under the Prophet Moses. This day, when the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven, it was made known that there was to be an all-encompassing and constant presence of God among His people. At a time when Jesus’ disciples and Apostles were still feeling the pain of Jesus' crucifixion, God had become present yet again in their midst. It was from this point that these men began their ministry, preaching the Gospel to everyone that would listen.

This same Spirit that ignited the Apostles ignites us as well. It is with the same blessing that we, today, are given gifts that will further God’s kingdom on Earth. It is easy to lose sight of that. We are so heavily laden with the guilt of our sins that we find it easy to create a chasm between us and Jesus and the first disciples. We think that God is working less in us than He did in the founders of our Church.

But Pentecost, 2000 years ago and today, is the day when the Holy Spirit descends upon God’s people and, with “tongues as of fire,” we are gifted with the burning passion to spread the Gospel according to the gifts we’ve been given. So today, the Christian Church is born; the founders of our faith tradition began evangelizing the love and grace of God. And we, as followers of Christ, are reminded to carry the torch of our founders and use the fire of the Holy Spirit to spread the Gospel today.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” Rom. 8:15

This is the Gospel reading for today. I know that we hear it all the time and its ideas have been so secularized that it loses so much of its gusto, but maybe today, maybe in the place where you are sitting, reading this, you need to hear it once again. So take a moment. Read it slowly. Absorb the beauty, simplicity, and fullness of this commandment.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.

This I command you: love one another.” Jn 15:9-17

Date with destiny?

If you haven’t heard of the Times Square bomb scare by now, you should probably crawl out from under whatever rock you’ve found. That aside, the details are strewn about the news, journalists and Homeland Security are saying this is the most serious bombing attempt since the Christmas Day attempt on the airplane heading to Detroit. And the residents, tourists, and I are breathing a big sigh of relief that, by some twist of fate, this bomb did not detonate.

I was actually leaving Times Square Saturday evening at about 7pm when the overwhelmingly busy square block of New York City was flooded with emergency response vehicles while the many tourists that were enjoying the sights were evacuating. To be honest, I did not think much of the scene and didn’t even know anything serious was taking place until the next morning when a friend informed me that we cheated death. (Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not quite!)

When retrospectively faced with my mortality, I thought about what it means to be, unknowingly, at the mercy of somebody else, when your life is in their hands and you don’t even realize it. Daily we put our faith in the goodness of our brothers and sisters that we will make it through the day. We trust that others seek to do good and avoid harm, or that they’ll at least resist their urge to harm.

I am humbled (time and again) by what little control I actually have over my own life and what amount of power others may have over mine. I am grateful that my Pakistani brother did not properly construct the bomb, that the souvenir salesman immediately notified the authorities when he saw smoke coming from the car, and that the emergency response personnel acted in a swift manner to eliminate any potential harm. And again, we put our lives in the hands of others whom we may never meet.

Our lives are all intimately connected, whether we realize it or not. We have the power to make big changes in the lives of people with whom we will never be face-to-face. Our actions affect those around us and people we don’t even know. Think about it.

No Impact Man

I recently watched a movie called No Impact Man, a documentary about a man, his wife and young daughter who live in New York City that, over the course of a year, work to reduce their environmental impact to zero. The family implemented new ways to reduce their impact in phases, starting with not using an carbon-emitting modes of transportation; no cars, trains, buses, elevators even! Because most of our food travels over 1,500 miles before it gets to our homes, they avoided grocery stores and restaurants and only ate food from farmers markets that was grown within 250 miles of their home.

After six months of their experiment, the Beavans even cut out electricity from their daily lives in their apartment!!! For the remaining six months, they used their gas stove to cook, read and ate by candlelight every night, and used a cooler for their perishables.

Being a glutton for punishment, my immediate reaction to the movie was “How can I do this too?” My poor housemate was less than thrilled with the idea of turning out the electricity permanently (especially as we approach finals time). But it has forced me to look at what I consume and how I can not only reduce that, but how I can modify my daily living to make less of a negative impact on the physical world around me. This seems more realistic and attainable.

So before you shower me with accolades for being Earth-conscious (as I sit in front of my computer with a space heater blowing directly on my legs and I anxiously await jumping into my brand-new car to head to the gym), take a minute to check out Colin Beavan’s blog. Also check out the movie- it's available 'Watch Instantly' on Netflix! See what he’s doing and see if there are some small steps you can take to make the Earth better for those who will come after us.

A Brave New World Wide Web: Is technology closing the gap between the rich and poor, or is it making this gap larger?

Last Friday, the Franciscan Volunteers traveled to Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ to give a presentation about the Inn. Joining many other groups and students, the FVMs presented at a Ted* conference about how technology is impacting the guests served at our various ministries.
Since the mid-1990s, there has been a massive governmental push to head off the prospect of the ever-increasing gap between the rich and poor being exacerbated by the advent and expansion of the internet and related technologies. The government's hope is that by providing education and availability of technology to low-income children (mostly), a chasm will not develop that further separates the opportunities that exist for the poor and the more affluent.
Since we've offered free, unlimited internet and computer access at the St. Francis Urban Center, there has been little response. My theory is that many of our guests simply aren't aware of what the internet can do for them, especially in regards to applying for benefits, job searching and information gathering. In that light, the FVMs and I researched what has been done, what is currently being done, and how our guests understand existing technology and its ability to improve their situations.
The interviews were very insightful and ranged from people saying that they feared the internet to people who log on every single day at the local library to job-search and connect on social media sites. One young man mentioned that though he feels that internet is accessible to him, logistically it is ineffective because for applications that take 45 minutes to fill out online, the 30-minute time limit at the library hinders his ability to adequately and appropriately apply.
It seems as if regular access to the internet everywhere I go (though not on my phone just yet) is something that I take for granted. I also take for granted that every time I want a recipe for anything, or need to find a phone number, or hear something I want to learn more about, that I can just click a little button and I have the whole world at my fingertips. This concept is foreign to our guests and puts them at a severe disadvantage (of course that could be my privileged egocentric perspective speaking).
The project was enlightening for all of us, allowing us to confront our own privilege in relation to the lack of opportunities for our guests in ways that they may never realize.


*Ted is a Youtube-type site whose catchphrase is "Ideas worth sharing." Many topics and issues are addressed, ranging from technology to social justice to hunger and wellness. The website is www.ted.com, you should check it out!

Tent City to close in Camden, NJ

Really interesting article from www.philly.com

In a notoriously dangerous, drug-ridden city, Tent City in Camden, New Jersey provides respite for a group of sixty or so individuals that are making the best of their otherwise dire situations. This article confronts many conflicting ideologies of what the responsibility is, if any, of the state, the city, social service agencies, and us as humans in improving the lives of these people. There is a group of predominantly men who, for a variety of reasons, are living in Tent City. Whether they are choosing to so they can spend their money on things other than rent and utilities, or are forced into living their due to the lack of income and affordable housing, this organized and well-provided-for group claim they have everything they need.
For six years Tent City has been home for many homeless people, but in a week, they are facing eviction and the city is compromising by offering job search support, housing assistance, and in-patient rehabilitation programs. Their refusal of services is sparking controversy among many individuals who attribute their situations to their poor choices and that it is now up to those individuals, who are facing more extreme circumstances when forced out of Tent City, to remedy their own lives.
Working with the population we do here at St. Francis Inn Ministries, it is really hard to pinpoint a particular sentiment towards this type of situation. On the one hand, we surely would like to see them all recover and to be “productive members of society.” There is nothing we’d like more than to be out of jobs. But our main ministry is to be a ministry of presence, to be with people where they are and to help them to find grace and peace amidst their otherwise unstable and chaotic lives.
So often our egocentrism clouds our ability to really see what is needed and inhibits our ability to help. We allow ourselves to believe that we know what is best for others rather than listening to their needs as told by them. I’m not sure what the solution is here, but I don’t think closing down the one place these individuals call home and throwing services at them is the best way to achieve self-sustainability and reform.