Simple Living, or something like it…

Long Beach. Downtown Disney. House of Blues. Concert. LA Live. Lucky Strike.

When I tell you that these are landmarks of my weekend in Los Angeles, you may doubt my commitment to simple living.  So first, let me explain this week’s challenge. As I have mentioned, simple living is one of the 4 values of JVC, and one that my community has been working on addressing. After last week’s blackout night, this week is “rice and bean week.”   With the exception of breakfast, all of our meals and snacks this week will be rice and beans.  Sure, we are going to spice it up at times with some fun seasonings, but the idea is to spend a week in solidarity with people who live on such tight budgets that they can only eat rice and beans.  Realistically, many people in our area probably choose other food sources (fast food, junk food, etc) that are almost as cheap but much less healthy than this international staple.  However, we are choosing to reduce this week’s food budget (and probably our food consumption!) in an attempt to make ourselves more aware of the effects of financial constraints on food choices.

Before loading up on our rice and beans, our fridge and pantry were pretty bare. This weekend’s food sources were the taco truck down the street (whose cleanliness was questionable, but no one got sick!) and some good old JVC-style freeloading.  Friday night was very chill; we dropped Cara off at LAX to fly home for her grandmother’s surprise 90^th birthday party (Happy Birthday MiMa!) and then watched a movie.  Of course, if you know me that means I was asleep on the couch 20 minutes after we started The Last of the Mohicans.

On Saturday, we drove to Long Beach in the afternoon to enjoy the late afternoon on the beach. This weekend was H-O-T in LA, and the forecast for tomorrow is 101! YIKES!  (To everyone in New England, pictures of leaves changing would be much appreciated. And seriously, is this seasonal? Everyone is complaining about it which makes me think not. Then again, people here love to complain about the weather – it just doesn’t make sense to me!)  After the beach, we rolled into Downtown Disneyland in Anaheim just in time for a concert that we won tickets to at the Art Walk a few weeks back. We were the only gringos in the whole place, as the band was a Mexican pop/rock group called Elefante that appeared to have been popular in the late 90s/early 2000s.   Not only was the crowd a bit more Latino than us, but they were also a bit older (say, mid 30s on average?). Either way, I was in heaven.  I love live music, and if it’s in Spanish, I can’t get much happier!  The House of Blues was a great venue, and we got to end our night walking through the Disney store, trying on every I-can’t-believe-people-buy-this piece of Disney merchandise imaginable.  And the best part? We didn’t have to pay for the tickets OR parking!  I think between a quick dinner at Subway, a drink at the show, a little bit of gas, and nachos split 4 ways, I spent around $16 for a great evening.

This afternoon, my lovely casa-mates and I headed to the Verb to pick up about 15 of my students and their parents.  We drove them downtown to LA Live, a venue with every possible type of entertainment. Our destination: Lucky Strike. A group of USC Alums working for a law firm down town (where our board president just so happens to be a partner) has adopted Urban Compass and planned the entire fundraiser for us! The idea was to have Urban Compass kids bowl with kids from sponsoring schools in San Marino and Pasadena.  The kids had an absolute blast bowling, winning prizes, eating, and playing pool.  The room was filled with families and friends of Urban Compass, and I believe we raised a good amount of money.  

Walking around both Downtown Disney and LA Live this weekend have made me ask myself and others (mostly roommates), “how is this my life?”  I didn't think I'd be doing and seeing so much in LA on my budget.  Reality sunk in, however, during the van ride on the return to Watts. As we pulled off the highway, the man who stands waiting at the bottom of the off-ramp every day begging for change or recyclable material approached the car. The girls that I had in the back freaked out. “Don’t give him anything Ms. Z! Isn’t it dangerous? You shouldn’t help him, right?” Wow. How do I answer that question to 10 year olds when I can’t even answer it for myself? John jumped in, thank goodness.  “No, it’s not bad to help him. Some people need help, right?” he explained.  “Yeah, but he might use the money for drugs! That’s not good,” retorts my 4^th grader.  How does she know this? This man – and the many others like him that patrol the off-ramps in Watts – probably live in her neighborhood. She knows better than I where that money goes.  I try to keep the conversation alive, probing the girls to think about this and share their story with me, but next thing I know the light is green and their favorite song has come on the radio, moving us literally and mentally away from this teachable moment. 

But, I realized, I’m the one who needs the teaching. I drive by this same guy every day without a solution. What can I do when he’s out there every day with the same request? Tonight, Julie stumbled upon a fantastic idea as she took out the trash – we recycle at the street and have been too lazy to take anything to a recycling center for cash back.  So, why not bring our recyclables to him, the man on the off-ramp, so he can turn them in for lunch money?   Tonight at mass at the USC Catholic center, Fr. Lawrence talked about solidarity in his homily.  He talked about breaking down barriers with the poor, living lives that will land us in heaven for eternity.  Maybe, just maybe, this could be a tiny step in that direction.

Silent Night, Holy Night

On Monday night, my community combined Spirituality Night with a Simple Living challenge. After dinner was prepared, we each lit a candle and turned off all the lights in our house.  For two hours, we spent time individually in silence, beginning with dinner together and then moving into our own space in the house. The exercise was meant to have a dual purpose: first, to increase awareness of the amount of electricity that we use in the house each day.  Our power usage isn’t anything extravagant; we hardly watch TV and don’t leave things plugged in or turned on all the time. However, we absolutely take it for granted! When blackout/silent time was over, we gathered for reflection. John shared some research that he had done on our usage of electricity as a country versus other countries in the world. The numbers for the US, especially compared to developing countries, were staggering. Of course this is not news to us, but the very tangible exercise was impactful.  

We bought a house set of these awesome candles at the dollar store!

The second purpose of the exercise was to give each of us silent time and space to reflect or simply have “alone time” after a busy weekend. Personally, I used the time to catch up on some journaling and pray the Rosary. I can’t remember the last time I did that, and so I was grateful to find a little pamphlet from CCD that explained all the mysteries and meditations. So, by the flickering light of my newly purchased Our Lady of Guadalupe candle, I gave it a shot! 

When time was up, I was intrigued to hear everyone’s reactions. We had a really good discussion, and decided to put together a grab-bag for future simple living challenges. We brainstormed about 10 ideas and drew one from a small bag for next week.  Stay tuned to find out what we’re doing! 

On Tuesday, we had planned to watch the season premiere of Glee together, but unfortunately, technology foiled our plans.  Our quirky TV doesn’t flip to channel 11 on its own – it gets is lost somewhere between 9 and 13.  And of course, the very fickle remote control to our converter box chose not to help us out. We settled instead on the season premiere of Biggest Loser.  I can’t believe I actually made it through the whole hour.  No offense to any fans, but I find most reality shows like that beyond ridiculous.  Luckily, Glee is online and I thoroughly enjoyed homemade cookies (thanks, Mom!) while watching Biggest Loser (ironic?), so it wasn’t a total waste of time!

On Wednesday night, Julie and I drove over to the USC Catholic Center for adoration. Like the Rosary, adoration is an exercise that I had only tried once or twice before. I jumped at the opportunity to go, and was grateful that Julie knew the drill, if you will.  The service was really simple and beautiful. There was a little bit of music at the beginning and in the middle, and about 4 short readings throughout the hour that the Eucharist was exposed. I enjoyed the silence and the sanctity of the environment, and the fact that we were among peers. I would definitely go back! One of my hopes for this year was to explore new/different spiritual and religious practices, to stretch myself beyond what I became comfortable with while at BC, so that I may continue to challenge myself. Spending a lot of time in prayerful silence this week was definitely a challenge, but something that I really enjoyed. Tonight, Zach, Julie, and I crashed the USC Catholic Center’s first Community Dinner (free food? We’re there!)  We met the priest and a few people on the campus ministry team. They were great – so welcoming and excited that we found them. They invited us to join any of their events, services, and groups while we are in the area.

Meanwhile, work this week has not been quite as peaceful as the evenings.  I’m fairly certain that the full moon this week is making the kids wild.  At the end of a couple days this week, I found myself a bit frustrated.  The kids are, and will continue to be, a true test of my patience.  Today was better though; everyone was a bit more mellow than usual and there was no paint squirted on my classroom floor!  The frustrating moments many be frequent, like when a I find sequins glued to the floor or a kid opens the door to every single locker in the hallway or the no one seems to listen when I speak.  However, I hope to find the beauty in moments like this one:

On Monday, a precious 1^st grader asked me for a worksheet to color. He started coloring a soccer player in a yellow jersey, then asked me for a crayon that he could use to make her “look real.” I wasn’t sure what he was asking, so I probed.  He said, “I want her to look like a real person.”  My response: “Oh, for her skin?” He nods.  Me: “Well, what color would you use to make her look like you?” He shrugs.  Me: “Hmm, why don’t we look for some colors. You could use pink to make her look like me, or tan to look like you, or brown or green or blue or purple or orange! People can be all kinds of colors, right?” He smiles, sifting through big bags of crayons.  [Sidenote: I have told more than a few kids that my skin is pink when they ask…it always gets a giggle and after running around outside it’s usually true. The nickname Rosie didn’t come from nowhere!]  He finally settles on an apricot color, which doesn’t look much like his tan Hispanic skin, but I let it fly. The next day, I was sorting through a box of donated art supplies and came across the 10 “Multicultural” boxes of crayons.  I laughed out loud at the irony, and said a prayer for a teachable moment the next time we color.  I was so fascinated by the array of colors (white, peach, sepia, black, mahogany, burnt sienna, tan, apricot…in case you were wondering) that I took a picture! Naturally I think 8 colors is a bit limiting, but I guess I could take that up with Crayola.

Two other quick highlights from this week:

On Tuesday, I crashed a BC information session in the college guidance office at the Verb!  It was neat to hear the 45-minute presentation, especially after having lived the 4 year experience. Also, today there was a mass at the Verb said by the California Provincial of the Jesuits – the same priest who said our JVC missioning mass. It was neat to see the students in action – the all boys choir, the JEDIS (the student campus ministry team: Jesuit Educated Disciples In Service) skits, and the student body/staff all gathered together. Overall, another good week! Thanks for following along!

Baptism by Fire

After four weeks of preparation and office decorating, I was very ready for this first day of Urban Compass on Tuesday. What I wasn’t quite ready for, though, was running the show essentially on my own. As luck would have it, Theresa had to report for jury duty on our very first day of the program.  Fortunately, she wasn’t picked for a trial, but unfortunately, couldn’t make it to Watts before 5. So, armed with my clipboard and list of students, I walked over to 112^th St. Elementary School and rounded up the kids! Many were a little sad that Ms. G. wasn’t there, and they were very confused when I tried to explain what “jury duty” was. (I may have mistakenly led a few to believe she had to go to court herself…but we cleared it up quickly!)

Now, Theresa had prepared me well for the first day. I knew how to unlock the gate, where to put out the snack, how many students should be allowed in the office at a time, and I had the schedule planned out to the minute. What she did/could not prepare me for took me by surprise. Getting the students to stand in a line to walk to the high school was almost harder than getting their attention from 100 yards away on the football field. In good teacher fashion, all my plans for the day went out the window once I was with the kids.  At the end of the day, I was exhausted, practically voiceless, and terrified that I would never be able to control children so young. I was in a terrible mood that night (sorry, Casa!) and went to bed early in order to re-energize.  It truly was baptism by fire; no amount of discussion, preparation, or lesson planning could have made that day go any better.

Thankfully, Day Two was completely different. With Theresa back, I was able to watch her discipline style and how she interacts with the kids, which gave me a better idea of what I could and could not say. I think it’s safe to say that in real life, I am pretty gentle with people – especially children. Obviously I know how to put on my teacher hat and command respect and attention, but I had never tried wearing that hat in front of 35 five to ten year olds from LA’s toughest housing projects. Let’s just say gentle isn’t going to fly. On day two, it went out the window completely. Immediately, the kids were responding to me and I was falling in love with them. It is such a wonderfully warm feeling when a first grader sprints from his classroom to hug you after school! Of course, it feels equally awful when I’m disciplining him five minutes later for talking while Ms. G. is talking, but that’s all part of the job, I guess.

The rest of the week was just as wonderful and exhausting. The 9-2 office hours go by quickly, and next thing I know it’s time to change out of teacher clothes into play clothes and spend the next 3 hours spinning around and trying not to trip over the cherubs.  We are fortunate to have a lot of volunteers from Verbum Dei and local universities, but sometimes it’s just as hard to keep them focused, especially the high school boys!  I’m sure there will be many exciting stories about the kids over the course of the year, so I’ll skip them now and wait for a great one to share.

I’m starting to realize how much I am enjoying cooking here. Back at BC, I always made quick, simple meals because I ran around from classes to meetings and libraries. But with fewer commitments at night and more people to feed than just me, I have really been enjoying the creativity and community that is built in the kitchen. This week, we made our own pizza (dough and all) from scratch, as well as a delicious shepherd’s pie. (Thanks, Mom, for the recipe book…it is serving us well!)  This all might sound simple, but it’s new and exciting for me!  On weekends, we don’t plan meals together but instead eat leftovers and get really creative. We also patronize the Papusa Ladies around the corner. A few Salvadoran women on the block over make papusas on Friday and Saturday nights and sell them for $1.25 each. I think they are definitely becoming a weekend staple!

On Friday night, my friend Sam flew into LA for a spontaneous and short visit. He is bouncing around before leaving for a 2-year gig with the international branch of JVC in Peru.  On Saturday, I gave Sam a tour of my neighborhood and the USC campus.  Later, we went downtown with Cara and one of Sam’s future JVI community-mates to the Fiestas Patrias. In the “El Pueblo” district downtown, there were vendors, musicians, artisan markets, and tons of people out and about, all celebrating Mexico’s 200^th Birthday (which was on Thursday).  The environment was so vibrant and a lot of fun, and made me a little nostalgic for Quito. Afterwards, we walked across downtown to the Cathedral and checked it out. The building is beautiful, very new, and quite modern looking. There was a wedding going on, complete with a mariachi band. We poked around the mausoleum and wandered the grounds of the church.

At mass this morning at Dolores Mission, the pastor, Fr. Greg, announced that their parish would not be getting a new associate pastor any time soon.  Apparently, there simply are not enough Jesuits – let alone bilingual ones – in the California province, or the other US provinces, or even in other countries.  Though Fr. Greg was really positive about it (and even made a joke about this being a problem until some people in Rome start changing the rules), I felt sorry for the parish for some reason. This parish has so much life, and serves many many people in the pastoral, educational, and communal sense.  They do a lot of good work – which means they do a lot of work – and would probably benefit greatly from having another Jesuit around to help out. Unfortunately, the JVs that work there can’t quite fill the shoes of a priest!

To wrap up the weekend, I experienced two “firsts”:

1.   My first In-N-Out Burger meal. Mego, I hope you’re proud! (Mego has been talking about In-N-Out since her lacrosse trip to Denver…which I think was sophomore year?!)

2.   My first Professional Soccer game! We went to the Chivas USA vs. Kansas City tonight at the Home Depot Center with free tickets that our lovely friend Colleen from Casa Ita Ford scored at work. Thanks, Colleen!

That’s all for now…thanks for sticking with me. I will work on adding some pictures next time to spice up these long posts!

Lunches & Tailgates

On Saturday, after an awesome run through our neighborhood with Julie, Casa DK parted ways for a girls lunch and boys football session. Cara, Julie, and I drove to UCLA to meet Monica, a friend of Julie’s professor from GW, for lunch. Monica is just about our age and also new to the area. We walked from her hours to The Village, an area of shops right next to UCLA’s campus, and had lunch at Barney’s, a sports bar that would make any fan drool. There were dozens and dozens of TVs, playing every possible college football game, as well as an enormous menu! I really enjoyed getting to know Monica. She just moved to LA from Manhattan, where she spent two years working as an event planner and studying with Opus Dei to be a numerary. I knew next to nothing about Opus Dei before lunch, except what I had read in The DaVinci Code years ago, and even those details are foggy now. Talking to Monica, someone could easily relate to, gave some insight into the order.  Basically, Monica explained to us, Opus Dei is an order within the Catholic Church that teaches that we are all called to holiness and sanctity in our ordinary lives. She is a layperson who lives at a residence for women right next to UCLA’s campus and helps runs programming and retreats for the women who live there and other local women who are involved.  Monica was really open about her vocation and work, which was really neat, especially given how close in age we are. I appreciated the opportunity to learn about another order within the Catholic Church, especially one that I had only read about in novels.

After lunch, Julie, Cara, and I went on a little self directed driving tour of UCLA’s campus. WOW...It is absolutely beautiful. There were no students around yet so we just explored in Barney (that’s our casa’s 15-year-old purple Toyota 4Runner) since the campus was so big.  Later that afternoon, after reuniting with the boys after their afternoon of football-watching, we walked down to USC’s campus to check out the tailgating scene. Now, I previously thought that BC tailgating in the mods was out of control and just about as good as it gets. However, USC fans are serious, and the university is WAY more relaxed than BC about the pre-game parties on campus. There were people on every square inch of campus, starting as early as 9am…for a 7:30pm kickoff! We saw alumni of every age, the Trojan himself, students, senior citizens, families, Virginia fans, DJs, grills, kegstands, flip cup & beer pong, dance parties, tents, flags, cheerleaders, and ticket scalpers all over the place. It was so fun to walk around and see all the crazy fans.

On Sunday morning, we went to East LA to Dolores Mission Parish, the parish where Father Greg (see G-Dog post below!) got started with the Dolores Mission school and Homeboy Industries. We ran into Victor, a Jesuit novice who works at the Verb, and another JV casa. The mass was radically different from last week at Holy Name (read: one singer/guitarist (white), a mostly Latino community, and a building 1/3 of the size) but was just as uniquely beautiful: a beautiful baby Mexican/Samoan girl was baptized, the celebrant had visual aids for his homily about the prodigal son, and he even gave us “new JVs” a shout-out when they asked all visitors to stand at the end! (I guess when two young gals from New Jersey and one tall blonde boy from South Dakota introduce themselves in the Jesuit parish, it’s a fair guess that they’re new JVs.)

In other news, my students started school today so Theresa, Wil (the part-timer who works with the kids in the afternoon) and I went over to 112^th St. School to pass out Urban Compass applications at the end of the day. It was so overwhelming to see hundreds of little kids and anxious parents lined up. I got to meet a bunch of students (many of whom pointed at me and asked Theresa, “Ms. G, who’s that?”…Theresa’s answer: “Oh, that’s the new Ms. P!”  There were many sad faces when the kids realized that Ms. Powers, last year’s JV, is gone!). Urban Compass finally starts tomorrow! More on how the first week with students goes coming soon…

Board Room to Skid Row

This week I experienced quite a few different LA lifestyles, from the powerful board room executives to people who live in the streets and everyone (college students, artists, faculty, and even Mother Theresa) in between. A few updates from this short week at work at home...thanks for following!

Work

With just one more kid-less workday in front of us, Theresa and I were in turbo-prep mode at work this week. Besides putting the finishing touches on the office, we went to a board meeting on Tuesday, a Community Service fair at LMU on Thursday, and visited every Religion class at the Verb to talk to the students about tutoring. Visiting the classes at the Verb made me a little nostalgic for teaching.  I love teaching, so I’m really excited for Tuesday when we start Urban Compass! Even though it will be pretty different from having my own classes, I’m ready to go! At the meeting on Tuesday, I was finally able to meet many of the board members for Urban Compass. Everything from the drive downtown to the 25^th floor of a high-rise to the financial reports to meeting very high-powered lawyers and businesspeople was pretty of exciting. One of the founders of Urban Compass also sits on the JVC board, and he was headed to Baltimore this weekend for a meeting. He jokingly asked if we had any complaints for him to report – luckily we don’t!

Working the LMU service fair was another interesting day. Being a “recruiter” on a college campus instead of a student felt a bit odd and certainly made me miss BC. LMU itself was a beautiful campus – covered in palm trees, fountains, grassy areas, and of course, SUN.  After a very chilly morning in South Central, I was not anticipating the weather to be so warm (I guess I’m not quite used to this whole it’s-always-hot-and-sunny thing!) so I was a bit overdressed but nevertheless managed a slight sunburn on the back of my neck. (Although, in my extensive people-watching of the LMU students, I saw many a girl wearing uggs with pants when it was in the high 70s…really?! Even Miss-East-Coast wasn’t that overdressed.) During the fair, I was able to spend time with Maria, one of DK’s support people. She works in the Center for Service and Action at LMU and was running the show. I also ran into another JV, Colleen, who essentially has the same job I do but with another agency. Mostly, though, I enjoyed the people-watching spectacle at LMU.

Finally, to celebrate our now completed office (pictures below!), Theresa and I threw a very impromptu Open House/ Happy Hour on Friday afternoon. Theresa sent an email to all the Verb staff inviting them for drinks and snacks in our office to check it out. Many of the teachers walk by us every day and hadn’t even peeked inside since the renovations. It was a great way to celebrate the start of the school year…and also the last time we will be able to enjoy “happy hour” until June!

Theresa in her new office!

My office

Community

We've had a pretty busy week at home, too.  On Tuesday, we had another awesome spirituality night led by Julie. She just finished reading A Simple Path, a book about Mother Teresa. She designed a really cool reflection for us based on the different stages of the simple path. The basic gist of the ‘path’ is this:

The fruit of silence is PRAYER, the fruit of prayer is FAITH, the fruit of faith is LOVE, the fruit of love is SERVICE, the fruit of service is PEACE.  In reflecting on each of these stages, everyone shared different experiences and ideas, but we all come together to challenge each other and present new ideas. This was a particularly interesting reflection for us, who come together in this faith based program to do service, to pray and grow. I found it challenging that Mather Teresa’s path all starts with silence, because that is something quite difficult to find (or make) when we all live together in a pretty busy city and when we work long days. I’m sure many of you can relate!

On Thursday night, we went downtown after work to the LA Art Walk, a monthly event where art galleries, performers, and vendors come set up shop throughout downtown and stay open late. It was great! My favorite gallery ‘experience’ was one with blacklights, glow-in-the-dark signs, and some pretty serious techno beats. The kicker? The art was mostly religious images: crucifixes, paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe, images of Freda Kahlo, and a couple skulls…a very eclectic mix, to say the least.  There was also a Mobile Food Court: a parking lot full of food trucks – a huge trend in LA right now – of all different varieties (soft serve, Chinese, BBQ, subs, Mexican, hot dogs, crepes, Mexican-Chinese – called Don Chow – and more.) [Seriously, Dad, now is the time! LA is the place!]

On the walk back to the car, we were walking on the edge of Skid Row, a part of the city known for its poverty and homelessness. In two blocks, we probably passed a dozen homeless people camped out for the night. After a relatively carefree night out, it got under my skin that we just walked by these people on our way to our comfortable beds and luxuries only a few miles away. The truth of it is, though, that none of us had anything (cash, food) to give them. I brought this up to my roommates – what can we do when we can’t do anything? Here we are, spending a year doing service, but we are completely taken care of; we are housed, fed and insured.  I was frustrated, but I’m glad I was frustrated. I signed up for JVC so I could be challenged – so I hope to not let that frustration be forgotten.

Finally, a quote from my cousin, Rachel, earlier this morning:

"whenever i think of you out there i think of real world lol...7 strangers in a house"

Maybe Rach! I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Real World but if they do service, have spirituality nights, and a chore wheel, I guess that’s us J

Go Eagles!

This fall, I will be cheering for 3 Eagles football teams, in 3 different cities, at 3 different levels. It's nice and convenient that Verbum Dei, Boston College, and Philadelphia all have the same mascot!

On Saturday night, we went to the opening game for Verbum Dei against Amino South and saw a big win. Earlier in the day, I was getting score updates from friends who went to BC's opener against Weber State. On Sunday evening, I heard the infamous E-A-G-L-E-S chant from a block away before I even saw the Philly fans dressed in their old-school green and white jerseys in Santa Monica. Go Eagles!

I knew it was going to be a good mass when…

- Mass was only a 20 minute walk down the street from our house.

- We walked in the church and it was buzzing with chatter and laughter and greetings: a sure sign of a strong community.

- The Deacon and Priest both danced their way down the aisle to the entrance hymn.

- The Gospel choir started and the piano, saxophone, and drums rocked the whole building.

- The priest had hair longer than mine, in a style that looked like it hadn’t quite changed since he was an 80’s rock-band wannabe.

- At the beginning of the mass, Fr. Paul introduced himself and everyone who would be any sort of minister during the mass, and explained the 2 parts of a Catholic mass: liturgy of the word and liturgy of the Eucharist. 

- He then genuinely invited the entire congregation to participate as much as they felt comfortable, Catholic or not.

- The “Commentator” announced the readings, giving the page number they could be found on in the missal, and gave a one-sentence synopsis.

- Each reading was read with a clarity and passion that made it hard to lose focus.

- The Responsorial Psalm was a ten-minute long song by the fantastic Gospel Choir.

- Before the Gospel was read, Fr. Paul prefaced it with a note on the translation and word chice; he reminded us to keep in mind that the word “hate” as it appeared in the Gospel was probably not the word Jesus used when he says in Luke’s Gospel, “"If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

- During the Homily, Fr. Paul reads the corresponding passage from the Gospel of Matthew to help us further understand Jesus’ intention in saying this; he explained Jesus does not call us to “hate” all the people in our life, but rather to put Him first so that all other relationships may fall into place.

- Also during the homily, Fr. Paul read from an LA Times article that discussed human trafficking from Thailand to the LA area, and linked this social justice issue very concretely to the words of the second reading.

- The sign of peace was like a 15 minute intermission in the mass, when the priest went around to everyone in the church. He even added to the prayers of the faithful after finding out news about the passing of a parishioner’s mother after the sign of peace was over.

- Did I mention the Gospel Choir? I have never felt so alive!

- During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, about 50 kids (ages 1-17) joined Fr. Paul on the altar. (Even one Verbum Dei student was there!)

- After communion, the choir sang a fantastic hymn…”Here’s the deal, Jesus is real.” They had everyone on their feet singing and clapping and praising.

- At the end, Fr. Paul invited everyone who was new to the church to stand, and then the people around us patted us on the back, shook our hands, and asked us, very sincerely, to come back.

- We were the only white people in the church, minus 3 Jesuit novices and the priest. However, I have never felt so welcomed at a mass.

- We left the church, two full hours after mass started, singing and dancing our way home down the street.

- We were clearly mistaken for USC students when someone asked us after if we were walking all the way back to USC. Ha!

In other news this weekend, the girls in Casa Celina Ramos in San Diego came to stay with us for two nights. Trying to organize and mobilize 6 girls in addition to our 5 made me grateful for two things: a car (Seriously! They don’t have one in San Diego and it sounds like they are practically paralyzed because of their location in the city) and a co-ed house. They are great girls, but very I’m grateful for our house dynamic!!

G-Dog

On Wednesday night, my casa attended a talk given by Fr. Greg Boyle at USC. Fr. Greg is the founder of Homeboy Industries , a nonprofit downtown that provides employment opportunities, courses, and social services to gang members in LA. There are over 1,100 different gangs in LA County alone, and thousands of young people – particularly pre-teens and adolescents – are caught up in the violence and crime that comes with gang affiliations. In communities where gang membership is the only known form of protection and survival, it makes sense to me that kids – most of whom are living below the poverty line and in broken homes – chose to join.

Fr. Greg, affectionately known by the homies he works with as “G,” is currently on a book tour promoting Tattoos on the Heart.Much of his talk last night reflected what is in this book. We have a copy in our house, so it is certainly next on my reading list. Currently, I’m reading G-dog and Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles.  The book is an account of Fr. Greg’s work in the early-mid 90’s at Dolores Mission Parish, the Jesuit parish surrounded by the largest housing project complex west of the Mississippi.  I am learning so much about Fr. Greg’s work, his philosophy, and also about second chances. The whole principal of Fr. Greg’s pastoral work in East LA and at Homeboy is to treat the homies, many of whom are ex-convicts with ‘resumes’ that include crime, addiction, and gang-affiliation, as human. It sounds so simple. But is it?

Cara works as a case manager at Homeboy. As I read more about Homeboy and hear her stories, I grow more and more in awe of what she does. Thinking about it, our two programs operate on opposite ends of the gang-involvement spectrum. My kids at Urban Compass live in a neighborhood controlled by a very well known gang.  Our goal is prevention: to keep them out of neighborhood gangs, off the streets, and motivated to stay in school.  We want to give them a chance. As a case manager at Homeboy, Cara’s works in intervention: her role is to give people a second chance. Her clients have been involved in gangs and have records, but at Homeboy, they are humans. They are family. For many of the homies, the only family they know before Homeboy is their gang family. The gang becomes a source of income, protection from enemy gangs, employment (think drug sales), and relationship. Urban Compass and Homeboy work to model positive relationships outside the gang structure, and provide opportunities for people before, during, and after gang involvement.

Some points of reflection from Fr. Greg’s talk…

Kinship: “We’ve forgotten that we belong to each other.” Fr. Greg shared this theme last night, and it struck me as an almost deeper and more provocative word than solidarity, a term I have heard and used a lot in my own discussions about and reflections on service and social justice. Kinship, though, implies family, belonging, community in the most intimately connected sense.  “No kinship, no peace. No kinship, no justice.”

Church: Our collective work, as a people, is to work against separation, to work towards a world where there is no “them.” To be kin, there can be no “other” person. In East LA, this meant that the definition of ‘church’ must change. Many traditional church communities believe that the good people are inside the church, and the bad ones are kept out. But to be kin, to be in solidarity, we must jostle that definition. Fr. Greg did this by starting a school for gang members in Dolores Mission Parish, so he very literally invited the “bad” people inside.

Service: An appropriate theme to reflect on with 10 JVs in the audience! “Service is the hallway that leads to the ballroom of kinship.” G’s mission and model is not built on the service provider and service recipient model, but is rather a relational model: talk to people, get to know their story, take them seriously, treat them as humans, treat them as family.  Service is not about helping. F. Greg told a story about a dream that one of his homies had: Fr. Greg and the homie were standing together in a completely dark room. The homie, the dreamer, couldn’t find any source light. Then, G used his flashlight to shine a beam of light across the room directly to the light-switch. In retelling the dream, Fr. Greg emphasized that no one else could have turned the light on, metaphorically speaking, for this homie, but it was his role – and is our collective role – to use our light to show each other how we can do it for ourselves. (Doesn’t that give you chills?!)

The following evening, my house watched a documentary about the development of gangs in Los Angeles. I highly recommend Crips and Bloods: Made In America to anyone who is interested in learning more about the psychology, history, and rationale behind gangs. This documentary is mainly focused on black gangs formed in Los Angeles – the most famous of which are now found in almost every major city.  I think the documentary addresses a lot of questions that people like me, who were raised in a world completely never penetrated by gang involvement, understand the reasons why people like my students, whose lives since the moment they were born have been surrounded by this lifestyle, join gangs.  Also, much of the documentary shows images of Nickerson Gardens, the neighborhood where Urban Compass Students live.

  

I really hope to return to these themes in a couple weeks when I meet my students. Even though I am very much enjoying work, I am getting very antsy without students! My hope is to keep Fr. Greg’s reflections on kinship, church, and service in mind as I meet my students and their families, and come to know more about their lives.  If you have any reflections, ideas, questions to share…whatever it may be…please comment or email me!  Thanks again for reading J