Good Mental Health!
America's Loneliest Era!
(from the Washington Post)
Our Lady of Mary's Month!
Pray the Rosary!
Mental Health Month!
Jesus the Way to the Father
14?“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe[a] in God; believe also in me. 2?In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4?And you know the way to the place where I am going.”[c] 5?Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6?Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7?If you know me, you will know[d] my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8?Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9?Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10?Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11?Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe[e] because of the works themselves. 12?Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13?I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14?If in my name you ask me[f] for anything, I will do it.?(John 14:1-14 NRSVEU)
Mental Health Awareness Month
What it is: May is mental health awareness month, making mental health and suicide prevention bigger topics than ever. #mentalhealthmatters has around 42 billion views on TikTok, and #mentalhealthawareness has racked up 20 billion.
Why the conversation is changing: The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior survey showed that suicidal ideation, especially for teenage girls, is continuing on a concerning trajectory. In 2021, 30% of girls said that they had seriously considered suicide in the past year, and 24% said they had an actual plan to end their life. According to data published by Mental Health America, 16.4% of youth reported experiencing a major depressive episode within the last 12 months. This news comes at a time when adults are feeling so lonely that the US surgeon general has declared loneliness a public health emergency. Stigma around mental health topics appears to be eroding, but that isn’t necessarily leading to better mental health outcomes for teens and for the population at large.
Conversation Starter: What do you think are the biggest contributors to mental health issues for your generation? (Check out our new video series on Mental Health for more help having this conversation!)?
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What is good mental health? In his book, Ash Wednesday, J. R. Mabry has the Sheriff say: "If I have learned anything from my mother, Jake, it's there are no good people. There are only people in various stages of being fu. .cked up. Some less, some more."
Good mental health is the ability both to value life and to engage in a life of affirming other people and creatures and value their lives as we do our own, seeing them as independent from us. Good mental health means the ability to behave differently depending upon the circumstances and not expect every thing go our way. Good mental health is our ability to see everyone, regardless of social status, sexual identification, and color, simply as a fellow human being.
"In Christ?there is no east or west. in him no pride of birth, the chosen family God has blessed now spans the whole wide earth. For God in Christ has made us one from every land, race, and sexual orientation,?has reconciled us through the Son, and met us all with Grace."
We live in America's loneliest era. Our country is so divided, we stay buried in our social media and do not talk to one another, and most importantly listen. Good mental health means to"shelter our souls." For me it means to dwell in Jesus. "Dwelling in Jesus", means to be open to all, to listen, letting them find good mental health, and a "dwelling in whatever their belief in the Higher Power."
Recently a young man came to my place. He was well dressed, and he said don't you remember me, and I said, "Well, I am not sure," "You knew me as "Chaos", who at fifteen had been high on fentanyl and knocked me down, sending me on a two year journey of recovery. He said:
"You simply forgave me, and continued to be my friend...and for the next year you simply listened when I came to your house, even in pain you listened." Through our listening I found a Higher Power in AA." I went home to my parents, and am now in college. I keep a photo of you in my wallet to remind me you care and you listen, never judging."
领英推荐
Listening saves lives, simply listening with out judgment.
The word "dwell" is related to an old English word for "heresy" or "madness". Perhaps it is a sort of insanity to believe that God dwells here, with us.
Or that, somehow, resurrection is an end to our exile, and an invitation to come home to God. If so, the madness is the long-lingering hope of the human race, the dream to dwell. Not only a hope, however it is hard work, this effort to shelter our souls.
To "dwell" means we struggle as a family with all people in finding safety in life, in finding "good mental health".
None of us are "good", but we try as hard as we can and move from the stage of evil ultimately into the fullness of God, the fullness of accepting all as a reflection of Jesus of Nazareth--black, white, brown, blue, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning and all in between. The fullness of good mental health.
In the midst of our fears and uncertainty and old Methodist hymn, one upon which I was raised and one that will be sung at my funeral rings out:
"O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home."
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
415-305-2124
River's Creed:
"I write?because this is the way I protest".
Ministry on the streets is the way I resist, dong what I can to proclaim the Gospel of Love to every human being with out judgment."
"Now I hand down to?you what has been revealed to me: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures."