Pax on both houses: Faithful Fools: Unitarian/Catholic "Street Retreats" in San Francisco's "Tenderloin"

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Faithful Fools: Unitarian/Catholic "Street Retreats" in San Francisco's "Tenderloin"

Franciscan Sister Carmen Barsody

http://www.faithfulfools.org/newsletters/november-2011-e-newsletter/history-of-street-retreats/

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Dear Maria and Daniel,

I hope you have opportunity to do a "street retreat" with "The Faithful Fools" - a Christian group in San Francisco headed by Unitarians and Franciscan nun, Sister Carmen Barsody.

Auntie Nina is a fool.

Here is a little background.

http://www.globalonenessproject.org/interviewee/sister-carmen-barsody

http://livingfranciscan.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-s-carmen-barsody-living-faithfully.html

Maybe we could do a street retreat together. http://www.faithfulfools.org/newsletters/november-2011-e-newsletter/history-of-street-retreats/

Faithful Fools' emailings are always good.

I find this one especially so.

Be sure to read Sister Carmen's description of mission.

Love

Daddy man

PS The fools are also active in Nicaragua.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nancy H
Date: Thu, Aug 9, 2012
Subject: Fw: August 2012 Fools E-News: What is a "Just" Society?
To: Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>

--- On Wed, 8/8/12, Faithful Fools <faithfulfools@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Faithful Fools <faithfulfools@gmail.com>
Subject: August 2012 Fools E-News: What is a "Just" Society?
To: Nancy H
Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Soul Nourishing

-by Alex Darr

I packed a lunch the first time I went on a Street Retreat with the Faithful Fools. While I considered myself comfortable in the Tenderloin, I knew I wasn't going to eat at one of the soup kitchens. I don't remember anymore the precise reasons I gave myself not to, but when I hear others give them, they sound familiar: the food will be bad, I don't want to eat food someone who really needs it might, they won't have anything that meets my dietary requirements, I don't want to waste time standing in line I could use doing something more useful or interesting.

Of course, there's always fear: the dining halls that serve hungry people for free are almost always out of view – in basements or behind windowless walls or fences. Until we go into one, ...

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A "Just" Society: Where Everyone Matters

-by Carmen Barsody

My faith and consciousness was formed in a church that spoke of itself as a “People of God.” God was a God of love and was present in each one of us as individuals, in the gathered assembly and in the bread and wine. Jesus was my brother and was the example of how I was to live in the world. He got in trouble with his religious and civic leaders because he challenged the laws that were filled with limited human judgment and cultural, patriarchal biases. When asked what commandment was the greatest he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). I was told that when I died I would be remembered by how I lived. Did I give food to the hungry? Did I give something to drink to the thirsty? Did I welcome the stranger? Did I give clothes to the naked? Did I visit the sick and the imprisoned? Did I ultimately live as Jesus lived, with love and compassion? I learned that we are all one. There was no woman or man, slave or free, Jew or Greek. Everyone was equal and everyone mattered.

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Social Justice

by Ed Bowers

Human beings say that justice is blind. But that’s sometimes a lie. Justice is often gifted with 20/20 vision and can see very clearly the verdict it desires and it is capable of manipulating the truth in order to justify that verdict.

Justice is People. It comes out of the Human Mind. And People are little human beings with different points of view and varying interpretations of Reality, all 7 billion of them living inside 7 billion brains each receiving and transmitting 7 billion slightly different universes and capable of uniting their concepts of good and evil in order to punish other human universes if they feel justified in doing so.

So I believe each individual should first put himself on trial before fooling...

Link to Full-Text: http://www.faithfulfools.org/newsletters/august-e-newsletter-2012/

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August Movie Night

Thank You For Supporting "Viva Nica"!

Many thanks to everyone who sent donations and who volunteered for the "Viva Nica" event. A fabulous night of food, music and dancing was had by all. You helped to raise $1762 towards our work with the people in Nicaragua!