Alien Street Priest Journals

As I was reflecting on these thoughts by Henri at Victor's Piazza, Jamie walked in, tired, dirty, and worn out, asking for food. Buying him dinner, he sat down and rambled on about what was going on with him.

Jamie is 45 and has been homeless since he was 20. For the last six months, Jamie has been living in a hotel on a housing voucher, which now has ended.

He is hoping to get another voucher, but is doubtful, and says all he can do is pray, for praying keeps him going.

Jamie has learned to live out the words we find in I Peter 5:6-" Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." In his poverty, Jamie is praying for courage.

Praying for courage allows us simply to let go of our fears, burdens, and worries. The truth is, we are all simply like vegetables and meat on a barbecue grill, mixed together in our struggle in life. We are all a mix of good and evil, none of us are totally good or totally evil. We are all poor!

Gilbert K. Chesterton once wrote:

"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty."

Our prayer life can open us to newness and we find we have nothing to lose. When we have nothing to lose, realize our common poverty, our hearts are wide open to care for others.

I offer you this poem again, read it, pray over it, and let your life go into the ocean of life:

"Praying means being constantly ready to let go of your certainly and move on further than where you now are. It demands that you take to the road again and again, leaving your house and looking forward to a new land for yourself and your fellow brothers and sisters. This is why praying demands poverty, that is, the readiness to live a life in which you have nothing to lose so that you always begin a fresh. Whenever you willingly choose this poverty, you make yourself vulnerable, but you also become free to see the world and to let the world be seen in its true form. For you have no need to defend yourself, and you can tell loudly what you know through your intimate contact with him who is the source of all life. But this demands courage. If you are to make real all the consequences of a prayerful life, you might well be frightened and wonder if you should dare. Then it is vital to remember that courage is also a gift from God for which you can pray" (Fr. Henri Nouwen).

Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
-----------------------------------

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

======

View as Webpage

Make a Difference by Donating to
THE IMMIGRATION DEFENSE FUND

All across our nation, communities of faith are rising to the occasion to support immigrants and their families - our neighbors, coworkers, family members, and friends - who have been singled out due to the policies of mass detentions and deportations, and now face extreme hardships and live in fear of separation from their loved ones.

Throughout our City, a multitude of community and faith-based efforts have been mobilized to respond to these threats in significant ways.

Immigrant families across the Bay Area are facing severe hardship right now. You’ve probably heard the stories of families torn apart without due process, parents nervous about leaving their homes, and elderly and pregnant people afraid to seek health care.

Our Bay Area immigrant families need your help. The Stand Together Bay Area Fund will be distributing funds for needs such as rent and food through community partners to ensure they reach families in need.

Temenos Catholic Worker is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, contributions to The Immigration Defense Fund are tax-deductible.

Checks payable to Temenos Catholic Worker with a notation in the memo line for The Immigration Defense Fund may be mailed to: P.O.Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94194, or on donators through pay pay.

=======================

Suggested Reading:
Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice
By Jennifer Mullan, PsyD

"Joy is that ongoing movement out of the places of death, out of the places where things remain the same and are not moving. Everything in life changes. Where we see life, we see change. And as soon as things stop changing, death appears. We become rigid, stiff, dead. It is very important for us to realize that joy is precisely that leaping toward life and moving away from the places that are the same. Joy is always about the experience of life as new."

A clergy friend was in my room, and after a prayer, said to me: "River, you are in the center of a whirlwind of pain, fear, doubt, and you will find, like a friend of mine did, you will pull back into the rigidness of the establishment, or you will go ride motorcycles." And in the years to come, that is what I did. I ride a motorcycle following the Wild Goose, the God who is always changing and moving forward!

Each day, I am seeing death in so many forms on our streets, it tears at my gut. Older homeless, laying on the corner, with a boxes over them, to protect themselves from the cold.

I see people gasping for drugs, drugs to cover up the pain they are feeling.

I listen, care for, and pray with undocumented immigrants, so afraid, they simply came to the U.S. for a new life, and now are terrified.

We live in our own worlds, classified by wealth and race, and in doing so, we are losing our humanity. Henri Nouwen offers us some advice:

"Jesus says, 'Let go of your complaints, forgive those who loved you poorly, step over your feelings of being rejected, and have the courage to that trust that you won't fall into an abyss of nothingness but into the safe embrace of a God whose love will heal all your wounds."

Only in following those words will we move into dialogue and care for others.

As for me, I am simply tired, tired of the pain, the hatred, of being physically hurt, and of the hatred and dislike thrown my way. But I will continue the struggle until my last breath because of the joy I find in the struggle, the presence of the Wild Goose who fly's leads me on.

And I am learning to " Relax As It Is!":

"We can stop struggling with what occurs and see its true face without calling it the enemy. It helps us to remember that our spiritual practice is not about accomplishing anything--not about winning or losing--but about ceasing to struggle and relaxing as it is. That is what we are doing when we sit down to meditate. That attitude spreads into the rest of our lives.

And so Stacy, my young friend of yesteryear, who has followed me in my dreams, calling me onward, in this late stage of my life, you have taught me like John Milton, "They serve who only wait! I wait simply by letting go, caring, and serving, the "least of these", and "falling into the safe embrace of the Wild Goose"! Thank you for all the struggles we have gone through together, allowing me to find real joy in Christ! Rest in peace, my friend!

Thank you! Deo Gratis

===================================

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

======

View as Webpage

Make a Difference by Donating to
THE IMMIGRATION DEFENSE FUND

All across our nation, communities of faith are rising to the occasion to support immigrants and their families - our neighbors, coworkers, family members, and friends - who have been singled out due to the policies of mass detentions and deportations, and now face extreme hardships and live in fear of separation from their loved ones.

Throughout our City, a multitude of community and faith-based efforts have been mobilized to respond to these threats in significant ways.

Immigrant families across the Bay Area are facing severe hardship right now. You’ve probably heard the stories of families torn apart without due process, parents nervous about leaving their homes, and elderly and pregnant people afraid to seek health care.

Our Bay Area immigrant families need your help. The Stand Together Bay Area Fund will be distributing funds for needs such as rent and food through community partners to ensure they reach families in need.

Temenos Catholic Worker is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, contributions to The Immigration Defense Fund are tax-deductible.

Checks payable to Temenos Catholic Worker with a notation in the memo line for The Immigration Defense Fund may be mailed to: P.O.Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94194, or on donators through pay pay.

=======================

Suggested Reading:
Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice
By Jennifer Mullan, PsyD

Looking out at our world, and all of the evil, destruction that is going on, it is easy to feel abandoned. In many ways, I often feel like evil is overcoming good, and we are simply wild animals, and injustice is winning. It makes sense to wonder, "Where is God?"

Damien, in our photo above, was 16 when I first met him in Minneapolis, running away from home because he had told his parents he was "gay". They told him to either "straighten up" or go to hell.

He was a fun kid! We would go out to the Mall of America on a freezing day, and act crazy, riding the roller coaster, acting stupid, chasing each other on the escalators. Hiding from Security Guards!

Forward five years, and late on night here in San Francisco, I ran into him hustling on Polk Street. The cute young boy now looked very haggard, skinny, and bloated, he had AIDS.

His health began to decline, and I found a hospice run by a Franciscan priest, where he could spend his final days. I would sit with him the last three weeks of his life for hours, and finally, on the last two days, full-time holding his hands.

He was terrified, so afraid, and he kept saying, " I am going to hell! My pastor told me so! I am such an awful sinner!

I would laugh and jokingly tell him I was the greatest of all sinners, and I knew I would be with God. More seriously, I would simply share with him that Jesus loved him, and he was never an orphan, we were never alone. He wanted me to hear his confession, and I repeated to him in conclusion the word of Jesus, "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you!" And he started repeating them all the time, and as he died, looking at me, Damien simply slipped away at peace, knowing, "I will not leave you orphaned, I am coming to you. "

Julian of Norwich tells us, "The mother can give of her milk to her suckling child, but our precious mother Jesus can feed us with himself," and so Damien was fed with " our precious mother Jesus," completely in his final moments.

It is when we feel most alone, most defeated, that we can know most strongly that Christ is indeed with us and will not leave. Christ, who went all the way to death, is not easily deterred, and Jesus is not taking leave simply because times are tough. St. Carlo Acutis, as he lay near death at 15, witnessed, "Golgotha is for everyone. No one escapes the cross."

If anything, God is leaning in. Jesus' death and resurrection tell us this: Nothing is too much for God to endure beside us. Nothing is enough to stop God's love and God's presence. No matter how overwhelmed we feel, we are not alone.

Even if we are going through fire now, God will bring us out to a spacious place, and I believe that in experiencing our little deaths on the way to our final death, that Death is the start of new life" (St. Carlo Acutis). Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

-------------------------------------

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

======

View as Webpage

Make a Difference by Donating to
THE IMMIGRATION DEFENSE FUND

All across our nation, communities of faith are rising to the occasion to support immigrants and their families - our neighbors, coworkers, family members, and friends - who have been singled out due to the policies of mass detentions and deportations, and now face extreme hardships and live in fear of separation from their loved ones.

Throughout our City, a multitude of community and faith-based efforts have been mobilized to respond to these threats in significant ways.

Immigrant families across the Bay Area are facing severe hardship right now. You’ve probably heard the stories of families torn apart without due process, parents nervous about leaving their homes, and elderly and pregnant people afraid to seek health care.

Our Bay Area immigrant families need your help. The Stand Together Bay Area Fund will be distributing funds for needs such as rent and food through community partners to ensure they reach families in need.

Temenos Catholic Worker is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, contributions to The Immigration Defense Fund are tax-deductible.

Checks payable to Temenos Catholic Worker with a notation in the memo line for The Immigration Defense Fund may be mailed to: P.O.Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94194, or on donators through pay pay.

=======================

Suggested Reading:
Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice
By Jennifer Mullan, PsyD

"You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not your successes or failures." Elizabeth Gilbert.

And the Scripture that has been the guide of my life and this ministry:
The Judgment of the Nations” Matthew 25:31-46 NRSVue
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. ”

Resulting in what author Joseph Plaster described in his book Kids on the street-queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin describes:
"The Reverend River Sims called his ministry "Temenos Catholic Worker", using the Greek word "temenos- a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated as a holy prescient" or as River ( from a quote by Harry Hay ) interpreted it, "the area outside the walls of a city to which social outcasts such as prostitutes were exiled."

River approached street kids as sacred figures and the Tenderloin as a sacred space. Taking as his inspiration the life of Christ, he sought out the most loathsome and unclean and created a ministry identified with those who find themselves abandoned and isolated in their suffering."

Polk in the 90 's, and early 2000's was home to the young men in the photo above, who lived on or near Polk Street, used drugs, and "hustled" or prostituted to survive. They were young men rejected from homes and society in general because of drugs, being gay, and other reasons. I found Christ in each one. Each was the very presence of the Crucified Christ, the suffering Christ.

I worked, and continue to work through a method coming to be known as "Decolonizing Therapy", which frees professionals and (clients)" soul friends" from the methods used in the world of "traditional" psychology, stemming from the very beginnings of the United States, seeing people as "clients" rather than human beings. From my own personal experiences of therapy from the beginning of my queer journey to be labeled, condemned and abused in that approach, seeking to set to place one back in the present culture, the movement of "decolonized therapy" freed me from the "white dominated, capitalistic, and controlling therapy. It has allowed me to simply meet the young men and women where they are, without judgment or labeling, as their "soul friend", and allow each to be who they are and decide where they want to go. For the most part, traditional therapy has no understanding of the street culture, and tends to expect and push them into the capitalist culture from which many have run, and can never re-enter.

Polk "Gulch" has transitioned into a "gentrified " area. It is a place where I view baby carriages in the daytime, and at night, men and women dressed up for the bars. Only one gay bar remains, and it is always full of late middle-aged men.

Yet we have our older homeless brothers and sisters in our doorways on Polk Street, ignored, sometimes kicked around, and calling the police to remove them from the street. In many ways, it is similar to when the police were organized in the 1850's, to catch runaway slaves, and now homeless individuals.

And we, in the words given to Stephanie Salter by her Soul Friend, continue to,

Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of love.

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-----------------------------------------

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

======

View as Webpage

Make a Difference by Donating to
THE IMMIGRATION DEFENSE FUND

All across our nation, communities of faith are rising to the occasion to support immigrants and their families - our neighbors, coworkers, family members, and friends - who have been singled out due to the policies of mass detentions and deportations, and now face extreme hardships and live in fear of separation from their loved ones.

Throughout our City, a multitude of community and faith-based efforts have been mobilized to respond to these threats in significant ways.

Immigrant families across the Bay Area are facing severe hardship right now. You’ve probably heard the stories of families torn apart without due process, parents nervous about leaving their homes, and elderly and pregnant people afraid to seek health care.

Our Bay Area immigrant families need your help. The Stand Together Bay Area Fund will be distributing funds for needs such as rent and food through community partners to ensure they reach families in need.

Temenos Catholic Worker is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, contributions to The Immigration Defense Fund are tax-deductible.

Checks payable to Temenos Catholic Worker with a notation in the memo line for The Immigration Defense Fund may be mailed to: P.O.Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94194, or on donators through pay pay.


=======================

Suggested Reading:
Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice
By Jennifer Mullan, PsyD

But when he arrived, what he saw broke him.

The miners lived underground. Literally. They descended into pitch-black mines before sunrise and didn't emerge until after sunset. Some days, they never saw daylight.

Children as young as eight worked alongside their fathers, crawling through tunnels too small for adults, breathing coal dust that turned their lungs black.

Families lived in shacks with dirt floors. They ate bread and potatoes—when they could afford them. Tuberculosis, cave-ins, and explosions killed them by the hundreds.

And the other preachers? They lived in comfortable houses, wore clean suits, and delivered sermons about sacrifice from a safe distance.

Vincent couldn't do it.

He couldn't stand in a pulpit wearing clean clothes, telling starving people to have faith, while he slept in a warm bed.
So he did something radical: he gave everything away.
His money. His clothes. His bed. He moved into a tiny, freezing baker's hut—barely more than a shed—and started sleeping on the floor on a pile of straw.

He stopped bathing. He let coal dust cake his face and hands because he wanted to look like the miners. To be one of them.
He visited them in the mines. One time, he descended into a shaft called Marcasse—one of the most dangerous pits in the region. It was over 700 meters deep. The air was suffocating. The tunnels were so narrow you had to crawl.

Vincent nearly died down there. But he wanted to understand. He wanted to feel what they felt.

When a mine explosion injured dozens of workers, Vincent used what little money he had to buy bandages. He gave away his own food. He stayed up all night caring for the injured.

The miners loved him. Here was a preacher who didn't just talk—he lived the Gospel.

But the church authorities were horrified.

They sent inspectors to the Borinage and found Vincent living like a beggar. Dirty. Thin. Sleeping on straw. Looking more like a homeless man than a representative of the church.

They told him his behavior was "undignified." That he was embarrassing the church. That a minister should maintain respectability, not live in squalor.

Vincent argued that Jesus himself lived in poverty. That true Christianity meant sacrifice.

The church didn't care.

In July 1879, they fired him. Via letter.

Vincent van Gogh, at 26 years old, had failed. Again.
He'd already failed at being an art dealer (his first job). Failed at being a teacher. And now he'd failed at the one thing he thought he was meant to do: serve God.

His family was ashamed. His father barely spoke to him. His siblings whispered about the embarrassment.

Only his younger brother, Theo, still believed in him.

For months, Vincent wandered the Borinage in despair.

Unemployed. Directionless. Broken.

And then something shifted.

If he couldn't save people through sermons, maybe he could save them through art.

Vincent started sketching the miners. Their tired faces. Their bent backs. The darkness of the mines. The landscapes scarred by industry.

He wasn't trained. He had no formal education in art. But he drew obsessively, trying to capture the dignity in their suffering.
At 27 years old—an age when most artists have already been working for a decade—Vincent van Gogh decided to become a painter.

He moved to Brussels. Took a few art classes. But mostly taught himself, studying other artists' work, practicing for hours every day.

Theo, working as an art dealer in Paris, sent Vincent money every month. Without Theo's support, Vincent would have starved.

Over the next ten years, Vincent painted over 2,000 works. Landscapes. Portraits. Still lifes. Sunflowers. Starry nights.
He poured everything into his art—all the pain, the rejection, the loneliness, the burning need to make people feel something.

But almost no one cared.

Critics ignored him. Galleries rejected him. Other artists mocked his thick, aggressive brushstrokes.

In his entire lifetime, Vincent van Gogh sold one painting. One.
"The Red Vineyard" sold to a friend of Theo's for 400 francs (about $1,000 today).

That was it. Everything else sat in storage, unsold, unwanted.
Vincent struggled with mental illness. He had breakdowns. He cut off part of his own ear during a psychotic episode. He checked himself into an asylum in Saint-Rémy, painting between episodes of madness.

In July 1890, at age 37, Vincent walked into a wheat field and shot himself in the chest.

He didn't die immediately. He stumbled back to his room and bled for two days before dying in Theo's arms.

His last words: "The sadness will last forever."
Vincent van Gogh died thinking he was a failure.

Six months later, Theo died too—from grief and syphilis, but mostly grief. He couldn't live in a world without his brother.

The brothers are buried side by side in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
And then, slowly, the world woke up.

Art critics started noticing Vincent's work. Collectors began buying his paintings. Museums held exhibitions.

Within 20 years of his death, Vincent van Gogh was recognized as one of the greatest painters who ever lived.

Today, his paintings sell for over $100 million. "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" sold for $82.5 million in 1990. "Sunflowers" is priceless.
Museums across the world have entire wings dedicated to his work. Millions of people visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam every year.

The man who sold one painting in his lifetime is now the most famous artist in history.

But here's what haunts me about Vincent's story:
It all started with rejection.

If the church hadn't fired him—if they'd let him keep preaching in the Borinage—Vincent might never have picked up a paintbrush.

His greatest gift to the world came from his greatest failure.
The coal miners he loved are gone. The church that rejected him is mostly forgotten.

But the paintings he made—the sunflowers, the starry nights, the weathered faces of working people—those will last forever.
Vincent van Gogh didn't stop being a missionary when the church fired him.

He just changed how he delivered his message.

Instead of sermons, he painted light. Instead of scripture, he used color. Instead of saving souls, he tried to make people see—really see—the beauty in suffering, the dignity in labor, the holiness in ordinary life.

The miners of the Borinage never knew that the dirty, kind preacher who slept on their floors would become immortal.
But in museums around the world, you can still see their faces in Vincent's early sketches—anonymous workers whose portraits now hang beside kings.

He gave away everything to live with coal miners. The church fired him for caring too much. He started painting at 27. He sold one painting in his lifetime. He died thinking he was a failure. Today, his paintings sell for over $100 million—and the world finally sees what he always did: beauty in the broken.”

---------------------------

"God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread... broken bread to give strength. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever"--Vance Havner.

Van Gogh began his life as a minister who went to the coal miners, people who were the poorest of the poor, they were no-bodies, the church rejected him.

Several months ago, there were two young seminarians visiting. Really, great and awesome guys! They go to school in Berkley coming from other schools in the Mid-west.

Both were shocked at the homelessness on the street, both had never been exposed to it, they had been kept away from it in Berkley and the other cities from where they came.

As we finished up the night reflecting, both commented working with the homeless was the last thing the church wanted to do, to ask to do so would take them off the line of promotion.

Believe me, I can testify to that personally, most of our finances come from me working, and private donations.

I have been invited to preach at various churches with the condition, "preach about spiritual poverty, please!" So I never preach! Soelle, tells us "Sin has little to do just with what we do, but with what we allow to happen." Sin is not confined to personal morality.

This is the way of all society--we ignore our brothers and sisters on the street, we fail to provide food, mental health care, and housing.

Dorothee Soelle defined mysticism not as a new vision of God, "but a different relationship to the world--one that has borrowed the eyes of God."

She confirms that "Religion does not confirm that there are hungry people in the world; it interprets the hungry to be our brothers and sisters who are allowed to starve."

Van Gogh saw "beauty in the broken"! He was pushed aside, kicked out of his church, died in poverty as a result of seeing the broken in the coal miners.

Christ, Buddha, Mohamed, Moses, all great religious figures calls us to see that wholeness comes only through seeing beauty in the broken, the hungry, the homeless, in our midst!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

--------------------------

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Step out of the circle of time and into the Circle of Love."

(Quote given to Stephanie Salter upon learning of her terminal diagnosis).

======

View as Webpage

Make a Difference by Donating to
THE IMMIGRATION DEFENSE FUND

All across our nation, communities of faith are rising to the occasion to support immigrants and their families - our neighbors, coworkers, family members and friends - who have been singled out due to the policies of mass detentions and deportations, and now face extreme hardships and live in fear of separation from their loved ones.

Throughout our City, a multitude of community and faith-based efforts have been mobilized to respond to these threats in significant ways.

Immigrant families across the Bay Area are facing severe hardship right now. You’ve probably heard the stories of families torn apart without due process, parents nervous about leaving their homes, and elderly and pregnant people afraid to seek health care.

Our Bay Area immigrant families need your help. The Stand Together Bay Area Fund will be distributing funds for needs such as rent and food through community partners to ensure they reach families in need.

Temenos Catholic Worker is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, contributions to The Immigration Defense Fund are tax-deductible.

Checks payable to Temenos Catholic Worker with a notation in the memo line for The Immigration Defense Fund may be mailed to: P.O.Box 642656, San Francisco, CA 94194, or on donators through pay pay.

In the book of John, the feeding of the five thousand preceded the presence of Jesus at the table with the pilgrims on the road to EmmaI was first introduced to the Dream Catcher on the L.A. streets, and through the years has been a symbol of hope and healing.

As I have said before my young friends analogy of my work as a means of "washing away my sins." I came out of the streets with the "sins" of prostitution, stealing, using people for money, fighting and hurting others, and so on; added to that, was in all my life in the past it was ingrained in me being gay as an "intrinsic evil" using the words of the former Discipline of my former church. I am a sinner every day, and in Christ there is forgiveness and redemption.

I am reminded by that we who are queer will not be accepted by the majority of Churches in my life time, my own sister does not speak to me and tells me I am going to hell, with a Bible in her hands. The dream for me is found in the knowledge that Jesus loves us just as we are! Jesus captures my dreams, holds them for me, and sends me out with them.

So the "Dream Catcher"is a symbol of hope and healing, reminding me that my dreams are caught continually and I continue to dream, to move forward with the hope and love of the Triune God, life, and my brothers and sisters.

The symbol of the "Dream Catcher" is one I talk about with my friends on the street where they live. To always have hope, to trust in the healing that comes each day, and to live with their heads held up.

In Matthew 1:1-17 we have a list of all generations preceding Jesus, and in that list what we see are men and women who have sinned drastically, and God loved them, and they did wondrous things for God.

King David, committed adultery, killed the husband of the woman he wanted, and many other major sins, yet continued to struggle with God, and was used for God's glory. The Apostle Paul worked with the persecutors of the followers of Jesus, and yet God used him in a great way.

There was a man, who too caught a dream, that of raising Mexican farm workers from a level of extreme poverty, to one of just pay and respect.

His name was Caesar Chavez, a Latino farm worker himself. He organized the United Farm-workers Union (UFW), continuing today.

Inspired by a priest who taught him God's desire for social justice, Chavez gave himself to voluntary poverty and a non-violent struggle on behalf of America's poorest and most exploited workers. "When you sacrifice, you force others to sacrifice, he said. "It's an extremely powerful weapon."

My prayer is that as we see beyond the affairs of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,with women, that in time we too see beyond the accusations of Caesar to his powerful witness, giving hope, and raising the Latino community to higher level in our society. He caught a dream, a dream that took his every breath until he died.

"Show me the suffering of the most miserable, so I will know my people's plight. Free me to pray for others, for you are present in every person. Help me to take responsibility for my own life, so that I can be free at last. Grant me the courage to serve others, for in service there is true life. Give me honesty and patience, so that the Spirit will live among us. Let the Spirit flourish and grow, so that we will never tire the struggle. Let us remember those who have died for justice, for they have given us life. Help us love even those who hate us, so we can change the world.

--Caesar Chavez--

=====================================
"Step Out of the Circle of Time, and Into the Circle of Love!"

(Spiritual Director of Stephanie Salter)

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
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P.O. Box 642656
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Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
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She asked me about my past, my struggles, my call, and most importantly, my street ministry. Later, another journalist called and wanted to follow me around on the street with a cameraman, and the article he published brought Temenos into the public eye, and donors poured in.

Stephanie, every Christmas, would feature Temenos with other small non-profits in her column, thus bringing in more donors, but gave me especially credibility, with all the controversy that always followed and follows me.

She once told me, "River, you serve in the middle of people in a way no one else does, you are their friend, and you serve in the midst of all their activities alone. People always sink to the bottom in their criticism, believe me, I know, so keep the work going!

Stephanie came back to San Francisco in 2014 and spoke at my 20th Anniversary celebration, and wanted to come to the 30th but was not well.

Stephanie was a great friend, loyal to the end, and a great journalist, and most important of all, a great hero:

"The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of the creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the speaker seeks to know. The hero journey is a symbol that binds, in the original sense of the word, two distant ideas, the spiritual quest of the ancients with the modern search for identity, always the one shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find ( Phil Cousineau).

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-------------------------------

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164

=============================

In the book of John, the feeding of the five thousand preceded the presence of Jesus at the table with the pilgrims on the road to Emmaus. He returned from prayer to see the hunger of the five thousand, and those trying to follow him, and he fed them. Jesus met their physical needs before their spiritual.

Glory begins with mercy! The tired and the hungry recline, rest, and are abundantly fed first of all. They are abundantly fed without any expectation.

Feeding people opens the door to caring, and meeting other needs, spiritual, housing, etc., will come abundantly as we meet the needs of everyone, for we are simply a Rainbow of Colors, simply broken people.

As we journey through the Easter season, each moment of shaken belief is met with abundance. " The one who is to come into the world" comes with mercy that sustains. The word "liminal" comes from the Latin limen -threshold. In breaking bread with Jesus, we are fed through Christ's mercy. Without it, we can not stand and bear witness at the threshold of God's glory.

Each time I have given food to another, the Eucharist is given, for Christ is present in our mercy. In each act of love we give, we give the broken body of Christ. We bear witness at the threshold of God's glory in each act of mercy.

Dorothy Day once said:
"What we do is very little. But it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Christ took that little and increased it. He will do the rest. What we do is so little that we may seem constantly failing. But so did he fail. He met with apparent failure on the cross. But unless seeds fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest!

As my own life rolls towards its ending, I will be simply cremated and forgotten, but I have found purpose in the dropping of seeds for the journey with Jesus changes us. Our hearts burn with joy when we finally surrender our earthly sufferings to Christ's love that is revealed among us who face hardship and narrow paths, casting the seeds!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

=====================================

"Jesus will have no hierarchies,
no separations or divisions'
not even between us and him.
'Call no one good but God.
There are no greater and lesser,
no servants and masters,
no insiders and outsiders.
Not even believers and unbelievers.
Only friends, peers, siblings, companions.
Every stranger is a sibling.
Every person you meet is a friend
for whom we lay down your life.
There is no "them." There is only us.
In the love of Christ, befriend this world
and everyone in it;
you will never be alone.

-Steve Garnaas-Holmes"
"Friends"

==================================

National Bi-Sexual Month!

National Child Abuse Prevention Month!

Temenos Catholic Worker
"Peniel"--"Where Jacob Wrestled With God!"
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
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P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

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Every day, I observe people simply walking down the street, homeless, talking to themselves, not knowing who is around them, totally alone. They are people who are mentally ill. The failure of our system, which is a failure that goes back through the history of our country, to take care of them, and all people with mental illness, is an atrocity, one among many.
When we walk on the street, we either do not see them, we ignore or we simply walk across the street. I know people taking a walk who kick or push aside some "crazy" person in their way.

Statistics show that 50% of the general population will have mental health issues sometime in their lives. Social media can fuel anxiety, disrupt sleep, and leave one feeling alone in a crowd. It offers instant gratification, designed by companies for that purpose and it's taking a toll on our mental health.

According to the Pew Research Team, 69 % of U.S. adults and 81% of teens use social media--putting a huge portion of the population at risk. Studies link social media use to poor sleep, memory issues, and academic struggles, and fear. We see how social media is being used now in the political arena--used intentionally to divide and disturb both sides.

We have lost a sense of compassion and caring for others, resulting from being online.

Schizophrenia Bi-polar depression are common on the street, and illegal drugs are used by in desperation by the individuals to treat them. All other sorts of disorders are common as well.

One study shows there are 350,000 mentally ill people in our prison system. How many have committed crimes because of their mental illness, and will do so again? There is no treatment.

Dorothy Day once said, "We must talk about poverty (mental illness-added by me) because people are insulated by their own comfort--lose sight of it." We must talk about it!

I have no answers, accept to give compassion and care to our homeless and mentally ill brothers and sisters.

My answer is given by Stephen Grant:
"The essence of being with another person is to create a space where they can say what they've never been allowed to say, think what they've never been allowed to think, to feel what they've never been allowed to feel, and be the people they've always been afraid to be!"

For me, this means that I do not give a damn what their political persuasion, color of skin, economic status, or a criminal, for each person is a child of the same God, that forgives me, my god, I am the greatest sinner of all! And these are not words, I believe them in my very bones! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-----------------------------------------

National Bisexual Month!

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

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"Who is fit to hold power
and worthy to act in God's place?

Those with a passion for the truth,
who are horrified by injustice,
who act with mercy to the poor
and take up the cause of the helpless,
we have let go of selfish concerns
and see the whole earth as sacred,
refusing to exploit her creatures
or to foul her waters and lands.

Their strength is in their compassion;
God's light shines through their hearts.
Their children's children will bless them
and the work of their hands will endure"(Stephen Michell).

================================

"The resurrection of Jesus makes everything simple. Life is so complex, so many political issues, so many problems to reflect on and ponder. And there is the ongoing question of priorities, and who we should love and care for, who is dirty, who is clean. But here before the rolled-away stone, a simple center from which hope radiates, all is very simple. I sense the deep truth of this simplicity. Jesus is risen. All has become one in his Divine Love.

Clarence Jordon, co-founder of Koinonia Farm wrote, "The resurrection of Jesus was simply God's unwillingness to take our 'no' for an answer. He raised Jesus, not as an invitation to us to come to heaven when we die, but as a declaration that he himself has now established permanent, eternal residence here on earth. He is standing beside us, strengthening us in this life. The good news of the resurrection of Jesus is not that we shall die and go home to be with him, but that he has risen and comes home with us, bringing all his hungry, naked, thirsty, sick prisoner brothers and sisters.

San Francisco counts 4000 homeless and addicted mentally ill people, approximately 51% of the homeless population.

Those are the numbers we see on paper; but what I see day in and and day out are human beings suffering from no counseling, psychiatric care, no friends, and no place to lay their head.

What I see each day is a City government setting up a center for addicted people to come in, sober up from their latest use, and tries to get them into drug treatment, and have really little treatment to offer, and housing is needed.

I see each day broken, fearful, and human being on the street for years, who will find it almost impossible to get off the street without a lot of personal help.

Each day I see human beings like Jeremy above, walking down Polk, head bent low, holding his blanket, slowly walking down the street; I see Susan with scars on her face, sitting in front of Walgreens asking for money; I encounter Jimmy, who sees me, and simply wants to talk. I simply catch their stories, give them some socks, and food.

And what I see each day is people leaving churches, restaurants, bars, simply walking by without even seeing them.

On a number of occasions, I have seen police use a taser, rather than talking to someone who is high. I have stood between police and an homeless person who is high on drugs, a number of times, moving them into a peaceful state of mind. They need love, they need compassion--not fear, anger, towards them.

Over fifty-percent of our housed population will have mental health issues in their lives.

Eight years ago, when my shoulder was broken, having surgery, and than four months of recuperation, I went into a deep depression, a very deep depression. I called my sister during this time, seeking to communicate, she told me she would not talk to me until I "came to Jesus" and hung up, definitely ending our relationship.

My friend David, gracious, kind, and caring paid for three months of therapy and I had a doctor at Kaiser, (paid for by friends in Albuquerque) who placed me on Wellbutrin. My depression lifted, and have not been depressed in five years.

I had friends, insurance, a home, income, therapist, my faith and a doctor. Without them I could have simply descended into the hell of mental illness.

So try living on the streets, without family, friends, financial and medical resources, and housing, and imagine having a mental illness. I was hellar lucky!

So if one wants to help do not ignore people on the street, talk to them, give them food, and most importantly simply give them caring and love.

Simplistic! Well I have done it for thirty one and a half years and will do it till the day I drop dead without regrets!

Remember the words of Dan White Jr., ones that I try to live by each day:

"When you live in Culture War Mode there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear.

When you live in God's Kingdom there's always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love!"


Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

--------------------------------
Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org


On PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Who is fit to hold power
and worthy to act in God's place?

Those with a passion for the truth,
who are horrified by injustice,
who act with mercy to the poor
and take up the cause of the helpless,
we have let go of selfish concerns
and see the whole earth as sacred,
refusing to exploit her creatures
or to foul her waters and lands.

Their strength is in their compassion;
God's light shines through their hearts.
Their children's children will bless them

and the work of their hands will endure"(Stephen Michell).

================================

The world has always been broken. Even as we stand here with our good intentions, we are in the midst of learning a terrible lesson--we are a part of a long history of brokenness stemming from the beginning of creation. And one of the passages of the Seder readings haunts me:

"In every generation an enemy will rise up to destroy us."

The truth is in our world is full of voices that are unheard with, many, many, different points of view.

The truth is in the middle of all of the voices, heard and unheard, all of the various groups, there is NO CORRECT ANSWER-and we are not responsible for finding it. We are responsible for living in care, and love for everyone who have different points of view, and ways of doing things.

On this Good Friday, we are reminded there is only mercy and love, no Blue, Red, Democrat, Republican, but simply loving our fellow human beings.

Love is not depending on judgments or feelings, but on a decision to set judgment aside.

Love is anarchy, love is a choice, we don't love the deserving, we don't choose who is allowed in our country and neighborhoods, for we are flawed and imperfect human beings in an emotional logic that belongs to an entirely different weather system than the cold, chilly climate of reason.

Fannie Lou Hammer, a well-known civil rights leader, beaten and jailed, often said:

"It wouldn't solve any problem for me to hate whites just because they hate me, oh, there is so much hate, only God has kept the Negro sane."


There is an old Negro spiritual entitled " Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" reminding us to be fully present with the whole of humanity, not requiring us to enter the sanctuary or walk across the threshold of a church. The cross, Calvary, is a public spectacle. The question " Were You There!" signifies the real pressing question about whether you are there for our undocumented immigrants, will we be present to them in the corners of our streets, will we be there with them in the churches and houses in which they hide, will we be with them on our borders?

"Were you there? calls us to be present at the front lines for justice.

The lyrics of "Were You There?" continue with the words, "Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble! Tremble!" I wonder whether we have lost our ability to tremble in the presence of a holy God who REQUIRES us to be present to our immigrants/non-documented, and do the work of justice for all:

"Who is fit to hold power
and worthy to act in God's place?

Those with a passion for the truth,
who are horrified by injustice,
who act with mercy to the poor
and take up the cause of the helpless,
we have let go of selfish concerns
and see the whole earth as sacred,
refusing to exploit her creatures
or to foul her waters and lands.

Their strength is in their compassion;
God's light shines through their hearts.
Their children's children will bless them
and the work of their hands will endure"(Stephen Michell).

================================

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
Philip Burton Federal Building and United States Court Hours
450 Golden Gate Street
(Near San Francisco's Civic Center and San Francisco City Hall)
Contact:
For Information Call or Email punkpriest1@gmail.com
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com
===================================

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

Entering the Journey of Another!

"There is no male and no female, for all are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28)!

==================

"Journal of An Alien Street Priest!"

---------

Rather than preach about the neglect and discrimination we the majority of people have given, including me, to transgenders, resulting in them having severe mental health issues , being targeted, beaten up and murdered in numbers above all populations, I offer these words:

"Before you judge a man walk a mile in his moccasins"(Native American proverb)!

To truly understand another we must feel their journey, walk with them, being one, and facing the same dangers and difficulties as they face.

Remembering Jesus walks the journey with transgenders this Holy Week, as he did on his journey to the cross, let's commit to looking deep with inside ourselves. Going so deep to see our monsters of racism, trans-phobia, and entitlement, and then to truly begin to truly tame those monsters into Dragons of Light!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

========================================

---------------

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
Philip Burton Federal Building and United States Court Hours
450 Golden Gate Street
(Near San Francisco's Civic Center and San Francisco City Hall)
Contact:
For Information Call or Email punkpriest1@gmail.com
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124-- punkpriest1@gmail.com
===================================

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

Watching the Sea Lions across from my hotel, I see them play, are frisky, and simply enjoying life without a worry. In an area where wildlife are safe--all sorts of birds flying, rabbits, deer, and squirrels around. I could stay forever!

In going back into the "real world" the next day I am reminded of a quote by Ta-Nenehisi-Coates, "The streets transform every ordinary day into a series of trick questions, and every incorrect answer risks a beat down, a shooting, or a pregnancy," Coates expands on the assertion by listing "guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease as some of the elements that assail Black, Queer prostitutes, Mexican, both non-documented/ undocumented people, and many others. He asserts that such vulnerability is not accidental; instead, it is the product of an intentional policy of forcing people to live under fear.

It is a world I have lived in for over thirty-six years, from being kicked out of my denomination for being queer, going to the streets of L.A., where I sold my body, stole, used my fists for protection, and living under fear.

I learned from those years the true meaning of the words of Jesus, " But Jesus did not trust himself to any man, because he knew all men!"

That dark and cold night, as I sat in the Cathedral before our Lady of Guadalupe, and she surrounded me, I was the woman brought before Jesus, caught in adultery, " they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. . .but Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though he did not hear, and when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw at her first. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one. When all had gone, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are all those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more" (John 8:2-13).

From those moments, I entered into as redeeming relationship with Jesus, but guilt always followed me, forcing me to stay chained!

Four years later, late one night on Polk Street, I was helping Sean shoot up, because his arms were torn badly, and he said to me, "River, you must have done something really awful, and afraid you are going to hell, to be out here with us, no bodies!"

That was the beginning of my own journey of rising above the chains!

A psychologist friend told me starting this ministry, "You will be in the center of a railroad track, with twenty tracks attached, and have twenty railroad trains come towards you at one time, so stand firm in your faith, prepare yourself for the doubts and fears that will come!" Very much like the woman the woman caught in adultery!

And so each day I remind myself, my death will come on an ordinary day, in the middle of unfinished plans. The world, in its craziness, will continue without me. So seek to live fully, loving each person, forgetting about any divisions, anger, and be a Sea Lion, above the chains, and going forward to "finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from my Lord Jesus Christ, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24)!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-----------------------------------

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
Philip Burton Federal Building and United States Court Hours
450 Golden Gate Street
(Near San Francisco's Civic Center and San Francisco City Hall)
For Information Call or Email punkpriest1@gmail.com
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

=============================

"All Love Is Wasted" by Steven Garners Holmes:
"All Love is wasted
It is not a wise investment
It is not a powerful tool.

It is given away
without thought of profit or outcome.
Often it is swallowed up by ingratitude
or falls into gaping wounds.

Or it is sown among evil and hated
where no amount of love can succeed.

Love is wasted gladly on the unknowing,
the ungrateful, the undeserving.

Even your love of someone
dear is a waste
for their love can only be a gift
not a return!
We tread on the seeds of Divine Love.

Daily we go out to sow
wastefully, scattering
as much love as possible."

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-----------------

" When treasure is not shared,
When riches are kept hidden,
Walls are erected,
Hope is trampled,
Life can not flourish.
Help us, Holy One,
to share our treasures,
to uncover riches,
to tear down walls
and build up hope
and live and love
abundantly.
(Chett Pritchett)

----------------------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

0n PayPalScan the QR Code to Donate

People in power have forced people to live under fear, in their weaknesses, and poverty on the street. They provide know real assistance.
Four years ago, I received a call from a now "middle aged" friend, with whom I had been friends with for twenty years; He lives in another state, and is a lawyer, and had a friend who wanted to come and visit three days before our Good Friday service to volunteer with Temenos.
"Susie" showed up on the Tuesday before, a nice "elderly" lady! Unknowingly I was not told of her fundamental religious beliefs!
Frankly she lied to me. We were in the Haight and I was ahead, and heard the scream of a young guy, turning she was passing out flyers and telling him unless he accepted Jesus there was no salvation; I lost it! This young man had suffered abuse from Christians over being gay! I sent her away, and frankly after talking to her, and her refusing and telling me I needed to "find Jesus", dusted my feet off, as Jesus says, and moved on.
A year later I went to visit my friend who sent her, and from the moment, we met he said: "I had Susie come down to encounter you, she came back really angry, simply because you were not really saved and were leading your kids to hell; so during our time together since she proved to me that religion is simply a way of dividing people and hurting them you are not to talk about your job, God, or anything pertaining to religion. There are no gods."
It was a rough day, and I kept my mouth shut, but in saying good by, I simply pointed out the reason I had been his friend between the good and bad times, loving him no matter what, because of the loving Spirit of God! It never mattered to me what he believed or how he behaved. I loved him. I dusted off my feet and walked away, very sad, feeling much alone.
There are times when we feel absolutely helpless to prevent terrible injustices, abusive language and behavior, and unnecessary disasters. Our helplessness may be fed by fears of reprisals and revenge. Societal polarization can create such seemingly impossible situations, and our only hope is to fall back on our faith in Divine Love! Care for others without judgment! Acceptance of All!
Wishing revenge is a debilitating and complicated vice. .
We know individuals consumed by it for signs of their suffering are evident--major depression, hatred, condemnation of family members, other races and religious affiliations. Their pride, anger, and envy, has them reach out in destruction and hate.
Paul, trained by Pharisees, advised:

"Beloved, don't be obsessed with talking revenge, but leave that to God's righteous justice. . If your enemy is hungry buy him lunch! Win him over with kindness.
For your surprising generosity will awaken conscience and God will reward you with favor!
I have learned that I have to move from speaking about Jesus to letting him speak within me, from acting for and with Jesus to letting him act through me. I am learning not to live in a culture war mode, where there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear, but finding that live in God's Reign there is always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love. (edited Dan White and Henri Nouwen). Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
"All Love Is Wasted" by Steven Garners Holmes:
"All Love is wasted
It is not a wise investment
It is not a powerful tool.

It is given away
without thought of profit or outcome.
Often it is swallowed up by ingratitude,
or falls into gaping wounds.

or it is sown among evil and hated
where no amount of love can succeed.

Love is wasted gladly on the unknowing,
the ungrateful, the undeserving.

Even your love of someone
dear is a waste
for their love can only be a gift
not a return!
We tread on the seeds of Divine Love.

Daily we go out to sow
wastefully, scattering
as much love as possible."

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
-----------------------------------

" When treasure is not shared,
When riches are kept hidden,
Walls are erected,
Hope is trampled,
Life can not flourish.
Help us, Holy One,
to share our treasures,
to uncover riches,
to tear down walls
and build up hope
and live and love
abundantly."
(Chett Pritchett)

--------------------------------------

TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL STATIONS OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
Philip Burton Federal Building and United States Court Hours
450 Golden Gate Street
(Near San Francisco's Civic Center and San Francisco City Hall)
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

--------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

We watched him age over the next ten years, as he would come and sit on a bench outside of soccer practice, watching the young boys. He became grayer, and grayer, until he died. He found comfort, in remembering his life, and the parents and grandparents of these boys he taught.

I think of the story often as I sit in restaurants on Polk and the Haight, simply watching people pass by. I have seen thousands of young boys and adults pass through my life.

The gentleman in our photo above is one I have known for thirty-one years. He was 22 when I met him, young, spry, making money and doing drugs, hustling, and now simply surviving. We visit, and I listen, feed him, and love him.

This year the theme of my Lenten devotions is " Journey of Surrender", I am surrendering letting go of changing others, and meeting people where they are. St. Therese tells us:
"True charity consists in bearing all my neighbors defects, not being surprised by them, but edified at the smallest virtues!"

So not expecting anything in return and in the words my favorite poem accepting love as wasted, with many tears for my heart is full of loss, and joy:

"All Love Is Wasted" by Steven Garners Holmes:
"All Love is wasted
It is not a wise investment
It is not a powerful tool.

It is given away
without thought of profit or outcome.
Often it is swallowed up by ingratitude,
or falls into gaping wounds.

or it is sown among evil and hated
where no amount of love can succeed.

Love is wasted gladly on the unknowing,
the ungrateful, the undeserving.

Even your love of someone
dear is a waste
for their love can only be a gift
not a return!
We tread on the seeds of Divine Love.

Daily we go out to sow
wastefully, scattering
as much love as possible."

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-----------------------------------

" When treasure is not shared,
When riches are kept hidden,
Walls are erected,
Hope is trampled,
Life can not flourish.
Help us, Holy One,
to share our treasures,
to uncover riches,
to tear down walls
and build up hope
and live and love
abundantly."
(Chett Pritchett)

--------------------------------------

TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL STATIONS OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
Philip Burton Federal Building and United States Court Hours
450 Golden Gate Street
(Near San Francisco's Civic Center and San Francisco City Hall)
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

--------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

Being merciful is showing every one mercy and in doing so receiving the gift of mercy in return.

Recently I was told with much anger that Republicans, conservatives--the Middle Western and Southern people are ignorant and not worth dealing with. That horrified me, for I have friends, relatives, and donors in the South and Midwest, who disagree with my political, theological, and social beliefs, but we still care and respect one another and our differences. I love the South where I was raised. I smell the fragrance of crops, flowers, hear the sounds in the air, feel the warmth, taste the food, love August, the hottest month of the year, and I am home.

To be merciful to the "forgotten ones"--homeless, the undocumented immigrant, the poorest of the poor, all people, is where we to will find mercy. To be merciful is
"To serve the God of love, one must be free to face the terrible responsibility to love in-spite of all unworthiness, whether in oneself or in one's neighbor"(Thomas Merton).

In my doubts, my fears, St. Patrick sums up the way I practice: "Let your faith be your shield in times of doubt."

Also in my doubts I remember the man Jesus healed in our lectionary reading for this morning. The Pharisees asked him if Jesus was evil or not, and he responded, "I do not know whether Jesus is a sinner, one thing I know is, that though I was blind, now I see (John 9:25).

Being merciful is showing every one mercy and in doing so receiving the gift of mercy in return.

Recently I was told with much anger that Republicans, conservatives--the Middle Western and Southern people are ignorant and not worth dealing with. That horrified me, for I have friends, relatives, and donors in the South and Midwest, who disagree with my political, theological, and social beliefs, but we still care and respect one another and our differences. I love the South where I was raised. I smell the fragrance of crops, flowers, hear the sounds in the air, feel the warmth, taste the food, love August, the hottest month of the year, and I am home.

To be merciful to the "forgotten ones"--homeless, the undocumented immigrant, the poorest of the poor, all people, is where we to will find mercy. To be merciful is
"To serve the God of love, one must be free to face the terrible responsibility to love in-spite of all unworthiness, whether in oneself or in one's neighbor"(Thomas Merton).

In my doubts, my fears, St. Patrick sums up the way I practice: "Let your faith be your shield in times of doubt."

Also in my doubts I remember the man Jesus healed in our lectionary reading for this morning. The Pharisees asked him if Jesus was evil or not, and he responded, "I do not know whether Jesus is a sinner, one thing I know is, that though I was blind, now I see (John 9:25).

All I know is I do not know exactly who Jesus, but " one thing I know is, that though I was blind, now I see," the face of Jesus in every creature!

" When treasure is not shared,
When riches are kept hidden,
Walls are erected,
Hope is trampled,
Life can not flourish.
Help us, Holy One,
to share our treasures,
to uncover riches,
to tear down walls
and build up hope
and live and love
abundantly.
(Chett Pritchett)

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
630 Sansome Street
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

--------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

I think of the young girl in MacArthur Park who fed seven hundred people a week for over a year, being severely beaten; the death threats and the harm done to me through the years.

Gradually, ever so gradually, I am learning to let go, and follow the advice of St. Ignatius, to be "indifferent," not to take it personally, and keep following my calling.

Thomas Merton once said, "The one who does the most to avoid suffering is the one who suffers the most." So I have found like our text tells us, that when one directs their love towards one's neighbor, we suffer less, focusing on another's suffering, assisting them, and making ours much smaller.

On April 3, Good Friday, we will have a time of prayer through following the Stations of the Cross, at ICE Headquarters, 630 Sansome Street.

Rather than showing anger, political disagreement, and hate, let us show forgiveness. What I have learned through the years is "forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future"(Paul Boese).

Let us continue towards Easter and newness of life with a Gushing River, "The water that I will give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (John 4:40).


"Maybe faith is something you "have" as a river "has water":
for a river is not just some water, but a flowing, releasing as it receives.

The unkillable life God gives you is not for you alone, not for you to keep, but to pass on. Faith is the flowing of love
from the spring of God
through you
into the world,
freely flowing
the receiving-and-giving,
the passing on,
one fluid motion.
You are the riverbank
through which God
never stops gushing.
- Steve Garnaas, Gushing

"Be gentle when you walk into the lives of others, because not all wounds are obvious" (Narin Grewal)

-----------------------

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
630 Sansome Street
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

--------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

Didn't need to know his or anyone's story to know they were worthy of love, didn't need to know the stories of anyone to love them.

Everyone a son, a grandchild. Everyone light. It was like how on these midsummer nights, the late sun shines long through the cities and fields

and everything, every whole and broken thing, beautiful.

Oh, people, people of Iran, Israel, Palestine, Ukraine.

Russia, Somalia, Yemen. America. I will never know you, yet I honor how you carry inside you your own strange and beautiful spark. Each of us longs to belong. No matter what our leaders do, the light is right to see how much we all long to be safe, to be seen, to be kind, to be trusted, to meet on any street, in any room, all of us slivers of divinity. (River, 2001, edited, 2026).

-----------------------

It was on the night my son died in 2001 that my journey towards meekness began, and the letting go of the feelings, guilt, and abandonment, a journey that will continue until I come into God's arms at death.

The heart of Jesus is filled with it. He speaks of meekness, associated with humility, as the principal quality of his soul in a beautiful passage:

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Dorothy day describes meekness as a "seamless garment of love that is the animating force of Christian faith, we want to show love for our brother and sister so that we can show our God love."

Violence is contagious. Violence in all forms, be it our dislike of the beliefs of other people, of their choice of politicians, parts of the country in which they live, violence is violence. A middle finger for a honked horn. Hatred begets hatred. Pick up the sword and die by the sword. You kill us and we'll kill you. There is a contagion of violence in our communities, states, nation, and the world.

But grace is contagious. An act of kindness inspires another act of kindness. A random smile is exchanged for an opened door, a cup of coffee, a piece of bread. Helping someone carry their laundry, their groceries makes them nice. Randomly talking to a homeless person, buying them food or coffee, invites them to a kinder life. A single act of forgiveness can feel like it heals the world. Grace begets grace. Love rubs off on those who are loved.

There is nowhere you can see the battle of grace and disgrace waged more vehemently than in our present society. When it comes to words like "justice", "compassion", "love of others", people can say the same thing and mean something differently.

Judgment, lack of understanding of one another, and political views offer contrasting ideological thoughts of the word "justice", where people can say the same thing and mean something completely different.

For example, when people on one side has experienced hurt by the other in a demonstration or other forms, we see evil not going without consequence. And there is a theology behind it: "An eye for an eye... a tooth for a tooth" (Exodus 21:23-24).

Yet grace, meekness, offers us another version of justice. Grace makes room for redemption. Graces and meekness offer a vision of justice that is restorative and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice. But the grace thing is hard work. It takes faith--because it dares us to believe that not only victims be healed, but so can the victimizers. It is not always easy to believe that love is more powerful than hatred, life is more powerful than death, and that people can be better than the worst thing they've done.

These two versions of justice compete for our allegiance. One leads to death: The other can lead to life, and to healing and redemption and other beautiful things.

Mercy is a natural overflowing of grace. In the photos of the young guys and young women above, and the ones presently on the street, they all want "justice", the justice of mercy, not of judgment. The guys in the photo suffered at the hands of our system, as do those now on our streets. A system that only cares for money, beautiful houses and apartments, rather than housing for the poor, food, and drug treatment, we can too understand as Dorothy Day once referred to her system as "a dirty rotten system," and it continues to be "a dirty rotten system." and each one of us is a part of that system.

I have been asked, "Why don't you quit?" You have "PTS," and you suffer hatred and death threats and lack of money, what keeps you going?"

My answer is grace and mercy, are things just like forgiveness, that exist in the context of the evil, and in contrast to it. When all is well, grace and mercy are hard to notice. But when things are tough, they are hard to ignore. They shine brightly. Just as light shines in the darkness, grace is radiant next to evil and darkness! I love seeing grace! One can see the grace and good in ourselves and each person we encounter!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

=====================================

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
City Hall, on Polk Side
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Blessings of Jesus

Blessed are those who know their need
for theirs is the grace of heaven.
Blessed are those who weep
for their tears will be wiped away.
Blessed are the humble
for they are close to the sacred earth.
Blessed are those who hunger for earth’s oneness
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the forgiving
for they are free.
Blessed are the clear in heart
for they see the Living Presence.
Blessed are the peacemakers
for they are born of God.
(The Casa del Sol Blessings of Jesus — based on Matthew 5:3-9)

— Praying with the Earth: A Prayer book for Peace

------------------------------------------------

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.
When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead
not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.
I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

And I get up, sad, with joy, and go back to work, writing, hanging with my friends on the street with food, socks, and simply being a story catcher, holding their pain as they tell me their stories.

I continue to live in the Reign of God, where there is always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love.

And in mourning daily, there is comfort!

Jesus' promise in this beatitude has sustained and given solace to the bereaved in the face of death in its many forms, and the pain of loss is assured.

On the cross, Jesus' vulnerability and pain expressed in lament are transformed through his compassion into strength and consolation of death.

Our honest outpouring of mourning and lament, acknowledging our vulnerabilities, fears, and need of God--itself becomes the means of our experiencing God's ever-present compassion, support, and healing in our times of sorrow. We are strengthened in our weakness as God's power is made known.

And on Good Friday, as we walk the Stations of the Cross for Migrants and Immigrants, we remembering their suffering and ask ourselves what we can do for these brothers and sisters of ours?

Then Jesus said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me' (Luke 9:23).

Opening Prayer: Most merciful and loving Savior, crucified and risen, we now walk these stations of your passion, death, and resurrection, alongside our migrant brothers and sisters suffering here, and throughout the world, who have been forced to share in your sufferings by circumstances beyond their control. As we meditate on these stations and worship you, filled with gratitude for all that you have suffered for us, give us the courage and empathy to encounter and accompany our migrant brothers and sisters in their sufferings so as to respond to your divine teaching: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35) and "Whatever you did for me of these brothers and sisters of mind, you did for me) Matthew 25:40). Amen.

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

=====================================

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
City Hall, on Polk Side
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124 -- punkpriest1@gmail.com

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Blessings of Jesus

Blessed are those who know their need
for theirs is the grace of heaven.
Blessed are those who weep
for their tears will be wiped away.
Blessed are the humble
for they are close to the sacred earth.
Blessed are those who hunger for earth’s oneness
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the forgiving
for they are free.
Blessed are the clear in heart
for they see the Living Presence.
Blessed are the peacemakers
for they are born of God.
(The Casa del Sol Blessings of Jesus — based on Matthew 5:3-9)

— Praying with the Earth: A Prayer book for Peace

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.
When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead
not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.
I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

Therese of Lisieux, wrote The only good is to love God with all one's heart and to be poor in spirit here on earth!

You see, ultimately, "All worldly honors are nothing but the smoke and fire of burning straw. All that remains is the little good that we have done, if we have managed to make the most of the grace which our good Lord has given us at every instant in our lives" (Fr. William Gagnon). Fr. Gagnon ran a hospital for the poor in Vietnam, where the threat of death was constantly present. Nevertheless, he was sustained by prayer and by the spirit of St. John of God, who taught that all those who were poor and suffering were Christ in disguise. "Blessed are the poor in spirit!"

The first Beatitude is the source of all the others; it contains them all, as a seed contains a plant. One could easily show how each of the following Beatitude presupposes some form of poorness of heart. At the heart of the Gospel, of the person Christ is, and the work of Paul, is a mystery of poverty. This is an essential key to grasping the Christian theology as St. Paul expresses it. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich"(2 Corinthians 8:9).

Every day I pass by people pan-handling, whom people simply pass by not seeing them; one night recently I held the hand of a homeless man as he died on the street; my heart bleeds as I see my friends suffer, and I am reminded of negative poverty, leading to material or moral bankruptcy, and interior emptiness, that of people with money who fail to see that loving money separates them from God.

Our media is full of commercials and stories illustrating to make it we must obtain riches, of acquisition, and accumulation of goods.

I am convinced that spiritual poverty is the key the spiritual life, to holiness, to fruitfulness, as well as true happiness.

Spiritual poverty is a form of freedom, the freedom to receive everything freely and to give everything freely.

The central logic of the spiritual Kingdom, of living by the true logic of God's Reign, is what Jesus calls, the justice of the Reign of God," as he says, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well.

I remember, at age 12, standing around the campfire at Arcadia, our church camp, "feeling my heart strangely warmed," knowing God was calling me to ministry as I answered the call to ministry, going forward in response. For me, ministry was to be like Damien of Molokai, Dorothy Day, St. Francis, and so many others. I am still striving to be like them. And until I truly committed myself to following their example on the streets, I did not have joy!

Experiencing poverty, we come to know ourselves simply as fallible creatures, suffering every day, with everything we have as a gift from God, to share with others. We are not indispensable, who we are is from God.

Poverty of heart with regard to others is expressed in many ways. As the sixth beatitude evokes, we refuse to give with an expectation in return--to renounce all manner of manipulating and using the other person for own ends. We give, without expectation but out of love.

One Christmas, a board member from a local church called me and nervously said, "River, we have decided this year to give our gift we have given to you for Christmas to another ministry that has RESULTS! That has happened over and over, and to have that attitude always leads to disappointment, success is in the giving.

Being poor in spirit means we are no better or no less than any person. I meet people where they are, treat each one with respect, and see them as my friend. I do not care what political or religious persuasion, rich or poor, each person is a child of God. Treating them as a child of God means always wishing the best for them.

Mercy and forgiveness toward our neighbor, every person, are essential aspects of poverty of the heart. I have heard people on both sides, educated, kind, and generous people, wish either the President be assassinated, and the liberals die. The questions I raise in my own mind is first, do they want to be killed by the other side? Second, I get death threats from all sides, so do you want me dead, and not telling me that, and third, do you ever think of each person as a child of God? I get death threats all the time, and there are days I wonder why keeping on writing, and walking with others, simply go to Palm Springs, get a place alone in the desert and say to hell with life. But my faith reminds me to love others as myself. There is hope!

I especially fail on practicing poverty towards friends, on not having the last word on everything, and letting my judgments show. I have prideful insistence. Keep silent and listen!

Generosity is one of the most beautiful forms of poverty of the heart.

Finally, being poor means we accept the reality we are not the masters of our own ships; we depend on God! There is a parable that reminds us we are in a storm-tossed ship, and all we have is one another for support.

To be poor means knowing how to abandon oneself, trustingly allowing ourselves to be led along the unforeseen pathways of life, and saying yes to reality.

Life becomes full of meaning and beauty when we remember the words of Jesus: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

In closing, St. Francis de Sales reminds us to live in the moment, that is all we have:

"Do not look forward to the trials and crosses of this life and fear. Rather, look to them with full confidence that, as they arise, God, to whom you belong, will deliver you from them.

He has guided and guarded you this far in life. Do you but hold fast to His hand, and he will lead you safely through all trials. Whenever you cannot stand, he will carry you lovingly in his arms.

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same Eternal Father who cares for you today will take good care of you tomorrow and every day of your life. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you the unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace then and put aside all useless thoughts, vain dreads, and anxious imaginations."

St. Francis de Sales
=================================

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
City Hall, on Polk Side
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124-- punkpriest1@gmail.com

A Prayer

God of justice and mercy,
we bring you our grief and our anger,
our confusion and our exhaustion.
We see the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer,
and our hearts ache with the weight of it.

How long, O Lord?

Keep us from despair that numbs the soul.
Keep us from fear that silences truth.
Give us courage that does not harden into hatred
and hope that does not drift into denial.
Strengthen our resolve to resist violence without becoming violent,
to speak truth without losing love,
to stand with the weak without bowing to power.

Teach us to lament faithfully,
to act courageously,
and to trust that no injustice escapes your sight.
Until justice rolls down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,
keep us rooted in love.

Amen.

(Padraig O'Touma)

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.
When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead
not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.
I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Then he said, so everybody could hear, "If anybody really wants to share my own life, let him have no regard for his own welfare, and let him risk his life every day and walk the way with me. Whoever puts his own life first shall lose it. But whoever lays his life on the line for me shall come out on top. For what has a person gained by getting the whole world, and then having his or her life broken or destroyed in the process? If anyone is embarrassed around me and my ideas, the son of man will be embarrassed to have him or her around at his 'coronation' by the Father and the dedicated attendants. For I'm telling you a fact: there are some standing right here who won't die before they see the God Movement" (Luke 9:23-25, Cotton Patch Version).

===========================

Journal of An Alien Street Priest!

During my growing up years there was a sign I would pass hiking out to the river, going to a friends, on an old country road, with glowing letters:

"Choose Life, Your Mother Did!"

It reminded me of how my own mother chose life, getting pregnant, kicked out of her home as a result, divorced. She was bound and determined to give me a good home, and most importantly, a college education. And so she struggled, fought the rest of her life for me. First, she married my "adopted dad," who loved me as his own; secondly, she drove in my head I would be going to college, and later seminary as well.

For me, struggling with depression, kicked out of my denomination for being queer, living as a prostitute on the streets, fighting my way back into ministry, and the past 31 years of struggle in ministry, "Choose life!" learned and drilled into me when I was young, has been the theme of my life!

For I am still learning, minute by minute, a hardened truth from Jesus:

"Then he said, so everybody could hear, "If anybody really wants to share my own life, let him have no regard for his own welfare, and let him risk his life every day and walk the way with me. Whoever puts his own life first shall lose it. But whoever lays his life on the line for me shall come out on top. For what has a person gained by getting the whole world, and then having his or her life broken or destroyed in the process? If anyone is embarrassed around me and my ideas, the son of man will be embarrassed to have him or her around at his 'coronation' by the Father and the dedicated attendants. For I'm telling you a fact: there are some standing right here who won't die before they see the God Movement" (Luke 9:23-25, Cotton Patch Version).

Ash Wednesday, I was on the street, visiting, etc, wearing a red vest with a cross and "Clergy" written on the shoulder; I had ashes available if someone requested. As I was talking and to three guys and a young lady in a tent, the young lady asked me, "Will you place Ashes on my head?" Doing so, one gentleman lunged at me from the tent, screaming, and raised his fist, as I pushed him back. I asked him the problem, and he simply said, "Why bring this church sh..it out here? Once all was calm he went on to share how he would see people taking in "loads" of food through a window, and when he asked for some food, they told him harshly to move on; others have refused to let him into worship because he scared them and was dirty. I received a phone call, several years ago, one Sunday morning, and was asked if it was possible for me to come to a local worship service and sit with a homeless man who was sitting in the front pew of the church, people were afraid! I walked in during the first hymn, and sitting in the very front, a nineteen-year-old "Jamie", in ragged clothes, looking very unkempt! He enjoyed worship and especially the hospitality after the service. During the time of refreshments, people would walk over and talk, and said to me later, "He really is sweet, but he is dirty, can you clean him up so he can come back!"

People who are UN-housed scare people! They are living on the street, many using drugs, mentally ill, as do many people who are in our churches--accept they are not dirty and use drugs in their homes.

Yet, we are the Church, and John Chrysostom spoke these words of our responsibility as the Church:

"Do you wish to honor the body of the Savior?
Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments, while outside you are leaving it numb with cold and naked. He who said, "This is my body," and made it so by his word, is the same that said, "You saw me hungry, and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me. Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor, for what God needs is not golden chalices, but golden souls!"

Let us pray:

God of hope, from you come every blessing and all peace: Show us that, in the midst of our struggles, you are with us. Give us the abundance of your grace that we may do the work you give us to do and that we may be for the world a sign of your presence; through Christ, the Way and the Truth. Amen.

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker
FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!
Noon-April 3, 2026
City Hall, on Polk Side
For Information Call or Email
Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims
415-305-2124-- punkpriest1@gmail.com

A Prayer

God of justice and mercy,
we bring you our grief and our anger,
our confusion and our exhaustion.
We see the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer,
and our hearts ache with the weight of it.

How long, O Lord?

Keep us from despair that numbs the soul.
Keep us from fear that silences truth.
Give us courage that does not harden into hatred
and hope that does not drift into denial.
Strengthen our resolve to resist violence without becoming violent,
to speak truth without losing love,
to stand with the weak without bowing to power.

Teach us to lament faithfully,
to act courageously,
and to trust that no injustice escapes your sight.
Until justice rolls down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,
keep us rooted in love.

Amen.

(Padraig O'Touma)

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.
When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead
not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.
I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

Scan the QR Code to Donate

(Katherine Schmidt)

Jesus never seems to produce bread in the city; what would be the point? In cities people can go to restaurants or bakeries. (Ha!). No, Jesus provides food where no food is possible.

Haven't we all visited those deserts--those wild places where we feel lost, weak, liable to collapse trying to find our way home? Jesus orders the disciples and us to sit and wait for God, who will provide enough enough for leftovers. The alternative is to stuff our mouths with sand, so let's be patient. Let's be patient and look with our eyes and hearts all around us. We can see the hunger in our midst. God has better for us and will sustain us where no sustenance is possible, God in Christ will provide more sustenance than we can imagine when we provide sustenance to others.

The San Francisco Chronicle, and Examiner, have often referred to the Tenderloin as a"food desert" referring to the reality there are very few fresh foods and vegetables available to its residents.

I refer to the Tenderloin as a " food desert " as I walk among the people living on the street, who have no money for food, have very little food given to them and for many are unable to go to the soup kitchens. I often can not take out enough food to feed them, there is so much need.
I refer to the Tenderloin as a "food desert " when the people who live in SRO Hotels living on disability from $500.00 to $1200.00 a month, do not have enough money for their living expenses, of which food is the top expense. The majority never get a meal with green vegetables and enough for good nourishment.

I can not dine with friends at some of the fine restaurants, in midst of the " food desert" when we are surrounded by hundreds who have no food. It literally makes me sick to my stomach.

And so we come to what is known in New Orleans as " Fat Tuesday", February 17, this year, and join us in celebrating Mardi Gras:

"Mardi Gras celebrates the last day of Carnival before Lent, but its roots go all the way back to pagan spring festivals thousands of years ago. The day has similarities to the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. Once Christianity came to Rome, religious leaders tried to blend pagan traditions with Christian traditions for a smoother transition. What resulted was a festival where people drank, feasted, danced, and partied before the abstinent and somber period of Lent began.

However, some experts disagree and say that this festivity actually began as a response to the Catholic Church banning sex and meat during Lent. They say this then led to people partying and indulging as much as they could before Lent started. In this narrative, experts believe that Church leaders encouraged the rumors of pagan roots in an effort to quell the festivities.

Some don’t realize that while Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Lent, the actual season begins in January. Three Kings’ Day, which falls on January 6, is not only the end of the 12 days of Christmas, but it is also marks the beginning of Carnival.

Where did Mardi Gras originate?
While the holiday could have pagan Roman roots, it didn’t become known as “Mardi Gras” until it reached France and then spread throughout Europe. In England, it became known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which is still popular today (you can imagine what they eat). European colonists later brought the huge celebrations to the Americas, where it became Carnival Tuesday in Caribbean nations."

We (Temenos) will host a Mardi Gras celebration at :
Victor's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant
1411 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
6:00 p.m.-?
Come! Celebrate With Us!
Donate to our Goal of $1000.00
for Food for the Tenderloin, Polk Street and Haight Street During Lent!
A Mardi Gras Dessert will be provided free!

If anyone would like to have an early Ash Wednesday before you leave we gladly ash and pray with you.
Let us come together on "Fat Tuesday" remembering in the midst of chaos, and pain around us: Christ is King! Amen, and Amen! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
-------------------------
Ash Wednesday, 2026

"Walk With Jesus!
Come Join Me at An Ash Wednesday Service, at 1618 Polk Street, No. 8, at 6:00 p.m.

"HOWEVER I CONSIDER MY LIFE WORTH NOTHING TO ME; MY ONLY AIM IS TO FINISH THE RACE AND COMPLETE THE TASK THE LORD JESUS HAS GIVEN ME--THE TASK OF TESTIFYING TO THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD'S GRACE" ( ACTS 20:24)!
------------------------------------------
A Prayer

God of justice and mercy,
we bring you our grief and our anger,
our confusion and our exhaustion.
We see the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer,
and our hearts ache with the weight of it.
How long, O Lord?
Keep us from despair that numbs the soul.
Keep us from fear that silences truth.
Give us courage that does not harden into hatred
and hope that does not drift into denial.
Strengthen our resolve to resist violence without becoming violent, to speak truth without losing love, to stand with the weak without bowing to power.

Teach us to lament faithfully, to act courageously, and to trust that no injustice escapes your sight.

Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, keep us rooted in love.

Amen.
(Padraig O'Touma)
Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead

not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner

but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
On PayPal

"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo AcutisTemenos Mardi Gras!
Fundraiser!
Tuesday, February 17, 2026


Victor’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant
1411 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA!
Come! Join Us For Great Pizzeria, Fat Tuesday Deserts!
And Donate to Temenos Catholic Worker!
For more information Call Fr. River: 415-305-2124
Email: punkpriest1@gmail.com
======
TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker

FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!

Noon-April 3, 2026

City Hall, on Polk Side

For Information Call or Email

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims

415-305-2124— punkpriest1@gmail.com

Scan the QR Code to Donate

Jesus never seems to produce bread in the city; what would be the point? In cities people can go to restaurants or bakeries. (Ha!). No, Jesus provides food where no food is possible.

Haven't we all visited those deserts--those wild places where we feel lost, weak, liable to collapse trying to find our way home? Jesus orders the disciples and us to sit and wait for God, who will provide enough enough for leftovers. The alternative is to stuff our mouths with sand, so let's be patient. Let's be patient and look with our eyes and hearts all around us. We can see the hunger in our midst. God has better for us and will sustain us where no sustenance is possible, God in Christ will provide more sustenance than we can imagine when we provide sustenance to others.

The San Francisco Chronicle, and Examiner, have often referred to the Tenderloin as a"food desert" referring to the reality there are very few fresh foods and vegetables available to its residents.

I refer to the Tenderloin as a " food desert " as I walk among the people living on the street, who have no money for food, have very little food given to them and for many are unable to go to the soup kitchens. I often can not take out enough food to feed them, there is so much need.
I refer to the Tenderloin as a "food desert " when the people who live in SRO Hotels living on disability from $500.00 to $1200.00 a month, do not have enough money for their living expenses, of which food is the top expense. The majority never get a meal with green vegetables and enough for good nourishment.
I can not dine with friends at some of the fine restaurants, in midst of the " food desert" when we are surrounded by hundreds who have no food. It literally makes me sick to my stomach.
And so we come to what is known in New Orleans as " Fat Tuesday", February 17, this year, and join us in celebrating Mardi Gras:
"Mardi Gras celebrates the last day of Carnival before Lent, but its roots go all the way back to pagan spring festivals thousands of years ago. The day has similarities to the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. Once Christianity came to Rome, religious leaders tried to blend pagan traditions with Christian traditions for a smoother transition. What resulted was a festival where people drank, feasted, danced, and partied before the abstinent and somber period of Lent began.
However, some experts disagree and say that this festivity actually began as a response to the Catholic Church banning sex and meat during Lent. They say this then led to people partying and indulging as much as they could before Lent started. In this narrative, experts believe that Church leaders encouraged the rumors of pagan roots in an effort to quell the festivities.
Some don’t realize that while Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Lent, the actual season begins in January. Three Kings’ Day, which falls on January 6, is not only the end of the 12 days of Christmas, but it is also marks the beginning of Carnival.
Where did Mardi Gras originate?
While the holiday could have pagan Roman roots, it didn’t become known as “Mardi Gras” until it reached France and then spread throughout Europe. In England, it became known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which is still popular today (you can imagine what they eat). European colonists later brought the huge celebrations to the Americas, where it became Carnival Tuesday in Caribbean nations."
We (Temenos) will host a Mardi Gras celebration at :
Victor's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant
1411 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
6:00 p.m.-?
Come! Celebrate With Us!
Donate to our Goal of $1000.00
for Food for the Tenderloin, Polk Street and Haight Street During Lent!
A Mardi Gras Dessert will be provided free!
If anyone would like to have an early Ash Wednesday before you leave we gladly ash and pray with you.
Let us come together on "Fat Tuesday" remembering in the midst of chaos, and pain around us: Christ is King! Amen, and Amen! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
-------------------------
Ash Wednesday, 2026

"Walk With Jesus!
Come Join Me at An Ash Wednesday Service, at 1618 Polk Street, No. 8, at 6:00 p.m.

"HOWEVER I CONSIDER MY LIFE WORTH NOTHING TO ME; MY ONLY AIM IS TO FINISH THE RACE AND COMPLETE THE TASK THE LORD JESUS HAS GIVEN ME--THE TASK OF TESTIFYING TO THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD'S GRACE" ( ACTS 20:24)!
------------------------------------------
A Prayer

God of justice and mercy,
we bring you our grief and our anger,
our confusion and our exhaustion.
We see the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer,
and our hearts ache with the weight of it.
How long, O Lord?
Keep us from despair that numbs the soul.
Keep us from fear that silences truth.
Give us courage that does not harden into hatred
and hope that does not drift into denial.
Strengthen our resolve to resist violence without becoming violent,
to speak truth without losing love,
to stand with the weak without bowing to power.
Teach us to lament faithfully,
to act courageously,
and to trust that no injustice escapes your sight.
Until justice rolls down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,
keep us rooted in love.
Amen.
(Padraig O'Touma)
Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead

not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner

but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
On PayPal

"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo AcutisTemenos Mardi Gras!
Fundraiser!
Tuesday, February 17, 2026


Victor’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant
1411 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA!
Come! Join Us For Great Pizzeria, Fat Tuesday Deserts!
And Donate to Temenos Catholic Worker!
For more information Call Fr. River: 415-305-2124
Email: punkpriest1@gmail.com
======
TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker

FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!

Noon-April 3, 2026

City Hall, on Polk Side

For Information Call or Email

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims

415-305-2124— punkpriest1@gmail.com

Scan the QR Code to Donate

I was raised in the South, where the primarily teaching was Blacks (that was not the word used) were ignorant, and belonged out of sight if possible, they were seen lesser than human! Thanks to a pastor, my parents, a best friend who was black, my years on the street, my college and seminary education, did I not fall into that trap. Today I feel those feelings around me, even here in the Bay Area, for the reality is if we are not careful, living in our separate neighborhoods of economics and race, those feelings remain.

Our apocryphal writing today points out that until we see that no color or side is right, but only that of love. That is the primary reason I have never worked for a white or queer group in order to keep myself open, and continue to learn respect.

Throughout the nation, including California, school boards are removing African-American literature, limiting the discussion of race, gender, and sexuality. There is a constant push on not discussing sex, recognizing the sexual identity of students; bathrooms are being designated as boys and girls, omitting space for transgenders. Some schools have insisted on using the names transgender students had before they transitioned. Teachers being weary of breaking rules, have shied from discussions related to race, gender, and other politically sensitive topics, even as students say they desperately need to see their lived experiences reflected in the classroom. Pride flags and other symbols used to signal support for LGBTQ+ students have been removed. Counselors in schools are being forced to share conversations with the parents of their students, who want to talk about their sexual identity.

LGBTQ+ black adolescents find themselves in the minority when they are neither entirely accepted by main white LGBTQ communities nor are they fully accepted by the black community. Black churches are homophobic for the most part. Churches in general shy away from letting youth discuss queer or racial issues. The whitest day of the week is Sunday, and accept in few churches, "the straightest!

The Trevor Project states: "LGBTQ+ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk, not because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, but rather placed at a higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society." Most profoundly, they experience rejection or lack of support from their family members much more often than their heterosexual peers. The 2023 survey found less of than 40 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth say they live in a gender affirming home. One out of four suicides among youth is among LGBTQ+ youth.

Recently, I was in a discussion with some adults in a church on issues around youth, and almost to a one, they raised the queer issue, and told me how it makes them feel so uncomfortable, even disgusting, to talk about queer youth, and especially transgender and nonbinary youth. As much as I tried to talk about the fact that one's sexuality has nothing to do with our physical gender, and that mistakes are made in our creation leading to transgender and nonbinary individuals, each one started yelling about my sinfulness and the sinfulness and wrong of LGBTQ youth and of my wrong example! I have experienced this attitude in adult groups for years.

This month, we affirm Black history, this poster is affirming their God-given dignity.

Black LGBTQ+ Youth Deserve Joy!

Black Joy is Powerful!

Black Joy is Life Affirming!

This Black History Month

We center joy for Black LGBTQ+

Young People!

Not as detachment from struggle but as a right and a truth!

"Unless you make what is right left, and what is left right, what is above into what is below, and what is behind into what is in front, you will not learn how to know the Kingdom"(Acts of Peter)!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

===================================

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation, which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner, but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please consider giving an end-of-year tax-deductible gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:
By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal
Scan the QR Code to Donate

"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photocopies!"

Saint Carlo Acutis

Temenos Mardi Gras!

Fundraiser!

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Victor’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant

1411 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA!

Come! Join Us For Great Pizzeria, Fat Tuesday Deserts!

And Donate to Temenos Catholic Worker!

For more information Call Fr. River: 415-305-2124

Email: punkpriest1@gmail.com

======

TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL

TENDERLOIN STATIONS

OF THE CROSS!

Temenos Catholic Worker

FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,

Undocumented Immigrants

AND THEIR ALLIES!

Noon-April 3, 2026

City Hall, on Polk Side

For Information Call or Email

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims sfw. D.Min., D.S.T.

415-305-2124--punkpriest1@gmail.com

(The service is prepared if you would like to volunteer to read. I will be glad to send you one, and remember we will not march as far!)

Suggested Book:

"African American Readings of Paul"-Lisa Bowers

"For Such A Time As This" Hanna Reichel --excellent book for getting through these tough times.

"The 1619 Project and the Forging of American Democracy by James Horn--excellent history from the black perspective!

The photo of Cory, taken twenty five years ago, brings to mind his "groaning", coming to Polk Street, as a fifteen year old kid, cute, getting the attention of older men, and living with one after another, being given money, working as a bar tender, and then getting AIDS, during a time of no drugs. His body deteriorated, hooked on drugs, and finally he died alone! My heart groaned with him, and continues to groan for all the homeless, disenfranchised, and the minorities, who to are groaning for better lives, a place simply to live!
The "law of love", demands that we become people of the towel and the water, that like Christ we wash the feet of one another--be we Blue or Red, Black, Brown, or whatever color! We are to wash the feet of our neighbor.
This simply means we wash the feet of one another, of the stranger, the one we dislike, and afraid of, implementing the Gospel.
That and that alone is the true revolution that will change the face of the earth.
We determine how our creation will end up in its evolution, as we revolutionize the world the way Christ wanted it to be revolutionized--a world of where there are no Culture Wars, of always having a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear. Where we live in God's Reign, and there is always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love. ( edited Dan White Jr.).
We are only a speck in time, so let us revolutionize the world the way Christ wanted it to be revolutionized, pass the revolution on to others, as we fade away! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead

not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner

but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
On PayPal

"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo AcutisTemenos Mardi Gras!
Fundraiser!
Tuesday, February 17, 2026


Victor’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant
1411 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA!
Come! Join Us For Great Pizzeria, Fat Tuesday Deserts!
And Donate to Temenos Catholic Worker!
For more information Call Fr. River: 415-305-2124
Email: punkpriest1@gmail.com
======
TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker

FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!

Noon-April 3, 2026

City Hall, on Polk Side

For Information Call or Email

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims

415-305-2124— punkpriest1@gmail.com

Scan the QR Code to Donate

Seattle, chief of the Suquamish, said, "One thing we know, which the White Man may one day discover--our God is the same God. You may think that you own Him as you wish to own our land; but you cannot. He is the God of humanity, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to him, and to harm the earth is to leap contempt on its Creator. Even the white man can not be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see."

With all that is going on in our country, the animosity, the hate, one quote comes to mind:
"Religion without humanity is mere performance; Spirituality without kindness is illusion; Faith without compassion is empty(Buddhist saying).

What I will work myself to death for, be injured, or murdered for is found in the words of Sr. Joan Chittister:

"Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others."

We are called to "Reshape your lives, for God's new order of the Spirit is confronting you!"

I invite people to minister on the edge of grace.

Today is an anniversary that we pass by easily, but is an anniversary of an organization that has saved and changed millions of lives, Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill Wilson along with Dr. Bob Smith, and many others gave birth with their first meeting.

AA genius is spiritual realism.
It begins with surrender.
It centers on humility.
It requires confession.
It demands repair.
It insists on community.
It trusts grace.

Step One echoes the Psalms.
Step Four mirrors traditional examinations of conscience.
Step Five is sacramental confession in street clothes.
Steps Eight and Nine embody Matthew 25:23-24.
Step Twelve is evangelization without coercion.

During the Pandemic, working in the hospital, holding the hands of people dying and fearing I might catch the virus, and than after I was beaten up, and could not walk, I used pot and alcohol supposedly for pain, but the reality was the PTSD I was suffering, and the pain from being beaten up. I saw no one basically outside street kids and people at the hospital during this time. It was a painful and lonely time.

As the Pandemic lifted Jay, one of the street kids, who was in AA invited me to a meeting with him in the Haight. I knew most of the people, mostly street kids, and in participating for six months or so I found that I was headed for trouble and began working the steps. I gained so much strength and Jesus became real to me again. I became a 'straight edge'.

The truth is we all have an addiction, power, food, fear, anger, and so on, we depend on them to survive and are destructive to our lives! We need to hear the words of St. Paul who often refereed to his 'thorn in the flesh', so let us examine ourselves each day and find the 'thorn' bring it out, talk about, and change actions that are hurtful to ourselves and others.

I close with a poem that teaches us during Winter Ordinary Time to slow our faith, and so does AA:
"No shortcuts.
No triumphalism.
No pretending,
Just today.
Today I will not drink.
Today I will not act violently to any one.

Today I will offer hands of peace to those different from me.
Today I will tell the truth.
Today I will make amends.
Today I will trust grace.
We need recovery.
We walk the path together, one honest day at a time!

"Reshape your lives, for God's new order of the Spirit is confronting you!
------------------------------
Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead

not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner

but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
On PayPal

"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo AcutisTemenos Mardi Gras!
Fundraiser!
Tuesday, February 17, 2026


Victor’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant
1411 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA!
Come! Join Us For Great Pizzeria, Fat Tuesday Deserts!
And Donate to Temenos Catholic Worker!
For more information Call Fr. River: 415-305-2124
Email: punkpriest1@gmail.com
======
TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL
TENDERLOIN STATIONS
OF THE CROSS!
Temenos Catholic Worker

FOR MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS,
Undocumented Immigrants
AND THEIR ALLIES!

Noon-April 3, 2026

City Hall, on Polk Side

For Information Call or Email

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims

415-305-2124— punkpriest1@gmail.com

Scan the QR Code to Donate

"That's insane," they shouted. But here is what interests me about the story—what Francis saw that no one else could see. The hunting parties saw a monster, a threat to be eliminated. Francis saw something different.

What did he see? Hunger. The wolf wasn't evil. It wasn't starving. And fear made the townspeople incapable of seeing that. All they could see was threat. So they responded with force, which only made the wolf more desperate, more dangerous. A cycle of fear and violence that couldn't be broken because nobody could see what was actually driving it.

And so what did Francis do? He made a deal. He told the townspeople, "If you agree to feed this wolf, it will no longer kill." Thinking he was crazy they agreed. And it worked. The wolf lived peacefully in Gubbio for two more years. When he died, they buried him with honor.

Our fears are of the unknown, of different viewpoints, ways of living, races, and cultures.

Our hunger is for certainty, from our fear of losing our absolute beliefs and opinions, losing our money, and losing our land. So we arm ourselves with labels, like red and blue, black, white, and Mexican. . undocumented, documented, rich, poor. And then come words, weapons, and hate.

Rather, we should arm ourselves with the words of Jesus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength, soul, and mind. And love thy neighbor as thyself!"

Recently I took two seminarians into the Tenderloin, and along one street alone there were people sleeping in tents, sleeping bags, and simply on the sidewalk. People were sitting around, obviously hungry, dirty, and looking scary to the naked eye. Like the ones on the Haight many years ago (in the photos). They certainly did not look like people on campus on the hills of the University of California, where they could walk a little ways and see the ocean.

I sent these two armed with only socks, some clothes, and food out on the streets as I sat in the van. My excuse is, "I am tired and hurting. I lie well."

One person was a woman, who commented she remembered me from the age of 14, giving her socks; now she is 40+, and the young priests to be were stunned. She shared some ways of staying safe. One was giving blow jobs to keep certain men happy.

One of them asked how I knew when they were telling the truth, and my question back was, "How do you know when your classmates are lying? The truth is, I have found my unhoused brothers and sisters more truthful than the housed."

As we closed the night, one commented how social justice and working with the homeless are at the bottom of the Church's priorities!

I remember my early days in the pastorate and seminary, never hearing a word about ministry at the lower rungs of the ladder; that was until being forced to the street.

Being on the street was God's calling to being a priest on the borders, the street. It was God's calling to be "outside the gate."

I close with a reminder for us to push our fears aside, like Francis, and walk with love into the lives of those we see as different, to see our differences evaporate as we find our lives simply a "rainbow of colors!" Let us find each other's "hunger" and feed one another! Let us submit to the deeper callings of understanding, hope, love, and heart, rather than our fears and love for all human beings! It is not easy! Never easy! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Patron Saints: Damien of Molokai, Carlo Acutis, St. Francis, Dorothy Day

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead

not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner

but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
On PayPal

The Lamb of God

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.”[j]

The First Disciples of Jesus

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed[k]). 42 He brought Simon[l] to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas”[m] (which is translated Peter[n]).

====================================

From the first day I began ministry on Polk Street, I have asked God, "How long must we wait?" (Psalm 40:1), Things seem to be getting worse--war, more homeless people, lack of caring for the disenfranchised, and and more vividly our undocumented and documented Mexican brothers and sisters!

But as the struggle for justice continues I am reminded of those who fought the good fight far longer than I have and who have faced hard ships I have never known.

I think of civil rights leader John Lewis who wrote in Across that Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of American:

"Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation mus do our part.....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Lewis continues, "Change often takes time. It rarely happens all at once. In the movement, we didn't know how history would play itself out. When we were getting arrested and waiting in jail or standing in unmovable lines on the courthouse steps we didn't know what would happen, but we knew it had to happen."

The noted theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman famously noted that Christmas and Epiphany becomes real"

"when the song of the angels is stilled, and the shepherds and the magi have gone home, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among others!"

As Thurman understood, all of those things--including healing the broken hearted, releasing the prisoners, and rebuilding the nations--are prerequisites to "bring peace among the nations."

Through the years and especially now, I have remembered the words of Martin Buber:

"A rabbi was asked by one of his students "Why did God create atheists? After a long pause, the rabbi finally responded. .God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all--the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone

who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching, He does not believe that God commanded him to perform his act.

In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his actions are based on his sense of morality. Look at the kindness he bestows on others simply because he simply feels it right. When someone reaches out to you for help you should never say 'I'll pray that God will help you'. Instead, for that moment, you should become atheist--imagine there is no God would help , and say 'I will help you",

To many of us believers two kinds of reality confront us: the seeming darkness, and despair of an increasingly violent world and the belief that darkness must and will give way to light"

Let us claim God's justice and peace as our natural habitat remembering they are inextricably entwined.

Let us be "Atheists" in caring for the hungry, the sick, the disenfranchised, and the lonely. . .let us care for all people with the love of God that passes all understanding, knowing that God is smiling, loving us as we care, without judgment for each person, and is our hope! Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

--------------------------------------------

The Immigrants Creed

"I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead

not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner

but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen." (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director

Please Consider Giving End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal

"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"
Saint Carlo Acutis

10Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’ 11Then the LORD said to Samuel, ‘See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12On that day I will fulfil against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13For I have told him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for ever.’

15Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16But Eli called Samuel and said, ‘Samuel, my son.’ He said, ‘Here I am.’ 17Eli said, ‘What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.’ 18So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, ‘It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.’

19As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. 21The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

=====================================

Robert Frost writes in his poem,

"Stopping in the Woods on a Snowy Evening:
"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
"But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

---------------------------------

As I continue in my thirty-first year the Frost poem continues as my guide, and I do not allow age to impose limits. Half the time, I forget how old I am! Just keep embracing life, and know that the best is yet to come! My health changes, the City changes! Always stay liquid!

Learning ever so slowly, peace comes when you realize that everything that's out of your control, should be out of your mind too. Don't cry over the past, it's gone. Don't stress about the future, it hasn't arrived. Live in the present and make it beautiful. Happiness is found in three things: Letting go of what's gone, enjoying what is, and having faith in what will be.

Like Samuel God's call came to me ever so quietly at a young age, and always through the tumult of life--the good, the bad, and the ugly, remains the guiding Light.

In the words of Saint Oscar Romero edited:

"Our mission now is to carry God to all parts of the world and to be his epiphany and his revelation! (A revelation of the inclusive God, who has many faces, and loves every human being, and creature)!'



As I look at the photo of "Lost Boys", I remember each one, their smiles, jokes, and most of all the pain of their journeys.

As the years past, one by one, my life encountered them, and each one with their unique story, and struggle with drugs, and their sexual identity. With each one I walked as a Story Catcher, holding their stories, their pain, as they struggled and they have moved on. One died of AIDS! There are no black and white answers!

People who ask me about telling them of one person who has been "successful" I laugh to myself, for "success" in their eyes never happens, success of a high paying job, nice house etc.! And many walk away when I can not give an example, our work continues in the words of Elizabeth Gilbert: "You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures!"

Through these years on the street, both as "street kid", "hustler" for four years and now thirty-one years as a priest one of the greatest learnings is found in the words of St. Oscar Romero:

"Violence is a retreat from civilization; it is an expression of the primitive instinct of those who are unable or unwilling to follow the paths of reasonable dialogue" (St. Oscar Romero).

And through, the giving of ourselves, with out expectation to others converted to a life of compassion:

"Compassion born in solitude makes us very much aware of our historicity. We are not called to generalities but to the concrete facts with which we are confronted day after day. A compassionate person can no longer look at these manifestations of evil and death as disturbing interruptions of their life plan but rather has to confront as an opportunity for their conversion. Every time in history that men and women have been able to respond to the events of their world as an occasion to change their hearts, an in exhaustible source of generosity and new life has been opened, offering hope far beyond the limits of human prediction"(Fr. Henri Nouwen)!

Let us open our hearts to one another! Let us be compassionate with one another!

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

---------------------------------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Year End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org
0n PayPal
"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo Acutis

"I write because writing is the way I protest.
Ministry on the streets is the way I resist. doing what I can to proclaim the Gospel of Love to every human being with out judgment--All Are Welcome!" "River's Creed”

"May your spirit be strong, especially during these trying times.

May you be safe and protected.
May you be filled with deep healing.
And may you be held by love, this day and everyday! (unknown)

Scan the QR Code to Donate

One afternoon we were coming to a little pond of water in Golden Gate Park, near the entrance; dirty, full of insects, grime, and someone had dropped a hugh bunch of fresh cut, rainbow colored flowers into its water. In my thoughts those flowers were preparing the water for the Baptism of "Arrow" that afternoon.

Seeing those flowers took me back to walking with my mother, in my grandmothers yard, full of beautiful flowers of all sorts. She would remind me not to pick the flowers, because "the flowers would die."

Though the flowers were floating currently in the water I was reminded that baptism is a sort of death. What an odd thing we "bury" people in its waters as cause for celebration. If our culture honored death more honestly, it might not seem so strange. Death has always been part of life. The life/death/life cycle depends on dying. The spiritual journey often contains many small deaths, I have lost count of mine, and on this day we initiated 'Arrow' into the mystery, I did not speak of death that disregards life, but death that honors it, the kind that honors it, the kind that lowers something into water with tenderness, trusting it will rise again--not violence but faith in the spring after winter.

Today I have learned of the death of my friend of twenty-five years, Roy Guptill, Portland, Oregon. We met through his son, Louie, a tender, loving gentleman, Roy through a blood transfusion had developed AIDS at a time when the diagnosis was a sentence of death, yet Roy believed that God had spared him, in granting him life, living until December 28, 2025, sixty nine years old. His life was one of raising, frankly, I really can not remember, how many adopted children. In doing so he was passing on the gift of his life to others, in service to God.

Roy and his wife Patti, long after Louie flew the nest, have been two of my best friends, giving a monthly donation to Temenos, supporting me through emotional and physical pain, never, never judging. I cry now, but see his smiling face with the Jesus he loves. Roy had been Jesus to so many!

"A bruised reed he will not break," says Isaiah (42:3) of the servant of justice, and I remember my mom saying, "Don't pick it!" Even if you don't break the reed--no blade of grass, petal of a flower, or shred of humanity is treated as dispensable in the generations-long work of making things right. We are each precious in the eyes of God.

In baptizing "Arrow" I was trusting him and now Roy, in their, brief lives, to the One guarding these reeds from every winter frost,knowing new life will spring forth! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-----------------------------------------

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Year End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org

0n PayPal
"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo Acutis

"I write because writing is the way I protest.

Ministry on the streets is the way I resist. doing what I can to proclaim the Gospel of Love to every human being with out judgment--All Are Welcome!" "River's Creed”

"May your spirit be strong, especially during these trying times. May you be safe and protected.
May you be filled with deep healing. And may you be held by love, this day and everyday! (unknown)

Scan the QR Code to Donate

I simply walked away sad, and visited with twenty more people on the street.

I always shock people when a young or older adult, shares with me they had stolen clothes, or someone tells me all he/she had to eat was food they had stolen from Safeway and I jokingly say: " Oh you creatively required" I am thankful.

I did the same thing over thirty years ago when I was on the streets, starving, and needing clothes and no money. I am reminded of Basil of Caesarea's comment:

"When someone steals a persons clothes, we call him a thief. Should we not give the same name to the one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to those who need it; the shoes rotting in your closet to the one who has no shoes. The money which you hoard up belongs to the poor."

The streets, late at night, is another world, dark, sometimes scary, but always do I find light. The broken, the homeless, many addicted, sick, and always struggling just to exist bring light into my life, for in the words of Ronald Sider, "True happiness flows from generosity," for in caring, being present, giving everything I have, there is much happiness.

My invitation to everyone find true happiness in your generosity and care! Deo Gratias? Thanks be to God!

Temenos Catholic Worker
Fr. C. River Damien Carlos Sims, Director
Please Consider Giving A Year End Tax Deductible Gift to Temenos Catholic Worker:

By Mail:
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org
0n PayPal
"Everyone is born an original, but most end up dying as photo copies!"

Saint Carlo Acutis
Scan the QR Code to Donate

Mary became real to me, in the Los Angles Cathreral on a cold night, when "Our Lady of Guadlupe", came to me, and brought me back to Jesus. She has been truly there in my struggles with the cruel, masculine, God used to attack and hurt me, and the thousands I have worked with through the years. Through her the arms of Jesus came to surround and nurture me.

Through my experience I have found Our Lady does not stand above us as an unreachable icon. She stands with us, trusting God can work with us.

On this day the Soleminty of Mary the Mother of God we are invited to release our fears, our anger, our judgments, our hatreds, and resentments to embrace the love of faith Jesus brings us to be a family of God, a family that treats each other as we do ourselves.

Mary shows us what it means to cooperate with God without fully understanding the out come.

We are asked to say "yes" with honesty, courage, and hope, trusting that God meets us in the becoming and in the becoming we follow Christ looking at others as our brothers and sisters: undocumented, all races, the rich, poor." Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

-------------------------

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal
Phone is:415-305-2124

(Affiliated with "Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc.")

(In Association with "Extraordinary Catholics" and the "Fellowship of Saint John")

“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.

I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now. I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).

We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—“Just as I also try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Benefit, but the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______

We are a 501.3 Non Profit

"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)

You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures!

=================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS! WE ARE BEGGING!

"You can make yourself at home! Live within me as if I were your dwelling!" - Saint Carlo Acutis
_______________________

Be Aware that For Now We Are Accepting Donations through PayPal And by Check: The Flip Cause App is no Longer valid.

Flip Cause is under investigation by the 'State and Donations Can not be Received. We are in the process of getting another app for donations. Please Give Us Time!

===================================

Journal of An Alien Street Priest!

In the last months there have been people I know as good, kind, and loving people, yet if the name of President Trump comes up, their faces become distorted, and from their mouths come these words, "I wish someone would kill Trump; I wish Trump would have a fatal heart attack!" I become nervous, and uncomfortable, to hear violence wished on another human being, for killing another simply leads to more violence. Violence is against everything that Jesus stands for.

Hearing words of violence remind me of an old grave stone once seen in an Arizona cemetery , with this sentence summing up the man's life, " This man killed 99 Indians and he still has gone to rest in the loving arms of Jesus!" Not "white" people but "Indians". Today we could add: "Illegal Aliens", Blacks, Queers, homeless and so on!"

Edward Stanton, President Lincoln's Secretary of War once stomped into the Oval Office angry after Lincoln's speech, where he said: " With malice toward none. . .", referring to the South, saying, "How can you say something like that, they are our enemies, and should be treated as such!" and Lincoln replied with a smile, "If we see them as our friends, and treat them so, how can they be our enemies?" The way we see others and treat them, is the way we to shall be treated.

The Cotton Patch Version of the New

1. Testament, Romans 14: 8ff: "For not a one of us lives all to himself/herself.. For if we live, we live in the Lord's presence, and if we die, we die in the Lord's presence. This is why Christ died and lived, that he might be Lord of both dead people and live ones. So you now, why do your pass judgement on your brother or sister? And you over there, why are you so snooty towards your brother or sister? For we shall stand up before God's bar, just as Scripture says:

"As sure as I live," says the Lord, "every soul will go down on his knees before me, and every person's tongue will admit that I am God.

So then, each of us will account for ourselves before God. Then let's quit rating each other. Rather you test yourselves on this: "I do not put obstacles or a trap in front of my brother or sister!"

We are all different! We are like a rainbow with its many colors! Jesus calls us to " Love one another! And that is not easy!

Several months ago I was sitting in a restaurant down the street, and a gentleman, an Ice Agent and his family came in to eat, he looked at me, and started to walk out and I simply laughed and said: "In the Bhagavad-gita there are two knights fighting, the sun goes down, and they sit down eat and fellowship together, let's put our swords down and have lunch together. It was a delightful meal, as I heard his story. Simply a man trying to earn a living. I shared with someone my meal guests, and they know longer speak to me..; I have been beaten, spit upon, threatened, and hated this past year for simply saying "I work for the reign of God, feeding, and caring for people."

Jesus never lifted a hand, or uttered a word of hatred, against his enemies, instead he died for them. He rose again, and continues to love, care, and cry for them. Jesus calls us to non-violence.

Fourth century John Chrysostom said: "This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its more exact definition, its highest point, namely, THE SEEKING OF THE COMMON GOOD. For nothing can so make a person an imitation of Christ AS CARING FOR HIS NEIGHBOR."

Watch Night was established in the African-American communities on December 31, 1862. Watch Night was originally a gathering to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation becoming law. When the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1862 becoming January 1, 1863, all slaves in the Confederate States were proclaimed free. Since that date, 163 years ago, Black Americans have celebrated their freedom in local churches on New Years Eve.

On Watch Night, 2026, let us proclaim freedom for all captives in Jesus name, knowing that for millions, freedom is not a reality. Our celebration is a commitment to join modern slaves and undocumented people in their struggle for justice.

Tonight I will pray as I have since being twelve years old, the John Wesley Covenant Prayer, and the only resolution I am making, and asking God to help me grow in is: "Seeking the Common God, and to follow the Imitation of Christ as Caring for His Neighbor!
Let us pray:


"I am not my own self-made, self-reliant human being.
In truth, O God, I am Yours.
Make me into what You will.
Make me a neighbor with those whom You will.
Guide me on the easy path for You.
Guide me on the rocky road for You.
Whether I am to step up for You or step aside for You.
Whether I am to be lifted up high for You or brought low for You.
Whether I become full or empty. with all things or with nothing.
I give all that I have and all that I am for You.
So be it.
And may I always remember that you, O God, and I belong to each other. Amen.


Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
=======================================
The Immigrants Creed

I believe in Almighty God who guided the people in exile and in exodus,

the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate the servant of a foreign power.
Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead
not as a scorned foreigner, but to offer us citizenship in God's kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us equal before God, and in reconciliation which heals our brokenness.

I believe, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner
but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen. (Jose Luis Casal)

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal
Phone is:415-305-2124

(Affiliated with "Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc.")

(In Association with "Extraordinary Catholics" and the "Fellowship of Saint John")

“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.

I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now. I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).

We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—“Just as I also try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Benefit, but the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______

We are a 501.3 Non Profit

"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)

You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures!

=================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS! WE ARE BEGGING!

"You can make yourself at home! Live within me as if I were your dwelling!" - Saint Carlo Acutis
_______________________

Be Aware that For Now We Are Accepting Donations through PayPal And by Check: The Flip Cause App is no Longer valid.

Flip Cause is under investigation by the 'State and Donations Can not be Received. We are in the process of getting another app for donations. Please Give Us Time!

Journal of an Alien Street Priest!

Quietness brings me back to the old hymn "Blessed Quietness, Holy Quietness." I sang it as a kid without really knowing what I was singing. Now I view quietness as a rare and holy gift. The world can be so busy and loud, yet every so often a soft stillness shows up and makes room for God. In those pauses, peace slips into the noise and the Spirit reminds me that Christ is near. Quietness is not just empty space. It is full of presence, hope, and rest for outworn hearts and weary spirits. This Advent I invite you to welcome those sacred pauses and listen again for the voice that meets us in silence so we can notice the love that has been there all along.

WORLD AIDS DAY, 2025, December 1, was an opportunity for every community and individual to honor the more than 32 million people who have died worldwide from AIDS-related illness. December 1 and the following are days for voices to unite by sharing experiences, remembering those lost, and standing together in the fight against HIV.

AIDS has always been difficult for people to talk about for two reasons: one, it is related to sexual transmission, and two, it is known primarily as a "gay disease." I remember living in the Midwest, serving in United Methodist Churches, and not hearing a word about this disease; I remember a "queer pastor" of a local church telling me they never discussed AIDS in his church because not one person had it, and his membership had a lot of gay men in fear and many with the disease.

And my education began when I found myself on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, making money being a "whore." All around me people were afraid and yet, for many, there was no understanding of the need for protection; others who found no fun in protection and others not caring continued to have sex without protection, especially with us "hustlers," and through nearly four years, seeing friends one after another getting sick, and the majority dying of AIDS, I began to be safe, and as luck would have it, I did not contract the disease. For many years I carried a guilt of being spared, finally seeing it as a gift to be used for the healing of others, living in the presence, and moving ahead with joy in serving others.

Today, throughout our country, from our leaders on down to the common people, World AIDS Day is being ignored and swept under the rug, ignoring the 32 million who have died worldwide and the millions who struggle with the disease today. People of color and those without insurance, and the poor, suffer because they cannot afford the life-giving drugs we have today; homophobia continues to rise with a new face. We all want to look at the world with rose-colored glasses, turning our faces away from the reality of the disease.

I remember the thousands now I know who have died and who suffer from the disease. There is Tonto, Jimmy, Mimi, and so many others I have walked with on their journey to death, holding hands, washing bodies, clothing them, and finally burying many. Their faces are in physical and emotional pain from being rejected by their families; they never leave me. I hear the voices of fear today from many more of not having the needed drugs.

The monsters of homophobia, AIDS phobia, and transgender phobia are real, raising their ugly heads before us. Politicians of all stripes continue to fail us; our queer allies fail us, largely because they do not want to face the truth and struggle against the lies that surround us.

San Francisco was once full of bill boards promoting safe sex in the fight against AIDS; now we see bill boards of the various treatments, for that is where the money is, and yet AIDS continues to be prevalent. Those who can afford the treatments live long, healthy lives, but those who cannot suffer.

The truth is our media outlets ignore the continued threat of the disease, largely because they cater to the middle class and upper-middle-class straight and rich gays of our society; they always portray homelessness as a scourge on society.

My prayer is that we move beyond our tribes where we feel safe and look at our society and our neediest. We all suffer, and in our pain and suffering, we can feel the suffering of the "least of these" and move out and walk with our brothers and sisters.

Jean Donovan, a lay missionary and a martyr in 1980, was asked by her family to come on from El Salvador, and her response was

"Several times I have decided to leave—I almost could except for the children, the poor, the bruised victims of adult lunacy. Who could care for them? Whose heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine!"

She speaks for me, my friends; through the years, there have been people who have come to join me, some even have come to take my place, and each one leaves afraid—all I see are broken human beings, my brothers and sisters! Come walk with me! Let your fears and biases go, and you will be blessed! Take hold of the quietness, and enter into their presence, leaving behind the voices of rage, hate, and anger! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

Shay, (above) was a 21 year old I met as I walked the River Walk in Sacramento, he was trying to climb down a hill to his tent with a wound from surgery, and I reached out and helped him. I brought him some food, and clean clothes, and we were instant friends, whom I hung out with for several years as I went to Sacramento every month for a break.

Shay shared with me losing his parents at 12, being moved from one foster home to another, given various medications, and finally running away at 15. I last saw him when he was 24, after the police had cleaned the river banks of homeless people, and he was gone.

His tent, his treasures were scattered in the wind, waiting to be picked up by garbage trucks. There is no more mournful sight than that of seeing the belongings of homeless people simply scattered, as if they were simply trash as their owners to were considered.

Walking with Shay, as with everyone, I allowed him to enter my life, and I his, where two wounded persons come together, "As a follower of Jesus we also allow our wounds to bring healing to others"(Fr. Henri Nouwen). Like Nouwen tells us, When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become sources of healing, we have become wounded healers."

When I speak to others of working with homeless and the broken, there comes excuses of fear, not having training etc, and my answer is always it is not my training that has given me skills, it is entering into my own wounds, and seeing these wounds as the healing presence of God. When that happens, each person is simply a fellow brother and sister.

Political turmoil is always around us, as we think of ourselves, let us turn our eyes towards Gaza and other countries, to the poorest of the poor and homeless in our midst. One in every 10 people go hungry in the Bay area, about 870,000 people are food insecure and 11.5 percent of the Bay Area is food insecure, in this one of the wealthiest areas in the country.

When we point to one political persuasion or another I am reminded in Nouwen's words, that "Jesus was a Revolutionary, who did not become an extremest. Since he did not offer a political ideology but Himself," For when we live in God's Kingdom there is always a stranger to welcome, a child to love, a person to heal, someone to be fed, and there are no enemies but only our brothers and sisters.

We are called to see that "Listening Is A Door" by Steve Garnaas-Holmes:

You listen, as the forests listen to the wind, as the ocean hears the river. You listen to someone, not just their speaking but their being. Your listening is a door, through which they enter you. The more fully, openly, spaciously you listen, the more of them comes in what they're saying and not saying, and can't say, what they may not even know until they hear it being heard.

The door that is your listening becomes the whole space, a house, a temple. It holds the world. In this temple, beneath the words, beneath the cries and silences, you hear the voice of God-without words, a wind. A music enveloping all, the full sound. In someone's story, even their pain, is the world's vast joy and agony. In your listening the whole sanctuary resounds with the glory of God.

Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!

==========================

Fr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
0n PayPal
Phone is:415-305-2124

(Affiliated with "Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc.")

(In Association with "Extraordinary Catholics" and the "Fellowship of Saint John")

“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive.

I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now. I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).

We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate—“Just as I also try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Benefit, but the Benefit of Many, So That They May Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).
_______

We are a 501.3 Non Profit

"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well! (Julian of Norwich)

You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures!

=================================================
WE ARE BEGGARS! WE ARE BEGGING!

"You can make yourself at home! Live within me as if I were your dwelling!" - Saint Carlo Acutis
_______________________

Be Aware that For Now We Are Accepting Donations through PayPal And by Check: The Flip Cause App is no Longer valid.

Flip Cause is under investigation by the 'State and Donations Can not be Received. We are in the process of getting another app for donations. Please Give Us Time!

St. Patrick is not thought of as a traveler, but he traveled all of his life in the mission of spreading the Gospel.

As a youth he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave where he remained for six years. Praying the prayers of his childhood he became a Christian during that time. Finally escaping after six years he returned home, an inner voice, called him back to Ireland where he traveled the rest of his life establishing churches. He was beaten, attacked, and put in irons.

Patrick had learned as an anonymous author said, "Life will never be without storms. Stop fearing the storm. Built your inner self." Like Mary in her own journey to the birth of Jesus he was determined to face adversity! He taught and lived out tolerance.

Last Sunday was International Tolerance Day, as we pause to consider what it truly means to

respect and talk to those who are different from us, in beliefs, race, creed, or color, and political beliefs.

Through the years we have learned that tolerance is to be cultivated by:

Listening first--approach people not to rebut, or to to disagree with. but to understand their views, The apostle James wrote, "Let every body be quick to listen, slow to speak" (James. 1:19).

Resist Caricature: Don't reduce others to caricature or imaginary heresies".

Act in solidarity: Stand with those marginalized or demonized by societies intolerance.

Model respectful dialogue: Be patient, humorous and humble, be curious not judgmental.

Celebrate Diversity: See all as a part of a rainbow of colors, of perspectives, of people-that reveal the fullness of God's image.

Anchor in faith: it requires embodying truth with mercy. "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you love one another" (John 13-35).

"Be an encourager, the world has plenty of critics"(Dave Wills). So many are critics, that there is no understanding of others, they can not understand change over time, and give others tolerance. Fear is given full rage, and in the process destroys people.

"Joker" is a young man, now of 24, he was born in bushes of Golden Gate Park, raised on the streets, the only home he has ever known. In evaluation by a "shrink" he was given a label of being "feral " meaning he is a "wild one", one who will not be able to exist in our cultural society, in other words, a failure, who can not be helped. I was once given the same label as well, "feral", "impossible for him to exist in our modern culture," and so I have learned to take the negative, and turn it into the positive.

I am "feral", a "wild goose" one who flies outside the gate representing the living and Christ. We both were given this diagnosis's by shrinks who were young, never been near the streets, and spent an hour with us. That is why there are a couple shrinks who have me evaluate clients who have lived on the streets.

"Joker" was in essence condemned, and assigned to streets, rather than simply walking with him, letting him lead the way, into where he feels comfortable.

I am often asked, "Tell me about one of your success stories," irritates the hell out of me, because success [s simply "dedication to my path," for that question sets me up and the "Jokers" of the world to failure, writing us off. I came from a wealthy family, but gave the money away, so I am a failure to many!

"Joker" takes his name from Batman, seeing himself as a person who is made fun of, yet he is happy! He has a business of selling his art work, jewelry he makes from wire, and loves playing his guitar and singing for donations!

"Joker" feels trapped inside a building, feels isolated, has to sleep where he can breathe. He doesn't like working for anyone, he is his own boss. Several years ago when I had to have shoulder surgery, and could not alone for a week, he took care of me, came to my place, slept on the floor, help me to the bathroom, washed me off, check my badges, and cooked for me. "Joker" is a "success" he adapts to the changes in his life.

God is a God who changes, and we his children are the same, our lives are always changing, in doing so we find life. As the "storms" come close, overwhelming us, we do not fear, we find "inner peace" and "inner strength! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God! Amen and Amen!

Dr. River Damien Carlos Sims.sfw
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA. 94109
www.temenos.org
On PayPal
Phone is:415-305-2124
(PayPal)

(Affiliated with "Society of Franciscan Workers, Inc.")
(In Association with "Extraordinary Catholics" and the "Fellowship of Saint John")

“I write because to be human is mysterious and beautiful, and I want to sustain life force out of words and make things that will stay alive. I write to connect with people who are not here with us right now. I write to be fully alive” (Elizabeth Alexander).

We are Politically Neutral—We Vote for No Party or Candidate--
“Just as I also try to Please Everyone in all Things. I do not Seek My Benefit, but the Benefit of Many, So That They May
Be Saved” (Corinthians 10:32-33).

--------------------------------------------------

We are a 501.3 Non Profit

"All Shall Be Well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well!" (Julian of Norwich)

You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures!
===========================================

WE ARE BEGGARS!
WE ARE BEGGING!

"You can make yourself at home! Live within me as if I were your dwelling!" - Saint Carlo Acutis