Helping the Homeless

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Week 13 April 22 This week we again enjoyed a variety of activities. It began with a site visit to Haven of Hope - a most impressive place and a credit to the city. It is a unique venture set up in 2007, on a single site on a 22 acre campus, as a joint operation of civic and business organisations to offer multiple services to people experiencing homelessness. Here about 140 organisations collaborate to provide over 300 comprehensive services. About 1700 people are served daily on the campus. (See pics for maps and mission statement, also www.haven for hope.org for further detail.) Further input this week focused on ‘Sexuality and the Celibate Lifestyle’ Brian Silva OMI, a clinical psychologist. Unfortunately Frank Santucci OMI was not well, so our scheduled ‘Charism and Mission' session was cancelled. Once again San Antonio is in celebration mode. April 20 - 29 is the annual SA Fiesta and again fun and celebration reign. Some of us joined in at the Tobin Centre with a performance of the SA Symphony. Not only were we treated with wonderful music, there was also mariachi music and colourful and energetic dance - a feast of music and movement. Texas certainly knows how to enjoy a party. During the week two of us went to dinner with the local Brigidine community. One of our Faith Sharing Facilitators knows Australian Brigidines and has visited often. We enjoyed meeting them, all Irish women and had a happy night sharing stories. To finish the week, a group celebrated Sunday Eucharist at Holy Redeemer. This parish is a unique spiritual home for African-American Catholics in this county. We found them a very welcoming community, reflecting the cultural diversity of the church of Texas - the very warm welcome felt a little too warm when, without warning, I was handed a microphone and, one by one, all seven of us were ‘invited’ to introduce ourselves to the congregation.

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