When my wife and I bought the property that is now the Hope House Community, I didn't know what God wanted us to do with it. The default plan was rental property, but we had bought it because we were seeking God's will in our lives and buying was, well, the next right thing. From the beginning I had a dream, or a vision if you will, of what it could be. This is a bit of a confession since I routinely state to my friends that I am not a big vision man. The dream was to have a Center of Community Living and Monastic Spirituality. I must admit that in my vision I didn't know that God would have homeless men living in community there.
Even though my friends are accustomed to my mentioning monks and monasteries on a routine basis, none have heard me refer to the Hope House as a center of Monastic Spirituality. This is in large part due to the fact that I find the terms "Community Living" and "Monastic Spirituality" redundant or at best overlapping. And let's face it, many of our homeless guys (and volunteers) are unfamiliar with monks and nuns, so using the term Monastic could have been more of a barrier than a building block. But as our three formerly homeless men begin the struggle of living in community with each other (the honeymoon is over) and live under house guidelines and expectations, I am reminded of who I am as I try to lead them into deeper spiritual wellness and sobriety. A simple monk. Certainly just an oblate, and an oblate novice at that, but key to my spiritual wellness is living life as a simple little man using simple ways to move closer daily to my Jesus. Pray for us as we continue on the messy journey of living in community at the Hope House.
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