Wednesday, August 22 \u00a0\u201cstrangers no longer\u201d<\/p>\n
The large bulletin board on our second floor, next to the copier, the fax, our snail-mail boxes, the car keys, \u00a0creates a public space for us 22 Jesuits to stop and see what one or another of us has pinned as a new message wanting our attention. \u00a0 Yesterday, Fr. Tom Florek, sj posted an update about events which we host for \u201cour immigrant brothers\/sisters among us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The national conversation about immigrants in the U.S. \u00a0is fraught with competing languages \u2014 \u201cimmigrants,\u201d \u201crefugees,\u201d \u201ccriminals.\u201d\u00a0 Pope Francis has used the public voice that follows him wherever he goes to call attention to the dangers for women and men who have had to leave their home places, where they learned to create a home for raising their children, a place to cook for one another, a place to sleep safely. \u00a0Francis repeatedly calls attention to the appalling numbers of people who have been forced to wander the roads of the world without the securities of what is called \u201chome,\u201d a common estimate runs to 60,000,000; Francis compares them to Joseph, Mary, and their child when they fled soldiers seeking to kill them. \u00a0His more disturbing challenge, perhaps, is the call to pay attention, to risk the knowledge of these people seeking a home.\u00a0 Yesterday, Tom let us know of a gathering in our Fitness Center, a next step in \u201cStrangers No Longer,\u201d \u00a0(gatherings \u00a0of immigrants with native-born citizens to who try to get better at being welcomed by people other than oneself). \u00a0The Pope does not ignore the dangers that immigrant travelers risk when they have lost their place of cooking, welcoming, sleeping and playing safely.<\/p>\n
The notice on our b-board reminds us Jesuits that \u201cwelcome\u201d must flow from between those who are called \u201cstrangers\u201d and \u201clocals\u201d all of whom risk the call to kinship in dangerous times. \u00a0It was a large gathering yesterday, another small step in the face of this massive challenge.<\/p>\n
b-board notice from yesterday<\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cTuesday, August 21 from 4:00 to 9:00 pm in the Detroit Mercy Fitness Center, the ad hoc Strangers no Longer (SnL), will gather 150+ \u2018concerned Southeast Michigan Catholics\u2019 from 20 parishes and organizations to help build a Archdiocesan network of parishes, Hispanic and non-Hispanic, to collaborate in the accompaniment, advocacy and education concerning immigrant families\u2019 critical needs to maintain their family unity.<\/p>\n
The numerous meetings held in our large Lansing Reilly parlor with your support has played a significant role in moving forward our collaborative response to this sign-of-our-times, our immigrant brothers\/sisters among us.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Post\u00a0 \u201cLove bade me welcome\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>George Herbert<\/p>\n Herbert poses a question that lives at the heart of immigration debates century after century. \u201cWho welcomes and who needs to learn to be welcomed?\u201d \u00a0That we try to provide hospitality on our campus comforts me in hard times.<\/p>\n Have a blest mid-week,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john st sj<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, George Herbert \u00a01633<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wednesday, August 22 \u00a0\u201cstrangers no longer\u201d The large bulletin board on our second floor, next to the copier, the fax, our snail-mail boxes, the car keys, \u00a0creates a public space for us 22 Jesuits to stop and see what one … Continue reading
\nGuilty of dust and sin.
\nBut quick-ey\u2019d Love, observing me grow slack
\nFrom my first entrance in,
\nDrew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
\nIf I lacked anything.
\n\u2018A guest,\u2019 I answer\u2019d,\u2019 worthy to be here\u2019:
\nLove said, \u2018You shall be he.\u2019
\n\u2018I, the unkind, ungrateful?\u00a0 Ah, my dear
\nI cannot look on Thee.\u2019
\nLove took my hand, and smiling did reply,
\n\u2018Who made the eyes but I?\u2019
\n\u201cTruth, Lord, but I have marr\u2019d them; let my shame
\nGo where it doth deserve.\u2019
\n\u2018And know you not,\u2019 says Love, \u2018who bore the blame?\u2019
\n\u2018My dear, then I will serve.\u2019
\n\u2018You must sit down,\u2019 says Love, \u2018and taste My meat.\u2019
\nSo I did sit and eat.<\/p>\n