Dear Friends of Joseph House: The heaviness of the daily news can be oppressive like the summer’s heat. Suffering, violence, and hatred seem to be everywhere, and there just isn’t a quick fix to the troubles of the world. But every day we can plant seeds of peace, of hope, and of change. Invisible to…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: January is the sunrise of the year, the dawn of a new beginning. For us Little Sisters, there’s a prayer we say at the start of each day, and it seems to be fitting as we go forth into another year. It is the Abandonment Prayer of Charles de Foucauld:…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: To be homeless means more than just being without shelter. It means to go without everything implied by the word “home.” Imagine not having a bed to sleep in or a bathroom to use. Imagine not having a kitchen, with no refrigerator or freezer to store your food and no…
Anne Cuomo, one of our many wonderful volunteers, passed away on February 3, 2021, from COVID-19. She was a special friend of our community. After earning her B.A. in Mathematics, Anne worked for 34 years in the field of computer and software management for the Department of Defense. Her husband Peter died in 1986, and…
The Joseph House Workshop is a long-term residential program for men who were homeless. It help them advance toward gainful employment and healthy new lives. Here is an interview with Nick, Assistant Director, who is also a Workshop graduate: How many men are in the program? We have 4 men here now; one is in…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: One of our customs during Advent is to set up a Jesse Tree in our dining room. The Jesse Tree is sort of a cross between a Christmas Tree and an Advent Calendar. It depicts the family tree of Christ and the events of salvation history; the name comes from…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: According to an article we read, a historian has postulated that periods of civil unrest in our country follow a 50-year cycle. That’s about how long it takes for society’s unresolved issues to reach a boiling point. The last time our nation saw widespread protests and demonstrations—some peaceful, some not—was…
The COVID-19 pandemic is requiring many people to stay at home to help curb the spread of the virus. Some are taking advantage of this time to tackle do-it-yourself projects around the house. The men residing at the Joseph House Workshop had a head start on this idea. They recently finished a major painting project…
Dear Friends of Joseph House: We’re all familiar with Christmas carols but some of our favorite songs of the season are Advent hymns. They tend to get drowned out because Christmas music starts playing on the radio at Thanksgiving and stops on Christmas Day. This doesn’t make a lot of sense unless Christmas is just…
The Joseph House Workshop is a residential program for homeless men that teaches life-skills needed for employment. It is not an emergency shelter, but a long-term therapeutic program that provides men a supportive place to live and opportunities to grow in all aspects of life. Men who enter the program spend the first three months…