Reflections on the Catholic Worker Movement

As an experiment, for the next several weeks, I will be posting excerpts of an essay I recently wrote comparing the Catholic Worker Movement and the Apostolic Church as described in Acts of the Apostles. We'll see how it goes.

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In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke describes the early Christian community in the following manner:

They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved (Acts 2:42-47).

Without knowing its source, the characterization provided in the lines above might have been made about Dorothy Day and the members/leaders of the Catholic Worker Movement. Indeed, throughout her book, Loaves and Fishes (Maryknoll: Orbis Books. 1997) , she consistently describes a mode of life that seems altogether consistent with the lifestyles of the earliest Christians. The following "Reflections on the Catholic Worker Movement" Series will examine some of these similarities.