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

Gratitude Shout-Out

After the holidays, when Ben and I returned to Omaha I was going through some of my old books and such and came across my collection of journals. As it turns out, since my junior year in high school I have written in over 15 journals. 15! Flipping through a few of them I've realized so much has happened in my life and most of those events, memories, struggles and joys are captured within the pages of those journals. Being the curious person I am, I began to think back and wonder how I even started to become a reflective individual. All it took was finding the first journal I began... an older, almost antique looking journal from high school that was given to me by the lovely Sarah Ramthun. I remember being in your house, either for a FAT sleepover or some other gathering, and you generously offered this journal to me, telling me you had recently received it from an aunt or family member who had passed away. I felt honored to receive such a gift and had knew it was marking a new chapter in my life.

It wasn't just that gift that really established a reflective lifestyle for me. It was the steno pads that were a tradition at each mission trip. The questions of, "where did you see God today?" or the consistent, "how is your relationship with God going?" that I knew were always going to be asked every time I was with you, Sarah. You pushed me to be prepared with answers, to really examine my life and strive to improve. Journaling has become one of my favorite pastimes and one that has literally saved me in situations where I've felt hopeless, lost or drowning in despair. These books are a gift I will always treasure, not just for their contents, but for what they represent - your love, gentle guidance, and consistent care for me. Thank you, Sarah, for truly looking out for my best intentions, and the best in everyone you meet.

I was reading this article and figured I'd post it here since it kinda relates to community and our recent conversations.

http://catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=44571

Too much alone time? You be the judge.

This is a response to Eric's post, but I figured I'd just make a new one since I don't like the formatting that blogger uses for comments.

Eric, thanks for sharing those select memories from the trip. It's so funny how the littlest things can be used to teach us all interesting life lessons, such as literally doing nothing and listening to your iPod. Hmmm.

I, too, enjoy having at least a little bit of simple "Kelsey time" each day, and on the days and weeks when I don't take very good care of myself by setting that time aside, everybody else pays the price while I try to suffer silently (which doesn't usually work because I just get cranky). It is good and well to spend time with whatever "community" you're currently a part of, but it's also just as, if not more important to make sure you take the time to yourself and don't always cover a genuine desire for alone time or silence with a facade of a good mood and a smile. If we constantly try to "fake it" and put on a smile when we're feeling really crappy, we very well may end up suffocating or just getting burned out and in the end everybody loses.

John, personally, and I obviously don't know the ins and outs of your feelings when you were not talking to anybody at dinner, it sounds like you're being a little hard on yourself (and that's coming from someone who beats herself up alllllll the time, so who am I to talk, anyway?). Shoot, not everyday is going to be a cakewalk of smiles and butterflies, and I think that's just alright. Sorry if that comes across crass, it's really not supposed to.

We recently did team evaluations where each of the four of us answered a couple of questions about the other three missionaries on the team. The category that challenged me the most was "Living Order," which essentially pertains to making time for yourself and your own personal life amongst the bazillions of things you have going on all the time. Tim (my team director) is really good at putting things into context and expressing them very well with words, and I told him that it's hard for me to take time to myself, especially in the middle of the day, because it seems selfish to do that when there are students I can meet with, barehanding (talking to random people around campus) to be done or expense reports to fill out.

He called me right out on that and said that rather than being selfish to the people I know right now I am actually being selfish to the people that the Lord desires to put into my life a few years down the road. He mentioned a shocking statistic: 98% of Youth Ministers (of course John and Sarah came instantly to mind) last 2 years on average in their ministry and after that they get burned out and never work for the Church again.

This was completely shocking! It makes total sense: we desire to help the lost sheep find their way, and when it comes to matters as important as our Faith, we desire that they know it fully and know true friendships in Christ.  We might end up pouring everything we have into just a few people for a short amount of time, but when the Lord presents new disciples to us down the road, we have already burned out and cannot give them the adequate, if any, time that they deserve in order to grow. Therefore, by taking time to ourselves we are actually doing a service to the people we don't even know yet and still allowing the Lord to work His magic through us with them.

Now I'll end this rather long post with a thought. Yes, I believe it certainly is possible to become selfish with our alone time and begin to guard it, build up walls around it and never let anybody touch it while it continues to grow and grow. But is guarding a set amount of time each day, whether 15 minutes or 2 hours, to remain sacred for you and you alone (with Jesus, of course) bad? There are both positives and negatives to a "yes" and a "no" answer, but this is definitely a common struggle--especially among us!--and by learning discipline in this an entire community can be strengthened.

Praying for all of you,
Kelsey

p.s. Perhaps we could read a book together? It's been something on my heart. I was thinking, although I'm sure many of us have read this, Mother Teresa's Come Be My Light. She understands suffering and service more than any of us and has truly lived it! Let me know your thoughts! :)

The Individual

I was going to make this just a comment to John’s post about community taking effort, but it got a little long, so here it is as a full post. I agree that community can take some serious effort, and that effort definitely should be put forth in most cases in community life. I did have a thought that there are also times when it will take effort to be an individual and/or to ALLOW others to have their space as well. Thinking of the trip, a couple moments come to mind.

One was working on a little eyebrow deally at the end of the day on Friday to make the soffit, siding and fascia to all tie together on the corner of the house. A few of us had a little brainstorming session and came up with some ideas, but with all the jobs being done, I ended doing the actual construction of the thing. The work was frustrating at times, but to tell the truth I really enjoyed solving it and I am glad that I had the opportunity to go at it alone. It was incredibly freeing to be able to go at my pace and not have to discuss everything out loud (although I can get in some pretty good arguments all by myself). Anyway, it was great to both share the work of the house, but at times be able to work or struggle on something alone for a while. I’ll leave it up to you to apply that to other aspects of life, because I don’t want to. I know you can do it.

Secondly, I think to the car ride back home. Being an introvert who had just spent a week with 4 other people almost nonstop, I was pretty ready for some serious inside my own head time. I popped in my earbuds and shut everything out. I really enjoyed being able to just sit and think, and I feel like it was fruitful. However, I realize that to the rest of the group, I seemed like I was angry or something was wrong, which I am very sorry for. To top it off, I did get frustrated when someone would ask me a question. How dare they try to interact with me while I’m thinking? So, I do think that there are times to just be alone, and perhaps even to let yourself or others be alone to their thoughts, even when you are physically close. I know that I haven’t been successful in handling this well, but there must be a place for it.

I leave you with this quote of great importance and wisdom:

To me, it's always a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, 'Hey, can you give me a hand?,' you can say, 'Sorry, got these sacks.’

-Jack Handey

“You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.” - Henri Nouwen

Community takes effort

Well as you will see again, this Mini Mission Trip has had a profound impact on my life and discernment of community. Like I mentioned yesterday this Mission trip in some respects allowed us an opportunity to enter into a community together. It provided an opportunity – for us to enter into a shared life. We worked, lived, ate, played, prayed, & shared expenses. And that is a beautiful thing, which I enjoyed immensely. However I also realized that just because the opportunity for community was there in structure, it didn’t mean that I was always partaking in communal life. And on the other hand if the structure of community was not in place there would have been no communal life there for me to take part of.

Hopefully as I continue, this realization will become clearer.

Most of the week, for me was awesome and fun and I was having a good ol time with everyone. One major exception to this was Wednesday. The weather was unpleasant all day and the work proved to hard cold and dirty. I was crabby and then I was short with my friends around me. Then I was frustrated with the fact that I become crabby so easily if I am uncomfortable. I just sort of checked out from the community around me. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone and said hardly anything while we got ready for dinner and ate dinner. I just didn’t want to be there, and boy I made it obvious in my demeanor.

Later reflecting and talking with my wife, I saw how I acted was really disrespectful and uncharitable to those around me. I am sorry for how I acted, but in further reflection I came to realized something about community and about my nature.

I realized 1) That as beautiful and as contagious as community is it also takes effort and at sometimes it will take huge amounts of effort to enter into the opportunity of community that is before me. 2) I have a strong desire to be an individual and the community in structure and practice needs to allow space for individuals.

The images that came to mind are 1)Each person joining the community is a play doh person and when you join we take your lump of play doh and add it to the community play doh person so that the community becomes this one giant play doh person. 2) Each person joining the community is a person made out of the stuff that is a person and we then put up four walls and a roof around us and we call the community HOME. Whereas the house is the structure & order & traditions of the community. And the people inside are the people inside the community. This HOME we build has windows and doors for us to go in and out of and a front porch for us to invite the neighbors to hang out and the doors are unlocked and the windows uncurtained. So the HOME is tangible and something real and a part of the persons’ identity and design and yet the HOME is separate from each individual and each individual is separate from the other individuals.

In summary:

1) The Community needs to respect the individual and provide true freedom to remain persons

2) Each individual needs to put in effort and at times great effort to get outside themselves in order to enter into the communal life and benefit the entire community

And at the end of the day we all come back HOME

Community is Contagious

Communal Life. - They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and prossessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

- Acts 2:42-47 -

Last week, I had an amazing time on Mission Trip with some even more amazing friends. To make it even better we were serving people and an organization that I know & love. An organization we have become friends with. On our way home we stopped in St. Louis to visit a couple of Catholic Worker houses and other similar type community houses. Was interesting and continues to challenge me and raise questions in me of the type of communal life God is calling me to. Anyway after we got back in the car, some of us got to talking about the week of service and about past mission trip experiences to Mississippi. Brother David made mention of how each year after the week of working on mission trip he told himself he would work harder at making this great feeling last longer and this life of serving more a part of his life back home. Each year he noticed he was able to do a better job. After last summer he very actively looked for areas where he could serve within his talents. He started getting somewhat involved with habitat here in Sauk. But his reflection was even though he desires to serve more and he is actually doing it more throughout the year this trip to MS always seems significantly better and more fruitful and useful. Even this most recent one the 5 of us were just rapping up. Those of us in the car that were discussing this starting trying to figure out why the mission trip was better and why it is hard to bring it back home in a sustainable way for an extended period of time.

Discussions lead to the idea that a big difference was who we were serving with. On the mission trip the 5 of us were in a community – we lived, eat, worked, played, & prayed together. We put all the costs of the trip together and split the bill. And in a fairly larger scale that is what we do on the summer mission trip. And I was like wow – this sounds and seems a lot like what the early church looked like. So it would only make sense that as verse 47 says, “praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

It only makes sense that this communal life when tied to service work is so much more enjoyable and attractive. David was trying to serve by himself when he got back home – which I believe is amazing and very commendable – but as we discussed in the car David can’t be the Body of Christ. He is only one part of the Body. And when we live & serve in community we have a much higher chance to become a fuller version of the Body of Christ. And let me tell you Christ is Beautiful. We all have different gifts from God and He distributes them to all of us differently, so that it forces us (or draws us) to form a communal life in order for us to become the Body of Christ.

I love Communal Life and it is true the world needs Communal life, and if we are all aiming at God it may just happen that others will also catch this contagious way to live.

From Detachment to Detachment

So Sarah & got to talking on our car ride to Madison Tuesday. Our topic of conversation seemed to be two different topics, then by the end we were both convicted by a radical (at least it is radical for the two of us because we had not thought of this idea before) idea that these two topics can be one topic.

So Topic ONE: we were talking about detachment and how God is working in us in great ways to encourage us to be more detached to our stuff; our books, clothes, food, money, car, house, toys and tools etc. This detachment in the last couple of months has taken on two models. 1) Us giving or throwing away lots of things we don’t need. 2) Freeing us up to share with others who need or want the item. This growth in detachment has cause a huge growth in our desire for community and having all things in common. Having this dream that one day I won’t see “my” stuff as mine anymore. I have felt such a freedom in this great concept of detachment.

Then Topic TWO: We started talking about work around the house. And how sometimes Blake leaves his dishes in the sink for days before cleaning them so Sarah feels strongly motivated to do all our dishes immediately after eating to not have a double standard. In the sense that if Blake leaves dishes for a day we become frustrated but if we leave the dishes for a while – well we had a good excuse or had another thing that was more urgent and we are going to get back to our dishes later - type of double standard. We also got to talking about meals and cleaning at the house in Mississippi where we stayed for our Mini Mission Trip. Feeling like Sarah & I were always leading the cooking and cleaning and no one else would lead a cleanup. If we asked most everyone would jump in and help. But it was like no one else saw the work on their own. They had to be made aware of the work to help with it. We were like this is their work too. Now to be honest, I enjoyed doing the work & enjoyed serving the group in that work. Tuesday morning Sarah was doing dishes and Blake had left a mess on the stove from when he last cooked and Blake came down and was sitting in the kitchen waiting for his ride to work. So Sarah simply asked Blake if he would want to clean up his mess on the stove. He did with no problem. Likewise we talked how it would be a good way to serve Blake by washing his dishes and show him love and mercy. He’s done nothing to deserve us doing his dishes for him but we do it anyway, because, I have done nothing to deserve salvation but Christ died anyway. I guess dishes pales in comparison.

However as we continued talking about this Topic TWO I felt the Lord nudge me back to Topic ONE. We kept using language of “our” mess & “his” mess. “my” work & “their” work. I felt God saying the better way to look at this would be to be detached from who “owns” the work you see to be done. So I don’t look in the sink and say oh there’s Blake’s dirty dishes again, well I can either let him do his work or I can be nice and do his work for him. No, I come to the sink and say, oh there are dirty dishes to be clean, I can either clean the dishes or not.

This seemed to make sense to both of us and also convict us and challenge us to think, talk, & work this way. I know this is not going to be easy to incorporate and will take constant effort and accountability from those around us. I also realized in this conversation that the Lord was already working this in my life in small ways already. The Example came to mind of the couple times I’ve visited The Apartment in Platteville & I saw a sink full of dirty dishes. I cleaned the dishes and dried and put them away. Looking back, I can honestly say I didn’t see the dishes as The Apartment’s work that I was doing for them. I just saw dirty dishes and wanted to clean them. That’s it. I didn’t think I was being nice or that they now owe me some favor in return. Praise God for starting the work of detaching me from this before I was even made aware.

Summary in Bullet form:

• Detachment of things: “my car, my house, my phone, my toys, my tools”
• Detachment of work: “my project, my job, my mess, his mess, I am doing Blake a favor by doing his dishes – this leads to sense of anger or feelings of this is not fair he owes me now and why can’t he clean up after his mess.
• Verses “hey look there is A mess on the stove. There is work over there. I feel invited to clean or to do this task I am made aware of. It is not my mess or your mess or my job or your job it is simply A job.
• - Do I have the time & skills to do the task? Then I do it.
• The radical view that nothing is ours not this house, money, car, tools, toys, body, hands, & feet – I’m just temporarily using it.

I found a great promo video for our Community!

Waiting

Howdy.

To begin I’d like to make a couple notes about where I stand in life right now. I’m still not sure what I’m called to regarding community… Truth be told I’m a little bit exhausted with the thought of it all. However, I do believe God has been revealing his plan to me regarding the work he is calling me to. Enough of that. Now here are some thoughts:

I have been thinking a lot about the time that we spend waiting for things in life. Often, I feel as though God reveals an end-goal to me, but I do not see the steps between where I am and where I need to be. Many times it even seems as though I could dive right into that call if it weren’t for the commitments I already have (school, a signed lease, etc.). Why would God give me a vision if I cannot act on it right away? To teach me patience? Do I really have to sit and wait around for the right time? This has been the cause of much anxiety for me in the past few months.

Then I thought to myself, ‘Self, there is a difference between patience and inaction.” This is not necessarily a lesson in patience, because just sitting around is not patience. God would make me wait to take a step unless there was another step before it which I haven’t taken yet. God has given me a vision that I am not yet equipped to accomplish. He is still working on me in the meantime. We should never just be waiting, but instead continuing ever forward to become the man or woman who will be ready for the great cause for which God is preparing us.

So what do I do until then? Well, I can continue to try to grow in virtue, but that’s something that I’ll never be done with as long as I live. What is the next step toward this specific goal? In the words of Derek Zoolander, “I guess I have a lot of things to ponder.”

At the end of this reflection, I suppose I have not really come to any conclusion of what you or I need to be doing… deal with it. J I pray that God will reveal to myself and to you the next step in each of our journeys as we discern and that we will not grow anxious about what the end goal is or how close or far away it may be. I pray that we may focus on where we are now and how it is transforming us for the better.

Peace b w u

Reflection on Community MEMBERS

As I was praying this morning, I was thinking of all of you and desiring to be together as many of us were on retreat. As I prayed, I was struck that we are forming community and that community is made up of community MEMBERS (I know - it's a shocking discovery!!!). I was convicted that I need to be a better community member - to this HOME Community, to my family, to John, to my neighbors, friends, etc. As I strive to be a better community member by praying, growing in virtue, being hospitable, serving... the community improves. As we are apart physically, may we pray for each other, connect and grow closer, and also strive to be better members of the communities we are physically apart of (Jackson, WI - Friends of the Orphans - Creighton - Univ. of North Dakota - THE Apartment - 6:8 - our families, Churches, and friends).

Praying for all of you!!!

Sarah <><

HOME sweet HOME

Hello friends and community-discerning members!

For those of you who could make it to the HOME retreat we had the past few days, it was a tremendous joy to spend time with all of you and a very fruitful weekend in continuing discernment of the community life. Thank you so much for sharing!

John, Sarah, Eric and I were discussing the Facebook page and how effective it is for sharing our thoughts, reflections, or just anything we'd like to share with our HOME-ly friends. I pose a new suggestion: and please do respond or at least give a "I think this is really dumb" or "Hey, that's neat." so we can give this thing a whirl.

After making an executive decision that this is the route we'll go, let's start sharing prayer requests, one-liner reflections, statements of gratitude or acknowledgement of another member, basically anything that will keep us more connected while we are very physically disconnected.

Also, it's real easy to make every member an administrator so we don't have to have just one email address allowed to post on here. If you're interested, please respond to this with your email address and I'll set it up so we can get started.

Praying for each of you! Merry belated Christmas and happy early new year!

Peace,
Kelsey