September 28, 2023 • 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm ET
Catholic Information Center
360 Division Ave S
Grand Rapids,MI 49503
Hear spiritual lessons learned from living with the poor in Port-au-Prince Haiti.
From filming the poor to living with the poor, Gerard Straub discovered a wisdom that can only be learned by living the Gospel in a radical way. Seeing, feeling, and experiencing the reality of those barely living on the peripheries of life, that is where we are awakened to a new, deeper reality and experience more fully the boundless love and mercy of God.
Gerard Thomas Straub is an award-winning author and filmmaker. One of his ten books, The Sun & Moon Over Assisi was named the Best Spirituality Hardcover Book of the Year by the Catholic Press Association in 2001. Both The Sunrise of the Soul (2020) and his latest book, Reading Thomas Merton and Longing for God in Haiti (2022) are the fruit of an unexpected new life.
His life is a journey of transformation that took Gerry from the glamour of Hollywood to a slum in Port-au-Prince Haiti where today he operates a home of hope and healing for 44 abandoned kids and an additional 7 who spend the day, the youngest of whom are still in diapers.
During the past eight years, Gerry began to commit himself to the rejuvenating power of authentic solitude, turning his attention to his own inner spiritual poverty. In the silent predawn darkness of each Haitian morning he waits, reflects, and prays. The fruit of living in a busy orphanage and finding the lonely hours of silence are the spiritual lessons that are a prophetic message for our time.