The Impact of a Wedding...

“We are going to have a wedding in the chapel!” 

With these words, Cynthia Bach, Spiritual Care Advocate for St. Vincent de Paul, announced to me that two residents of the Central Arizona Shelter Service (CASS), had asked to be married. She also informed me that the couple needed a marriage license.

In a few days I met the young couple, Richard and Carol (names changed). We talked about their plans for their wedding. Having no income, they did not know how they could afford the $83 cost of a marriage license. I said to them that I would make sure they would have the money for the license. 

The next day I met them in the office to give them the money order and to help them fill out the marriage license application which I had printed off the County Clerk’s website. 

Meanwhile Cynthia and I met with the couple and worked out the details of the ceremony. Cynthia wanted to ensure the day would be special for them. The bride brought her dress to the meeting. Cynthia said she would find a veil, shoes, get a wedding cake and flowers for the occasion. 

I worked on the order of the service and prepared the ceremony. 

It was a nervous couple and friends who joined us in the Virginia G. Piper Chapel at St. Vincent de Paul building on the Human Service Campus. 

I was joined by a good friend of the couple to welcome the couple and their party at the altar. He arranged the music to be played for the bridal march to be played over his MP3 player and a Bluetooth speaker. The couple exchanged their vows and rings. The groom’s service dog served as the ringbearer. 

With much applause and celebrative cheers, the couple were pronounced husband and wife. 

In the lobby area, the couple danced their first dance. 

The bridal party and guests moved into the dining room for their meal. Cake was served by volunteers of St. Vincent de Paul.

A wedding is a wedding. Well, maybe not. The wedding ceremony brought a greater awareness of the presence of the chaplaincy to the campus.

On Sunday as I walked through the campus, many people who frequent the Human Service Campus recognized me as the chaplain who performed the ceremony. Many of the guests of the couple as well as the couple themselves attended the worship service. 

A prayer for today....

"My great God, you know all that is in the universe, because you yourself have made it. It is the very work of your hands. You are omniscient, because you are omnicreative. You know each part, however minute, as perfectly as you know the whole. You know mind as perfectly as you know matter. You know the thoughts and purposes of every soul as perfectly as if there were no other soul in the whole of your creation. You know me through and through; all my present, past, and future are before you as one whole. You see all those delicate and evanescent motions of my thought which altogether escape myself. You can trace every act, whether deed or thought, to its origin and can follow it into its whole growth and consequences. You know how it will be with me at the end; you have before you that hour when I shall come to you to be judged. How awful is the prospect of finding myself in the presence of my judge! Yet, O Lord, I would not that you should not know me. It is my greatest stay to know that you read my heart. Oh, give me more of that openhearted sincerity which I have desired. Keep me ever from being afraid of your eye, from the inward consciousness that I am not honestly trying to please you. Teach me to love you more, and then I shall be at peace, without any fear of you at all."

— Bl. John Henry Newman, Everyday Meditations, p.150

Change is a Daily Process

"Among the various indications that make the holiness of God known to men, the most convincing sign is the holiness of men, who are sanctified by the divine indwelling . . . In teaching us the words, ‘hallowed be Thy name,’ our Lord also bids us, when we pray, to ask that God may be glorified by our lives. The sense of the prayer is this: ‘Grant us so to live, that all men may glorify Thee through us.’ God is sanctified or hallowed in the minds of other men through us, to the extent that we are sanctified by Him. Hence when we say: ‘hallowed be Thy name,’ we pray, as Cyprian remarks, that God’s name may be hallowed in us.  Following the lead of Christ, who says: ‘Be holy, because I am holy,’ we beg that we, who have been sanctified in Baptism, may persevere in the state in which we began. Furthermore we pray daily to be sanctified in order that we, who daily fall, may wash away our sins by a constant process of purification."

— St. Thomas Aquinas,

It's a hot day among the homeless

It’s a hot day among the Homeless today.

Today as I walked among the homeless in the day room at the Lodestar Day Resource Center, I was informed that a homeless woman had died today on the sidewalk outside of the campus. She was well-known by the residents and some of the staff. One person informed she was 85 years old. 

Walking out of the dayroom I saw the yellow crime tape to the northeast side of the campus with several police vehicles. As there is not direct route to that side of the campus, I had to walk around the block. Arriving at the scene, I walked to the crime tape and prayed for the woman covered by a white sheet. I offered support to the police officers who were patrolling the scene. They were grateful for my support. 

Walking around the police vehicles, I encountered several Human Service Campus staff and residents of the Zone near the woman. The woman’s name was Angel (name changed) and she was in her early 60s. Pointing to the white covered body, several talked to me about the woman. “She has been sitting here on the sidewalk for several days.” “She refused water and food.” “I told her to get out of the hot sun. She refused. She just kept talking to herself.” 

The staff pointed out that there was no water handy where the homeless were hanging out in the Zone. Knowing that a local pastor had given me 60 bottles of water yesterday, I knew I had to do something. I asked one of the men if he would accompany me to my office to retrieve the two cases of water and bring them back. We put them in my car and delivered them to the staff. 

Please carry extra water with you as you go out to do your errands. If you can, collect some cases of water and deliver them to the Human Service Campus. Call Gina Brockdorff, 602-391-6701, for drop off locations or look at the Heat Relief map for Maricopa County for a drop off location near you: http://azmag.gov/Programs/Homelessness/Heat-Relief-Regional-Network

By the way it was 108 F. out there in the Zone and is all asphalt and concrete.

Set your gaze....

"My God, you know infinitely better than I how little I love you. I would not love you at all except for your grace. It is your grace that has opened the eyes of my mind and enabled them to see your glory. It is your grace that has touched my heart and brought upon it the influence of what is so wonderfully beautiful and fair . . . O my God, whatever is nearer to me than you, things of this earth, and things more naturally pleasing to me, will be sure to interrupt the sight of you, unless your grace interferes. Keep my eyes, my ears, my heart from any such miserable tyranny. Break my bonds—raise my heart. Keep my whole being fixed on you. Let me never lose sight of you; and, while I gaze on you, let my love of you grow more and more everyday."

— Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman, Everyday Meditations, p. 44-5

Don't give up!

"If, then, we wish to persevere and to be saved—for no one can be saved without perseverance—we must pray continually. Our perseverance depends, not on one grace, but on a thousand helps which we hope to obtain from God during our whole lives, that we may be preserved in his grace. Now, to this chain of graces a chain of prayers on our part must correspond: without these prayers, God ordinarily does not grant his graces. If we neglect to pray, and thus break the chain of prayers, the chain of graces shall also be broken, and we shall lose the grace of perseverance."

— St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori, p. 201

Come, Spirit of the Living God

"May the Holy Spirit enkindle you with the fire of His Love so that you may persevere, unfailingly, in the love of His service. Thus you may merit to become, at last, a living stone in the celestial Jerusalem."
— St. Hildegard von Bingen

"The man (or woman) who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience, and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others. Actions speak louder than words . . . it is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions. But the apostles spoke as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself! ... We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit give us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner and by keeping the commandments. "

 — St. Anthony of Padua, Witness of the Saints, p. 492