Every religious community has its own charism, a particular way of life and a spirit that forms its identity. In setting the charism of the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary, Sr. Mary Elizabeth Gintling looked to an obscure French priest who lived from 1858 to 1916. His name was Charles de Foucauld. Charles spent…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: A few years ago, Fr. Paul Mast, a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Wilmington, spent a six-month sabbatical immersed in the lives of people living on the streets. The experience spoke to his heart, and he wrote about what he learned in a book called Street Sabbatical. In one…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: She was born in Philadelphia and raised in Baltimore. She lived in a house built by her father on the banks of North Point Creek, from where she liked to set out in a row boat and go crabbing. Trained as a registered nurse, she had several “careers,” and wasn’t…
Carlo Carretto was a Little Brother of Jesus, a religious community inspired by the life of Charles de Foucauld. With a poetic style, he also wrote several books that explored his desire to live a contemplative life in the world. One of those books was about St. Francis of Assisi (I, Francis), and Carretto in…
The following was written by Bishop Kenneth Edward Untener (1937-2004), who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw: Helping the poor is not always a pleasant experience. It’s no picnic helping the poor. There is often no feeling of fulfillment. It’s work — like a lot of virtue is work — like taking…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: A prison can keep someone locked in, and also locked out. In Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, the protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, finds himself homeless, destitute, and ravenously hungry. He staggers up and down the city streets looking for work, fighting hunger-induced fatigue. His struggle is to no avail: he is…
In light of the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, people are rising to the challenge of helping their neighbors. They are giving what they can: food, water, money, boats, shelter. It is not the time to hold back. Opportunities to give happen every day, not just during natural disasters. What are the characteristics of…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: Every organization and institution, whether it is civic, business, religious, or charitable, has its own style of operation. It’s not just what they do, but how they do it that sets them apart. This is true of the Joseph House, and our founder Sr. Mary Elizabeth looked to a particular…
In an online world, there is still a place for personal contact. Our help at the Joseph House is given person to person, in the flesh. This way we get a grasp of the details that cannot be conveyed in an e-mail, details that help to express the uniqueness of each person and the many…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: The middle of summer, when everything is lush and full, brings to mind the Book of Genesis and the story of Creation. At this time of year, the earth, the trees, and even the air seem heavy with life. Every little corner and niche is occupied. Our backyard becomes a…