This is a prayer book that I think I stole from my Dad. I don't really remember how I got it but I remember it on his bookshelf and it was always attractive to me. It's called "Everyday Catholic Prayer: A Little Office Book," compiled by Angela Tilby. I like little books.
It's quite a simple (and ancient) idea. To mindfully read through some passages of scripture, to read them as prayers, to meditate on scriptural phrases and set your mind on the best things...love, forgiveness, truth, peace, rest, Jesus.
At some point in our life and work together, we began praying the "little office" before going to 9th Street. Over the years, the spine has broken, you can see a coffee stain there on the first prayer. At one point we had two copies. I don't remember what happened to the other one (do you have it, Jimmy?)
I was looking at the coffee stain today before the café and thought of the people we go to meet on 9th Street and what our little café really is, what we truly desire it to be. It's a coffee stained prayer for a broken world.
We go twice a week to meet with people that are living unbelievable lives, people who suffer through some of the worst things imaginable, people who are holding on to some of the thinnest strands I know. The #NinthStreetCafé is a coffee stained prayer that creativity and compassion can make community even in the most difficult of places.
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