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Director’s Corner |
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Kevin Barr Program Director Saint John’s Hospice Email me at or call |
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Yes! Our circumstances are different. Our hurts, hopes, and brokenness are different. Many of our fears are different. But our healing journeys, I realize, all begin the same way with one word, YES! (Paula D’Arcy) My name is Kevin Barr. I am the new Director of Saint John’s Hospice.If there is one word that best describes what I intend to bring to SJH, it would simply be that one healing word - YES! This “YES” has taken many forms in my life. A YES to my family (my wife and I have been married for 30 years and are blessed with 7 children), a YES to education (Master’s Degree in Religious Studies from Saint Charles Seminary, adjunct professor at Neumann College), a YES to my parish (St Simon and Jude), and certainly a YES to Catholic Social Services (CSS). Out of YES comes new beginnings, YES changes the broken heart, YES opens the eyes to beauty, YES moves the suffering, causing it to pass through. YES, I will accept the circumstances of my life.I will cry and mourn my losses – will hold them near until all their wisdom has been spilled – will accept them until God takes what man has meant for evil and creates of it a brilliant good! (D’Arcy)
It has been my work at CSS for the past seven years where my YES has allowed God to become, for me, more of an active verb of participation (“Follow Me”) than just a passive noun. It is where my YES and God’s YES have merged into a vulnerable, yet beautiful and intimate dance. The movement that flows out of this dance is open and inclusive and rooted in “gospel” music. It is music playing a “spirituality of imperfection” where both God and I say YES to the wounded, the messy, and the powerlessness of life.
I am convinced that God has been leading this dance and that our steps were meant to move through SJH. It was obvious to me from the moment I first walked through these doors that God’s inclusive, forgiving, compassionate spirit was moving freely and strongly through every person who enters this building. His spirit reaches the homeless through the time, talent and treasure of our generous volunteers, donors and employees who consistently say YES to men in need. Thank you for opening your eyes and hearts to the beauty that is Saint John’s Hospice.My prayer is that through our collective participation we continue to bless and be blessed by SJH. May the many ways we say YES to Saint John’s help us to always recognize God’s presence both “in the breadlines” and in our daily lives.
[From Saint John’s Hospice Newsletter, August 2008] |
