Marian Centre discovers hope, joy among the homeless

Living in the moment, poor men are grateful for what they receive

- Design Pics photo "A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through compassion is a cruel and inhumane society." - Pope Benedict, Spe Salvi

By LASHA MORNINGSTAR
WCR News Editor
Edmonton

Hope is not in the palette of emotions one would expect to find splashed over the desperately poor homeless men seeking help at the Marian Centre.

But stop and look through Patrick Stewart's eyes. Stewart, the other Marian Centre apostolate members and a cadre of dedicated volunteers prepare meals and distribute donated clothing for the inner city's street people. Most are men - called Christophers - and come to the centre with hope in their hearts.

As Stewart sees it, "So many of the people who come here live so immediately, so presently. When you are that poor, you are kind of living day to day which is not a bad way to live in some ways.

"Each meal, people are extremely grateful for. A place to sleep, people are extremely grateful for. A pair of gloves. A pair of pants. Each thing has so much meaning."

Practising hope

Pope Benedict touched on this when he said in his latest encyclical Spe Salvi (On Christian Hope) when he talked about practising hope.

"A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through compassion is a cruel and inhumane society."

The Marian Centre practises the pope's prescribed hope.

Yes, some Christophers are paralyzed by their poverty.

"Certainly there is misery in the lives of people who come here. - real misery, real hardship, real pain," says Stewart. "But at the same time, I don't see a lot of people in despair. There are probably some. But people in other places probably have despair too."

And Stewart casts his mind back - back to when he lived the envied life of the U.S. upper class.

More gratitude

"The way I was in that culture - we have so much - you are always looking off into the future for the next big thing without paying attention to each little thing that is coming your way. Now I live with a lot more gratitude."

Remember too the other ingredient in this mix of Marian Centre humanity - the volunteers.

"The volunteers who come each day to help develop a closeness with the Marian people," says Stewart. "Our relationships with them are really as important as those with the guys who come off the street. We are all kind of doing this together joyfully, working side by side."

That goodness of the volunteers spills over too to the people who send money and donations.

"They share in the faith of the Lord, the common concern and desire to serve," say Stewart.

Abundant gratitude

And then there are the Christophers.

"The gratitude of the people who come and the joy that they bring into our house, it's gosh - big!" enthuses Stewart. "It's really big. It's not a sad place - sad moments at times, but again I have lived in a lot more downbeat and unhappy places in a lot more prosperity and seemingly good, together lives."

Asked what creates hope and Stewart's response is immediate.

"Faith. Faith that good is awaiting me."

Pope Benedict's Spe Salvi suggests, "A first essential setting for learning hope is prayer. When no one listens to me anymore, God will listen to me. When I can no longer talk to anyone or call upon anyone, I can always talk to God."

So how would a Christopher define hope?

Stewart asked Bernard last Saturday about hope. Bernard and his fellow Christophers had just satisfied their hunger with an Italian meal prepared by women from the Santa Maria Goretti Parish and other volunteers. Warm clothing had been asked for and given. And their bone-cold bodies were finally warm.

Bernard's first response to what hope was, "Life was hope," that as long as you were living and not just "treading water" - really living, that was hope.

Bernard left. Returning to the bitter world of homelessness.

But hours later he returned, telling Stewart that the Lord told him, "Hope is knowing you are homeless, not hopeless."

Bernard's final definition of hope came after two more hours in the brutal cold, when he knocked on the centre's door and told Stewart, "Hope is knowing that you're homeless, not worthless."

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