Dear Friends of Joseph House: For many people — us included — Fridays in Lent mean going to church for a service called the Way of the Cross. It’s also called the Stations of the Cross, and this devotion leads us prayerfully along the mile-long journey Jesus made from Pilate’s court to Mount Calvary and…
The Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary describe their way of life as being active-contemplatives. What does that mean? Sr. Mary Elizabeth Gintling, the community’s founder, wanted the Little Sisters to be “people of deep prayer and silence,” and then bring this contemplative spirit to their work with the poor. It’s a way of life…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: March has arrived, and on the 17th many people, Irish or not, will be wearing green in honor of St. Patrick. But in case you forgot, there is another saint we celebrate this month who is also associated with the color green. That saint, of course, is our beloved patron,…
Fasting is one of the three traditional disciplines of Lent (the other two are prayer and almsgiving). These Lenten practices help us with the process of conversion, that is, of detaching ourselves from sin and turning toward God. Regarding fasting, there are prescribed days of limiting our food intake and abstaining from meat. It is…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: The Gospel has a freshness and clarity that never diminishes. It is always new and never antiquated, always relevant and never out of touch. It speaks to us because the words have the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus says, “I give you a…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: We love the changing seasons. Each time of year has its own beauty, and winter is no exception. The dormant earth, the pale light of the sky, the skeletal trees . . . the starkness of winter is a time to enlarge our perception of what is beautiful, to appreciate…
Christmas at the Joseph House means lots of work and lots of smiles! Every year we give away gift bags to more than 600 children from low income families. The bags have toys, books, art supplies, and items for cold weather like hats and gloves. We often receive adorable handmade gifts that make us wish…
We wanted to make Thanksgiving feel a little more special for visitors to our Food Pantry this year. Although we give out turkeys, sometimes our families don’t have everything they need to prepare a holiday meal. So we decided to include some extra items: cooking oil, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, dried…
The weekend before Thanksgiving was very busy with a community-wide food drive in the Salisbury area. Bernie Greene and her family have been organizing this drive for years, which has been sponsored by Spicer Bros. Construction. The food drive takes a lot of work and we are incredibly grateful for all the time and energy…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: There’s a Christmas song that goes “There’s no place like home for the holidays,” but on that first Christmas Mary and Joseph were far from home, and 60 years ago this December so was the founder of the Joseph House and Little Sisters. Sr. Mary Elizabeth, who back then was…