What We Carry When We Die - the vision of a Catholic Worker

In 1932, just as the Great Depression was getting underway, an itinerant philosopher named Peter Maurin found himself in New York City. There he met a young woman, a spiritual seeker and social activist who had just converted to Catholicism. Her name was Dorothy Day. 

Together Maurin and Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement, at the heart of which lay a newspaper and several houses of hospitality, places where poor and hungry people could receive a meal or a place to sleep. Their goal was to create a society where it was "easier to be good," changing modern America from being "a society of go-getters to a society of go-givers."

How did they go about making this change? By following the practical precepts of the church, which flow directly from Matthew 25, namely, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, bury the dead, counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, pray for the living and the dead. When these are practiced, they realized, one's concern for "peace and justice" is no longer an abstraction or a harmless velleity. It becomes real and impactful.

Upon our death we can take no earthly treasures with us. We leave behind our wealth, our power, our social status, our degrees, and our titles. Yet paradoxically, in Maurin's own words, "what we give to the poor for Christ's sake is what we carry with us when we die."

Fr. Robert Barron

Community: A Theory of Revolution

~by Kevin Gilbert Mauer~

Christianity, G. K. Chesterton said, is a worldview that calls for an eternal revolution. He outlined the principles that make up the basis of Christian revolution in this way:

First, that some faith in our life is required even to improve it; second, that some dissatisfaction with things as they are is necessary even in order to be satisfied; third, that to have this necessary content and necessary discontent it is not sufficient to have the obvious equilibrium of the Stoic.

We must love life enough to think life is worth improving, hate injustice enough to know that life needs improvement, and care enough to see to it that life is improved. This is the eternal revolution, from the dawn of the Church: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

All of us are called to live out this revolution—the Gospel—in our own lives. We are also called to communion. It is no wonder, then, that the overwhelming witness of Church history attests to the importance of living out the Gospel by living in community. Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, often repeated the line that there is no revolution without a theory of revolution. Let us then take community as a theory of revolution for the 21st century, one that follows the unbroken trajectory of the eternal revolution that has been made manifest throughout Church history.

Community is a reflection of the true love personified in God himself: a family of three persons living in loving communion for all of eternity. Community is also a microcosm of the Church, the Body of Christ, whose hands rely on the feet and whose eyes rely on the ears (1 Corinthians 12:12-26). When we rely on one another in community, sharing gifts and partaking in each other’s joys and burdens—then we become more fully aware of how to do this as a Church.

The early Christians knew well the importance of community. The Apostles themselves were leaders of a communal arrangement in which all shared with one another according to their need (Acts 2:42-47) and held everything in common (4:32-37). A renewed zeal for this communal ethic has emerged many times throughout Church history, usually in response to a new crisis or opportunity.

In a society reeling from the collapse of the Roman Empire, St. Benedict of Nursia laid the groundwork for all future monasticism by writing his Rule. 500 years later, in response to growing corruption and materialism within Benedictine monasteries, St. Bernard of Clairvaux led the Cistercian movement for monastic renewal. Reacting to both corruption in the Church and the spread of heresy in the 13th century, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic completely re-envisioned monastic community with their insistence on living amid the world and directly interacting with it, leading transient lifestyles marked by preaching and almsgiving, without knowledge or worry of how the Lord would provide for their material needs. In the 16th century St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits, responding to the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Discovery, created communities that were regimented, learned, and active. The legacies of these and countless other movements like them live on in the Church today. And like so many other times in her history, the Church is ripe for a New Monasticism.

The 20th century has given us many beautiful examples of Christian community, including the Catholic Worker Movement (mentioned above), Mondragon Corporation, L’Arche Community, Taizé, The Simple Way, and the persistence of Amish communities and those of similar Protestant sects. These communities are pockets of simplicity, authentic culture, and localism in a century marked by industrialization, homogenization, and globalization. They have often picked up the pieces from the conflicts and injustices arising from the century’s many competing political ideologies and special interests.

There is a paradox in the modern world. We have become interdependent on such a large scale that we have forgotten our traditional reliance on tangible community and come to believe the delusion that we are personally autonomous. The reality is that we no less rely on others to meet our needs (and have a responsibility to meet the needs of others) than we have in the past, even though they are remote from us and out of our view. In this way interdependence remains real but is no longer appreciated and felt. A true sense of interdependence is recaptured at the local level, in our families and our communities.

In addition to this rise in individualism and alienation, there are many other concerns in the modern world that give us some clue as to the kind of new monasticism the Church needs today, including environmental concerns. The Church’s social teaching highlights the necessity of creating communities that confront the ecological dilemmas of our time:

Serious ecological problems call for an effective change of mentality leading to the adoption of new lifestyles, “in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of the common good are the factors that determine consumer choices, savings and investments”. These lifestyles should be inspired by sobriety, temperance, and self-discipline at both the individual and social levels. There is a need to break with the logic of mere consumption and promote forms of agricultural and industrial production that respect the order of creation and satisfy the basic human needs of all. These attitudes, sustained by a renewed awareness of the interdependence of all the inhabitants of the earth, will contribute to eliminating the numerous causes of ecological disasters as well as guaranteeing the ability to respond quickly when such disasters strike peoples and territories.

As we build a theory of revolution based on community, it must always be remembered that our aim is not to love an idea, but to love one another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran theologian and leader of the German resistance movement,wrote, “He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren builds community.”

Jean Vanier, the Catholic philosopher who founded L’Arche Community, adds this insight in From Brokenness to Community,

A community is not an abstract ideal. We are not striving for perfect community. Community is not an ideal; it is people. It is you and I. In community we are called to love people just as they are with their wounds and their gifts, not as we would want them to be. Community means giving them space, helping them to grow. It means also receiving from them so that we too can grow. It is giving each other freedom; it is giving each other trust; it is confirming but also challenging each other. We give dignity to each other by the way we listen to each other, in a spirit of trust and of dying to oneself so that the other may live, grow and give.

Community therefore begins and ends with people. It grows out of and serves personal relationships. We see the beginnings of such community, born of relationships, in our own city and diocese. Our friends John and Sarah Ramthun have founded 6:8, a community that strives for simplicity and making service personal. And some of us here at St. Paul’s will be laying the groundwork next year for an intentional housing community. These small steps are only the beginning.

Community is our theory of revolution, but what gives value and substance to this theory, and to any theory, are real relationships among real people. The revolution occurs when a group of people commits to giving themselves up in love for one another.

A Few things

I wanted to share a few things:

1. Sarah & I got to spend several hours with Kelsey catching up, eating, laughing, challenging, and encouraging each other today!!
1. I simply have to say, Wow it was amazing, humbling and so rewarding, thank you K-dawg for sharing your life and being transparent with us
2. Please continue to pray for the entire adoption process and that all goes smoothly.  With every adoption process there are experiences of loss and experiences of gifts received.  Help Sarah & I to be mindful of everyone that is involved in the process and not just think of our own needs and desires and wants and blessings received.  Help us to witness God's abundant love, joy, peace, & sacrifice that is involved in opening yourself up to love anyone in any relationship!!  
3. I really would love to have all of us or as many of us as possible to get together sometime soon to: catch up, eat, play, pray, challenge and encourage each other!!
1. I fond out Molly & Ben you might be in town for the beginning of August -- I hope Eric you will be back in town by then when M & B are still here and before Kelsey goes back to Fargo ye? I imagine there will be a small window of opportunity when we are all here if at all but want to put that idea out there to see if you all would be interested.  Thinking of having it at HOME and for as long as you all want could even be an over night if you want to get some good practice of community!! ;)
2. Who knows Caleb might be born already and have him join in on community life!!
1. i am so excited to have you all be apart of Caleb's life!!

Love you all and I thank God often for each of you and the work He is doing through you for His glory!!

<><

Praying for y'all!!!!  Thought of you as I watched this video on simplicity.  May God help to bring freedom in our lives through simplicity.
http://www.mystep.me/accountability/discipline-simplicity

My return HOME

4/23/2012

My Home away from HOME – My return HOME

So on 1/20/2012 I decided in the presence of Sarah & Eric to take a 3 month fast from Community.  I think I decided this for 3 reasons:

1)      I was obsessing over Community.

2)      I felt I was the only one who really cared about community & if I stopped working towards Community it would simply fade away.

3)      I believe a novice discerning HOME Community must have an extended time separated from the life of Community

 Since HOME yet has neither a tangible location nor members I felt called to take a mental separation.

These last 3 months were long & filled with an agonizing longing for HOME.  I certainly did not fast perfectly but I strived to stop talking, reading, thinking, & planning about Community.

Well at 9:48 am 4/20/2012, the first thing I did was read all the blog posts that the other Community members, Sarah, Eric, Kelsey, & Molly posted on our HOME Blog.

I was hoping this fast would end with profound new insights on life in Community. Not sure it has.

I did however realize that all 3 reasons for my fast were good reasons … I was obsessing.  … a novice would not be fully prepared for Community life w/o life separated from HOME for an extended time.

3 Insights/Points that have surfaced in the 3 days since the breaking of my fast

1)      It will be difficult for me to let go of control of the individual/uniqueness/freedom/etc. of each member in the Community.  I am drawn toward a need to control people’s responses/personalities/desires/joys/passions & when they are not like mine temptations to manipulate enter in. Forgive me for this & give me strength in this

a.       Learned this point by reading the blog posts from Jan 20, 2012 à 4/20/2012

2)      A sentiment that I so desire to always feel but also I long/pain for those who don’t & desire that priority #2 of HOME should be to foster this sentiment for “members” & “guest”

“HOME is where you can go without being a guest.” (page153)

“There’s always hope when you find the home where you’re not a guest.  I sincerely believe that kind of home is found by choosing to have a personal relationship with God and fellowship with people who also have chosen such a relationship.” (page242)

This sentiment & quotes I found in a book I read during my fast, thinking it would be a safe book, not dealing with Community called “Castaway Kid”

3)      I made point #2 = Priority #2 because; The one conclusion I realized today & inspired me to make this journal entry is I believe the largest insight this fast has afforded me. When I asked myself this afternoon, why do I want Community so intensely, why does the longing inside me make me HOME sick?

a.       I think 3 months ago I would have had a whole list of answers as to why: Community would be good for me, easier to live simply, safer & more financially secure, sharing resources, easier environment to be good, great witness to the world how early Christians lived, freer to help more people in need, It seems like it would be tons of fun to live/work/play/pray with my friends!!  The list would have been long.  But today the only thing & first thing that came to mind was: Why? BECAUSE I WANT TO DO THIS FOR GOD. I want to live in Community as a gift for God.

b.      I don’t know if He even wants this gift but I felt I ONLY WANT TO DO THIS TO PLEASE GOD.

To HIM Be the Glory

Selfish Desires

Quote from a book I'm reading - thoughts?  struggles? : 

"As we put down the selfish desires that consume us (and that push us to consume), our hearts begin to fill with God's cravings and His Will."

The following is from a friend of mine... I thought it a beautiful reflection of how we can better love Christ, especially in this time of Lent.

Reflections of Christ….

Last fall I had the opportunity to attend the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s formation and retreat program, Invitation to Renewal, held at the beautiful Seton Cove retreat center in Indianapolis. During one afternoon session, my eyes drifted to the small wooden cross hanging on the wall.

I was reminded that crucifixion isn’t pretty. Jesus, though in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped, and displayed the misery we ourselves experience when his hour had come instead of his divine glory.

He was beaten, bruised, dirty, and suffering. He wasn’t dressed in decent clothing. Perhaps one’s natural reaction would be avoiding such a scene, if only to allow the person privacy in their humiliation. We are naturally repulsed from a manifestation of such physical pain.

It occurred to me as my thoughts reverted back to my life and the topic at hand, that it isn’t pretty when others are being crucified in their own ways, either. Sometimes we are naturally repulsed by the chaos of a living environment, a lack of hygiene, the indications of a sickness untreated, an odor untempered, an angry demeanor, an irrational worldview, or perhaps we are irritated by a seeming disinterest in trying to make oneself look at all presentable.

Jesus was crucified on a day like any other day in Jerusalem. People woke up, went about their work, kids played in the streets, food was prepared, and criminals were hung. Sometimes I wonder if I had been living in Jerusalem on that day if I would have acknowledged the death of three more men on trees – would I have even been aware?

Therefore it’s not surprising that we are not aware of many of the sufferings of others. They occur as we wake up, go to work, as our kids play, food is prepared, and criminals die on death row. But they happen, and people are beaten, bruised, dirty, and suffering. And so we should not be surprised, either, that some situations and people are not always pretty. Neither are we in our sufferings.

As Jesus hung on the cross, Mary stood at the bottom, loving her son. It would be an incredible grief to stand there and watch one’s son suffer. But to comfort him with her presence, she had to stand there. And so must we, instead of avoiding the suffering because of its ugliness. Then we can try to further imitate Christ by pulling others up out of their hell after the crucifixion to a place of eternal hope and glory.

We love Christ crucified in loving others as they suffer.

“Even as many were amazed at him—

so marred were his features,

beyond that of mortals

his appearance, beyond that of human beings -”

Isaiah 52:14