Love Story Speaker At Novena Of Grace Finds Transformation In Service To The Poor

“He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor; to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to the captives; to comfort all those who mourn.”

- Isaiah 61:1-2

He tends the most bedraggled flock - street people, prisoners, elderly shut-ins in dingy hotels. The Rev. Gary Smith ministers to the poorest of our poor.

A convert to Catholicism, the Jesuit priest has served the poor since the 1980s in Oakland, Calif., Tacoma and Portland.

Smith, 59, is in Spokane to speak at the Novena of Grace, which begins today and continues through March 16 at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church.

“In Oakland I worked as a community organizer, dealing with slumlords in run-down neighborhoods. The people were poor, but they lived in homes and had power to effect some changes,” said Smith.

“I felt I needed to go to another level in dealing with marginalized people. I felt Jesus should be there.”

Smith moved to Tacoma’s Skid Road in 1984 to operate Nativity House, a street drop-in center run with donations and volunteer staff. About 200 people stopped in each day for meals or donated clothing, or to use the restroom or telephone. Some came to Mass, and all came for respite from the rawness of the street.

“I struggle over what to say when I preach because this congregation has had its belly full of empty Christianity, and it’s a very diverse group,” said Smith. “People have told me to preach ‘real good.’ … Others have asked me not to preach.

“Still others asked me to hustle because there was an important game on TV which even God did not want to miss.”

He described the raveled edges of society’s fabric.

“Our guests are of all ages, all races, and approximately 80 percent of them are men,” said the priest. “They include the temporarily and chronically unemployed, homeless couples with their children, burned-out Vietnam veterans, drug addicts, female and male prostitutes, chronic alcoholics, itinerant farm workers, hoboes, bag ladies, the mentally ill, undocumented aliens, pimps, ex-convicts, the developmentally disabled, thugs, disaffected teenagers and lonely seniors.”

Anything can happen during a religious service there.

“One time, Skinny Lynn started frying eggs back on the kitchen stove during a moment of total silence,” said Smith. “There was another occasion when Dutch, after receiving Communion, proceeded to one of the couches and punched out Fred.”

Smith kept a diary for seven years of his day-to-day encounters at Nativity House, and in 1995 he published “Street Journal - Finding God in the Homeless.” He said he wrote the book to humanize the homeless for readers and to tell the story of his own growth and transformation through his ministry.

“As a human being and as a Jesuit priest, my life was changed,” said Smith. “I am not so much sharing my journal as I am telling a love story.

“First you have to fall in love and then be in love - and then out of love comes proof of love.

“The biggest miracle is that people who spend so much of their lives not loving themselves begin to grow in the presence of a community that really cares,” he said.

“Once in a while there are dramatic things, like the hooker who kicks drugs, goes straight and works in a drug rehab place. But most often it’s a quiet, interior transformation.”

Smith’s street stories illustrate that kind of conversion, and he will draw on his experiences with the poor at the Novena of Grace.

Co-presenter Stacy Cates-Carney served on Smith’s volunteer staff at Nativity House for two years.

“We will be exploring God’s notion of love for us and falling in love with God in … the individuals we encounter and the society we live in,” said Smith.

The nine-day series of prayers honors St. Francis Xavier, a 16th-century Jesuit missionary who worked in India and Japan.

“Francis is one of my great heroes,” said Smith. “He was a bon vivant, brainy guy who went through a process of conversion from self-absorbed to a state of falling in love with God - and he wanted to turn the world on to it.”

Smith said the saint continues to inspire him.

“What I pray for is the same zeal and passion in my work, to take God’s love to people and work out concrete, systemic changes where the poor can live happier lives,” Smith said.

The priest currently works in Portland, where his outreach ministries include counseling prison inmates, visiting elderly shut-ins and assisting immigrants.

“The more I’m in the presence of people who have no power, no money and no beauty, the more I come to understand myself and my God and to know what a real human being is,” Smith said.

“That’s the miracle that goes on in me.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Service times The 70th annual Novena of Grace begins today at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, 330 E. Boone, and runs through March 16. Services will be held each day at 12:15, 3:30 (with benediction), 5:15 and 7:30 p.m. The last two services each day include Mass. The sacraments of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick will be offered after each service. The word “novena” means “nine” in Latin and refers to the number of continuous days of prayer. The theme of this year’s novena is “Encountering the Holy, Acting Holy.”