Reflections on the Catholic Worker Movement II

Perhaps most striking about the Catholic Worker Movement is the communal nature of the lifestyle shared by those who lived within the confines of one of the many Houses of Hospitality. While I am not aware of any common “rule of life” for those who placed themselves at the mercy of these houses, the lifestyle that emerged within the houses was uncannily similar to the lifestyle of the Apostles themselves. As Luke writes, “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” In Loaves and Fishes, Dorothy Day speaks at length about the devotion of the members of the movement to the teachings. While they are not necessarily always the explicit teachings of the Apostles, they do seem to reflect a certain deference to the content of Revelation. Indeed, as Day describes Peter Maurin, one cannot help but be moved by a rather obvious piety and devotion. It seems impossible to read Maurin's “A Case for Utopia” without at least a fleeting recollection of the Beatitudes and Jesus' declaration that the poor in spirit would come to possess the Kingdom of Heaven, or that the merciful would be shown mercy, or that the clean of heart would see God (Cf. Mt. 5:5-12). In short, while the teachings promoted by the Catholic Worker Movement in general and by Maurin in particular were not always explicitly the words and teachings of the Apostles, they were very much in keeping with the wider implications of those teachings.