Restoring hope — this is our pledge at Catholic Social Services this winter and every year. As we look around our community now, we see a great need for hope and for a sense of home for so many. It is important to be connected with family and loved ones, to feel supported and able to make safe and healthy choices for yourself and for those you care about.
Social Security Disability Insurance is generally a permanent condition in that once in the program, only about 28 percent ever again engages in paid work. The concern involves those recipients seeking at some level to return to work and enjoy the simple human dignity of contributing towards their own needs.
Fifteen-year-old Jeni Lachance approached Covenant House in downtown Anchorage and peered through the glass doors for her first glimpse inside a homeless shelter. She stood in the bleak November darkness, uncertain what to do though she had no alternatives.
During November our liturgical celebrations draw attention to the culmination of our earthly pilgrimage to the kingdom of heaven. We do well to ponder regularly the source of our life in God, the reason for our being expressed in God’s will, and our destination as eternity with God.
Jesuit Father Chuck Peterson is a big man with a big voice well known to generations of Alaskan villagers. As a young man he dreamed about being a priest in Alaska. Today, after a career spanning more than 50 years serving indigenous people, mostly in Alaska, he dreams of returning to the Last Frontier following a devastating illness.
Redemptive suffering happens when human suffering is offered up in union with the Passion of Jesus. At that point it can remit the just punishment for one’s sins or for the sins of another.
Another image I have this time of year, especially when we hear of so many communities devastated by storms, is how people come together when a shared crisis occurs. Individuals and communities all over the country and the world have offered assistance and prayers to those suffering from destruction and loss. As Catholics we understand the need to offer relief to those in vulnerable situations. We try to give them hope that recovery is possible.
Men and women experiencing homelessness at Brother Francis Shelter in Anchorage are met with services to meet their unique needs and help them reach stability. Each person who walks through our doors leads a different life with different needs in finding self-sufficiency.
The other evening we went to dinner with our neighbors, followed by coffee and dessert at our house. My neighbor was in a nostalgic mood and reminisced about her grandmother, a Nebraska farm woman who led the rough subsistence lifestyle common in those day
The banquet honors individuals, couples and groups who are nominated by their fellow Catholics as exemplifying the spirit of Saint Francis, a spirit of humble service and stewardship. A panel of volunteers evaluates the nominations without knowing names or parishes. It’s never an easy task to choose the finalists, said Evans-Dineen, who called the 33 nominees wonderful and said “we wish we could have had 33 recipients.”