The Homeless Calling?

[Indwelling Trinity]

Oh i meant...become geniuses for christ. In my last post.

The editor did not make correction sorry. I hope it makes sense now.

mea culpa

Indwelling Trinity

Edited September 21, 2009 by Indwelling Trinity

[Indwelling Trinity]

Jeepers.. what is going on? I keep writing geniuses and geniuses keeps coming up!

I meant geniuses for Christ for the third time!

sighs... time to go to bed.

[Indwelling Trinity]

OK who played with the editor? Again it printed wrong and I am definitely Not sleeping! The word was F-O-O-L-S for Christ.

sighs ... not funny any more

Edited September 21, 2009 by Indwelling Trinity

[CatherineM]

[quote name='Indwelling Trinity' date='20 September 2009 - 08:53 PM' timestamp='1253498032' post='1970081']
OK who played with the editor? Again it printed wrong and I am definitely Not sleeping! The word was F-O-O-L-S for Christ.

sighs ... not funny any more
[/quote]

That's a fil[i][/i]ter added by dUST for our amusement. You just have to spell fo[i][/i]ols the right way.

[Indwelling Trinity]

HMMMMMMMM........... I am going to bite dust!

Laughing Bad Boy!

Thanks for the heads up

[kafka]

[quote name='perfectunion33' date='19 September 2009 - 04:20 PM' timestamp='1253391655' post='1969296']
Hey, I just want to know what you guys think about the call to be homeless. For quite sometime now, I have felt a call from the Lord to be homeless for the love of Him and the sake of the Gospel. I spent a lot of time discerning with the Carmelites and their hermits, but felt like I was still cheating the call of the Lord. Although I have been blessed with the spirituality of the Carmelites I feel that the Lord is calling me to imitate His public life to the fullest. Many nights while laying down I hear the words, "foxes have dens, and birds of the air nests: but the son of man has no where to lay his head." I have a burning desire to live Christ like poverty, and to balance a contemplative life with one of preaching and teaching. For the longest time I was too scared to follow the Lord in such a radical way, but now I believe He is filling me with the trust and courage I need. What do you think I should do? I have already looked into the most primitive orders and still have not found anything that fits the radical way in which He is calling me.
[/quote]
Christ could very well be calling you to that sort of life, however I withdraw from giving any advice/guidance. One must follow God's will/providence/grace in one's own unique way and according to conscience regardless what any mere man says or thinks.

[quote name='TotusTuusMaria' date='19 September 2009 - 08:44 PM' timestamp='1253407447' post='1969457']

Another guy on our forums answered what he thought was a call to be homeless and now he is missing.

[/quote]
that guy isnt missing.

Everyone is homeless. Our bodies return to dust. Our homes, apartments, condos, shacks, etc. eventually crumble. In the relatively short future, God will even destroy this first Earth and create a New Heaven and a New Earth. We often call the Church a Pilgrim wandering in the desert. So it is fitting that a small number of the faithful from time to time follow the call to live radical lives as a reminder and example of these things.

Here is a good quote from Pope Benedict's Book Jesus of Nazareth:

"Admittedly, not everyone is called to the radicalism with which so many true Christians--from Anthony, father of monasticism, to Francis of Assisi, down to the exemplary poor of our era--have lived and continue to live their poverty as a model for us. But, in order to remain the community of Jesus' poor, the Church has constant need of the great ascetics. She needs the communities that follow them, living out of poverty and simplicity so as to display to us the fact that possession is all about service, to contrast the culture of affluence with the culture of inner freedom, and thereby to create the conditions of social justice as well."

For men like Saint Francis, Saint Benect Joseph Labre, etc. the whole world becomes their monastery.

Edited October 18, 2009 by kafka

[AccountDeleted]

Many of the saints who have withdrawn from the world, in order to come closer to God, have at some point in time, returned to it, in order to be of service to God and man through His mystical body, the Church.

St Catherine of Siena springs to mind. She lived as a hermit in her family home for five years, enjoying God's favors through ecstasies and visions. But one day God asked her to leave this life of seclusion and to start doing service for others. She not only helped people physically in hospitals, but she also helped the Church through her support and encouragement to the Pope.

St Francis, who left everything for love of God, found himself rebuilding San Damiano church and then starting a religious order. He started at the local level but ended up helping to rebuild the universal Church!

Even the Desert Fathers and Mothers who withdrew from everyone, found themselves followed by those who wanted to learn from them, and ended up offering wisdom and spiritual insight to generations who have come after them.

Someone may feel called to withdraw from the world for awhile, but when one has been filled by the love of God then there is often a corresponding need to offer something back to God (and to want everyone else to love Him as much as we do). The best way we can serve God today is through His body, the Church, in whatever form that takes for us as individuals, especially today when the Church is again in need of much rebuilding and support.

As Ecclesiastes says, [i]"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun."[/i]

[kafka]

good point. A few others that come to mind are Saint Augustine, he spent two years living secluded after his conversion. Saint Paul of the Cross lived as a hermit for maybe a year or two with his brother before founding his order. There are many others. For not a few people the impulse genuinely comes from the Holy Spirit, the same who drove Christ into the desert for a time.

Sometimes people need time apart to reorder their lives toward God, heal from the damaging effects of personal sins, the influence of the world, etc. and do some personal battle with concupiscence of soul and body.

Edited October 19, 2009 by kafka

[MithLuin]

Here is the Phatmass thread on the FPO's, in case you are interested in learning more about them. They have a very sparse presence online, but I think that thread has a link to all the info that is available, as well as some addresses where they can be contacted. The Franciscans of the Primitive Observance live radical poverty, though perhaps not the homelessness you are looking for. Still, probably worth checking out. Short of the life of a hermit, they are probably the order that will be most like the lives of the early Franciscans.

http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=33458

I also second the recommendations to obtain the guidance of a spiritual director and to get involved in Homeless Ministry. While that's not the same thing as [i]being[/i] homeless, it can deepen your understanding of the meaning of homelessness, and allow you to enter into solidarity with homeless people on a daily basis.

As an example of how preparation for the religious life and homeless ministry can fit together:

[quote]April 24, 2009: [url=http://www.saintjohnshospice.org/welcome1.htm]Saint John’s Hospice[/url] bade farewell this afternoon to Alan Trotter and Brian Stacy, Capuchin Franciscan postulants who have worked with us since August 2008. Alan and Brian will move on to a pre-novitiate period in Victoria, Kansas (at the famous Cathedral of the Plains) and enter the formal novitiate in Allison Park, Pennsylvania in August. This will lead to first vows as Capuchin Franciscan friars next May.

Brian worked as an aide to Brother Kip Ledger, OFM Cap, during his time here. He worked with any of our day-services guests who needed any of the myriad services that [url=http://www.facebook.com/friarkip]Brother Kip[/url] provides … from help with letters, phone calls, and various social services. Alan spent most of his time as a kitchen assistant under kitchen manager Anthony Willoughby. But he generously worked wherever there was a need, including the mail room and at the Good Shepherd Program.

We wish both Alan and Brian Godspeed in their future. They have been a blessing to Saint John’s Hospice during their time here. The Capuchins and the Church are blessed to have them. [/quote]

[sistersintigo]

The life of Benoit/Benedict Joseph Labre, now a Saint, is really edifying, I recommend studying what has been written and published about him. Labre's discernment was very lengthy and he went to great pains to explore it. He did end up a voluntary homeless person, but his discernment began very differently. It is written of Labre that initially he really wanted to enter a charterhouse of the Carthusian order, and went to the Carthusians before he went to the Trappists. He tried again and again. All who housed him, for any length of time, agreed that he had a genuine calling to holiness. So by the time Labre decided to be itinerant, mendicant, and entirely abandoned to God, he had really submitted to a lengthy, diverse, careful trying out of all the alternatives. Again, recommended -- look at his charism and what he went through to live it.

[cmotherofpirl]

There is a big difference between being called to radical voluntary poverty and being homeless. You can work at menial position and go home to a bare room and sleep on the floor - that is a form of radical voluntary poverty. However, since in the 80's there has been a wholesale closing of state mental institutions, many homeless people are seriously mentally ill and a few are extremely dangerous. Please embrace whatever vocation you are given but use prudence and common sense in the process. St Francis had companions, it was not a solitary life even for him. I would hate you to end up in the morgue for the love of God.

[aalpha1989]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='21 October 2009 - 02:35 PM' timestamp='1256150152' post='1989094']
There is a big difference between being called to radical voluntary poverty and being homeless. You can work at menial position and go home to a bare room and sleep on the floor - that is a form of radical voluntary poverty. However, since in the 80's there has been a wholesale closing of state mental institutions, many homeless people are seriously mentally ill and a few are extremely dangerous. Please embrace whatever vocation you are given but use prudence and common sense in the process. St Francis had companions, it was not a solitary life even for him. I would hate you to end up in the morgue for the love of God.
[/quote]

I don't mean to be morbid, but some people are called to the morgue for the love of God. It's not something they should go looking for, but if it comes, why not embrace it with open arms?

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='aalpha1989' date='21 October 2009 - 03:37 PM' timestamp='1256150261' post='1989097']
I don't mean to be morbid, but some people are called to the morgue for the love of God. It's not something they should go looking for, but if it comes, why not embrace it with open arms?
[/quote]
There is a big difference between accepting death when it comes, and placing oneself foolishly at risk. We are to be wise as serpents and use the brains God gave us.

[aalpha1989]

I don't think that completely renouncing worldly goods, including house and home, is placing oneself foolishly at risk. If one has no children or spouse to care for, and has taken care of all responsibilities, I would consider just a good way to radically follow the Lord. One would save many souls by the grace earned from such a great penance.

To connect it to the smoking thread, one need not be afraid to either enjoy life or to completely reject life's luxuries, so long as one is following one's call. In Catholic spiritual tradition, though, cannot be denied that to completely reject these luxuries is the higher calling. The only way to please God is to do what He calls us to, and to do it with great love. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends, and that is what perfectunion has proposed.

Edit: Many saints have performed actions which seemed to speed their deaths. Death should not be viewed so negatively. Death should be viewed with joy, because it is through death that we will find that perfect union with the Divine.

Edited October 21, 2009 by aalpha1989

[AccountDeleted]

Being homeless is one thing, but one needs to think of what their apostolate is as well. Having no place to live or sleep is fine but Jesus had a job too - he was preaching the good news of the kingdom. If a person decides to live on the streets, they still need to think about some kind of work or being of some use to others. Many homeless are unable to work for various reasons, some of them psychological, so they depend on the kindness of volunteer organizations to feed and clothe them. But a person who is fit and well should be providing for themself, so as not to be taking away from those who cannot help themselves.

That being said, there are many ways to serve, including evangelisation or prayer. As long as choosing to be homeless isn't just an excuse to escape from having to work in this life, then one could possibly live on the streets and also still be contributing something to the building up of the Church and the salvation of souls. Otherwise, it could become a very self-centered thing and be taking from those who are truly in need of support. Like most things, it has a positive side and a negative, depending on motivation and inspiration.