FOOD FOR THOUGHT
"I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor."
Dorothy Day & The Catholic Workers Movement
"The world would become better
off if people tried to become better.
And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better
off."
“The rich were smiled at and fawned
upon by churchgoers. But I didn’t see anyone taking off his coat and giving it
to the poor. I didn’t see anyone giving
a banquet and calling the lame, the halt and the blind.” We can
have community banquets each week |
“People say, ‘What is the sense of our small effort?’ They
cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A
pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one
of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down
and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.”
The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? With out your heart, we have done nothing. | “I am praying because I am happy, not because I am unhappy. I did not turn to God in unhappiness, in grief, in despair—to get consolation, to get something …” when and why do you pray… practice celebration prayer! |
"It is people who are
important, not the masses."
Story of starfish on the beach
Food for the body is not enough.
There must be food for the soul. Work on the house is not enough – there must be something
more / |
"I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor,...
but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social
order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I
felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted
charity? And it was not just human pride but a
strong sense of man's dignity and worth, and what was due to him in justice,
that made me resent, rather than feel proud of so mighty a sum total of
Catholic institutions." Everyone needs help; not charity. If there were social justice… would there be
this need for charity to exist?
We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community. Sometimes what they really want is a light in the darkness, a friend. | We believe in loving our brothers regardless of race, color
or creed and we believe in showing this love by working for better conditions
immediately and the ultimate owning by the workers of their means of
production. |
"It is people who are
important, not the masses." Story of starfish on the beach
"What we would like to do is
change the world Join the Movement--make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and
shelter themselves as God intended them to do. our
actions / our camp And, by fighting for better conditions 24/7, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of
the workers, the poor, of the destitute
Celebration / community meetings-homeless…etc.--the
rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words--we can, to a
certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of
joy and peace in a harried world FS as an
island – branching out to folks homes. We can
throw our pebble in the pond needs to be an
activity… or video? and be confident that its
ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing
we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each
other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend."
What the Catholic
Worker Believes The
Catholic Worker believes in: the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism. the personal obligation of looking after the needs of our brother. the daily practice of the Works of Mercy. Houses of Hospitality for the immediate relief of those who are in need. the establishment of Farming Communes where each one works according to his ability and gets according to his need. creating a new society within the shell of the old with the philosophy of the new, which is not a new philosophy but a very old philosophy, a
philosophy so old that it looks like new. |
The Duty of Hospitality People who are in need and are not afraid to beg give to people not in need the occasion to do good for goodness' sake. Modern society calls the beggar bum and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. But the Greeks used to say that people in need are the ambassadors of the gods. Although you may be called bums and panhandlers you are in fact the Ambassadors of God. As God's Ambassadors you should be given food, clothing and shelter by those who are able to give it. Mahometan teachers tell us that God commands hospitality, and hospitality is still practiced in Mahometan countries. But the duty of hospitality is neither taught nor practiced in Christian countries. |
Christianity Untried Chesterton says: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." Christianity has not been tried because people thought it was impractical. And men have tried everything except Christianity. And everything that men have tried has failed. |
Feeding the Poor at a Sacrifice In the first centuries of Christianity the hungry were fed at a personal sacrifice, the naked were clothed at a personal sacrifice, the homeless were sheltered at personal sacrifice. And because the poor were fed, clothed and sheltered at a personal sacrifice, the pagans used to say about the Christians "See how they love each other." In our own day the poor are no longer fed, clothed, sheltered at a personal sacrifice, but at the expense of the taxpayers. And because the poor are no longer fed, clothed and sheltered the pagans say about the Christians. See how they pass the buck." |
