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…
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,…
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…
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…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: We enjoyed watching the Olympic Games this past summer, and it’s always exciting to see athletes find an extra burst of energy as they enter the home stretch of a race. Sometimes even a marathon comes down to a sprint at the end. They might be running on fumes, but…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: October is the “golden hour” of the calendar year, the equivalent of late afternoon when the day is drawing to a close and the quality of sunlight glazes everything with a soft, warm glow. These are days of rich autumn colors and pleasant weather, but they are bittersweet because they…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: Two key components of the mission of the Joseph House are to help the poor in whatever way we can and to promote and stabilize family life. These two become one and the same quite visibly when we help people with their housing needs. As Pope Francis said, “Family and…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: The dog days of summer are here, and the heat makes us want to take it easy and dream of the sea breezes down by the beach. But for people who are poor there is no vacation from poverty. Families facing eviction or a utility cut-off, the elderly and infirm…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: Fifty years ago, on a sunny Sunday morning in July, our community was born. It didn’t have a name yet (that would be decided on a few weeks later), but the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary trace their origin to July 7, 1974, the day when Pat Guidera and…