4 Days Left

There are only 4 days of service left in our summer. While we are here until Sunday, we are saving the last few days for retreat and clean up. It's crazy to think how fast the summer has flown, how quickly all of us will be getting back to our 'normal' lives. However, the idea in God bringing us here is not for us to have a nice eight weeks and then head back relatively unchanged. His purpose is always greater, especially when we give Him our time.

I often hear people complain that they don't experience God, or that He doesn't speak to them. Often, God speaks to us in a way that we need to grow in. His language changes our hearts. One thing that has struck me again and again this summer is that God really is in His creation. It's not just a nice saying, it's real. Recognizing Him in others is always a gift of grace. We can't do it on our own. However, many times in order to find Christ in other people we have to seek Him out. By serving the poor and assuming that Christ is in them (because he says so) we then experience Him.

We recently had a difficult fix-up in which the resident was displeased with our work. Nothing we did that day was good enough, in addition we were told that we were lazy and weren't putting real effort into the work. As you can imagine this was not easy for us to listen to. It was clear there was something else going on and the resident was taking it out on us. It is very easy to not really love someone like this. We could have said we were going to practice tough love and left the house. We could have called it unfair and been more forceful in verbally defending ourselves. However, while we were there taking the criticism, many of us had a deeper sense of God wanting to love this resident and not give up. While we were in the house cleaning and I was trying not to get annoyed, I had this sense of Christ on the cross, just taking it. Accepting it. Loving us anyways. This is what He wanted for this resident on this day. This was a day to accept what we were given and love. God in His goodness gave us the grace to do it. I don't know why the resident reacted that way, but I know Christ is in that person. Because He said so.

-Sarah Downes

Murder at Tall Oaks

My name is Simone Carlton, and for the jury, I will recount the events of the last 30 hours. At approximatley 10:30am on Saturday of July 23rd, 2011, the Ypsilanti Catholic Urban Project missionaries joined the Flint CUP team for a fix-up project in Flint. At approx. 4:42pm, the group came together for prayer and then relocated to the Saint Michael rectory for what was supposed to be an evening of merriment and leisure. What they didn't know was that Mr. Reginald Ascain had been MURDERED. Of the eight Ypsilanti missionaries, one of us did it. But who? It was up to us to tread through lies and grimdark secrets to find out whodunit.

Last night, the Flint missionaries hosted a Murder Mystery dinner for us. In the end, I was revealed as the murderer, and we had a wonderful evening.

Earlier that day, we were indeed at a fix-up project together. By the end of the fix-up, we couldn't help but be pleased at all we had accomplished that day. Tom rented a 30 yard dumpster for us to use that day, and we needed most of it. I started in the basement, carrying things to the dumpster and then sweeping up behind us. Then, I moved to the garage. The garage was like a very large dumpster. We ended up moving about 95% of the contents of the garage into the dumpster. The garage went from nearly full and awful to nearly empty and clean. We then put up new lights and house numbers on the front porch and repainted it. A lot of work was done, and we could see the difference it made. One of the granddaughters of the homeowners came home and said in delight, "We have new house numbers! I can't remember the last time we had all four numbers up!".

Although all the physical work was great, we knew that the most important thing we do at fix-ups is to pray. Tom offered another great reflection. People ask why we go into Flint to work. There is so much work needed in this city, why even try? Tom responded "I think we made a difference to you and your family." as he motioned to the homeowners. All we have to do is worry about the little things God gives us to do, and he will handle the rest. God made an impace in their lives. Let us pray that He continues to make an impact in ours.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

-Anthony Smela

The Home Stretch

How you finish says a lot about the person you are. A strong finish reflects a person who perseveres, who works hard, and who relies not just on themselves, but on others. The opposite is also true. With only two weeks left in Ypsilanti, this pervades my thoughts. How do I want to finish? Do I want to cruise through my last days here and look ahead to August, or do I take these next two weeks and give everything I've got?

Obviously, I want the latter, but practically it is quite difficult. Giving my all when I am exhausted at kids camp is difficult. Giving my all when the kids at my non-profit keep wetting themselves (and the bathroom floor) or directly disobey you for attention is difficult. Finding the strength to get up and go to Outreach or fix-ups with Jesus is difficult. Sure, it's easy to say I'll give it my all, but it's a daily (or hourly) decision. And most of the time, I am not naturally disposed to choose to finish strong. But all these choices make character.

Pray that we choose to finish these last two weeks strong.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

-Anthony Smela

Mid-Summer Reflection

In the blink of an eye, we are halfway through our time here in Ypsilanti. In a few short weeks, we'll be on our way back home, and back to the lives we were living before. Does this have to end?! The thought of it is too grimdark, so I'll save it for a future blog post. At the mid-point, I think it's safe to say that our group has been put through a lot, but we're ready for the second half.

This past week has been somewhat of a rejuvenation week. On Monday, we spent the day (July 4th) on a lake with the Flint Missionaries relaxing. Kids Camp is in it's planning week. Thursday was our Mid-Summer Day of Refection. The physical and mental rejuvenation was dearly needed.

As we plow head first into the last three weeks of Catholic Urban Project, it is the perfect time to reflect and realize that our true rejuvenation comes every day at Mass in the Eucharist. Naps can only do so much physically, but Jesus in the Eucharist can heal us mind, body, and soul. "Listen; there are two things the devil is deadly afraid of: fervent Communions and frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament." -St. John Bosco.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever

-Anthony Smela

Detroit

So being a young adult in Michigan, I often hear people talking about Detroit. Usually it is negative, or negative disguised as caring. Don't get me wrong, Detroit is in dire straights in many ways. But as we all ought to know, and ought to actually believe: Hope is strongest when things are darkest.

This past Friday we had the opportunity to visit the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit. We also sat in on an open AA meeting held before lunch. The participants shared stories of their journeys. AA is for addictions of all sorts, but as we listened to the stories, we found that addiction was last in a line of pain and suffering. It is usually just one of many hardships people have faced. In their stories I heard things that I can not imagine experiencing. Abuse starting in childhood, living in crack houses, firebombs, living on the street, ambushes, rape, ect... One of these things is bad enough to ruin a life, and we heard stories from people who had experienced all of it. Ed talked to us about how addiction feeds the hurt that people have experienced. It increases isolation, desperation, despair, and violence.

These people were very broken. But they had learned to love each other and support each other. Some of them were homeless, some were living in government housing or group homes. They talked very simply, practically and movingly of how God and scripture helped them in their lives. Turning the other cheek takes on a whole new meaning when violence is the norm. One women told the story of when she was beaten with a brick by another woman who wrongfully thought she was out to get her. This woman was carrying, and also had multiple knives, but did not retaliate, allowing herself to be beaten. Instead she went to the woman's mother and negotiated peace.

As the meeting was wrapping up, a woman entered the room late. She began telling a story with very little introduction that had happened a few days before. She had a friend who was released from jail after 20+ years... sentenced for killing his wife in a crack induced rage. This man was torn with remorse for what he had done. He was fearful that his rage would resurface and after a fight with his girlfriend, decided to commit suicide. This woman had supported him and told him not to do it.

She ended up arriving at his door (knowing somehow something was wrong) as he began to convulse from ODing on pills. She did CPR and stayed at his side praying with him as he died. She was with us now, telling us this story and crying. Wondering if she had done something wrong. She then told us she was not crying because he was dead, but because she feared for his soul. She could not bear the fact that he might be in hell. She loved him as a brother. She was comforted and prayed over by her friends, brother Ed, one of the sisters there and a friar. Ed told us later that God was so merciful; He sent her to the deathbed of this man, and then later the group to her. To comfort her with their trust in the providence and mercy of God for their dead brother.

This reminds me of a psalm we hear all the time: Psalm 34. Depending on the translation, we usually hear the refrain as: "The Lord hears the cry of the poor." He literally does hear their cries. There are so many people we have served this summer who have simple, uneducated, deep, astounding faith in God. They are poor, so they know what it means to rely on God.

Clearly from these stories we know that poverty is not glamorous, it is terrible and crushes the spirit. However, I have experienced how deeply God cares for the poor and otherwise downtrodden in this summer, over and over. This is why at the final judgement, scripture says (Mt. 25: 31-46) God will ask us if we fed the hungry, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, cared for the sick and visited the imprisoned. This is where His heart lies. It is in this that we can love Him.

-Sarah

White as Snow

As humans, we make plenty of messes. Just ask the small group leaders of kids camp. Just ask the clean up crew after one of our dinners. Just look in Anthony's room. Just ask yourself. How many spiritual messes do I make?

Today, we began a fix-up for Lisa. There was a good amount of things to do. There was window washing, installing new light fixtures, screening, and of course, painting. All was going well through lunch. After lunch, I installed a light switch and fixture and put up a smoke alarm. As I was testing the smoke alarm, I heard a crash and a yell from the other room. I quickly got down from the ladder and raced into the next room. Sarah was standing there with a shocked look of disbelief.

The paint can had spilled. Even though the paint was white, the situation was grimdark. About half of the paint can had missed the drop cloth and was on the carpet. Rescue teams were on the spill quickly. As we sopped up the paint, we all wondered silently if this paint would ever come up. The job looked impossible as we desperately threw more rags on top, trying to clean the mess we'd made.

With the addition of the shop-vac, the spill was eventually cleaned up relatively well and we were left with the promise that a carpet cleaning company was scheduled to come clean the carpets anyways.

As we were praying afterward, Tom had a wonderful reflection about what happened. As humans, we make many mistakes and then we believe that there is no way to clean it up. We believe that we've screwed up good this time. But, like the shop-vac, God can clean up any mess we make. As long as we ask for His help and trust in Him, nothing is impossible. Let us turn to the sacraments, especially confession, often. Then we will be made white as snow.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

-Anthony Smela