Robert has gone to Our House, an AIDS hospice. He seems very happy there and continues to manifest a steady change of attitude. At this very moment, I am looking at an advance directive, a document that states that Robert has chosen me to make medical decisions for him when he is unable to make them for himself. This is a humbling experience, and I

What person who does what this woman does has not been there? How I admire them and cherish them. I see them each day, serving in a variety of ways, dealing with the heartbreaking realities of the poor: frustration; violent transference; physical and mental sickness; rejection; police harassment; loneliness; hunger for food, friendship, and purpose

And in spite of a million reasons for living in self-pity, he had within him—every day—the amazing capacity to make coin purses and share his soda pop with others.

I was struck by how the deprivations that people experience can lead to eccentric kinds of compensation—like the hoarding syndrome of some of the poor.

There are two faces of grief worn by the partners of those who die: one is the face of emptiness that comes with the loss of the beloved, and the other is the face of fear precipitated by the reality of going it alone.

Most literature on mental illness and homelessness indicates that more than half of the people on the streets are mentally ill with manifestations of the following, to name a few: affective disorders; schizophrenia, in all its many variations; recurrent depressive and manic-depressive disorders (bipolarism); post-traumatic stress disorder ;

On the other hand, many individuals, I think, are driven to talking to themselves and to the mannequins of their lives because there is no one around to listen to them or care about them.

Shea had suffered. He knew better than most about life’s ups and downs, its misunderstandings and broken relationships. He had endured the disorder of internal battles and physical disabilities. He came through it all not as a bitter, cantankerous, and introverted old man but as a human being capable of a loving response to those he trusted. Of

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.