Preview Dorothy Day Documentary: Don't Call Me a Saint

Archbishop Fulton Sheen on the meaning of Advent

An Advent Reflection, Fr. James Kubicki, S.J.

Guest Blogger: St. Vincent de Paul

"You will find out that Charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of soup and the full basket. But you will keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give soup and bread. This the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor, always smiling and good-humored. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting master you will see. And the uglier and the dirtier they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give to them."

-St. Vincent de Paul

Boy Scouts Provide Another Outstanding Picnic!

On August 27 Boy Scout Troop 195, St. Catherine of Sweden, Wildwood, continued an annual tradition of providing a "top shelf" picnic on the grounds of St. Joseph House of Hospitality. In addition to the culinary delights, residents enjoyed bingo, bocce, horseshoes, and other games in the  back yard on a picture-perfect August afternoon.

Thanks to the Scouts of Troop 195 and their families for another awesome picnic for the residents of St. Joseph's!

P.S. To see pics from 2009 go the August 2009 link in the Archives (left column). Sorry, the photographer was absent in 2010!

Catholic Media Convention
To read the entire article in the Pittsburgh Catholic please click on the link above

"On Saturday (June 25), after the convention officially ends, a service project organized through Catholic Charities at the St. Joseph House of Hospitality will be offered from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Readers of the Pittsburgh Catholic are encouraged to lend a hand alongside the journalists with repairs, cleaning and social activities."

Guest Blogger: Thomas Merton - Fr. Louis, OCSO (1915-1968)

                                       

 "Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can."

Thomas Merton, Letter to Dorothy Day, quoted in Catholic Voices in a World on Fire (2005) by Stephen Hand, p. 180

2011 Spring Fishing Excursion

Several residents  - a three car caravan - enjoyed a great day of fishing and fellowship Monday May 22 in Somerset County at Rockwood Nursery, courtesy of the proprietor, Paul Dvorchak's brother...Thank you!

Thanks also to Fr. Ed for the culinary delights and to Randy for driving.

13th Annual Bluegrass Benefit Concert was held April 29 - Thank you!

To see the Program for last year's concert go here: View the 2010 Bluegrass Progam 2011 Program to be posted soon...check back


•Allegheny Drifters http://www.alleghenydrifters.com/

• Blue Shades http://www.blueshadesmusic.com/

•Fern Hollow Boys

•Mac Martin &The DixieTravelers http://www.thedixietravelers.com/ 
•Mon River Ramblers http://www.monriverramblers.com/
•Mountain Therapy http://www.mountaintherapy.com/

Once again, the concert was held at beautiful Synod Hall adjacent to St. Paul Cathedral in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.


"This is bluegrass music...it is almost a way of life, a respite from everyday rushing and hurrying. A chance to get back to yourself, a chance to meet old friends and make new ones. A chance to celebrate life. A chance to thank God." Michael L. McDonald

Guest Blogger: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (+1997)

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless.
The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.
We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

On the Feast of our Patron - A 1952 Reflection from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (+1979)

"Saint Joseph The Worker", artwork by Ade Bethune, appeared in The Catholic Worker newspaper, March 1934
"But when one searches for the reasons why Christian art should have pictured Joseph as aged, we discover that it was in order to better safeguard the virginity of Mary. Somehow, the assumption had crept in that senility was a better protector of virginity than adolescence. Art thus unconsciously made Joseph a spouse chaste and pure by age rather than virtue. To make Joseph appear pure only because his flesh had aged is like glorifying a mountain stream that has dried. The Church will not ordain a man to the priesthood who has not his vital powers. She wants men who have something to tame, rather than those who are tame because they have no energy to be wild. It should be no different with God.

Furthermore, it is reasonable to believe that Our Lord would prefer, for a foster father, someone who had made a sacrifice rather than someone who was forced to it. There is the added historical fact that the Jews frowned on a disproportionate marriage between what Shakespeare calls "crabbed age and youth"; the Talmud admits a disproportionate marriage only for widows or widowers.

Finally, it seems hardly possible that God would have attached a young mother, probably about sixteen or seventeen years of age, to an old man. If He did not disdain to give His Mother to a young man, John, at the foot of the Cross, then why should He have given her an old man at the crib? A woman's love always determines the way a man loves: she is the silent educator of his virile powers. Since Mary is what might be called a "virginizer" of young men as well as women, and the greatest inspiration of Christian purity, should she not logically have begun by inspiring and virginizing the first youth whom she had probably ever met --- Joseph, the Just? It was not by diminishing his power to love, but by elevating it, that she would have her first conquest, and in her own spouse, the man who was a man, and not a mere senile watchman!  

Joseph was probably a young man, strong, virile, athletic, handsome, chaste, and disciplined; the kind of man one sees sometimes shepherding sheep, or piloting a plane, or working at a carpenter's bench. Instead of being a man incapable of loving, he must have been on fire with love. Just as we would give very little credit to the Blessed Mother if she had taken her vow of virginity after having been an old maid for fifty years, so neither could we give much credit to a Joseph who became her spouse because he was advanced in years. Young girls in those days, like Mary, took vows to love God uniquely, and so did young men, of whom Joseph was one so pre-eminent as to be called the "just." Instead, then, of being dried fruit to be served on the table of the King, he was rather a blossom filled with promise and power. He was not in the evening of life, but in its morning, bubbling over with energy, strength, and controlled passion."

- by Fulton J. Sheen, from The World's First Love, 1952

Guest Blogger: St. Albert the Great (+1280)

It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God.
But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell.
If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for "God is Charity" (1John 4:8).

St. Albert the Great

Love is the Measure

by Dorothy Day
June 1942

“…What we would like to do is change the world—make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And to a certain extent, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute...we can to a certain extent change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.”

Thank you parishioners of St. Germaine parish in Bethel Park for recent donations of shoes, shirts, belts, suits, winter coats and other much needed clothing. The men at St. Joe's appreciate your generosity!

Let's Go Bucs!



Thanks to the generosity of a friend, several of the men enjoyed an evening of major league baseball last night at beautiful PNC Park .The weather was great (as were the seats!) and the Pirates defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2 in a exciting game. A good time was had by all!

Paul Dvorchak, Director pointed out that the top floor of St. Joseph's was visible to us from our seats....in left center field just to left of the flag pole!

Thank you BSA Troop 195

On Saturday August 28 Boy Scouts of America Troop 195 of St. Catherine of Sweden Parish, Wildwood, PA once again organized and provided an awesome annual picnic for the residents on the St. Joseph property. It was a picture-perfect day for excellent food, great games and fellowship. Many thanks to the Scouts and their families!

"Nothing but the best, and the best is none too good for God's poor. What a delightful thing it is to be boldly profligate, to ignore the price of coffee and go on serving the long line of destitute men who come to us, good coffee and the finest of bread." - Dorothy Day

Another great fishing excursion

Six residents joined friends Bob, Jim, and SJHoH director Paul Dvorchak at beautiful "Rockwood Nursery" in Somerset County on Friday May 21. We enjoyed fishing, sharing great stories, and a cookout...the weather was perfect and the day was enjoyed by all...Thanks to Bob (shown above with his prize catch of the day!) for driving and for being the "grillmaster"! One of the men happily caught 13 fish! (by the way, we 'catch & release').

We hope to enlist more "Friends" for future excursions... movie theater, baseball games, etc. ...this was my third time driving the guys to the country...one of the great rewards (there are many) is looking in the rear view mirror to catch a glimpse of the faces of the men in the backseat as they look at the countryside and the wildlife, farm animals and mountains...such delight in simply getting out of the city for a few hours...please consider joining us...for more info contact jimhanna52@comcast.net

St. Joseph's in the 1960's Newspapers

We have posted several articles from the 1960's please click below to read...

St. Joseph's in the 1970's Newspapers

We have found several articles from the 1970's, please click below to read...