The Catholic Worker

"Our mission is to do away with war, change the social order,
abolish capitalism, and overthrow the State (nonviolently)" - Dorothy Day

Frank Cordaro & the Phil Berrigan CW House Photos

Frank Cordaro & the Phil Berrigan CW House Photos

The Wisdom of Giving

1. To give to the poor

     is to enable the poor to buy.

2. To enable the poor to buy

     is to improve the market.

3. To improve the market

     is to help business.

4. To help business

     is to reduce unemployment.

5. To reduce unnemployment

     is to reduce crime.

6. To reduce crime

     is to reduce taxation.

7. So why not give to the poor

     for business’ sake,

     for humanity’s sake,

     for God’s sake?

An Easy Essay, by Peter Maurin,
Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker 

(Source: catholicworker.org)

We believe that social security legislation, now balled as a great victory for the poor and for the worker, is a great defeat for Christianity. It is an acceptance of the Idea of force and compulsion. It is an acceptance of Cain’s statement, on the part of the employer. “Am I my brother’s keeper? Day, Dorothy. “More About Holy Poverty. Which Is Voluntary Poverty.” The Catholic Worker, February 1945, 1-2. The Catholic Worker Movement.

(Source: catholicworker.org)

If there is still violence, it cannot any longer, even in the remotest sense, claim to be of God or try to cloak itself with his authority. To do that is to drive the idea of God back to its primitive stages, which modern religious and civil conscience rejects. Better atheism than that. Better not to believe that there is a god at all than to believe in a god who would order us to kill innocents. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa,
Preacher of the Papal Household.

(Source: zenit.org)

Christianity Untried

1. Chesterton says:

    “The Christian ideal

    has not been tried

    and found wanting.

2. It has been found difficult

    and left untried.”

3. Christianity has not been tried

    because people thought

    it was impractical.

4. And men have tried everything

    except Christianity.

5. And everything

    that men have tried

    has failed.

An ‘Easy Essay’, by Peter Maurin,
Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker 

(Source: catholicworker.org)

Peter Maurin, Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker

Peter Maurin, Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker

All the methods of appointing authorities that have been tried, divine right, and election, and heredity, and balloting, and assemblies and parliaments and senate—have all proved ineffectual. Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom Of God Is Within You. (via lost-and-searching-in-america)

Suggestions for Lent

From Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:
  • Choose poverty and weakness.
  • Choose mercy and meekness.
  • Choose peace and justice.
  • Celebrate being marginalized and rejected.
  • Refuse to let anger ruin relationships.
  • Refuse to let sexual desire ruin relationships.
  • Don’t make promises; just say ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
  • Don’t stop someone from attacking you.
  • Sacrifice for people who don’t deserve it.
  • Give money to people who don’t deserve it.
  • Smile at people who don’t deserve it.
  • Give to the poor. Tell no one.
  • Pray hard. Tell no one.
  • Fast often. Tell no one.
  • Choose service over security.
  • Forgive everyone for everything.
  • Pray with others for justice and forgiveness.
  • Correct yourself before correcting another.
  • Listen to people who won’t listen to you.
  • Choose the hard and lonely path.
  • Judge words by their effect, not by their style.
  • Imitate Jesus rather than echoing Jesus.
  • Just do it (what Jesus tells you).

A Humble Anarchism

No gods and no masters. Except that the existence of life presents itself as gift, as ecology, as order within chaos, as a flickering light in a deep darkness, as green in black. No masters, but life rules us according to life’s rules. No gods, but existence did not exist itself into being; God — the mystery beyond all words, the imperfect analogy for an incomplete thought — breathes existence into being. 

Civilization rejects the authority of existence. A humble anarchism, a wise anarchism, rejects the false authority of civilization while embracing the true authority of life itself, and more importantly — the authority of the Spirit behind Life, a Spirit real, active, vibrant, involved, necessary, ever-loving, and never-failing, a Spirit that is True Love.

I ask you one thing: do not tire of giving, but do not give your leftovers. Give until it hurts, until you feel the pain.

(Source: andrearoxsox)