Peter Stiehler

Dear Friends,

Last month I threw away two old picture frames while I was cleaning the basement at our 2nd Avenue boarding house. One of the residents, while taking out household trash, saw the picture frames in the trash can and noticed there were still pictures in them. He asked me, “Are you sure you want to throw these away? There are some great old pictures.” When I saw what I had done, I quickly saved the frames and the pictures, several of which I have included in this letter. It was such a trip down memory lane seeing pictures of folks who had been regulars at the dining room and shelter twenty to twenty-five years ago, many of whom have long since moved on or passed away. But a couple of us are still around. There is me with dark brown hair and a ponytail, Pat looks so young it’s hard to recognize him, and the picture of Mike doesn’t look much different from what he looks like now (Thanks for making the rest of us look bad.).

Day in and day out, things don’t seem to change much with our work, but when I see the old pictures, it really makes me realize how much time has passed. April 1st marks thirty years that we have been operating our little dining room. In many ways little has changed. Sure, our hair is thinner and grayer, we’re sporting more pounds than we would like, and many of the faces have changed. But those things are minor, because what is most important has stayed the same these past thirty years. As an organization, we are still here serving those most I need in our community. We have started and ended several service projects as the needs of the community have changed over the years, but our core projects and goals remain the same. Every night we host six people in our homeless shelter who are in desperate need of emergency shelter; our two boarding homes are still providing dignified affordable permanent housing for a total of eighteen people; our house in Oakland is providing transitional housing for people coming out of prison; our Dining Room still serves fifty to sixty people a hot meal five mornings a week, and up to fifteen people use our shower services each morning; and we are regularly in nursing homes and occasionally at jails visiting those we serve.

And even though I, and all who work at Catholic Worker Hospitality House, could qualify for Social Security benefits, we are still going strong. We still enjoy our daily work at the Dining Room and the overnight shifts at the shelter. We are still strengthened by
the community we have with our coworkers, volunteers, and those we serve. Most days, we are thankful for all that we have: stable housing, meaningful work, and people with which to share our lives. And every day we are thankful for all of you, whose generous support have made this work possible for the past thirty years. We wouldn’t still be here without you. We hope that you will help keep us going for another thirty years, or more realistically considering our age, another fifteen to twenty years. As always, thank you so much for your continued generous support of our work with those in need.

In Christ’s Peace,

Peter Stiehler
For all of us at
Catholic Worker Hospitality House

 

“It’s gotta be the Joy”

by Brendan Walsh

Some say working the soup kitchen

best defines the Catholic Worker.

Some say opening your home to the lonely and destitute

best defines the Catholic Worker.

Some say resisting the war makers, doing the time,

refusing to go along with the greed and violence

best defines a Catholic Worker.

Some say it’s all of these, knowing full well that the best we can do

is plant a few seeds, knowing full well

the harvest is a long time coming.

But, deep down, really, in our heart of hearts, we know

It’s gotta be the joy!

You lose the joy, you lose it all.

No joy, no hope.

No joy, no endurance.

No joy, no understanding of the suffering.

No joy, no meaning to life.

No joy, and it’s just another year in Guantanamo.

No joy, and we’re all just doing time on the planet.

Oh, yeah –

It’s gotta be the joy!

Dear Friends,

On a recent Monday afternoon, I received a phone message from the local county core service agency in South San Francisco saying they had just sent to our shelter an elderly woman via taxi who needed shelter that night. My initial thought was, “Oh! No, no, no, no! You can’t do that. That’s not how things work. What if we don’t have an opening in our shelter for her?” Luckily, I calmed down before contacting the case manager and getting more information about the situation: Jennifer was an elderly woman with limited mobility who was new to the area and desperate for shelter that night. Jennifer was not only new to San Mateo County, but to homelessness as well; she knew nobody and was understandably frightened. Luckily, we did have an opening that night, so we brought her in, but with the understanding that I would bring her back to the agency the next morning so they could hopefully find a more appropriate placement for her.

In the morning, I talked with Jennifer about the plan to take her back to the service agency, but also informed her that she could come back to our shelter that night if they could not find a place for her. She told me that she did not feel comfortable staying in our shelter even though Janice, the prior night’s staff person, was kind to her and made her feel welcome. She just wasn’t comfortable staying in a shelter with so many men.

That morning, after I dropped her off at the service agency, I felt heavy at heart, thinking what a tough world it is out there for some people and wishing there was more that we could do for her. But I couldn’t get bogged down in such musings as I had to run a couple of errands before visiting George at a nursing home in Daly City.

We’ve known George for over 15 years as a regular guest at our dining room and shelter. Five years ago, he finally received permanent housing, but a week after moving in he was discovered on the floor of his bedroom, struck down with a disease that paralyzed his arms and legs. Since that time, he has been in a variety of care facilities. When I got to the nursing home, I noticed that George had his own room, which I initially thought was nice, but then I noticed his isolation. Without use of his arms, he couldn’t operate the television or read, much less go to the common room to socialize with the other residents; it appears he spends his days staring at blank walls. The isolation felt oppressive. As I visited with George, I couldn’t help but notice that the years in nursing homes hadn’t been kind to him. Being bedridden for five years led to a certain amount of atrophying of his body and the same could be said of his mind as well. It was difficult to carry on a conversation as he was often agitated and his speech was hard to understand. The room, while clean, had a faint aroma of feces. Had he just soiled himself?

After visiting for a while, I left George with the promise of visiting again. As I walked to my car, the heaviness of heart from earlier in the morning returned as I thought once again about what a tough life some people have. From there, I went to a meeting where I had time to muse over the events of the morning. I was thankful for the opportunity to assist the folks and spend time with them, but still my heart was heavy.

After my meeting, I went to visit Shaun who has been in a very nice nursing home in the Crestmoor neighborhood of San Bruno for the past year. I have known Shaun for over twenty-five years as she and another woman were for many years the lay leaders of the mission church I attend in Brisbane. Shaun is confined to her bed, but her mind is as sharp as ever. Far from just lying in bed wasting away, she was still doing what she could to build the faith life of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission community. It soon became evident that Shaun would be serving me more than I would be serving her. My weekly visits soon turned into classes for my ongoing spiritual development so I could better be of service to our mission community. Shaun always has a passage from scripture or religious book that she wants to share with me; we share our insights, seeing how they can be applied to our daily life. I love my visits with Shaun; I always leave feeling full of the love and presence of God. This day was especially uplifting and consoling after my difficult morning.

Why do I share these stories? When we offer ourselves in service to others, there will be times that are very difficult as we often encounter people in their most difficult and lonely moments. But this is what we signed up for, it is at the heart of our work, so we are used to these moments even when they are difficult. But then we can be surprised by such interactions like the ones I have with Shaun, which are so nurturing and joyful. Or like when I learned later in the afternoon that Jennifer had received a bed in a county shelter with a women’s section and social workers to assist her with her long-term needs. We can rarely meet all the needs of those we meet and serve, but we assist them as we can, and always keep them in our prayers.

Our daily work at Catholic Worker Hospitality House is faith filled and life affirming. Not just in some aspects, but all aspects of our work: in the direct service we provide to those in need, in the teamwork with co-workers in our daily work, and in our relation-ships with volunteers, donors, and guests. It’s really a wonderful life. It is why I chose this work forty years ago when I was searching for a way to live out my faith in my daily work.

2026 will mark thirty years of our work at Catholic Worker Hospitality House (which I will be reflecting on in a future newsletter). We are so thankful for all the people who have made our work possible through the sharing of time, talents, and treasures. Together, we enflesh the Kingdom of God, assist those in need, and make our community a better place. Thank you!

In Christ’s Peace,

Peter Stiehler
For all of us at
Catholic Worker
Hospitality House

 

HOLIDAYS THANKS! As we emerge from the holiday season and settle back into our regular work routine, we would be remiss if we did not thank the many individuals, businesses, and congregations who graced us with their generosity to enable us to provide special festive meals and gifts to all our guests from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. We are so thankful for all who enable us to continue serving those in need in our community. Thank you.

Dear Friends,

For almost thirty years I’ve been writing these Christmas letters.  The usual letter talks about Advent as a time of hope as we await a new creation.  While we enter “a time of darkness,” we hope and prepare for a better world with the coming of Jesus, the
Messiah, at Christmas.

This year, with the current political and economic situation, people are especially feeling and fearing the darkness.  ICE raids, military deployments to cities viewed as hostile to the president, tax cuts for the very wealthy while health and food resources for the poor are cut, and the general dismantling of structures that care for people and protect the environment.

How long O Lord?  How long must we wait for the promised new creation?  With all that’s happening, just waiting and hoping for a better world in some vague future doesn’t seem enough.  So what if instead of just waiting and hoping for a better future, we start living a bit of that hoped for future now? I think this was at the heart of the life and ministry of Jesus.

“The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” – Luke 17:20b-21

What if we lived our lives as if this was true? What if we lived our lives in the belief that God is already within us and within all those with whom we interact? What if we knew that we  have nothing to fear because God loves us, and has already redeemed us.  How would our lives be transformed?

I think back to my college days when I had returned to the church and started trying to take my faith seriously.  My thought was: “Someday I’ll truly devote myself to living the Way of God, but what’s the rush?  Why do it now?”  Then I realized “the end” could come for me at any time.  I was a young male who engaged in the risky behavior a lot of young people do; then I realized I could die any day.  “Maybe I should start living the kingdom now,” I thought.  So, I started on the path of trying to live a more devout life.  Now I haven’t always been successful in this pursuit, but it did get me to make some life changes that led me in the right direction.

This desire to live the kingdom of God now, not later, is what ultimately brought me to the Catholic Worker Movement and what led Kate and I to start Catholic Worker Hospitality House in San Bruno almost 30 years ago. It is why I’m still here after all
these years.  And I believe it is why so many of you devote your time and resources to making our work possible.

In simple ordinary ways, we all try to manifest the love of God through acts of kindness and the daily practice of the Works of Mercy.  I am writing this letter during our morning dining room service.  I am seeing, and participating with, people – guests, volunteers, and donors – living the kingdom here and now through the sharing of a meal and fellowship.  And while all this is going on others are delivering food and supplies for our Thanksgiving Feast which will happen the next day.  It’s a beautiful thing to be a part of.  We all fall short at times doing this work, but we keep on trying.

As always, we thank you for joining us in this work. It is through your ongoing generous support of our work that we are able to continue serving those in need in our community.

In Christ’s Peace,

Peter Stiehler
For all of us at
Catholic Worker Hospitality House

 

THANKSGIVING MEAL

Every year, two weeks before Thanksgiving I get into a tizzy, fearful that we won’t have enough food for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner, but every year there is plenty. Every year I am fear that something will go dreadfully wrong and the meal will be a disaster and every year it’s a beautiful event. Well, once again my fears proved unfounded, as our Thanksgiving Dinner was a lovely event. We had plenty of food and volunteers, and over 200 guests enjoying the day. It was a reminder of why our Thanksgiving Dinner is my favorite event of the year. I definitely need to be more mindful of the angel’s admonition of “Do not be afraid, everything will be alright.” We thank all of you who provided food and supplies to make Thanksgiving a special day for all our guests. We couldn’t have done it without you. Now it’s time to prepare for Christmas…..

Is not one of our problems today that we have separated ourselves from the poor and the wounded and the suffering? We have too much time to discuss and theorize and have lost the yearning for God which comes when we are faced with the sufferings of people.
— Jean Vanier, Founder of L’Arche

I am not commanding you (to donate to those in need), but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. — 2 Cor 8:8

Dear Friends,

“You know, those people who ask for money in front of stores or at intersections?  It’s a scam.  They’re not really in need. I heard they get dropped off and picked up in nice cars and make thousands of dollars a day doing their begging.”

Twice recently I have heard such comments from friends of mine. I was shocked to hear them say such things as I regard these friends as kind and generous people. Obviously, I think their conspiratorial judgement on those seeking assistance is misguided at best.  From my experience, merely looking at the person asking for assistance shows they are clearly in need.  But it left me thinking: Where does their condemnation come from? Does seeing people in obvious distress make them uncomfortable? Are they scared of the feelings these people elicit in them? Are they fearful of people who are different from themselves?  Are they fearful that they may end up in the same situation themselves? Is it just plain mean-spiritness? Or do they make up stories to justify their inaction to help someone in need?

I feel their response to those asking for assistance is an outward projection; judging the person in need to calm their own fears.  Another response would be to turn the question inward: How am I going to respond to a person seeking my assistance?  How can I think of those requests for money as a test of my own commitment to the Kingdom of God?  “Am I going to say ‘yes’ to the Kingdom of God and this person’s request or am I going to say ‘no.’”  I think of myself and how daily, multiple times a day, I come before God asking for mercy: “O God, help me! Forgive me!”  Do I deserve God’s mercy? By human standards, definitely not. I have fallen short time and again, making the same mistakes over and over, but God has repeatedly shown me mercy. Should I not then show Mercy to others?

Are those asking for money worthy? Are they going to use whatever I give them in a manner I view as “proper?” I don’t know, and honestly, it’s not what I’m focused on.  I try to view these requests for assistance as an opportunity to show mercy, to share the love of God, to show my commitment to the Way of God. Is one dollar or five dollars or even twenty dollars going to drastically change their lives or negatively impact me financially? No, it won’t.  But I think it’s important to show another person a small act of kindness by looking them in the eye, addressing them respectfully, and performing a small act of kindness.  This, I believe, is at the heart of the question of whether to give or not to give.

When I initially wrote the above piece, I thought it would only be a small reflection on giving to those in need. But in light of current events, I think my friends’ condemnation of those seeking assistance is emblematic of how our country is currently responding to all who are in need or different.  At present, there is definitely a mean-spiritness pervading our society.  There is the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” recently passed by Congress which took away housing, food and health care assistance from the neediest of our society while giving tax breaks to the wealthiest.  Then there is the hundred billion dollars allocated to ICE in the same bill to arrest, imprison, and deport so called dangerous immigrants. (Although they just seem to be rounding up anyone with brown skin, immigrant or not.)  They’re also pouring money into building new prisons. And once those prisons are built and operating, they won’t be going away.  Furthermore, the military has been deployed to Washington, DC to clear out the homeless, even though there is an acknowledged lack of affordable housing.  And the president has threatened to do the same in other cities.  The recent Supreme Court ruling criminalizing homelessness and presidential Executive Order demanding cities remove the unhoused make clear that the war on the unhoused is ramping up again.  Clearly, the Christian Nationalists in control of our government don’t seem to follow the same Christ I do.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Is what we’re seeing in our country a living out of the Kingdom of God or even an attempt to be a just and humane society?  I think not.  Those of us working at Catholic Worker Hospitality House stand in opposition to the direction our country is moving.  We believe that by sharing what we have, we all become richer. As people of faith, we believe that we honor and follow the Way of God by caring for those in need.  We will continue living out this faith through the daily practice of the Works of Mercy – feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, welcoming the stranger and immigrant, and visiting the sick and imprisoned. We thank you for your past support of this commitment and hope that you will continue helping us to be a light in the darkness by caring for those in need in our society.

In Christ’s Peace,

Peter Stiehler
Director
Catholic Worker Hospitality House

 

HOUSE NEEDS

• Cold cereal
• Canned soup
• Canned fruit
• Peanut butter and Jelly
• Pasta sauce
• Toilet paper
• Napkins
• Coffee,
• Creamer
• Sugar
• Money, for our ongoing expenses

WE NEED YOUR HELP! As you can tell from the above list, this is the time of year when our food stores and bank account are at their lowest. Could you help us with either in kind or monetary donations? Thank you

 

In every large city of the Western world, the poor are still stretching out their
hands for crumbs which fall from the rich man’s table. Only a few crumbs fall to them. There is little love from the rich to the poor. Doesn’t anyone see that in each of the poor it is Christ who begs? When shall we who call ourselves Christians begin to be Christ- like, and to love as he commanded us? “It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples.” (John
13:35)
— Catherine Doherty, Living the Gospel without Compromise

 

WHAT TO DO IN A TIME OF DARKNESS

You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. — Matt. 5:14,16
When the powers-that-be dismiss the bearers of bad news, we will speak the truth whether it’s popular or not.
When leaders, or anybody else, misrepresent the truth we will kindly correct them and inform them of the truth.
When the authorities disparage and arrest immigrants and the unhoused or whoever else they may target, we will open our hearts and doors to welcome and care for them, remembering that we are all children of God and equally loved by God.
When we see politicians giving tax breaks to the wealthiest while cutting basic services for those most in need, we will share our wealth with those in need.
We will refuse to live in or be part of the darkness; instead, the witness of our lives – our love, compassion, and generosity – will be a light to others bringing hope into the world.

Dear Friends,

Thirty years ago this week, if you’re reading this letter the first week of June, Kate and I met with Larry Purcell and Jan Johanson of the Redwood City Catholic Worker to discuss the possibility of their assisting us with starting a new Catholic Worker house in San Mateo County.

A month or so beforehand, Kate had been in the office of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, where we were both living, looking through a basket filled with newsletters from various Catholic Worker houses. In perusing the letters, she read a recent letter from the Redwood City Catholic Worker in which they spoke of having raised money to help a young couple start their own Catholic Worker house. They said they had the money, but we’re just looking for the right people to start the work.

This caught Kate’s attention. While we were both members of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community and wanted to stay as Catholic Workers, we were interested in starting our own house. Kate and I were about to get married and were eager to have children. In her wisdom, Kate realized that it is much easier to raise children in a Catholic Worker House when it’s your house and you can set the parameters of work in a way that enables a sane and healthy family life.

So, a few weeks later, while on our honeymoon in the Bay Area, we met with Larry and Jan to discuss what they had in mind and to see if that would mesh with what we wanted to do. We were not ten minutes into the conversation when Jan said to Larry, “Here are the people we’ve been waiting for.” Kate and I, understandably, we’re a bit startled.

What they offered us was extravagant in its generosity and trust. They would loan us money to purchase a house from which to operate a Catholic Worker (said loan would be forgiven if we stayed at the work for five years), would introduce us to people who could be helpful to us in starting our work, would allow us use of their mailing list for our first mailing, and they would be a loving supporting presence to us. All they asked is that we do the work in San Mateo County as that was where they had raised the money. How could we say no to that? We didn’t. We quickly said yes and started to work on the details of when we would move up.

In late November 1995 we left the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, moved into a garage apartment the Redwood City Catholic Worker provided for us, searched for and found a house in San Bruno, and in February of 1996 moved into the house on 2nd Ave. Twenty-nine years later, the work of Catholic Worker Hospitality House is still going strong, although be it with ups and downs and changes over the years.

Larry and Jan took a huge leap of faith in us and we took a leap of faith that the community would support this work. Kate went on to other work, working in the law and policy, helping those in need, but still remaining supportive and involved, and I have continued to put in a lot of work over the years in keeping it going, but it has been through the faithful generosity of hundreds of people in our community and throughout the country who provided emotional, financial, and material support to our work of feeding, sheltering, and housing those in need, to keep it going.

We realize the importance of our commitment which has provided stability and continuity to the work, but without your partnership we would not have been able to continue our basic work, much less expand into the various housing projects we operate today. As always, we give a heartfelt thanks to your past generosity and hope that you will continue helping us serve those in need.

In Christ’s Peace,

Peter Stiehler
For all of us at
Catholic Worker
Hospitality House