Reflections on the Catholic Worker Movement VI

This is the final entry of my series on the Catholic Worker Movement. Let me know if you enjoyed the idea of a series (content aside). We spend a lot of time writing papers around here. All of us have plenty of them that we could share if you, our faithful readers, would like to see them.

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In the end, the most striking similarity between the Catholic Worker Movement and the Apostolic Church described in the Acts of the Apostles resides in Luke's comment that “every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” In Acts, this saving was a very spiritual reality. Men and women were joining the Church and becoming believers. As a result, they were assured the benefits of the death and resurrection of Christ. I am convinced that this must also have been true of the Catholic Worker Movement. Surely men and women were converted to Catholicism due to the witness of the Catholic Worker Movement. Nevertheless, much more practically, every day men and women whose lives were held in the balance were being saved from fear, cold, starvation, and death. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement exemplified the place where Revelation and human experience are unified in a concrete action that aids in realizing the Kingdom of God. Just as the Apostles, as described in Acts, were instrumental in bringing the faith of the Church alive and well to the rest of the world, so too did the Catholic Worker Movement continue that mission in the twentieth century, and continues to do so today.