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7 PENTECOST 2012

The Little Way

AIMS AND MEANS of the CATHOLIC WORKERReprinted from The Catholic Worker, May 2012

The aim of the Catholic Worker movement is to live in accordance with the justice and chari-ty of Jesus Christ. Our sources are the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures...with our inspiration

coming from the lives of the saints, men and women outstanding in holiness, living witness-

es to Your unchanging love." (Eucharistic Prayer).

This aim requires us to begin living in a different way. We recall the words of our founders, Dorothy

Day who said, "God meant things to be much easier than we have made them," and Peter Maurin who

wanted to build a society "where it is easier for people to be good."

* * *

In contrast to what we see around us, as well as within ourselves, stands St. Thomas Aquinas' doctrineof the Common Good, a vision of a society where the good of each member is bound to the good of the

whole in the service of God.To this end, we advocate:

--Personalism, a philosophy which regards the freedom and dignity of each person as the basis, focusand goal of all metaphysics and morals. In following such wisdom, we move away from a self-centered

individualism toward the good of the other. This is to be done by taking personal responsibility for

changing conditions, rather than looking to the state or other institutions to provide impersonal"charity." We pray for a Church renewed by this philosophy and for a time when all those who feel ex-cluded from participation are welcomed with love, drawn by the gentle personalism Peter Maurin

taught.

--A decentralized society, in contrast to the present bigness of government, industry, education,health care and agriculture. We encourage efforts such as family farms, rural and urban land trusts,

worker ownership and management of small factories, homesteading projects, food, housing and other

cooperatives--any effort in which money can once more become merely a medium of exchange, andhuman beings are no longer commodities. (cont. p.2)

What We Would Like To Do Colin MillerThe current work of the Community of the Franciscan Way Catholic Worker in

Durham includes a hospitality house with three guests, meals and drop ins, and a dai-ly breakfast shared with the poor at our local parish, St. Josephs. In August we will

move into a bigger house about a block a way. Things are changing, and more people

appear to be drawn to join us. So I am often asked what we want to do practically in

the future. A simple question that deserves a simple answer. So, while not having anyidea what will in fact happen, heres some plain words about what many of us would

like.

First, we would like to keep doing what we are doing: Praying Morning and Evening

Prayer together at St. Joes, sharing breakfast, housing the homeless and living with

the poor at the new house. We would like to have regular meals together at the newhouse and invite whomever is around to join us for clarification of thought. We

would like to have regular celebration of the Eucharist in a chapel in the house, and

maybe Noonday Prayers or Compline. All of this is currently feasible in the fairly

immediate future. (cont. p.3)

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* * *

We believe this needed personal and social transformation should be pursued by the means Jesus re-

vealed in His sacrificial love. With Christ as our Exemplar, by prayer and communion with His Body andBlood, we strive for practices of:--Nonviolence. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." (Matt. 5:9)

Only through nonviolent action can a personalist revolution come about, one in which one evil will notsimply be replaced by another. Thus, we oppose the deliberate taking of human life for any reason,and see every oppression as blasphemy. Jesus taught us to take suffering upon ourselves rather thaninflict it upon others, and He calls us to fight against violence with the spiritual weapons of prayer,

fasting and noncooperation with evil. Refusal to pay taxes for war, to register for conscription, to com-ply with any unjust legislation; participation in nonviolent strikes and boycotts, protests or vigils; with-drawal of support for dominant systems, corporate funding or usurious practices are all excellent

means to establish peace.

--The works of mercy (as found in Matt. 25:31-46) are at the heart of the Gospel and they are clearmandates for our response to "the least of our brothers and sisters." Houses of hospitality are centers

for learning to do the acts of love, so that the poor can receive what is, in justice, theirs, the secondcoat in our closet, the spare room in our home, a place at our table. Anything beyond what we immedi-

ately need belongs to those who go without.--Manual labor, in a society that rejects it as undignified and inferior. "Besides inducing cooperation,

besides overcoming barriers and establishing the spirit of sister and brotherhood (besides just getting

things done), manual labor enables us to use our bodies as well as our hands, our minds." (DorothyDay) The Benedictine motto Ora et Labora reminds us that the work of human hands is a gift for the

edification of the world and the glory of God.--Voluntary poverty. "The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving

to others, we increase our knowledge and belief in love." (Dorothy Day) By embracing voluntary pov-erty, that is, by casting our lot freely with those whose impoverishment is not a choice, we would ask

for the grace to abandon ourselves to the love of God. It would put us on the path to incarnate the

Church's "preferential option for the poor."* * *

We must be prepared to accept seeming failure with these aims, for sacrifice and suffering

are part of the Christian life. Success, as the world determines it, is not the final criterion forjudgments. The most important thing is the love of Jesus Christ and how to live His truth.+

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AIMS and MEANS, cont.

HELP US MOVE!

Wednesday August 1 the hospitality house will

move from 920 9th St. to 1116 Iredell. Therell be

moving and cleaning to do. We can use help in all

kinds, for any period of time. Drop in or call.

763.355.2648.

RENT!

Help us make it through the first month in the new

house! Monetary donations are solicited to help us pay for

rent and deposits totaling $3300. Thanks to all of your

who give! Donation information is on the last page of

The Little Way.

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PAGE 3THE LITTLE WAY7 PENTECOST 2012

What We Would Like, cont.We would like to start a small farm. Many of us are convinced that our founder Peter Maurin was right that get-ting back to the land is a necessity of our time. We have several able and willing leaders among us on this

front. A farm would open up space for good work, hospitality, prayer, and rest for those engaged in the works o

mercy in the city.

We would like to open up a hospitality house for women and children. Often mothers and babies

come to breakfast. I feel for them, often staying at the homeless shelter, and simply wandering

the streets during the day. We want to give them a safe, warm bed or a trusted babysitter so

mom can go off to work or to the doctor or to run errands or simply to have an hour to read or

sleep. We have several friends who might run such a house. We could easily find a teacher to do

homeschooling.

We would like to be a training ground for the Church. Seminarians at Duke or at the Diocese of

North Carolina Deacons School could come and stay with us for a semester or a year to prepare

for ordained ministry by living and serving with the poor. We could offer alternative theological

education.

These are some of the things that we would like to do. I never plan too far ahead, because I have

about as much foresight as a bat. Thankfully I have others around me who have more. And the

truth is that for each of those nuts and bolts there are really people among us already who would

thrive in these environments. I even get the impression that there really are people in the world

for whom the existence of a hospitality house or a farm would mean comfort and joy. +

We need some crazy

Christians. Sane, sanitized

Christianity is killing us."Michael Curry

Bishop of North Carolina

THE CHURCH SPEAKS

Dorothy Day

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Healing in His Wings Aaron Jones

What's so special about Jesus' clothes? The woman who sneaks up behind him in the crowd seems pretty

sure that his garments will do the trick. The Scripture says she heard about Jesus, and that's why she ap-

proached him the way she did. She said to herself, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."What did

she hear about him, do you think? What did she hear that gave her such certainty? Did she hear about his

incredible teaching? Or about the entire crowds of people that he healed? Or the hosts of demons that he

cast out? All of these are signs that Jesus is the Messiah, but none of these suggest that he wears mystical,

healing clothes.

The key verse is in the prophet Malachi, chapter 4: "But for you who fear my name the Sun of right-

eousness shall rise with healing in his wings" (4:2). The Sun of Righteousness, that is, the Messiah, will

rise with healing in his wings. This word wings is the exact same Hebrew word for the edge of a man's gar-

ment. So the prophecy can read: "The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in the edge of his

clothes." Mark doesn't say anything about where the woman touched Jesus clothes, but when Matthew

and Luke tell the same story, they get specific: the woman came up behind him and touched the edge of his

cloak (Mt. 9:20, Lk. 8:44).

But we can go another layer deeper. There's something special about the fringes of a Jewish man's

clothes. This takes us back to the book of Numbers, where God gives this commandment to the people:

"Tell [the Israelites] to make fringes on the corners (wings) of their garments throughout their generations

and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you willremember all the commandments of the Lord and do them" (15:38-39).

Faithful Jewish men during Jesus' time would have worn this sort of shawl that God describes in

Numbers. On its wings, or edges, there would be tassels with blue cords attached. The tassels would repre-

sent the mitzvah, the commandments of the law that God gave to the people. The tassels were reminders;

whenever you saw them, you remembered to be faithful to God. I like to call these tassels, "Torah-tassels."

Torah is the law, the tassels represent the law, and Jesus wore these tassels on the wings, or edges, of his

garment. So if we read the Malachi prophecy again, it says, "The Sun of Righteousness will rise with heal-

ing in his Torah-tassels."

When people reached for Jesus' clothes for healing, they were aiming for the tassels, and the reason

behind this is very profound. Jesus, the Messiah, was the only Jew who knew how to observe the law fully;

his obedience to God the Father is totally perfect. That means the Torah-tassels on Jesus' clothes are notjust the normal reminders of faithful-

ness, they actually contain some of

the power that they represent. They

are like sacraments: they not only

symbolize obedience Jesus' obedi-

ence to the Father is physically pre-

sent there, in the tassels. When the

bleeding woman touches Jesus' tas-

sels, this is the power she taps into.

The power in his tassels was especial-

ly ideal for her, because according to

the law, she could not touch Jesus

body. In Leviticus, there are strict

purity laws about menstruating wom-

en. The laws get even more strict

when a womans bleeding is perpetu-

al, like the woman in our story. Any-

one who she touched, or who touched

her, would share in her uncleanli-

ness. Think of the risk she took

sneaking through the crowd. Even

touching Jesus clothes was a prob-

lem. (cont. p.5)

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But maybe she had hope that the Messiah would have a deeper vision than the surface of the

law. Maybe she hoped the Messiah would understand the depths of her pain and isolation and suffering.

If anyone could heal her, if anyone could allow her touch, it would be the one whose clothes were teem-

ing with life. Over those years that she bled and bled and bled, she could not have known that the one

who healed her would himself bleed for her, and for the life of the world.

You also might be wondering why, if Jesus clothes were full of such power, that the rest of thecrowd pressing against him was not erupting with miracles. Its something about the way the woman

reaches for him, I think. St. Augustine describes it by saying, Few are they who by faith touch him;

multitudes are they who throng about him." Again, few are they who by faith touch him; multitudes are

they who throng about him.

Jesus was surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people. Peter was right when he said,

[Jesus], you see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, who touched me? Hands and arms

and legs were brushing him on every side. Multitudes were thronging about him. But it was the one

woman, who reached out in faith, who reached out and seized the power of Jesus Christ with every fiber

of hope she had, it was she who was made well.

This last point is not so different in our day. Augustines quote is still spot -on. There are thou-

sands of people in our churches; there are millions of people who throng around Jesus, reading abouthim, or thinking about him, or talking about him. But few are they who reach out in faithwith a faith

that says, there is no other hope for me, without Jesus Ive got nothing else. If only we were bold enough

to reach like this. If only we had faith enough to cling to the tassels of his robe, and hear him say in re-

turn: Daughter, Son, your faith has made you well.

But we do have a chance to reach. At the table, with fear and trembling, we reach for him again

and again. He is still wearing clothes. He is not dressed in shawls and tassels, but in wheat and wine. I

beg you, do not come to this table like the multitudes who throng about him. There is healing here if we

will reach, reach out and take hold of him in faith.

Oh God, help us to reach out for Jesus, for the Sun of Righteousness has risen, and truly, there is

healing in his wings.+

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The Little Way is a pamphlet of a diffuse but emerging Episcopal

Christian Community in Durham, North Carolina, that seeks a life of pray-

er, study, simplicity, and fellowship with the poor. We stand in the tradition

of the Catholic Worker Movement founded in 1933 by Peter Maurin and

Dorothy Day. Our work currently consists of this publication and a small

hospitality house feeding and sheltering three residents and drop-ins. Many

of us pray Morning and Evening Prayer, and support a daily breakfast

fellowship, at a local church, St. Josephs. Rent, food and utilities for the

hospitality house are paid entirely on donations. Funds are always used

directly for the performance of the Works of Mercy, and no one in the

community draws any salary or other benefits.

THE LITTLE WAY

Editors:Colin Miller, Elizabeth Costello, Joseph Wolyniak,Mac Stewart, JR Rigby, Luke Wetzel, NatalieWetzel, Andrew Nelson, Justin Fletcher,Meredith Stewart.The Rev. Canon Catherine Caimano, Abbot.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

To instruct the uninformed

To counsel the doubtful

To admonish sinners

To bear wrongs patiently

To forgive offences willingly

To comfort the afflicted

To pray for the living and the dead

For information about the community or to get involved,please contact us:

Phone: 763.355.2648E-mail: miller.douglas.colin@gmail.comhttp://cfw.dionc.org/

Current Want List

Money (for rent, utilities, food, etc.)

Food Donations (eggs, cheese, meat, beans, pasta,canned prepared or frozen foods)

A 5-10 Bedroom House in Durham

Monetary donations for the hospitality house are receivedby: St. Josephs Episcopal Church Hospitality Fund1902W Main St., Durham, NC 27705. To

make non-monetary gifts please call oremail.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

To feed the hungry

To give drink to the thirst

To clothe the naked

To harbor the harborless

To visit the sick

To ransom the captive

To bury the dead