Health Care Reform TODAY!

Today, September 23, marks the start of the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act. Six months ago, history was made as President Obama signed into action a step towards affordable, universal health care in the United States. This is the first of many installments that will promote general health welfare across the United States, helping to insure more people, to give people the safety net they need, and the opportunity to be advocates for themselves.

The first installment of the Affordable Health Care Act, starting today, will allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26. It also prohibits employer plans from withholding health care from children under 18 with pre-existing conditions. Further, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to drop people when they get sick. It delineates that there will no longer be lifetime limits on coverage (though doesn’t, at this time, prevent annual limits), and new plans must offer free preventive care. Lastly, patients with new plans starting after 9/23 will be able to appeal decisions made by the health plan to a third party, giving patients more of a voice for themselves and advocating for their own well-being.

The hope is that by expanding who will be covered and putting health care into the hands of those who need it, we will be moving towards a nation where everyone will be covered... eventually. It seems as if the full effects of the plan will not be realized until 2014, but the benefits to those who are currently uninsured and faced with mountains of bills are seeing glimmers of hope with the advent of this benchmark in Obama’s presidency.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Shakespeare's musings in Romeo and Juliet offer quite a point of interest for those choosing a name for a child, a car, a pet, or, say, a supportive housing program. While we fully recognize that simply a name for the house will alter the outcome of the mothers in the program, as everything else owned by St. Francis Inn Ministries is named, we felt compelled to follow suit. Most of our houses are named after people (Juniper House, Mary House, Clare House, Jean Donovan House, etc), but we wanted to name the house after someone or something that could be accessible to the mothers living in the house. And thus, we've settled on St. Margaret House, after St. Margaret of Cortona.
We look to St. Margaret of Cortona as an example of integrity, conversion, hope and strength of character. When Margaret was just seventeen, she left her parents to follow a man who promised love and security. For ten years, she lived, unmarried, with the man who was one day mysteriously murdered, leaving her to raise their son alone.
After being abandoned and forced to raise her child alone, Margaret returned to the home of her father and stepmother, only to be rejected by her stepmother, forcing Margaret to seek refuge with the Franciscans in Cortona. It was here that Margaret began a life of penance, simplicity, and devotion to life in servitude of God.
St. Margaret of Cortona underwent a significant conversion experience from a life in pursuit of earthly things to a soul centered on the Divine. Her radical shift from self-indulgence to selfless love and commitment to something greater not only gives us hope for ourselves, but for the lives of those who will reside in St. Margaret House.
St. Margaret is the patron saint of single mothers, as well as many other patronages. But for many of the single mothers that will live here, their character imbued with the desire to pursue a life of virtue, with little guidance or conviction to follow through, is common. We hope that by looking to St. Margaret of Cortona, the women that participate in this supportive housing program will harness her strength and spirit to seek integrity, conversion, and hope within themselves and their families.

One of our guidelines for ministry here at St. Francis Inn Ministries is that “We seek to involve others in our ministry.” We typically have people calling, emailing, knocking on the door, sending text messages, asking if they can help, and often the requests far exceed the need. You wouldn’t think that to be the case with the ghost town that was Hagert Street this week!

Not only did we not have a week-long high school group (as is customary throughout the summer), we also suffered the blows of the last week of summer, drawing all of our regular volunteers out of the city and, presumably, to the shore. Furthermore, our normal Team of eight permanent staff members dropped down to just five this week with coinciding retreats, vacations, and side jobs taking them away from us! We were, however, blessed to have been able to call former Franciscan Volunteers and other long-time veteran volunteers of the Inn to offer their hands and hearts to us and our guests this week.

We’re looking forward to having everyone back, training the new FVMs, and the beginning of the school year, meaning the revitalization of our daily high school and college groups that assist us with serving the evening meal!

New faces, new energy, and the fulfillment of one of our guidelines for ministry!

Oh, Dorothy Day...

In a recent article posted on CNN.com, Target was spotlighted for their endorsement of an organization that backs a known anti-gay candidate. The Human Rights Campaign has resolved to boycott the national chain until they revoke their generous ($150,000) contribution to the organization or until Target makes a matching donation to a pro-gay organization. It has caused a national outcry from employees of Target, individuals, and other small human rights and gay rights organizations.

This all comes much to my own dismay. I should’ve moved in to Target, or at least bought stock in the company, for all the time and money I spend there. But this is not a blog designed to rally people to support gay people, or even to get people to boycott Target; it is intended to bring to light those systems, companies, institutions that oppress or exploit people.

So where do we turn when we’re faced with social injustice? Dorothy Day, of course! She challenges this blog, yet again, with the concept of nonparticipation...

“Love of brother means voluntary poverty, stripping one's self, putting off the old man, denying one's self. It also means nonparticipation in those comforts and luxuries which have been manufactured by the exploitation of others .... If our jobs do not contribute to the common good, we pray God for the grace to give them up .... This would exclude jobs in advertising, which only increases people's useless desires, and in insurance companies and banks, which are known to exploit the poor of this country and others. Whatever has contributed to the misery and degradation of the poor may be considered a bad job, and not to be worked at...” [Catholic Worker, December 1948]

When we take the time to research what companies we’re supporting by our patronage and consequently what we're endorsing, we too often find systems of exploitation of some group or another. It is our duty to stand up for those being oppressed and the most tangible way to do so is nonparticipation.

So does this mean I won’t be going to Target? Yikes, but yes. It’s not that I have a strong belief in or alliance with the LGBT population, but I do side with the oppression of any individual or group. Therefore, the red bullseye will not be receiving any of my money until a resolution has been reached.

The Feast of St. Clare of Assisi

We give thanks and praise today to Saint Clare of Assisi for the perpetuation of the Franciscan order after Francis’ death. If not for her devotion to and deep-rooted belief in the radical simplicity and corporate poverty of St. Francis, it is probable that the order would have died out. Below you’ll find a letter Clare wrote to her sister, Agnes; it is one of the few writings of Clare and continues to be a source of strength and support to those engaged in ministry.

What you hold, may you always hold.
What you do, may you always do and never abandon.
But with swift pace, light step,
and unswerving feet,
so that even your steps stir up no dust,
go forward securely, joyfully, swiftly,
on the path of prudent happiness,
believing nothing which would dissuade you from this resolution
or which would place a stumbling block for you on the way,
so that you may offer your vows to the Most High
in the pursuit of that perfection
to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.

The cost of bread increases... now what?

CNN issued a report saying that the cost of wheat has increased by 80% and is at its highest cost over the past two years. It goes on to say though the United States produces enough wheat to sustain itself, if drought-ridden Russia cannot provide the grain for the rest of the world, as it is most accustomed, the United States will then have to begin exporting its products, causing a price increase for domestic consumers. CNN posits that if the price hike holds steady for more than 20-30 days, consumers across the world will experience an increase in the normal cost for wheat-containing products, such as bread and pastries, a staple in many Americans’ diets.
In Victorian-era England, a demand for a minimum wage was realized using the cost of wheat to determine how much is necessary to most basically live at that time. The Speenhamland System (crazy name, legendary concept) created a base of acceptable living conditions and subsequently provided relief to individuals and families whose earnings fell below the cost of wheat. Additionally, the System instituted that it was no longer up to individual townships or parishes to determine individual or family eligibility of relief, but became a nation-wide accepted implementation of a general welfare system. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
England’s “cost of bread” concept was adopted by the colonies upon their foundation and is still used today, though solely conceptually, using basic commodities as a means for determining purchasing power (aka, the cost of living).
If the "cost of bread goes up," will the minimum wage increase? Will general welfare and SNAP benefits increase? How will this price increase affect those who struggle to make ends meet with limited income?

Check out the article on CNN here for more information. And the Speenhamland System here.

The Feast of St. Martha

In light of the feast of St. Martha, Brother Lawrence, a lay Carmelite from the 17th century, offers a compromise between the busy-ness of service and ministry of Martha and the consuming attentiveness and awareness of God among us of Mary-

“Our sanctification does not depend upon changing our works. Instead, it depends on doing those things for God's sake which we commonly do for our own. Brother Lawrence thought it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end, addicting themselves to certain works which they performed very imperfectly because of their human or selfish regard. The most excellent method he found for going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men but purely for the love of God.

Brother Lawrence felt it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action, as by prayer in its time. His own prayer was simply a sense of the presence of God, his soul being at that time aware of nothing other than Divine Love. When the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and thanking Him with all his might. Thus his life was a continual joy.”

-Fourth Conversation from "The Practice of the Presence of God" of Brother Lawrence and friends