Thank you San Bruno Community Foundation! We are once again recipients of a grant for the operation of our emergency homeless shelter at St. Bruno’s Church, this year the grant was for $20,000. This generous grant from the San Bruno Community Foundation will help us continue providing safe and dignified shelter for homeless individuals in our community. We are very fortunate to be in a community we our work is both accepted and supported. Again, thank you.
Christmas 2018
Dear Friends,
On December 25, Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, yet the true date of Jesus’ birth is unknown. It could be the late December date, then again, it could have been in March or August or October. Clearly, a date just after the winter solstice was chosen for it’s symbolic importance. Throughout history cultures have marked the winter solstice as a time of renewal in a time of darkness. Will the sun return? Will life return to a world in dormancy? In a world filled with darkness where is hope to be found? While Christianity doesn’t celebrate the rebirth of the world, it does play off the primal fear of darkness and a “dying world.” But really, the actual day of Jesus’ birth is unimportant. What is important is what the birth of Jesus the Savior means to humanity.
Instead of celebrating the rebirth of creation, we Christians celebrate the “new heaven and a new earth” that comes into being with the birth of Jesus. We now have Emmanuel—God with us—to share in our humanity, to show us a better way to live, to comfort us in our daily struggles, to forge a new and deeper intimacy between God and creation. In a time of darkness when God’s people face utter destruction and all hope seems lost, God sends a comforting message: I will be with you. I will share in your daily joys and sorrows: family, work, worship, pain and suffering.
In our daily work at Catholic Worker Hospitality House we too try to walk with God’s people during their time of trial to comfort and encourage–to be a source of hope in a time of darkness. We serve and share in hot meals, provide both emergency and permanent housing; visit the sick, including taking folks to doctor appointments and to pick up medication; and visit the imprisoned, including letter writing and this year creating re-entry housing for folks coming out of prison. We do all this and more to enter into a deeper intimacy with our brothers and sisters.
This intimacy is what attracted me (as well as our staff, volunteers, and sup-
porters) to the Catholic Worker Movement. We have found that working and bonding with those in need has not only created close relationships, but has given us a better understanding of the plight of the poor and marginalized in the world. It has also made us less judgmental and more compassionate. By serving and nurturing we become better people, we enter into that new creation offered by the birth of Jesus. As someone who has not always been good, I love how the Catholic Worker Movement creates a place where it’s easier for all of us to be good and to do good, a place where we can all grow closer to God and one another.
For twenty-three years Catholic Worker Hospitality House has been a beacon of hope and love to the marginalized of our society, doing what we can in our daily work to comfort and care for God’s people. This Christmas we ask for your continued support of our work with those in need. With your help we can continue walking with God, serving God’s people, and enfleshing the new heaven and new earth offered by the birth of Jesus.
Merry Christmas,
Peter Stiehler
For all of us at Catholic Worker Hospitality House
WE GIVE THANKS
Once again Catholic Worker Hospitality House hosted a traditional Thanksgiving Feast for all our guests in the parish hall at St. Bruno’s Catholic Church. It was a lovely event with over two hundred folks joining us for a day filled with good food and friendship—and there was plenty of both. I love how not only our current dinning room and shelter guests attend, but guests from five years ago, ten years ago, and even twenty years ago return “home” to share in the holiday.
We are thankful for all of you who prepared and brought the food for the feast. By many people sharing some of their gifts, all have enough. Quite simply our Thanksgiving Feast would not be possible without your love and generosity.
We give thanks.
CHRISTMAS DINNER NEEDS
Can you help us host our annual Christmas dinner for our guests by cooking part of the meal? We need:
–Ham, cooked and carved, enough for 10 people
–Potato dishes
–Milk or juice
–Cookies, pie, or cake
Please bring food donations between 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Friday, December 21. We will be serving the meal between 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. that day. Food can be brought to our dining room at St. Bruno’s Church, located at 555 W. San Bruno Ave. in San Bruno. Please call
us at (650) 827-0706 if you can bring anything or if you have any questions. Thank You!
GIFT IDEAS
If you’re interested in providing a gift for one of our guests, may we suggest the following: sweatshirt, thermal underwear, gloves, socks, or underwear. Whether homeless or housed, our guests spend a lot of time in the cold and would appreciate any of these items. Gift cards are also very much appreciated, especially for places where folks can pass the time: coffee houses, restaurants, movie theaters (Century Theaters are close to us). We thank you for your generosity in helping to make this holiday season special for our guests.
HOUSE NEEDS
Coffee, creamer, and sugar
Dish soap, disinfectant, cleanser
Trash bags (all sizes)
Cold medicine
Shampoo and Conditioner
Money, for ongoing expenses
Thank you to the San Bruno Community Foundation who granted us $15,000 for the operation of our emergency homeless shelter at St. Bruno’s Church.
A special thanks to Patricia Bohm from the SBCF who came and presented the check today and spoke with our volunteers and guests about the work of the Foundation and also gave our guests information about additional resources in the community.
Can you help us host our annual Christmas dinner for our guests by cooking part of the meal? We need:
–Ham, cooked and carved, enough for 10 people
–Potato dishes
–Milk or juice
–Cookies, pie, or cake
Please bring food donations between 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Friday, December 22.
We will be serving the meal between 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. that day. Food can be brought to our dining room at St. Bruno’s Church, located at 555 W. San Bruno Ave. in San Bruno. Please call us at (650) 827-0706 if you can bring anything or if you have any questions. Thank You!
CHRISTMAS 2017
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; God’s love endures forever. –Ps. 118:1
Dear Friends,
Giving and receiving thanks is an integral part of our daily life at Catholic Worker Hospitality House. Multiple times a day, volunteers and I are thanked by our guests for meals served, showers taken, space in the shelter, and for just being there. Multiple times a day, I give thanks for the assistance of volunteers for help taking out the trash, cleaning a bathroom. I hope I thank our donors enough for donations of money, food, and other supplies. It seems there is a never-ending profession of thanks going back and forth. It’s nice and comforting.
But what does giving thanks have to do with the seasons of Advent and Christmas? Advent is a time of renewal and preparation for the world-changing birth of the Messiah, whom we celebrate at Christmas. The transformative act of Christmas is that God comes to earth, not in power but in humility. The radical nature of Jesus’ birth is almost a cliché of humility: born to lowly parents in a stable, bedded in a feeding trough, a sheep who is watched over by shepherds. This is not the birth of an earthly King. Jesus as God and Messiah could have chosen a life of power and domination, but instead he manifested his Godliness by living, associating with, and serving the poor and lowly. I think the relationship between giving thanks and Christmas is that we are shown to be children of God not by dominating others, but by humbly giving thanks and serving those in need.
First and foremost, we give thanks to God for life and all we have been given and for being the source of all creation. My favorite prayer is a simple mantra, “we praise you Lord and we thank you.” Slowly and meditatively, I repeat this prayer thinking of all the gifts of God—the beauty of nature, meaningful work, family and friends (both living and dead), and good health to name just a few things for which to be thankful. Giving thanks to God also means giving thanks to those we interact with in our daily life for small or large acts of kindness. While words are nice, it is just as important to show our thanks through concrete actions of service and compassion—feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned.
The world-changing nature of this humility and thankfulness becomes apparent when contrasted with what seems the normative behavior of the powerful. Anyone with power is not to show any sign of weakness; rather, they are encouraged to demean the other as part of their self-aggrandizement. Sadly, there is almost a daily revelation in the headlines of how some politician or titan of business, intoxicated by their own sense of power, insults, ridicules, threatens, or abuses someone deemed weaker, insignificant, or undeserving of respect. Consider the anti-power nature of giving thanks: when we give thanks we acknowledge our debt to another; we acknowledge that we are not all-powerful, but, rather, are in need of assistance. Giving thanks not only shows our own weakness, but it validates the person who gives us aid.
This Christmas we praise God for the humble birth of the Messiah so long ago and for his continued presence in our lives and in the world, and we give thanks by continuing to serve those in need in our community and throughout the world. Through these humble acts of thanks and praise we hope to be agents of change in the world.
As always we give thanks to you, our faithful supporters, whose kindness enables us to continue being a source of solace to all those we serve on a daily basis at Catholic Worker Hospitality House.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
Peter Stiehler
For all of us at Catholic Worker Hospitality House