This is Sister Althea Jonis. I took this picture in February of 2003. She died in September of 2003 in Haiti at the age of 58. She didn’t tell anyone that she had Malaria and a heart condition. She is a saint. She inspires this priest to love the poor fearlessly and passionately. I have been to her convent and mission three times with the last time occurring a week after I returned from serving on Active duty in Fallujah Iraq in April, 2005. Sister Althea had died and wasn’t there…or was she?

Her parents were friends of mine at St. Catherine’s. They are now deceased. Vincent, her father, called me the day she died to tell me . I was in New Hampshire going for a hike, and I had to pull off to the side of the road. I love Althea (Terri). On February 4, 2002,when I was giving her a gift of $500 from my inner city parish, I cried, with sadness or joy, I am not sure. She celebrated Eucharist with us at St. Patrick’s a couple of times. She knew there were parishioners angry with our parish’s solidarity with the poor. She stood with me as I anointed her mother, Helen, in the hospital…and she was miraculously healed.

Sister Althea was a missionary in Haiti. I believe she asked Our Beloved Mother to call me to Haiti to a town called Aquin (named after St. Thomas Aquinas). In addition to restoring a school, a clinic, reforestation projects and small businesses for women, Sister Althea had started a clinic for malnourished children called “Happy Children”. It was a place more beautiful than heaven itself. Her place was different than Mother Teresa’s in that she required a family member to stay with the sick child. The children recover from malnutrition in half the time and rarely return because she teaches the family especially the mothers about better nutrition and love. In 2003, I spent a couple hours with a little malnourished girl named Leslie. Close to the time we were about to leave, she fell asleep in my arms as I stroked her back. I laid her down on the mat; not even knowing her mother was watching me intently for the past two hours. As I was stroking her as I too lay on the mat, Leslie’s mother lied on the other side of her toddler and stroked her back in the same rhythm as me. Not a beat was missed as I passed on the chore of spiritual CPR to the mother. When I stood up because we were called to leave, I wept. It is there that I probably fell in love with the Way God was going to call the people of Haiti out of their brutal poverty.

Haiti died this week in the earthquake. “Jesus, if you would have been here, the earthquake would not have killed the last sliver of hope for your poor people of Haiti.”

And Jesus wept.

18 March 1999

How blessed I feel.

How full of gratitude

in the center of me,

there is hope, joy, peace, love

overflowing and welling up in the chorus and symphony of eternal life.

Life is not a dream for later.

It is somewhat that, but also now, today

I breathe in deeply and slowly and methodically

and rejoice in this body given to use…to experience…life…God!

God is Life and Love

Light and Longing

How ingenious, how delectable, how stunning is God

to create and enjoy breeze and buzz, Jesus and me

Jesus is the Word that says, “I am” and so it is

Jesus says I am with you and so I am

With Him

With Her

With You

Burning and chilling in and amidst the heart

Whistling and chirping

Crashing and flying

How exceptionally exquisite is the hustle of life,

the vulnerability and even poverty of it all

For we are truly empty and poor and lifeless without

breath and blood pumped and moved throughout and within

Love between two

Love encountered in flesh and spirit

that hints of death and life again

Dreams and depression

Hope eternal

Life-giving Love from the Lord of the Dance of Life!

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Day between St. Patrick & St. Joseph

The poor

Exist.

Nothing to be afraid of

Jesus walks with them

Jesus will show us the Way,

if we let him.

The poor

Live.

And believe it or not, smile

And love

And hope, maybe a little more than we do, we who have so much more

What does Jesus hope for in our relationships and encounters with the poor?

The poor

Is a very general term.

We speak of poor in spirit…could that be depression?

And poor of character…how is this fed?

And the real poor…

those that physically hunger and shiver for lack of cover, shelter, home

The real poor don’t know where or what they will eat next Sunday…

except the Body and drop of Blood

Although many have not been told the “Good News”

“The spirit is upon me because he has anointed me to bring Glad Tidings to the poor!”

The poor

Really not to be afraid of

as long as we don’t lord our position over them…

…and love them

Sounds so easy, but why so rarely done

Have you loved someone poor today?

Will we love someone poor tomorrow?

If we love the poor…

Then they won’t be poor

because Love is God

and Love is Word

and word is Food

and Food is fulfilling

and removes the emptiness and agony of being poor

If we are truly loved, we cannot be poor…it is impossible!

Pour in Love

Poor in Love

Pour in Love

And we will be healed with Poured in Love

Poor in Love.

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