#dust and ashes first listen changed my life fr fr

[theclearblue]

Truly crazy that I never post about Natasha Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 here I'm equally as insane about it as One Piece

[riverdamien]

The Sacrifice of Listening!#

Sloughing Towards Galilee!!

The Sacrifice of Simply Listening!

Ash Wednesday, 2024

February 14, 2024

James 1:

23. Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and,

24. once he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately forgets it.

25. But anyone who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and keeps to it -- not listening and forgetting, but putting it into practice -- will be blessed in every undertaking.

26. Nobody who fails to keep a tight rein on the tongue can claim to be religious; this is mere self-deception; that person's religion is worthless.

27. Pure, unspoiled religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

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    Ash Wednesday is a day in which ashes are placed on our foreheads and the words spoken:

"Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return!" Scary Words Indeed!

    The older I become, those words become very real to me, each time the past few years I have been hurt or wounded Lent calls me to reflect on my dying, as well as the death of Jesus! The ashes placed on my forehead will remind me to pay attention all around me, for we are all in the same boat!

    When death comes what are we taking with us--our position, our beautiful cars, houses. .?

    So this Lent how will we fast?  I suggest we fast through simply "listening" to another. I am told often I am "trained" to listen, they are not, and LOL, I learned to "listen" as a child sitting with my grandmother, mother and others. I learned to "listened", through others listening to me and finding healing simply in being listened to.

    The greatest sacrifice we can make this Lent is to close our mouths, leave our judgments at the backdoor, and simply let another talk and share their feelings and pain. Be present to another!

    I know individuals who pay $250.00 a week to talk to a therapist simply to be listened to; to share their fears, burdens, and struggles. A shrink friend of mine at Kaiser tells me how overwhelmed their therapists have become. Homeless services neglect "listening"!

    Recently I sat down with a person on the street and simply listened for an hour or so; which is mostly what I do. He shared of the loss of his parents and siblings in a fire, his turning to drugs in loneliness; ending he commented, "You really listen!"

    Listening is scary, and exhausting, truly exhausting, but it is so rewarding to truly "Listen"!

    This Lent let the sacrifice of yourself be to listen to another! Invite someone to lunch or coffee, and let them simply talk.

    As I hit thirty years here in San Francisco, the question has been asked of me do you feel like you have accomplished anything, which I laugh at. For as I move into the final year or years of my ministry, and look Angel of Death in the face, every day, I am going to simply"Listen"! To be present to others, to open my heart as much as possible!

    Listening brings its benefits, one of which is moving us from loneliness to solitude.

    Fr. Henri Nouwen tells us:

To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. This requires not only courage but a strong faith. As hard as it is to believe that the dry desolate desert can yield endless varieties of flowers, it is equally hard to imagine that our loneliness is hiding unknown beauty . The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is a movement from the restless senses of the restful spirit, from the outward reaching cravings to the inward--reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.

Simply sitting with another, listening, is a way into solitude, away "from the fearful clinging (to ourselves) to the fearless play (with another)!"

Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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Thirtieth Anniversary Celebratrion

October 5, 2024

6:00 p.m.

Victor's Piazza pm Polk

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Ash Wednesday Eve, February 13th and Ash Wednesday, February 14th:

We will offer ashes to whom ever on the street wishes it; providing food, socks, and listening, as we move along Polk/Tenderloin/ and Haight Street! Anyone interested in accompanying me on our Ash Wednesday journey, you are welcome, please contact me!

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Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

snap chat: riodamien2

415-305-2124