Stories Page

It was in 2021 that Dr. Micah McCreary first became part of our Joseph House community. He and I met when both of us happened to be presenting papers in the same session of the annual Society for Biblical Literature conference. Dr. McCreary along with a colleague, presented on Rizpah, wife of King Saul, who […]

The Bible’s prophets rail against the mistreatment of widows and orphans. The marginalized did not enjoy advocates.  They were alone.  They were not directly connected to a man, the head of a family, someone with social standing, they had no one who spoke for them, who could demand justice.  The prophets stood in the gap.  

On May 20th  we celebrated five years of accompanying our brothers returning home from prisons and jails. In these years many of us have witnessed, up close and personal, a dignity and nobility in the men we call brother and friend. We have watched and heard their stories, stories of pain and loneliness, and equally,

It’s been five years since Joseph House became a reality; ten since the first inklings of it came about in thought. Joseph House began simply. It was not a grand and radical idea. It was the immediate solution to an immediate problem, the smallest bit of innovation. When Fr Dustin first began going into prisons

My journey with Joseph House began almost five years ago when I was working at the local homeless shelter in Tallahassee, and I was introduced there to Father Dustin. Accompanying Father Dustin was Qwan, one of the first residents welcomed into Joseph House. As I listened and learned from both Dustin and Qwan, I was

When we celebrate Mass we are calling to mind as a sacred act of remembrance the Passover meal. Holy Thursday, the eve before Good Friday, is a day when we Catholics commemorate the Last Supper: a Passover meal of remembrance that brings to mind the suffering, enslavement, and redemption of Israel by Israel’s God. Often

It was over a casual dinner with one of our residents, a young man who went into prison at age 18 and was released to us three years later at 21, that the conversation got personal, and very reflective. “I think if I had had parents like you, I might not have gone to jail.”

Recently, I was speaking with a local leader on chronic homelessness in Tallahassee. We discussed the disturbing paradox of how it is that we can live in the same city yet live in two different worlds. Yet this paradox isn’t so mysterious when one confronts historical neglect of impoverished black communities; communities often riddled with

The following is a submission by Quintin Storey, a resident of Joseph House. Back in 1992 Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall spoke of how urgent the issue of segregation and victimization of the black American must be addressed. He spoke of racism and prejudice and pointed out that it was not only a distant memory

Dear friends of Joseph House, Here is a scripture reflection from Dr. Sonya Cronin on John 9. One reality that confronts us anew during the outbreak of the coronavirus is how vulnerable many among us are on a daily basis, pandemic or not.  As they are walking along, Jesus sees a man blind from birth, and