Christ Our Hope Catholic Church

Latest Posts in Christ Our Hope Catholic Church

Downtown Lazarus

Downtown Lazarus is A poem from the margins by Jani Kelly


Wings of Joy

Wings of Joy is an original poem by Jani Kelly.


Be the LOVE

Be the LOVE is an original poem by Jani Kelly.


The Good Gift

This past Thanksgiving marked the two-year anniversary of when I was shot. The weapon was a Smith & Wesson high performance revolver, loaded with eight .357 Magnum bullets. The perpetrator fired all eight rounds. I was struck three times. Miraculously, my injuries were nominal: three cracked ribs and a collapsed lung. I lost a lot of blood. It could have been worse. One bullet, “a thru and thru,” passed close to my spine. 


NOTES FROM THE WORKING CLASS: Javon Monte 1994 - 2024

The blue-skied Seattle day is warm for February 8th. I walk across the freeway overpass on Madison Avenue and turn right onto 6th Avenue. A man is huddled on the steps leading up to the Plymouth Congregational Church. The building is the color of a white palace. The man is young, black, lean, but he takes up the entire landing at the bottom of the steps; his battered blue backpack is large and looks heavy. He is crying, sobbing into a blinding-white concrete buttress.