Andre House Mysteries

So there are a lot of things that I wonder on a daily basis. Most of them end up being humorous, but there can be some serious ones. Nearly all of them are in reference to something specific that has happened in my time so far. Here are a just a few.
-How can a person be that drunk at 9 in the morning?
-How does a person get crap on the underside of the toilet seat?
-Why would you leave your crackpipe in your pants and then give the pants to us to wash?
-How can a person smell so bad to the point that flies cover them and not want to take a free shower?
-Where does a person get the gall to complain about a free service?
-How can you be homeless and that overweight?
-Why would you come back to the place where someone doused you in liter fluid and set you on fire?
-Where do you get money for all that crack?
-Just how many years have you been wearing that shirt for?
-Why don’t the police care more?
-Do you know that urinating in public is a crime?
-Is peeing on the walls of the bathroom that much fun?
-Where does all that hair on the floor of the shower come from?

-Why would you use being homeless for most of your life as a point to get one up on other people?

So there are a lot of things that I wonder on a daily basis. Most of them end up being humorous, but there can be some serious ones. Nearly all of them are in reference to something specific that has happened in my time so far. Here are a just a few.
How can a person be that drunk at 9 in the morning?
How does a person get crap on the underside of the toilet seat?
Why would you leave your crackpipe in your pants and then give the pants to us to wash?
How can a person smell so bad to the point that flies cover them and not want to take a free shower?
Where does a person get the gall to complain about a free service?
How can you be homeless and that overweight?
Why would you come back to the place where someone doused you in liter fluid and set you on fire?
Where do you get money for all that crack?
Just how many years have you been wearing that shirt for?
Why don’t the police care more?
Do you know that urinating in public is a crime?
Is peeing on the walls of the bathroom that much fun?
Where does all that hair on the floor of the shower come from?
Why would you use being homeless for most of your life as a point to get one up on other people?

Simple living (pt 2)

At a glance, living simply means we can't have nice stuff. While that isn't totally true, it is how I feel a lot of times. We only get 100 dollars per month, so buying expensive items just isn't an option. That is probably the toughest part of my day to day life since I took a big pay cut coming here and was used to being able to spend 300 dollars in a month or saving up for something. What do I spend my stipend on these days? I mostly buy food from the grocery store. It is nice to have food that isn't expired, didn't come from the foodbank, and hasn't sat in our pantry for years.

The bit about living a simple lifestyle and it bringing us closer to the people we serve is pretty true. While I don't think any one of us has experienced being homeless, living simply (which approaches living in poverty) give us some insight into our guests' lives. It also gives us a little more respect from them, I think. We make much less money than the average homeless person. We don't pull up in expensive cars wearing expensive clothing, etc. We roll in our donated cars (one of which is missing a window right now) wearing the same donated clothing that our guests have access to, eat the same food, etc.

This whole thing can be a challenge. There are some days that I just want to go out and buy something, but I can't. There are nights when I want to go to a nice restaurant and get a steak, but that would be spending a large portion of my stipend. I am learning a little more about being frugal, and that could very well serve me in the future.

Simple Living (pt 1)

André House Core Community opts for a simple lifestyle because we believe simple living frees us from non-essential material concerns. It allows us to bracket out or suspend concerns and baggage from our personal histories so that we can focus on the essentials of the universal human condition.

Simple living brings us to a greater degree of solidarity with the poor whom we serve. In living simply we are more likely to be trusted by the poor and are reminded of the powerlessness specific to being poor. This solidarity helps us to make decisions from the perspective of those in need.

Our daily commitment to simplicity requires a lifestyle of direct, personalist labor of a humble and servile nature.

· We expect as a community that we subsist on common holdings.

· We expect major community expenses to be discussed by the community before community money is spent. In emergency situations, financial decisions should be checked with the appointed treasurer and, in the absence of that person, another community member should be consulted.

· We expect personal spending to not exceed the monthly stipend.

· We encourage individuals to discuss and challenge each other towards growth regarding issues of simple lifestyle.

· Because we have access to donations, we encourage reflection on the acceptance of gifts and the use of other peoples’ generosity and economic power.

Community (pt 2)

I’m no etymologist, but I’m pretty sure that “community” and “communism” have something in common. And so I would stay that a community style of living is similar to something like communism. What does that mean? We share stuff. We share our house, our goods, our food, our whatever. What’s mine is yours, etc.

I was asked when I interviewed how I thought about living in close quarters with others in community. I replied that it couldn’t be much different from having a roommate in college. No one disagreed with me at the time but I now see that things are much different. I don’t think it’s anything that can be adequately described; community living must be experienced. Some examples- I share a bathroom with someone else. We share a kitchen and living room. Those don’t seem like a big deal but there can be conflict over the channel the TV is on, who should do the dishes, who should clean the bathroom, who spilled milk everywhere and didn’t clean it up, etc. Living in close quarters for a whole year without a break with five other people can get old. You learn everyone’s little quirks and they can easily start to be annoying.

All in all, community living is an interesting way to live and I like it a lot. You learn a lot about the people you live with and really start to care for them.

Community

So to continue my mini-series on the Core Covenant, here is the excerpt on Community.

André House is a Christian community gathered in service of the poor. We come as individuals with unique gifts, to build community reflective of the reign of God. We strive to work and live collaboratively, valuing the contribution of each individual, supporting and challenging each other in love.

Individuals in Community
· We encourage each other to develop our personal gifts and charisms in service to the community.
· We encourage people to be open to new experiences and to share in all aspects of the work, even that which is not immediately appealing.


Hospitality
We are a community of hospitality in the Christian tradition, welcoming a variety of people, recognizing that we all come together with gifts to be shared.

· We encourage each other to be welcoming, inviting others to share the life and the work.
· We encourage each other to get to know the extended André House community: guests, neighbors, volunteers, friends, benefactors, and others.


Core Community Common Life
We commit ourselves to the work of community, not just the ministry to the volunteers and poor, but to each other. This takes time and work, which brings moments of both struggle and joy.

· We encourage people to listen selflessly, attending to the needs and concerns of each other and to challenge with compassion.
· We encourage people to be honest about their needs, voicing them in appropriate ways.
· We expect that individuals share responsibility for our common life in the houses. Love in community is expressed through mutual respect in the simple acts of living together.
· We expect each other to use days off and free time in ways that allow us to return to the work and community refreshed.
· The holidays are special times of increased work and celebration of community. Therefore we expect that all members of the Core Community be present Thanksgiving through Christmas.

Outside Relationships and Commitments

Core Community members will sometimes have commitments and relationships outside of André House that may positively or negatively affect the work and life.

· We expect that André House be one’s primary community and commitment. We expect that the common good be considered in all outside relationships.
· We expect that outside school or work be discussed with the Core Community in advance at the beginning of the year.
· We expect openness to frank dialogue with community members if conflict arises over these issues.
· Romantic/exclusive relationships are especially challenging for community. We expect openness to frank discussion and sensitivity to the needs of the community. We expect that romantic interests not be overnight guests in our houses.

Community life will challenge us and call us to forget ourselves in the face of a greater need. In this process we will know the cross, but only through that journey we come to the joys that are beyond.

Apologies

Again, if anyone can't get through life without reading what I write, I apologize for my delinquency in getting stuff up here. Things have been busy with work lately, but I am currently entertaining my Mom and Nana, so I have even less time to waste online.

The highlight of their visit so far has been the dozens upon dozens of cookies we baked so far. In a close second place was our trip to the Grand Canyon last Thursday. That was the first time I was there and it is simply breathtaking. There are not words that would do the wonder that is the Grand Canyon any good. So I won't try, I'll just paste a picture up here.

Spirituality (pt 2)

The idea of spirituality was a very important point in my search for a full time volunteer opportunity. If I was going to take an entire year off from my college endeavors, I wanted it to mean something to me. I wanted to experience some sort of growth in my time away, something that would more fully justify quitting West Point with no guarantee of returning. The growth I wanted most was in my faith life. I wanted to learn more about and become more secure in my identity as a Catholic Christian.

So Andre House was a no brainer for me. I found that the Core Covenant excerpt wasn’t too specific about what we do on a daily basis, so here goes. We start each weekday with Mass in our parking lot. It is always a great privilege and pleasure to be able to celebrate Mass on a daily basis, but it is difficult to focus since there are lots of people going about their own business all around us. The person who reflects on the day’s readings at Mass also plans a prayer session for “noon prayer.” As the name might suggest, we gather around noon and pray together. We also have a prayer before every meal, both at the main building and at our transitional houses. Every first Friday of the month, we gather for Mass at our transitional house and invite our guests and volunteers to join us.

There are two priests and one brother on the staff, so that aids our spirituality and keeps things focused. Two of our staff have degrees in religious subjects (theology and religious studies), so that is another source of knowledge.

I have experienced considerable spiritual growth in my four months at Andre House. I am more comfortable than I ever have been talking about religious and spiritual topics. With every reflection, I gain more knowledge of the Bible and its ins and outs. I have learned so much about myself in matters of religion and faith and hope to continue to grow.

Spirituality (pt 1)

We come to André House community blessed with the Spirit and inspired by the Gospel of Jesus. Our community is formed in the Catholic traditions shaped by individuals, lay and religious, men and women, influenced by the customs of the Catholic Worker and religious life in Holy Cross. Our time together is part of an ongoing quest for relationship with God and communion with God’s people. As we live and serve together, we strive to assist each other in that quest, seeking, studying, praying and living the Good News. We strive for integrity so that the values we profess in faith become part of our entire community and individual lives.

Individual Spiritual Life
· We expect people to be responsible for nurturing their own spiritual life.
· We encourage and will support each person in making a personal retreat. The timing and nature of the retreat should be discussed with the Core Community.
· We encourage each person to seek spiritual direction with someone outside the house.
· We encourage each person to become involved in the life of a local church, especially on Sundays.


Communal Spiritual Life
As a community we gather daily for prayer and worship, attending to the spiritual life of the group. We break bread together, we pray before meals and at points throughout the day, seeking integrity in life and ministry. As a community of hospitality we invite others to join in our spiritual life, but never make it a condition of service. We open ourselves to discuss faith issues with other community members.

· We encourage that individual spiritual gifts and leadership be shared with the community.
· We expect that when people are asked to lead prayer, that it be planned with sensitivity. We are open to diverse forms of prayer.
· We expect that the community will periodically step away from normal activities for retreat time together. We expect all members to participate.
· We expect members to participate in the prayer life of the community whenever possible. We reach out to absent members.
· We expect members to participate in First Fridays and in all special community celebrations.

Update

If there is anyone out there that hangs on these blog posts, who cannot go through a day without reading my ramblings, I apologize that I haven't been faithful to writing things here. But I'm pretty sure that there isn't a person out there who feels that way. Anyways, things have been super busy for me lately and writing blog posts seems to be my last priority. I'm really not sure what people want to hear from me, so I got nothing else to say right now.

I got to thinking the other day about my lifestyle here. I don't mean the ways in which I have changed as a person in my time here, but rather the expectations that are encompassed in being on the Andre House Core Community (aka "the staff"). So I thought I would write about those things that I am expected to live by. There are three big areas that we focus on- spirituality, community, and a simple lifestyle. I must confess that only the spiritual part of things really made sense in my pre-Andre House days. I have since come to see the value and pros/cons in each of these aspects. I have posted before a Core Community Mission Statement in which some general things are laid out about how we are expected to live and work. There are then portions on those three aforementioned areas.

What I want to do is copy and paste those sections here, one at a time over a few days or weeks. After each time I post one of those sections, I will devote another post about what it all means to me. It should be fun.