I don’t kid myself; I know I can’t do this by myself. So I do my own kind of handing over. I hand over the mystery of death to God, and I hand myself over to the mystery of my vocation: to be there for these folks, living and dead. I am the divining rod in their search for the holy in their lives. I have confidence in these moments, because I know

The reality of homelessness, inadequate housing, and the lack of affordable housing is a national disgrace. This reality undermines the life and dignity of so many of our brothers and sisters who lack a decent place to live. It destroys lives and families. The crime of homelessness is not that people live in filthy camps under bridges, or that

The imprisoned are the poorest of the poor.

Two-thirds of those who qualify for housing assistance in the United States cannot get it because it is not available.

My friends have been the ones who have pulled me through some absolutely awful moments, and they have been the people in whose presence I have found my most delirious moments of happiness.

how much pain and suffering must be endured before the intimate and precious part of ourselves becomes unmoored and floats away, making us incapable of normal human intercourse?

The older guys have a wisdom that is born not of desperation but of an acceptance of their status and an unwillingness to continue to con themselves. There is a point in one’s self-realized poverty where humility and truth make their entry. Power and its little brothers, honor and reputation, are the agenda of the young. This agenda blinds them and

But preaching the Gospel is a function of trying to reach the human heart, whether people are poor or rich or middle class. And the bad breaks and tragic mysteries of life exist in plenitude in a city parish.

Mara and I visited him today. He talked at length about belief and faith and God. “My resistance to God,” he said, “has always been rooted in my feelings of being dirty. Like I am always a leper. But I know that we are all lepers to some degree and that in spite of that God still loves us. In fact, Jesus spent a lot of time with lepers, didn’t he,