The Next Worker

Baby Steps

2009-02-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

After reading my old post on Wal-Mart I figured I should update everyone, as I've made great, okay decent, progress in buying local and making better purchasing decisions overall. And if you live in South Jersey, I'll tell you where I'm shopping and give you the links to hook you up.
First, I found a local butcher, Bringhurst Meats. You can see where they slaughter the animals from the counter where you purchase your meat. It's a small family place that's tucked back a windy road and has been since the 1930's. I can buy not only locally farmed meat, but grass-fed beef, rabbits, free-range chickens, goat meat and fresh bacon without nitrates. Plus, they buy animals from the local 4-H kids and then sell the meat. And, as expected, their products taste awesome.
Second, I started getting organic produce delivered weekly from Suburban Organics. The downside is that to supply people with organic produce year round, they ship produce from all over. Al Gore would pass out at the sight of the carbon footprint my organic pineapples and mangos leave behind. BUT, during the spring and summer I do get locally produced veggies AND they deliver organic milk too. So while I'm paying more for everything, it's worth it too me because it saves on all the running around, and when I pay top dollar for food, I use it up without waste. The kids will learn to eat this stuff before I grow it so our crops don't rot in the crisper. And finally, for all the bits of veggies that do get brown and gross before I turn then into one of my delicious home-cooked dinners, its simply a trip out to the compost pile. We've got a nice recycled pallet compost pile cooking out back and we're hoping to get some raised beds out front this spring.
It didn't take much searching to find these places so it's likely there's a co-op or butcher in your town too: why not have a look?
So, there have been some changes here and I'm feeling good about it all. It feels pretty good to read my earlier post and see that, wow, I could make some baby steps in the right direction. With a little more time, who knows what we might accomplish this year. Dare I be optimistic? I'll drink to that.

Bob Waldrop-Who I Hope to be When I Grow Up

2009-02-10T18:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a presentation by Bob Waldrop, of the Catholic Worker house in Oklahoma City. He spoke at Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery at Clear Creek; a traditional Benedictine order with a growing community of Catholic agrarians popping up around it.
We briefly toyed with the idea of running away to Oklahoma during our dismal house search but decided against it; at least for now.
Waldrop runs a great Worker house, and his presence at Clear Creek shows that the values of the Catholic Worker Movement do not run contrary to traditional Catholic values. Just because some liberals hijacked Day as their mascot and twisted her message or used what suited their views du jour, the Catholic Worker Movement is just what it says-Catholic, to the core.
If I can create in my own way even half of the good that Waldrop does out his way, I'll be lucky.

An Examination of Conscience

2008-09-05T18:57:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling rather guilty lately related to a number of reasons but primarily because I've been shopping....at Wal-Mart. I also spent a Saturday morning at, sigh, IKEA. I felt like I needed a shower after each trip (which thankfully I can do now since our tub and shower are installed.) Me, the one who totally believes in buying local, subsidiarity, distributism, hauled four kids into a Super Wal-Mart for back to school supplies and housewares. I spent hundreds of dollars on a table at IKEA that was made in a communist country where Catholics are persecuted. And despite reading 'Omnivores Dilemma' and 'Crunchy Con' in the last month, I picked up a bag of Tyson chicken at the supermarket.

"Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been three weeks since my last confession. In that time I have bought a ton of crap in the name of convenience and/ or sloth. I knowingly made choices that went against Catholic social teachings in order to save a buck. My efforts to become a self sufficient agrarian did not happen the moment we bought this house so I am guilty of the sin of despair. And I've taken the Lord's name in vain, repeatedly, driving through traffic to get everywhere from our home in the boonies."

Here's what my walk on the dark side has taught me.
1. Having stuff requires buying more stuff to take care of and organize the stuff you have. For example: Having kids requires lots of stuff. And not only do you need to keep buying them new stuff, family members will also buy them tons of stuff you don' t want. As a bonus, you get to store lots of old stuff to pass onto your younger children.
2. Today's suburbs are not equipped to support buying local. You can't just walk down the street to your local butcher/baker/candlestick maker. You have to drive, and if you're like me you don't want to drive around to 4 different places for 4 things with 4 children. You wind up going to one place to buy them all.
3. It's takes time to do the research to shop conscientiously. I know what's bad about factory farmed food but where around here do I find the good stuff? Where can I find reasonably priced furniture not made by child labor? Until I can raise it or make it all myself I'm stuck buying if from someone. And up to now, I just haven't had the time to search out all the local farm stands, organic livestock ranches or dairy goat operations in South Jersey.
4. Quality is more expensive and paying more money is hard. Yeah, I know the arguments- "But if you cut back you can afford the better stuff." "If you get the good stuff you'll be healthier and make up the difference in how you feel and medical costs." Blah, blah, blah-organic milk is TWICE as much as the regular stuff; DOUBLE. My grocery bills are going up and you want me to pay double?! I'm a tyrant with the drinks in my house, we drink lots of water but we still consume tons of milk. And I'm supposed to pay double?! Double?! Sorry, I just can't.
And now, my act of contrition;

"O My God, I am most heartily sorry for all my sins; and I detest these purchases above all others because they displease Thee, Who are infinitely good and lovable and I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to do penance for them and never more spend money on goods that promote sloth, gluttony, envy and anger. Amen."

For my penance I will;
1. Get rid of more stuff through Freecycle or Goodwill. (More thoughts on stuff later too.)
2. and 3. Find one local merchant and purchase some of my groceries from him/her while out doing other errand (going to church, taking kids to appointments, etc.)
4. Work on price book so I know when the quality stuff is on sale so I'll be more likely to buy it.

Thanks for letting me come clean. I feel better already.

A tub and trendy values

2008-08-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm finally caught up on laundry, but only because my husbands turned off the water to the washer. I'm done with dishes for the night, but only because we ate dinner on paper plates. And now as I prepare to unwind for the evening, my husband informs me that he's just going to redo all the plumbing to the downstairs bathroom and washer. No big deal. This is the bathroom renovation project that never ends. With a lot of luck and even more prayers, we just might be able to bathe in a tub by the end of the week. But, that's what I thought last week before I realized the entire underside of our quaint clawfoot tub was rusted and had to be stripped, primed with two coats of Rust Bullet and painted with two coats of latex. And the drywall installation took a bit longer as well. Last time my husband and I owned a home we could make our own we were newlyweds with lots of time (aka no children) but little funds. Now, although not rich, we've saved up money for home repairs but we've got no free time and the minutes we eek out here and there are constantly sabotaged by these four. Notice the quality rusted seating.

Oh a lighter note, country living is all I hoped it'd be. Lots of fresh air and open space for the kids and lots of wildlife to explore; outside and inside our home. Like bats. If you've watched 'The Great Outdoors' with John Candy and Dan Akroyd you can imagine how last night went in my house. Ah, the thrill of nature.
Despite the setbacks and surprises I wouldn't change a thing. In fact let me use the tub and the bats to illustrate some points I've been pondering lately. (In my usual round about way. If this gets diluted forgive me as I'm still very sleep deprived.)
Lately, the media is all about living 'green' and lessening your carbon footprint. There is also plenty of press about trying to save money. And there is no shortage of books out there on downsizing, organizing and in general, simplifying your life. Three separate lifestyle goals, 'green' living, frugal living and simple living, all supposedly better than the usual disposable, materialistic consumer culture the majority strives for. If you chose one of these lifestyles and followed it to a T you'd be doing pretty good for yourself because any of the above three would be better than what the general public does. But individually, each is incomplete because none have Christian values at their base. Take the tub for example. We're doing the 'green' thing because we're recycling a tub that otherwise would've made it into a landfill. We're doing the frugal thing because fixing up an old tub is much cheaper than buying a new reproduction claw tub. But we're not doing the simple thing because a person who embraces simple living would've hired out this job weeks ago and turned over their credit card number to the contractor and the designer and gone off to Vegas to avoid the stress that comes with tearing up a bathroom. So there are times when a person who practices simple living will throw money at a problem; a common mainstream solution in a society that underestimates the value of hard work. Likewise, a 'green' person would throw in the towel if he/she realized it might harm the bats nesting in his/her attic and outsource the work to a pricey eco-friendly contractor. The frugal person might just charge ahead and used the most toxic materials available to restore the tub, the fumes of which could kill all the bats in a 10 mile radius, just because they're the cheapest.
As a Catholic I was to save money on the project but not at the cost of the natural resources, like the frugal person. But unlike the 'green' person the health and well being of bats is not more important than that of my family so I'm not going to turn my attic into a bat sanctuary. And while living simply, and eliminating clutter and stress from our lives is important, spending money and relying on disposable conveniences and unnecessary indulgences is the wrong way to do so.
Catholics protect the planet and its resources because they're a gift from God. We live simply because Christ lived simply and to keep out focus on heavenly reward not earthly possessions. We spend less to avoid debt, usury and because fewer expenses means we need less income, therefore more time can be spent with our families serving Christ rather than working for the man. I bet you didn't know being a Catholic worker could be so trendy.
Every so often Catholic ideas become popular; just not the part where Christ is involved. Without Him, they morph into quasi religions of their own, fanatics and all. (St. Al Gore anyone?) Don't settle for the values society hands us when your Catholic faith offers you that and so much more. Living your faith ensures a healthy environment, a little money in your pocket and a simpler life, even when your bathroom is torn up and you've got four kids.

New Beginnings

2008-08-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

It is with much joy, and much lack of sleep, that I announce major changes for The Next Worker. On June 27 at 315pm we closed on a beautiful old house in South Jersey with just over an acre of land. At 214am June 28, we welcomed into the world our fourth child and second son, Fulton Ambrose. God is so good.
The last six weeks have been a whirlwind to say the least. I feel guilty even blogging when there's so much that absolutely HAS to get done, including sleeping but any good writer undergoing such developments feels incomplete unless she can WRITE about them. Besides, I can't do more bragging to my friends and family; I need to move into the realm of strangers in which to share my joy.
I've got so many priorities right now I hardly know where to begin. I wind up starting several things but ultimately I wind up doing something trivial because the rest of it is so overwhelming. Just having a new child is one thing, having three other small children is another. Purchasing a fixer up is one thing, fixing it up with a newborn and three small kids is another. Preparing for another homeschooling year is one thing, trying to write up lesson plans with a newborn and a new house and did I mention the three other small children is starting to seem impossible. Oh, and did I mention I started a homeschooled girls field hockey team and I'm volunteering for our local homeschooling support group? Have you caught your breath yet? Because I'm still gasping for air.
But despite all this it is hard for my husband and I to not just want to jump headfirst into all the ideas I've hashed out on here; self sufficient living, the agrarian lifestyle. simplifying, etc. At least as much as such ideals are possible on an acre in Jersey. However, most people are living on less than an acre in suburban areas just like us. Our new homestead could hopefully serve as an example of how to put the Worker principles into action on a small, readily accessible scale...if we can ever get past this initial starting point (which includes tearing out our only full bath and relying on sponge baths for the last two weeks.)
So now The Next Worker is going to change course a bit. While passing along the wisdom of Day and the Worker movement is still central to what we're doing the blog will now focus on fulfilling these ideals and what concrete steps we're taking towards living this 'Worker' lifestyle we've imagined for ourselves. I always felt I couldn't live up to my expectations because of the situation we were in. Now that we've secured the house I'd been dreaming of, will we fall short of our goals, succeed beyond our wildest dreams or fall somewhere in between? Could we realize what we sought for so long isn't possible at all?
Now the rubber meets the road. We're off and running. Already our new situation has presented opportunities to help people anonymously, offer hospitality for groups of people and be on call, with a door always open, for friends in need. I think the biggest problem will be not setting our sights to high right away and getting discouraged when life (aka four kids, homeschooling, a full time job, etc) prevents us from doing what we want in a timely fashion, which means, right now!
For now, we need to finish the bathroom. Then there's minor cosmetic stuff inside we want to tackle like painting since this house is disgusting but there's several major projects we're having a hard time deciding between. And the yard! Heaven knows what we will find out there next but already we need to think of how to get it in order for next spring.
I'm hoping to work out my thoughts through posting and maybe, if we can fix our camera, start posting pictures. Eventually, I would love to have our own Path to Freedom type thing going but that's a few years down the road. Stay tuned! I'm happy to be back. And feel free to leave advice by way of personal messages or links. I'm always looking to learn more. I love new beginnings.

Circumstances of our lives...cheerfully borne

2008-04-23T06:33:00.001-07:00

"In a way of course taking care of your own, children and grandchildren, is taking care of your self. On the other hand there is the sacrament of duty as Father McSorley calls it. There is great joy in being on the job, doing good works, performing the works of mercy. But when you get right down to it, a work which is started personally often ends up by being paper work--writing letters, seeing visitors, speaking about the work while others do it. One can become a veritable Mrs. Jellyby, looking after the world and neglecting one's own who are struggling with poverty and hard work and leading, as such families with small children do these days, ascetic lives. There are vigils, involuntary ones, fasting, due to nausea of pregnancy for instance, but St. Angela of Foligno said that penances voluntarily undertaken are not half so meritorious as those imposed on us by the circumstances of our lives and cheerfully borne.

The christian life is certainly a paradox. The teaching of St. John of the Cross (which was for beginners, he said) is of the necessity for detachment from creatures; of the need of travelling light through the dark night.

Most of us have not the courage to set out on this path wholeheartedly, so God arranges it for us.

It would seem to the unthinking that mothers of children, whether of one or a dozen, are intensely preoccupied with creatures; their little ones, food, clothing, shelter, matters that are down to earth and grossly material such as dirty diapers, dishes, cooking, cramming baby mouths with food, etc. Women's bodies, heavy with children, dragged down by children, are a weight like a cross to be carried about. From morning until night they are preoccupied with cares but it is care for others, for the duties God has given them. It is a road once set out upon, from which there is no turning back. Every woman knows that feeling of not being able to escape, of the inevitability of her hour drawing ever nearer. This path of pain is woman's lot. It is her glory and her salvation. She must accept.

We try to escape, of course, either habitually or occasionally. But we never can. The point I want to make is that a woman can achieve the highest spirituality and union with God through her house and children, through doing her work which leaves her no time for thought of self, for consolation, for prayer, for reading, for what she might consider development. She is being led along the path of growth inevitably. But she needs to be told these things, instructed in these things, for her hope and endurance, so that she may use what prayer she can, to cry out in the darkness of the night.

Here is her mortification of the senses:

Her eyes are affronted by disorder, confusion, the sight of human ailments, and human functions. Her nose also; her ears tormented with discordant cries, her appetite failing often; her sense of touch in agony from fatigue and weakness.

Her interior senses are also mortified. She is alone with her little ones, her interest adapted to theirs; she has not even the companionship of books. She has no longer the gay companions of her youth (their nerves can't stand it). So she has solitude, and a silence from the sounds she'd like to hear, conversation, music, discussion.

Of course there are consolations and joys. Babies and small children are pure beauty, love, joy--the truest in this world. But the thorns are there of night watches, of illnesses, of infant perversities and contrariness. There are glimpses of heaven and hell."

On Pilgrimage, January, Dorothy Day

A new perspective. A new hope.

2008-04-22T06:05:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. Hopefully this post finds you all well and assures you that I am not dead and still doing good. I have not felt the pull to write until recently though, I can't be sure I'll resume blogging full time.
We have not yet found our homestead and recently decided to stop looking. I'm about 3 months out from having our fourth child, and second son, and since the whole house search has been so disastrous, we've decided to stay put until after he arrives. The ongoing saga for a home has consumed us for the last few months as we felt confidant the Lord would provide us with a home before the baby came. I can't even tell you how much more money and time we sunk into this search only to have our hopes crushed. I think it's finally clear; we're not to move right now. I've been reading 'The Imitation of Christ' and in addition to just feeling bad about our situation, I feel bad about feeling bad instead of offering it all up and thanking the Lord for this opportunity to suffer. Slowly, a feeling of hope is arising as I know that some good will come out of this as it always has in the past or I'm knocking some time off purgatory so long as I can not be a whiny wuss about it all.
After talking with a priest friend this past weekend, I'm trying to focus on the good things God has given us right now and how I can utilize those gifts for His ends. Of course I still have lofty goals of homesteading and service to the poor but the homestead has not appeared nor has the free time to run off to Camden. And it stinks having my husband's hard earned salary sitting as devaluing American dollars in a bank account instead of invested in crops, animals, tools and say, 50lb bags of rice and grain. In an apartment, we are at the mercy of the stores and the landlord.
But, I have three wonderful children, with a healthy fourth on the way. I'm surviving the homeschool day. My marriage is great. We have a great traditional parish with lots of friends who share our strong Catholic beliefs. Our kids are constantly busy with other Catholic, homeschooled kids. My husbands job is secure, we're saving money and we do have a nice roof over our heads. If I wasn't aware of Catholic Worker ideals, distributism, simple, agrarian values, etc. I would have no room to complain. (I still shouldn't.)
My husband and I are always planning and actively working towards our goals. The thought of 'sitting still' and just letting the chips fall for the next few months is nerve wracking but I have to assume at this point that what ever God has in store for us, outside the wonderful life he's already provided us with, will have to come in His time by His means. No amount of frantic searching on our part can speed along God's plan.
So what does it all mean for this 'Next Worker'? I'm not sure. I never wanted to be all talk and no action on Worker principals, which is how I feel. But I need to see the opportunities to 'feed the hungry and clothe the naked' in my own home. (Lord knows there's always hungry and naked people here.) My own children are no less important that children in Camden or Africa or anywhere. If this is where God wants me, then I can't assume my actions mean less than a Worker at Mary House in NYC.
So maybe I'm not the 'Next Worker' at all. Maybe, I've been Working all along and didn't know it. We'll see how it all plays out and how this new viewpoint effects my writing. The family as Workers; who knows?

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

2007-11-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

Hope y'all had a happy Thanksgiving. Sorry blogging has been light. I'd like to get back into the swing of things, but I want to be able to offer new stuff. Not just my same tired old thoughts. Our homeschool breaks for all of December (one of the many perks of homeschooling) so hopefully the Advent season will lend itself to some fresh insights and meditations.
In preparation of Advent, my husband and I are once again trying to figure out how to incorporate works of charity into the season; something beyond passing on a choice parking space for another driver or dropping a few quarters in the Salvation Army pail. Charity is the work of Christians. It is what we are called to do through out the year, although opportunities abound this time of year. But how many Christians have forgotten what charity really requires? We've grown into a society where 'handling' the poor, the sick and the mentally ill is the work of the government. Today's charity opportunities consist of feel good monetary donations, once yearly soup kitchen visits with friends and or awareness ribbon purchases. We've turned over our duty to the government and what have they done with such a great responsibility? How many people are helped by social programs versus those who've come to rely on the system?
Doing works of charity is good for the soul, it's spiritually uplifting when done right. The end result should not be a bursting sense of pride or an emotional pick me up. True charity leaves you humble, you are the servant not the master. You're not coming down out of your ivory tower to mingle with the commoners. (I'm talking to you celebrities/politicians and your staged photo ops.) Are you worthy to bow before them and wash their feet? If you didn't get the point; charity is not about you.
But the problem with a government run system is you don't have humble people meeting the needs of the less fortunate with compassion and love. And how can you have charity without love? The recipients of government handouts certainly don't love the government agencies that 'serve' them. But yet many have come to rely on the handout and to expect government assistance with every pitfall. Christian charity in a crisis has become a bonus. We couldn't expect fellow Christians, neighbors, church members, friends and family members to shoulder all the responsibility of serving the needy could we?! The suggestion to most people seems preposterous. By why should it be?
We look at our prosperous country and still see homelessness, poverty, hunger, troubled youth, abused children and we sit in our cushy homes, begrudgingly pay our taxes and wonder why the government hasn't used our money to take care of these problems. Is the solution to these problems really higher taxes? How many committees and special dialogue sessions do we need to pay for before we realize WE are the solution. Christians helping everyone, serving one another and making sacrifices for the good of mankind. Stop passing the buck. Stop expecting Uncle Sam to play Christ for the country's less fortunate. What a lousy substitution.

"But who is to take care of them if the government does not? That is a question in a day when all are turning to the state, and when people are asking, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Certainly we all should know that it is not the province of the government to practice the works of mercy, or go in for Insurance. Smaller bodies, decentralized groups, should be caring for all such needs.

The first unit of society is the family. The family should look after its own and, In addition, as the early fathers said, "every home should have a Christ room in it, so that hospitality may be practiced." "The coat that hangs in your closet belongs to the poor." "If your brother is hungry, it is your responsibility."

"When did we see Thee hungry, when did we see Thee naked?" People either plead ignorance or they say "It is none of my responsibility." But we are all members one of another, so we are obliged in conscience to help each other. The parish is the next unit, and there are local councils of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Then there is the city, and the larger body of charitable groups. And there are the unions, where mutual aid and fraternal charity is also practiced. For those who are not Catholics there are lodges fraternal organizations, where there is a long tradition of charity. But now there is a dependence on the state. Hospitals once Catholic are subsidized by the state. Orphanages once supported by Catholic charity receive their aid from community chests."
"More About Holy Poverty. Which Is Voluntary Poverty."
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, February 1945

The degree of separation

2007-11-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

"And we are part of it all, part of this whole movement throughout the country, but of course we have our own particular talent, our own particular contribution to make to the sum total of the apostolate. And we think of it as so important that we are apt to fight and wrangle among ourselves on account of it, and we are all sensitive to the accusation that we are accenting, emphasizing one aspect of the truth at the expense of another. A heresy overemphasizes one aspect of the truth.

But our unity, if it is not unity of thought in regard to temporal matters, is a unity at the altar rail. We are all members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and so we are closer to each other, by the tie of grace, than any blood brothers are. All these books about discrimination are thinking in terms of human brotherhood, of our responsibility one for another. We are our brother's keeper, and all men are our brothers whether they be Catholic or not. But of course the tie that binds Catholics is closer, the tie of grace. We partake of the same food, Christ. We put off the old man and put on Christ. The same blood flows through our veins, Christ's. We are the same flesh, Christ's. But all men are members or potential members, as St. Augustine says, and there is no time with God, so who are we to know the degree of separation between us and the Communist, the unbaptized, the God-hater, who may tomorrow, like St. Paul, love Christ."

On Pilgrimage
May
By Dorothy Day

Rational, emotional, spiritual or hormonal?

2007-11-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

Back from a blogging break. The failure to close on yet another house plus another recent surprise have resulted in several weeks of asking, 'what are we supposed to be doing?' My husband and I feel we have two paths before us, both with their pluses and minuses, it's a matter of choosing the right one. I don't think either would be wrong per say, but which is best for right now. Everyday one of us changes our mind. We're praying, maybe pleading, at this point for a clear sign but past experience leads us to believe we won't be seeing angels in our sleep. My concern is making a major decision based on emotion rather than rational thought and genuine spiritual direction. We pray for what we want, knowing that maybe God has something else in mind instead. So then, do we spring for option one because it's what we want now for our family, even if we have to sacrifice some principles or do we charge headfirst into option two because it's closest to our religious ideas but, in all honesty, it would be crazy and impossible to explain to everyone.
At what point do you just want something so bad you rationalize everything about it to fit into 'what God wants' or 'it's the answer to our prayers'? How do you know when the crazy option on the back burner is really the crazy leap of faith God wants you to take?
And like all our life changing decisions, we're on a deadline. I don't want elaborate too much, but where we are now is not going to be suitable in say, nine months. Like I wasn't emotionally charged enough...
God calls everyone and the static of the world can make receiving the message so difficult. Some people miss the call entirely and others are there screaming into the receiver, 'I can't understand what your saying!' It's only the saints who get visions, have conversations with divinity and suffer gladly with whatever comes their way.
Somewhere along the way, I've lost the zeal for the mission, for the Movement. Charity for others is scarcely mentioned now. The focus is squarely on the family and there is simply no energy or time for worrying about others when everything here is in such disarray. And because if I remind myself of the Movement, I only remember how little I've done and I'd rather not feel dismayed over yet something else.
Intelligent decisions, emotional decisions, spiritual decisions; or just are they all just the same decisions with different consequences?

Month of the Dead

2007-10-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

"It is so hard to find a balance.

We have the knowledge that this life is a passageway to another fuller life which is to come, that we are heirs to a richness and a joy beyond all telling, and that we are working toward a new heaven and a new earth, where all is love and peace, where justice dwells. We also know that what we do now will count, that we are exercising our faculties to this end, and that, although sometimes our work seems futile and without result in these fields of justice and peace and love, (Ammon's work for peace, Charlie's work with teenagers, Pat's with the Ninth Street kids, and all of ours at Spring Street and at the farm) we know that is all preparation, like that of a farmer, and God will give the results, the increase, the crop. If we do not do this work, we are dead souls, no matter how vital our bodies, and there is no health in us.

We also know that religion, as the Marxists have always insisted, has, too often, like an opiate, tended to put people to sleep to the reality and the need for the present struggle for peace and justice.

"The future is so glorious in the world that is to come, why worry about the present? If we are heirs to the Kingdom, why worry about the destitution and squalor and destruction around us. To the devil with this world!" But, this world is God's world and we have no right to consign it to the devil. We should be fighting like mad against the perverse will of men, and this fight is for love of God and for love of men, the very least of them, the most unworthy of them, even to the greatest sinners among them, remembering how Jesus said from the Cross, from His torture and death, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Forgive these murderers! It costs a lot to forgive murderers, every drop of our blood, every ounce of our energy.

One World

We are all members one of another, we are all heirs, we are all brothers, no matter how far apart we have strayed. We live on one world and that seems to be a pretty small one now that there is all this talk of space ships and satellites and trips to the moon.

St. Paul, when he talks of God's power, talks of the "mighty exercise of God's power when He raised Jesus from the dead and, in Him, gave us a promise of the same resurrection for ourselves."

Man, in his pride, is always trying to create life out of nothing and to raise men from the dead, but we don't hear so much about that now that he is thinking of interplanetary exploration.

Men of science are just as much distracted from the things of this earth as those they have charged with putting too much emphasis on religion and the next life. While billions of dollars are being spent on missiles, we still have our poverty, the hungry and homeless in our midst, the needs of our families for bread, for shoes, for shelter. We explore outer space, and families of ten are crowded in one room in New York. Are they crowded in slums? Let them practice birth control! It is now legal in New York, which has a Catholic mayor and Catholic borough president, to give out birth control information to all who ask, in city hospitals and clinics. In Japan, under our complacent acceptance, they have abortion clinics. Remedies are on the side of death. And what deathly remedies are offered! Let them stay in Puerto Rico. Send them back to their shacks where they can starve more comfortably in tropical surroundings, while the rich steal their land for sugar and missile bases. [snip]

The Womb of This Life

I am writing this column about death and life, because it is the month of November, which, in the Church, is the month we commemorate the dead. All Saints Day is on November first. (Halloween is the holy eve of the day which commemorates all those great ones who have gone before, who most nearly resembled Jesus Christ in their lives.) All Souls Day is for the rank and file who have gone before us, the "dear departed" as the Irish say. Yes, this is all very true and real to the "faithful," to those who grow in faith by the constant exercise of it. Greater than faith is charity, caritas, love. Without this wedding garment of love we cannot enter into the next world. Hope goes together with faith and charity.

Fr. Guerin of the Marists on Staten Island gave us a series of conferences one winter, and in one of them, dealing with death, he said that this life is like life in the womb. If the child in the womb was asked if it wished to be born, it would say "No I am quite comfortable where I am." And, if it had control, it would not bother to grow those organs which fit it for life in the world; lungs to breathe with, legs to walk with, the life of the exterior senses.

Holding Fast

And, it is the same in this world. We are all holding fast to this life, no matter how bad it is. It is the only life we know and we keep deluding ourselves that, if we had this or that, if we had the love we craved, the material means to develop our talents, we would be happy. I called my last book, The Long Loneliness, recently published in the Image edition for 65 cents, because I tried to point out with St. Augustine, that, no matter how crowded life was with activity and joy, family and work, the human heart was never satisfied until it rested in God, the absolute Good, absolute Beauty, absolute Love.

Those conferences were very stimulating, and I thought of C. S. Lewis's statement that, unless the egg develops, unless it hatches and grows wings and flies, it becomes a rotten egg. A homely and startling thought

I thought too, of those sad lines of Francis Thompson, "Life is a coquetry of death/ which wearies me/too sure of the amour. A tiring room where I/death's divers garments try/till fit some fashion sit./It seemeth me too much/I do rehearse for such/A mean and single scene." I quote from memory, and am not sure even of my divisions of the lines.

Yes, death confronts us all. And life is precious, this practice ground where we are given such opportunity to use what talents we have, what resources of mind and body, to so order the present that the future will be different and try to make this world, as Peter Maurin said, a place where it is easier to be good. [snip]

Life, Grace, Love. Beautiful words to dwell on these fall days.

I have written this after reading St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, which is all about the Body of Christ, of which we are all members or potential members. We are one flesh, one family, one brotherhood. And God is our Father, giving us what we ask, bread, not a stone, life, not death, freely, with love, not because we deserve it. He will save us, in spite of ourselves! Because Christ has, once and for all, overcome Death, the enemy.

"How rich God is in mercy! With what an excess of love He loves us!""

"Month of the Dead"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, November 1959

Paradise Lost

2007-10-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

Sigh. Another house deal hits the dust. Twice in one year. I'm right back to square one, again. I don't have much to write on the matter. "Wasn't meant to be," yes, thanks for reminding me of that AGAIN. But if it wasn't meant to be, what the hell are we meant for?! What are we doing wrong? What signs are we missing? I'd like to know so I could stop getting my hopes up over nothing. Perhaps I need to stop hoping? Maybe I need to admit the follies of the Worker Movement and distributism and just shift into happy suburban housewife mode. Oh, maybe I could even stick my kids in public school get my tubes tied and go back to work! Yea! Than we could have a really big house with a tiny chemically treated yard, three SUVs in the driveway and I could pay to have everything done for me! Whoop-de-doo! Living the American dream! Wouldn't that be the easy, painless way to go I wonder. But, I guess we know better and there's no going back, although going forward is damned near impossible. Pray that our way is revealed to us, that our path is made clear. If you know any houses with acreage for sale at a reasonable price near a nice Latin Mass/Parish/Community let me know as I am open to anything and anywhere at this point.

"I should know by this time that just because I feel that everything is useless and going to pieces and badly done and futile, it is not really that way at all. Everything is all right. It is in the hands of God. Let us abandon everything to Divine Providence."
House of Hospitality,
Chapter Six
By Dorothy Day

Important reference point

2007-10-17T04:02:00.000-07:00

Benedictus Deus hits the nail on the head. Please, check it out.

Roots in rich soil

2007-10-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading 'The Rural Solution; Modern Catholic Voices on Going "Back to the Land"' . It's a quick read at only 102 pages, but the seven essays each provide compelling arguments for a return to our agricultural roots. There are no dates provided, however the references to the forties date some of the "modern" voices. Despite this, it would be a great book to hand to someone to give them a basic idea of what the Catholic Land movement and distributism is about.
That said, I have one complaint, and it's not directed only at some of the writers of these articles; and that's the supposed need for fathers/husbands to have a job away from the home, "in the city or town" to make homesteading possible. This opinion seem especially appalling when you read in the same essays the horrible temptations of the city and the working world. We homeschool our kids to protect them, we keep off our TVs and read balanced media, we socialize with like minded Catholics, but we send our husbands and father's into the lion's den 'out of necessity' and expect them to be immune to the world? At what point did sending men away from their families become the only way to make a living? If you are reliant on a paycheck to buy all your needs and refuse to furnish any yourself from your land, then a 'city job' is the only option. If you're homesteading, sending the head of the family away for 8 to 10 hours a day hardly seems the smart thing to do unless you love working every possible hour. How can a man slave 40+ hours for a company and work the land to the level needed to sustain a large family? When does such a man get the chance to be a model for his children and a partner for his wife? He can't unless he wants to kill himself. Especially when you consider the average commute nowadays and the cost of gas. To find sizable, affordable land within a reasonable drive to a metropolitan area is almost impossible; it's been our goal for the last two years. The homestead IS the full time job. Worst case, the husband needs to find a part time job away from home but ideally, money to buy anything you can't raise or grow comes from something you sell (extra produce, eggs, honey, etc.) or a service (website design, graphic design, writing etc.) from your homestead. Modern society has come to accept the absence of the father from the home, and to an extent even the mother, but should Catholic agrarians accept this? Keeping the man at home with the family should be as much a goal as keeping mom home with the kids. The Internet makes home based businesses more possible than ever before. Or remember when families had the storefront and an apartment behind the counter or upstairs? These businesses will prosper, and the families behind them, when other like minded families spend their money inside. Such families would be the backbone of a successful Catholic community. The Amish excel at this model and their communities thrive, while Catholic communities are few and far between (and struggling at that.) What can we learn? So as we (and maybe you?) plan our move 'back to the land' consider the costs of keeping Dad at home.

"Now it might be argued-tendentiously-that the return to the land is something vouchsafed to a particular kind of Catholic; that it is a legitimate vocation, if a minority one. But is that really so? Granted that, in a period of immense societal decadence, it will be missionaries"possessed" by a vision, by a vocation, who will lead the return to the land and to sanity, it remains nonetheless the case that the call is made to the majority of Catholics- not to the mere enthusiastic few. Why? Because life on the Land gives the Faith roots in rich soil, whilst life in the City for the Faith is sterile an ultimately destructive of the Catholic Church."
Intro to 'The Rural Solution', pg 11

Nothing else worth writing about

2007-10-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

"I should be afraid to write about love, because I have seen the terrible things it can do to you, but I have set out upon the path and I cannot turn back now. Especially now when I begin to learn what it means, the height and the depth of it, the terror, the deep peace, the joy. No, there is nothing else worth writing about. What are all our lives about, what are we looking for, what do we want of each other? There is not one of us who has not gone thru the first stags of love and found them so enchanting that never in our lives can we go further. Always we want to stand in that first light, that first fullness of life and let it possess us utterly. And when love would take us on thru the darkness which is light-unutterable, we are blind and can go no further. We hold back.We clutch at our memory, our own understanding of love and refuse to be taught.
But we had better look out! There are two dangers. We either fall into a snare of pleasure-sink into the immanence of love or we presume, we fly to high-and in our confusion get lost in the transcendence of love...We pray for love. We get it, and it comes in strange forms and ways, and we are likely to pass it by in pride or find ourselves grasping phantoms.
There is no end to the folly of love. We had better not presume to ask for love. God may take us at our word. We will not know what is happening to us. If only we did not struggle. If only we did not make a move. We throw our own perverse wills into the balance and there are strange results in this search for love. You see it everywhere, on Broadway and 42nd St. Love, sex, pleasure, tenderness, fellowship, light, warmth, satiety-it is all so bound up together even on that low level. Or you might go still lower and find it in the teen-age gangs, the neighborhood clubs, the brothels, the lust for money, to get women, to get love.
It is sad-it is horrible, but it is not o be despised. Should we hate and judge our brothers-we who also want love? Even in the perversity, so openly spoken of today, there too is the search for love. When we search for love in creatures, when we turn from God to creatures instead of seeking God thru creatures, then all is perversity. There is not natural love, or unnatural love, not human sin, or inhuman sin, as people try to flatter themselves. "Me, I'm just human! I'm not a pervert."
We are all a perverse and stiffnecked generation. Oh, if God would only compel us to lie quiet, to know that underneath are the everlasting arms."

Undated mediation on love found in one of Day's notebooks
Related on page 363 of 'Dorothy Day, A Biography' by William D. Miller

Under difficult circumstances

2007-10-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

It always amazes me when I tell people I've started homeschooling and they say, "Oh, I'd love to homeschool my son/daughter but I just couldn't do it, I don't have the patience." Or when they learn I bake bread instead of buy it at the store or cook breakfast for my children in the morning instead of giving them cereal. The exclaim, aghast, "I don't know how you do it, I don't have time or patience for that."
I'm always at a loss for words because I have no patience, with my children, my husband, my parents, traffic, the stove; nothing. I usually stammer something about God giving me the strength to whatever it is I'm doing and then we change the subject.
I don't do anything special, especially when compared to the homeschooling mothers of 5, 9 or 12 children at my parish. My day would be called easy when compared to the daily grind of women 50 or 100 years ago. So why has my 'ordinary routine' become so uncommon and downright unusual to many modern women?
One hundred years ago, women had to bake, cook, sew and wash everything by hand. All school was homeschool unless you had a school you could walk to. All mothers did what I did and much more and no one praised them for their patience or extraordinary abilities. They did what was necessary to survive. What makes us different from previous generations? Certainly nothing genetic.
We often don't know what we are capable of until we are put in a tough spot. A friend didn't realize she could homeschool three children and watch a baby until the Catholic school she trusted started teaching new age garbage to her kindergartner. I realized a family of four could live in a third floor loft for two years when finances demanded it.
We live in a time with wonderful conveniences but with so many things, and 'professionals' to do things for us, we often feel we can't do things for ourselves. We have a choice to rely on others or ourselves and many times because of 'stress' or 'time constraints' we insist we 'need' to choose someone else. And then we wonder why we wind up with so much debt?
It's not that we can't do something, like homeschooling, it's that we won't. We don't take the bull by the horns and just go for it. And it's not lack of patience or time, it's a lack of faith in God. Showing up on Sunday, singing in the choir and teaching CCD are great but does it take a leap of faith do complete those tasks? Don't wait for difficult or uncomfortable circumstances. Take a difficult stand, make the choice to do the right thing not the easy thing and see if you don't rise to meet the occasion. Faith in God is the necessary ingredient for success. Just be sure to give credit where credit is due when someone complements you on achieving something they think is unattainable. Because only God's grace can keep you from screaming and crying, again, after dinner winds up on the floor and another art project jams your printer.

Our mission

2007-09-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

"If we had a better social order we would not have so many destitute to care for. If we had better indoctrinated Catholics, we would not have so big a job to do, it would be spread out throughout the families and parishes." -DD

I feel the need to clarify. One of our goals is still to offer charity in typical Catholic Worker fashion, but charity is not the only aim of the Worker movement, though, it is the most well know. Day is remembered for her Houses of Hospitality, not her writing on distributism and the back to the land movement. Immediate needs for mercy and charity consumed Day but the long-range plan was always to encourage a movement back to the land, away from the city, the factories, the breadlines and day to day grind of the wage slave. Unfortunately, the need for Houses of Hospitality still exists. Society has yet to be convinced of the benefits of an agrarian or distributist system, one ideally rooted in Christ. The failures of our God-less, bureaucratic, welfare state are evident in any major city. Catholic Worker based charity is needed but so is the CW land movement. We (my family) are going back to the land as best we can; we are hoping to contribute to the long term solution. However, our work would be in vain if we did not find a way to share it, and our bounty, through charity. So don't think we're running away to the country to escape the 'hard work' faced by Workers in the Hospitality Houses. May God guide us in finding the balance between immediate needs and the long term program. Servant of God, Dorothy Day, pray for us.

"Peter Maurin talked much of men with a mission, and the need for men to have a sense of mission, that they were sent into this world to do some particular work. One of his little essays was about men with missions and about the women who followed the men who had the mission. I rejoiced in being a follower of Peter Maurin, and thanked God that he had been sent to me to direct my thoughts and writings.

His program certainly was simple enough. Round Table discussions for the clarification of thought, houses of hospitality for the works of mercy, agronomic universities to teach the workers to be scholars and the scholars to be workers. He called the latter "farming communities" also, and he was flexible enough to take in the single family on the land, and the growth of the community about it, and the idea of the village economy, and the southern agrarians and the decentralists, and the English distributists.
What Are We Accenting?

Not a month passes but some visitor comes to us who asks us gently if we have not given up emphasizing some one or another aspect of Peter's program. Didn't it used to be labor? one will say.

Peter thought more of agrarian labor than he did of industrial labor. He referred us to A.J. Penty and the Guildsmen's Interpretation of History and Means and Ends; Tawney's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism; Velblen's Theory of the Leisure Class and such books as David Hennessy lists in each C.W. He hated the machine unless it was the extension of the hand of man. He hated mass action and pressure groups and feared unions deteriorating into political action. He hated class war and wanted us to love the enemy, the capitalist and industrialist and munitions maker, even while trying to "put business out of business."

Didn't we spend more time on pacifism than on unemployment? Didn't we over-emphasize the works of mercy and under-emphasize the land? Didn't we exalt the idea of personal responsibility and the single apostolate and ignore the family and the community which begins with the family? Didn't we over-emphasize liturgy, or later, didn't we tend to neglect to emphasize liturgy?

And many a time, no matter what we talked about we were ridiculed. Either our readers were enthusiastic and read the CW from cover to cover, or they despised what we were writing because of their disagreement with one or another aspect of the work, and threw the paper to one side. Just yesterday there was a mixed letter, addressed to Ammon Hennacy. It is pretty typical.

Friend Hennacy: The enclosed five dollars is to continue my subscription to the Catholic Worker. Several times I have been about to suggest that you stop here whenever you pass nearby on your way to Arizona or back east. I would enjoy having you. There is always an empty room here, and even more empty space on the farm. We are about a hundred miles southwest of Kansas City. I have hesitated to get in touch with you as probably we don't have much in common. As a more or less successful farmer I am familiar with hard labor but for me it is happy labor. Twenty five years ago when I tried to get an education and taught a while, I didn't get much pleasure out of life. Now I hope you can forgive it-I even enjoy paying taxes! However, I am an independent sort of cuss myself and admire a man with the courage of his convictions, especially when they are of the sort that can be easily misunderstood by the ordinary public. I read everything in the Catholic Worker. I just like to suffer, I guess! And I have liked your experiences very much. Also some other articles like Bill Gauchat's article on farming a couple of years ago. He really hit the nail on the head. Some of the other references to farming have seemed ludicrous from out here in Kansas. Write me if you can. You have my best wishes in your work.

H. S.

Such a letter makes us feel that we have accented so many things that we misfire on practically all. Anyway, H. S. has a philosophy of work which Peter Maurin emphasizes and it is good to see someone getting joy out of their life on the land. We get too many letters of pessimistic gloom from back-to-the-landers, and one can only say that anyone who feels that way about it has missed his vocation. He wasn't cut out to be a farmer. He should find a trade, run a store, teach in a school, go in for village life rather than farm life. Caussade says that we know our vocation by our delight in it.

I feel that in our desire to stress the whole life of man, we fail to hammer in one or another point. As a paper, we take up so many issues. As individuals, we are prone to hammer away at our pet project and go single mindedly towards one aspect of the work.
Have We Failed?

I know that I will give much satisfaction to many of our fellow workers when I admit that we have failed and that on every front. We have failed to clarify thought and probably will till the end of our days. We have failed in running houses of hospitality, in that they are not indoctrination centers and places to teach "cult, culture and cultivation" as Peter wanted, and all out time is taken up with the immediate practice of the works of mercy there. We have failed in establishing farming groups, whether as agronomic universities, or farming communes of families. This is in spite of the fact that we have fourteen houses and eight farms around the country associated with The Catholic Worker, with these ideas, or some of them. The houses flourish in that there are always the indigent, the destitute, the poor to flock to our doors. There is plenty of obvious work being done and far more than enough to keep every hand and heart busy. But have we even begun to build the new social order that Peter envisioned?"
"Have We Failed Peter Maurin's Program?"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, January 1954

Putting it into operation

2007-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

The purchasing of our house is going smoothly. I've become less interested in The Next Worker and more obsessed with working on the house and working the land. Since the purpose of my blog was to document my transition to a radical life, I wonder if living the agrarian lifestyle (or our best attempt at it) will complete that mission. I will no longer be in a state of flux; I will be a Catholic Worker, a title I would not have given myself up to this point.
The next phase requires not a new blog, but a whole new online identity. This is all still, 4 or more months down the road but our new goal (my husband's and mine) is to have a website devoted to the homestead, yet unnamed, and document our agrarian Worker lifestyle. Day mentioned many times the young families with 'a toehold on the land' who were eking out an existence. Some failed, some succeeded and their voices would be so valuable to us now. Thankfully, many new families are heading back to the land in one way or another and there are plenty of resources and people to talk to. Technology has brought the radicals together in an international online arena where stories can be shared, debated and left to inspire others.
Of course, the obvious difference between our website and other homesteaders wold be the emphasis on the Catholic Worker mission; the vision of Maurin and Day, and utter reliance not only on ourselves but the Church. It is our goal to live on the land, as Day envisioned and prove such a thing is possible for the modern family. Hopefully, we'll even benefit from it. Maybe someone else will too. So stay tuned for more developments. Blogging will be light as I read every book from my local library on chickens, root cellars and gardening.


Up To Catholics

1. Ralph Adams Cram says:
    What I propose
    is that Catholics
    should take up
    this back-to-the-land problem
    and put it into operation.

2. Why Catholics?
    Because they realize
    more clearly than any others
    the shortcomings
    of the old capitalist
    industrial system.

3. They, better than others,
    see the threat
    that impends.

4. They alone understand
    that while the family
    is the primary social unit,
    the community comes next.

5.  And there is
    no sound
    and righteous
    and enduring community
    where all its members
    are not substantially
    of one mind.

-Peter Maurin, Easy Essay

Community Conference

2007-09-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

"Last month there was a meeting of the Fellowship of Intentional Communities (Regional Branch) at Pendle Hill, Pennsylvania, at which Robert Steed and I were present. The other groups represented were the Glen Gardner Community, made up of Catholics and non-Catholics, the Society of Brothers, Hidden Spring, Gould Farm, Tanguay Homesteads and Pendle Hill itself, which is a community of study and so a very good place for the conference. The discussions were on sharing within the community, sharing between communities, and the relationship with the state and the "outside" world in general.

Emphasis was placed on the impossibility of any land movement today in the face of growing industrialism and centralization, without community as a way of living. The trouble with all the communities represented was that none of them have time or talent to report or write practical articles on what is going on -- finances, family relationships, relations with the state, so it is good to have these quarterly conferences to keep close contact with each other.
The Community of Brothers at Rifton have a magazine The Plough which can be obtained by writing to them at Rifton, New York. And we will try in succeeding issues to present more material on this movement which would have been dear to Peter Maurin's heart. there is an interesting chapter in Edmond Wilson's To the Finland Station on the growth of communities in the United States which he calls the great nursery for these experiments, from the time that Robert Owen came to America in 1824 and was helped by Horace Greely in the New York Tribune to propagandize his movement, which resulted in forty groups going out to build what they called phalansteries (including Brook Farm in its second aspect). Katherine Burton has written a very good book on Brook Farm, Paradise Planters, which can be obtained at any library.

The hardships of many of these early communities is dealt with in Part II, chapter 4 of Wilson's book, which is the briefest account available. Calverton and Morris Hillquit have also written books on the community movement in the United States.

The foundation of the Community of Brothers is a religious one and Tom Potts who represented them at the conference emphasized their basic desire for a church community rather than a community of families. But the fact remains that it is just as a community of families that their work in South America, England and the United States is so impressive. Recently they have united with one of the Hutterite communities in North Dakota, so there is constant emphasis on the dynamic quality of their witness. They have not only a deep religious sense, an emphasis on the importance of the interior life, but also an acceptance of voluntary poverty, hard work, discipline, a practical working out of that scene at the last supper, where Christ in washing the feet of his disciples, told them that as He had done, so were they to do likewise. I would love to see a community of Catholic families established near them, in either New York or North Dakota, so that they might learn from them some of these profound truths. The nearest beginning we have ever had to a community of families was at Upton, Massachusetts, where four families lived on St. Benedict's farm, and although the men worked individually and supported their families, there was community of land, and a great sharing in many ways with each other. This community has divided up the land, however, and now they are a community of neighbors. The same has happened at the Detroit farm at South Lyons, Michigan, and at the Holy Family Farm at Rhineland, Missouri. There have been many attempts at farming communes, beginning with Maryfarm at Easton, Pennsylvania, and spreading over the country, but there has been nothing we can point to as success. We can only say that we have lived, we have suffered, people have married, brought forth children and somehow have managed to keep going. But the suffering of it all is what stands out the most and with faith we may conclude that this dunging the ground, this ploughing the field, will eventually bring forth fruit. The vision of community is not yet clear, there are not yet those in The Catholic Worker movement who have the vision, or the time, the skill, the ability to work it out. Or even the spiritual foundation.

In the face of war and taxes, however, it still seems to me the only practical and workable method of getting away from the cities and to the land. The ever changing editorial staff of the Catholic Worker has had its hands too full with Houses of Hospitality and the issuing of the paper, meeting head on with the sufferings and anguish of the present day, to be able clearly to work out this aspect of the program of Peter Maurin. And it is true that faith in it has been lacking, the vision obscure. Given the people to carry it out, we are sure that God would send the means, as He always has to houses of hospitality. The fact remains that we have never been able to take the funds sent for the poor, to establish families on the land. What farms still remain are given to caring for the poor so that they too have become hospices on the land. Our farm at Pleasant Plains, Staten island, is a farm only, because Father Duffy, and now John Filliger concentrates on that aspect of it. The vision there is to raise as much as possible for the soup line in New York, besides providing those who live there with fresh vegetables and wholesome labor and to have days of recollection monthly and summer conferences and retreats.

The Glen Gardner community is built around an industry, a printing press, and though they have gardens and a cow, it cannot be said to be a farm. The Rifton community is materially building itself up around a toy industry, a factory where many of the men and women work in making blocks and other constructive and durable toys for children. What with an office force and salesmen who are also missionaries on the road, there is plenty of employment. Their difficulty is lack of housing. But there are already around 150 people there, with well-run kitchen, bakery, schoolroom, laundry, nursery, and so on. It is a joy to visit the place.

There was a good deal of talk at the conference about means of livelihood, from the raising of peanuts to the making of overalls and all the work that could be done between communities. But the conclusion that I reached after a day and a half of sessions was that we must deepen our own interior life and pray for understanding and that the dear Lord would send laborers into His harvest so that this work can grow.

The conference took place between blizzards on Friday and Sunday, though the proper promise of spring was before our eyes, with the children of Pendle Hill tapping the sugar maples for syrup."

"Community Conference"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, April 1956, 6.

Tradition; Past, Present and Future

2007-09-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'm going to be here . Although, I've never been to the official Oktoberfest, this festival in my hometown is probably the closest I'll come to Munich in the near future. What I like about it is how family friendly the atmosphere is. Most Oktoberfests in the U.S. (or any ethnic festival where alcohol is served) can quickly become overrun with drunken people just out for a good time. At the Liederkranz festival, the focus is on the culture and the people. And the beer, while enjoyable, is in its proper place. The German influence is still strong in Lancaster, and those accompanying traditions and customs are passed down. There is no shortage of children in braids and liederhosen at this Oktoberfest.
When I picture the ideal Catholic community I want to raise my family in, I think not only of self-sufficiency, families lending one another a hand and communal prayer; I think of traditions and culture. I think of a time when all small villages had their own identity, clothing, customs, food and local dialect. Was it so long ago when acceptance was sought amongst your neighbors instead of comparing your lifestyle to those in the entertainment industry? The Jones' next door don't matter so much anymore as the Catherine Zeta-Jones'.
Most media outlets would lead you to believe the only two cities in the world worth inhabiting are NYC and LA. If you live anywhere else, you need to move, and the media tries its darndest to prove anyone 20 miles outside a city is an ignorant country hick. You need the fashions from the East Coast and the gossip from the West for a meaningful existence. If you absorbed all the media had to tell you about your hometown, whether they'd been there or not, you'd likely run screaming to the city.
We've stripped ourselves of any distinct cultural identity in an effort to assimilate into a mass-marketed culture devoid of any meaning or history. America is the great melting pot, but does that mean we can only display our Irish heritage in March and our German in September? And when is the last time you saw anyone publicly take pride in being an American? September 12, 2001? We take more pride in being "unique" and "an individual unencumbered by traditional values." We don't want to be linked to anything or anyone because "we think for ourselves." It's as if celebrating anything besides Gay Pride is offensive anymore.
Certainly, we can't live an exclusionary existence, totally removed from mainstream society. But we shouldn't allow all that is beautiful, innocent and unique to be discarded for a cheap, sexualized, generic society as a means to gain acceptance and approval.
If a tween today told her friends, "Sorry I can't go bump and grind with total strangers at the local teen club with you guys this weekend because I have to perform at the Liederkranz;" what would their response be? If even a twenty-something said he was going to the festival because he enjoys the schuplatller and not the beer, would the response be any different?
Tradition is not cool in today's society, and maybe it never is to teenagers, but mature adults should not be so quick to accept modern customs. They are as meaningful to pass on as an STD. The acceptance of true traditions are not forced down a persons, or populations, throats. They are loved, cherished and passed on carefully so as to maintain the crucial link to the past and the memory of those gone before. Children may reject them at some point, but in maturity turn to them in comfort and embrace them joyfully. I do believe the Amish and many Mennonites exhibit these characteristics.
A community where children are formed with solid Catholic teachings, traditions and local customs is where I want to settle; living in the world, but not of it. Where my children can enjoy the benefits of living in a free country and all it's abundance but not be corrupted by it. Where a small town life still exists, neighbors still look out for one another and everyone attends the local firehouse ham dinner, Memorial Day observance and parades joyfully through the streets behind the Blessed Sacrament.

A New Home At Last?

2007-09-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Your prayers please as we prepare to sign another sales contract. We're excited about this house and we don't anticipate the same problems we faced before. It should be smooth sailing but a couple hollers to St. Joseph couldn't hurt. Many thanks in advance.

A Price to Pay for Such Beauty

2007-09-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

"Within a radius of a mile, there are four or five farms for rent either for five or ten dollars a month. The houses can be lived in, and if one owned them (the price range is from two to three thousand), repairs could be done little by little. The ground is good bottomland. There are streams for fishing, and there is hunting. There are pines and black walnut and locust on the gentle hills, and there is pulpwood to be cut for selling and plenty of wood for the fires in winter. Taxes are low, and there are no gas or electric bills. But, and here is the rub, the nearest town, of 1,500 inhabitants, is twelve miles away with its church and schools and hospital. The larger towns of Martinsburgh and Winchester are each about thirty miles away. But it's surprising how much company one has, how neighborly people are. And the joy for the children in such surroundings! But there is a price to pay for all this beauty, and that price a willingness to accept the poverty of the people on the land. Old houses, oil lamps, wood heat, water to be carried in pails, the tattletale gray of clothes so washed, and the quiet, the solitude of life with neither radio, newspaper, nor telephone, . . . where the daily mail becomes the event of the day.

People are more afraid of such a life than they are of the atom bomb! And so Peter talked of agronomic universities, farming communes, so that people could go in groups, and in groups hold each other up. Man is not made to live alone; he is a social being. So where there is a crowd, they flock together. Peter used to say, "They are not communitarian; they are gregarious."

Let us hope that Maryfarm at Newburgh will give a taste for the simplicity of life on the land and the courage to face it, and that other Maryfarms throughout the country will be performing the same function. A place to make retreats, to learn to meditate, to think in the heart, "to be quiet and see that I am God," a place to learn to work, and a place to go from, as apostles, and make a life for the family."

On Pilgrimage,
July - August
By Dorothy Day

New Blog Worth Reading

2007-09-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Please check out the newest blog addition, Take the Poor With You. Someone else is seeking to strike a balance between service to others and service to her family. Sacrifice is not always a black and white issue. Check out Tienne's unique perspective.

Where it is easy to be good

2007-09-02T15:57:00.001-07:00

After a wonderful baptism yesterday, conversations with some of my friends turned to moving from Jersey. My husband and I are not the only ones considering an escape to the country and I'm not always sure in these conversations who is trying to convince who to move where. But I have one close friend my husband and I are always talking to who can't seem to grasp the concept. I mentioned to him about maybe fleeing to Kansas and would he join us and he made the comment that he didn't want to leave behind his good salary and his 12 weeks of vacation. (He's a public school teacher.) I said, (to paraphrase because I'm probably remembering myself as being more articulate than I was), "If you would sell your home here, you could buy a small home outright in Kansas and have no mortgage. And if you live where costs and taxes and lower and you grow or raise the majority of your own food, you don't need that salary. Imagine covering expenses by just being a substitute teacher." He had his concerns about the hard work of farming but I told him I'd rather work for myself and provide for my family than spend hours slaving away for someone else. Besides, ideally in a community we'd all help each other. I also made the point that living in Jersey can be a hindrance to a deep spiritual life because the effort (and stress) spent earning money to pay for the taxes, housing, and over priced necessities takes away from time we could be spending with our families or in prayer. In addition, we're surrounded by an overwhelming amount of worldly distractions; malls, shopping centers, designer cars, McMansions, etc. It's easier to do good and to be good in an area with less distractions. It's amazing what you learn to live without, what you learn you never needed to begin with, when it's not a quick drive from your house.
He did pause in thought for a moment or so, but I don't think I completely converted him this time. It's not about who's right or wrong, it's just trying to get people to think in new ways about how to live, one conversation at a time.

"A philosophy of work is essential if we would be whole men, holy men, healthy men, joyous men. A certain amount of goods is necessary for a man to lead a good life, and we have to make that kind of society where it is easier for men to be good. [snip]
A philosophy of work and a philosophy of poverty are necessary if we would share with all men what we have, if we would each try to be the least, if we would wash the feet of our brothers."
"On Pilgrimage - May 1948"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, May 1948.

One Year Later...

2007-08-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

"May 2. Although the Communists and socialists had their hundreds of thousands out in the streets yesterday, we feel that the CATHOLIC WORKER made its presence felt, too. Fifteen or more high school and college students, from Manhattan, Fordham, St. John's College, Cathedral College and from City College, distributed papers and leaflets In the streets all afternoon and in the evening up around Columbus Circle and Madison Square Garden.

The man who was selling the I.W.W. paper in Madison Square came up to get a copy from me and said, "I was a Catholic myself once -- I'd like to see your paper,"' and people of all nationalities were anxious to get it.

One young woman came in this morning who said she had seen a copy in the square and wanted to find out about the House of Hospitality. She had been living down on the Bowery, paying 25¢ a night for a bed and, now her money was all gone and she had no place to go. She was telling me about her friend, who was also down and out, who went to take a room, or a bed up in Harlem, was seduced by a young Spanish American, and threw herself under a subway train a week later.

Her lips were trembling as she talked (it was only eight-thirty in the morning), so I invited her out to have a cup of coffee.

* * *

Last week a colored woman who has been staying up at the Municipal Lodging House came in for a bite to eat. She looked in need of a shelter where she could stay in bed and rest for a few days instead of having to walk the streets from morning to night as the guests of the lodging house have to do.

So that evening I went up to talk to the girls at the Teresa Joseph co-operative to see if it would be all right with them to invite Mary to stay up there. After all, I did not want to run the risk of submitting her to insult on account of her skin -- nor did I expect too much of the girls in the way of freedom from race prejudice, since I know very well that Catholics of means and better education are not free themselves from it.

I talked to the girls, reminding them how our Lord washed the feet of his disciples the night before he suffered and died for us, and told them how we all should serve each other, whether we are white, black or yellow. The girls were perfectly happy to welcome the new guest, and it was like a special birthday present for the paper to find this continuing of the co-operative spirit among them.

Mary took the paper up to Harlem to distribute for us yesterday, and all the other girls up at the house went to Mass or Communion to offer it up for our special May Day work. Margaret, despite her condition, for she is expecting a baby in six weeks, went on the subways yesterday, passing out papers from Times Square to Astoria and from Manhattan to Brooklyn. I was much touched and grateful at the help they all gave us.

An old Irishman of 73 came in this morning for his copies of the paper. He lives down In the Bowery and has a thirty dollar a month pension, from which he insisted on giving us a dollar. He also takes twenty-five copies of the paper to send out to his friends, and every morning at Mass, he says, he prays for us.

* * *

A few weeks ago I went over to St. Zita's to see a sister there and the woman who answered the door took it for granted that I came to beg for shelter. The same morning I dropped into the armory or Fourteenth street, where lunches are being served to unemployed women, and there they again motioned me into the waiting room, thinking that I had come for food. These incidents are significant. After all my heels are not run down -- my clothes were neat -- I am [missing text] girls, and women, who to the average eye, look as though they came from comfortable surroundings are really homeless and destitute.

You see them in the waiting rooms of all the department stores. To all appearances they are waiting to meet their friends, to go on a shopping tour -- to a matinee, or to a nicely served lunch in the store restaurant. But in reality they are looking for work (you can see the worn newspapers they leave behind with the help wanted page well thumbed), and they have no place to go, no place to rest but in these public places -- and no good hot lunch to look forward to. The stores are thronged with women buying dainty underwear which they could easily do without -- compacts for a dollar, when the cosmetics in the five-and-ten are just as good -- and mingling with these protected women and often indistinguishable from them, are these sad ones, these desolate ones, with no homes, no jobs, and never enough food in their stomachs.

"I often wonder what God thinks of the scribes and orators who thunder terrors at poor women for their desperate attempts at contraception and never have a word to say to the Bank of England and the Treasury which have so obviously chosen birth-restriction as the solution for unemployment and are enforcing this policy on the poor by every means in their power. . . . Indeed, our domination by money lenders is nowhere so disastrous, as in the sphere of marriage and family life. The right to marry is a human right like the right to breathe and eat -- equally the right to bring up a family. The family is the basic social unit, ordained as such by God Himself. Economic systems must be arranged to suit the family, and not the family to economic conditions. When Leo XIII demanded the living wage it was the family wage he meant. All this is ordinary Catholic teaching. For bringing up a family the first requisite is evidently an income. Under the savage economics of the past two years the children of the unemployed have been allowed two shillings per week."

(Fr. Drinkwater in the Sower, a journal of Catholic education.)"

"Day by Day - June 1934"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, June 1934