MONDAY IN THE LAST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

-From Robert Ellberg’s reflection on the values which have sustained the Catholic Worker Movement [CWM] for 87 years, founded by Servant of God Dorothy Day [a candidate for sainthood] and Peter Maurin. Here are the three ingredients of the CWM soup, if you will…

I. The message of Matthew 25: that Christ is present to us in the needs of our neighbor. This is the foundation of the Works of Mercy, the most obvious expression of the CWM.
II.Protesting, resisting a system that gives rise to so much poverty and injustice, as well as the culture and values that underlie such a system. This conjunction of the practice of charity and struggle for justice is a distinctive feature of the CWM.
III. To point to and try to model an alternative future – an alternative culture, animated by alternative values. Not just shouting loudly about what we are against, but proclaiming the message of what we are for, and trying to live by the values we proclaim. What are these values? Solidarity and community rather than competition and individualism; systematic generosity and hospitality rather than greed and hostility.

Father Bill +