LENT

Andrew Junker/CATHOLIC SUN

Jeanne O’Brien, a St. Vincent de Paul volunteer, speaks with Roger, a homeless man living at Ozanam Manor.

Penitential season calls Catholics to service

Mentors share life lessons, hope with Ozanam Manor residents

In his 2010 Lenten message, Pope Benedict XVI invited Catholics to review our lives “in light of the teachings of the Gospel.” Along with the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, Lent also calls Catholics to charitable works. “Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the ‘greatest’ justice, which is that of love,” the Holy Father said. We hope this article on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will help readers enter more deeply into the season of Lent.

Jeanne O’Brien had brought some photocopies of a book about joy.

She sat in a small, cramped office across from Roger, a homeless man who has been living at Ozanam Manor in downtown Phoenix. Roger fell down some stairs the week before and was having trouble moving around, so he kept a cane with him.

“You popped into my head when I read this, Roger,” O’Brien said. “You need some joy in your life.”

She slid the photocopies across the desk, and Roger read them for a couple of minutes. He slid them back toward her and shrugged.

“It’s worth pondering,” he said.

O’Brien wasn’t ready to let him dismiss it so easily.

“There is joy out there,” she said. “There are a lot of good things going on around you, and you need to try to find that place you can go to find joy.”

Roger said that all the places he used to find joy cost money — something he is in very short supply of these days. Then, the room was quiet for a few moments.

“Are you disappointed in me?” Roger asked.

“I’d just like to see you take some action,” O’Brien said. “Nothing’s going to happen until you make it happen.”

Building confidence

Ozanam Manor, a transitional housing facility run by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, offers much more to its guests than a bed and three meals a day. It provides the homeless men and women with case workers and mentors like O’Brien, who help the often older population get back on their feet again.

One of the traditional practices of Lent is almsgiving. And while charitable services like Ozanam Manor require financial help to stay open, they also need local Catholics to give of their time and of themselves.

O’Brien has answered that call as a mentor at the shelter for nearly a decade. The Dame of Malta also serves on Ozanam’s advisory board.

“Maybe it’s the mother in me, and wanting people to succeed and not feel down,” she said. “A lot of people here just feel useless, and I don’t believe in that.”

O’Brien meets with a couple of Ozanam guests for about an hour each week. While case managers often help the guests with untangling government bureaucracy and making sure they become qualified for future work, mentors often help with life skills.

O’Brien has helped with basic literacy or showing the guests how to keep a calendar and stay organized. She’s also just there for them to talk to.

“The general theme is that they don’t have confidence. They’ve lost their dreams,” she said. “I think a lot of them feel like they’ve lost hope.”

The homeless men and women who end up at Ozanam Manor often are not used to their state. Many held down jobs and raised families for years. It could be a string of bad luck, poor decisions or unchecked mental illness that forced them out onto the streets.

“They’ve exhausted their friends and families,” O’Brien said. “Some of the situations are of their own making. A lot had nothing to do with them. You know, we do make poor choices. You need to give people a break and let them recoup their dignity.”

That’s what Ozanam Manor offers them, she said.

“They work hard, and it’s hard to be poor. I tell them they’re so fortunate to be here right now. God has given them a place to rest and recover,” O’Brien said.

This kind of encouragement goes a long way with the homeless men and women, said Mike Bell, director of shelter services.

“I think the way knowledge is transferred is really most effective when there’s a personal relationship involved,” he said. “Mentors are people who are self-selected and selected by us because they have both the skills and compassion to do this kind of work.”

Right now, there are about five mentors working at Ozanam Manor. Bell said he’d like to get that number up to 20. While it only requires an hour commitment once a week, he said that it’s good when mentors can be present for a decent length of time. It helps them build up a rapport — and true friendship — with the clients.

“I never think of myself as making a huge difference in anybody’s life,” O’Brien said. “But I always feel like I’ve made a friend. You just have to be there as an equal and care about the situation they’re in.”

Still, she sees why there is a shortage of mentors: fear of the unknown, fear of the homeless, fear of making yourself available.

“It’s easy to love children,” O’Brien said. “It’s another thing to sit across the table from someone with no money or on meds to stay stable and make a connection.”

Offering encouragement

O’Brien encouraged Roger to figure out how he could receive his Social Security benefits. Dealing with government agencies occupies a lot of the residents’ time, and Roger said he hadn’t gone to the benefits office because it was too much for him to walk and wait at the bus stop.

O’Brien suggested that he look into getting a motorized wheelchair or scooter. Though he’s not currently on Medicare, Roger does have AHCCCS. If he had a scooter, he could get to the bus stop or get around the VA hospital a little more easily.

“What I’d really like is a Vespa,” Roger said.

O’Brien laughed.

She said that maybe when he got his benefits in order and moved into affordable housing he could start thinking about saving up for a Vespa.

“I’m talking about a three-wheeled scooter, Roger,” O’Brien said.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s always telling me to think outside the box,” he countered.

O’Brien laughed again. She couldn’t argue with that.