Personal Experiences and the Spirit of Discernment
Note: This article originally ran February 8, 2020.
In 2017, I participated in San Francisco’s Night Ministry. It is an outreach program with a fifty year history in which priests and pastors from various denominations walk the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin. They do not go out to preach, but rather walk slowly and wait for people to approach and make conversation. It is often described as a “listening ministry.” One may speak to the homeless, someone leaving a bar or any random person, but whoever wants to speak, it is the service of the priest to hear, validate and offer counsel only if asked.