Faith and Poverty

Monasticism, Indigenous Cultures, Burning Man, and/or Kingdom of God?: My trip to Taize.


December 27th, 2019

After being invited to Barcelona, Spain this fall for a chaotic tour of book talks, TV appearances, and radio interviews, I needed a place to recover from all the activity. And one of the greatest realizations of my life has … Continue reading



Five Things That #OccupyWallStreet Has Done Right


September 21st, 2011

#OccupyWallStreet protests are now well into their second week, and they are increasingly capturing the public spotlight. This is because, whatever limitations their occupation has, the protesters have done many things right. I will admit that I was skeptical about … Continue reading



The First Letter from a Spiritual Director: Ears to Hear. By Paul Engler


December 17th, 2010

I have been providing some spiritual direction in the Christian Contemplative Tradition to a few people from my church. One of my directees really wanted me to write some of my lessons to him in a letter. He thought it … Continue reading



Everything Old is New Again


December 17th, 2009

Ancient Christian practices are finding a home in post-modern Christianity by Brian McLaren I was raised Plymouth Brethren in the 1950s and 1960s, a group that has taken some pride in skipping over the centuries of church history between about … Continue reading



Our Christmas appeal: Pray for God’s Plan


December 16th, 2009

What is your plan? How are you going to survive? I would ask while serving soup to the poor, or washing dishes at every Catholic Worker house, I visited across the country a few years ago. Many of the workers, … Continue reading



Contemplation and Compassion: The Second Gaze


December 12th, 2009

by Richard Rohr, OFM – December 2005 As published in Radical Grace, the publication of the Center for Action and Contemplation Vol. 18, No 6 – November-December 2005 Contemplation happens to everyone. It happens in moments when we are open, … Continue reading



The Final Word Is Love


December 7th, 2009

by Dorothy Day The Catholic Worker, May 1980, p. 4. We were just sitting there talking when Peter Maurin came in. We were just sitting there talking when lines of people began to form, saying, “We need bread.” We could … Continue reading



What the Catholic Worker Believes


December 1st, 2009

What the Catholic Worker Believes The Catholic Worker believes in the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism. The Catholic Worker believes in the personal obligation of looking after the needs of our brother. The Catholic Worker believes in the daily practice … Continue reading



Fast For Our Future


December 14th, 2008

Letter from the Hunger strikers. For 22 days and nights the stories of our hunger strike have reinforced life and faith. Life and faith are two sides of the same coin. Every night for the last 22 days we gather … Continue reading



Fasting for Immigrant Justice this Election Season


December 14th, 2008

(Article from Sojourners magazine) by Glen Peterson 11-04-2008 Activists, evangelical Christians, and Catholic Workers have joined in a hunger strike in downtown Los Angeles to expose the plight of immigrants in the United States and to motivate 1 million people … Continue reading



A Vision of Nonviolent Resistance


December 13th, 2008

One morning this past summer I was seated on the back porch of our house, meeting with the nonviolent discussion group for the Center for the Working Poor, when I was seized by a vision of nonviolent resistance that resonated … Continue reading



Dumpster Diving Interview with Paul Engler


March 20th, 2008

This is a updated video short with a commentary by Paul Engler, founder of Center for the Working Poor. We dubbed his radio interview with 89.3 KPCC FM into the footage that Faith/Activism Collective took at our recent dumpster dive. … Continue reading



Living Large at the Center for the Working Poor (aka the Burning Bush Community)


December 6th, 2007

Summary: I am still living in an intentional community called the Center for the Working Poor, or the Burning Bush community. Over a year ago, when I said that I was starting a community and a “non-profit organization”–and then started … Continue reading



The Easy Essays of Peter Maurin Define the Catholic Worker Movement


November 28th, 2007

By Peter Maurin, Co-Founder of the Movement The Law of Holiness “No man can serve two masters, God and Mammon.” “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” “If you want to be perfect sell all you have, give it … Continue reading



The Works of Mercy


November 27th, 2007

The Works of Mercy are an abiding norm for the Catholic Worker Movement. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin lived lives of “active love” built on these precepts. In Christian tradition they are. . . The corporal works of mercy: feeding … Continue reading



Trent’s Burning Bush Article


November 27th, 2007

11/19/07 I was walking down the street the other day here in Los Angeles, and I saw a billboard that stopped me in my tracks. On the bottom was the familiar image of a half-naked couple in an embrace. Above … Continue reading



Centering Prayer as Divine Therapy


November 27th, 2007

Father Thomas Keating has devoted a lifetime to understanding and teaching the practice of Centering Prayer. In this conversation, he explores the techniques and the benefits of this modern application of an ancient spiritual discipline. Thomas Keating: Centering Prayer as … Continue reading



The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual And Spiritual Origins (Paperback)


September 5th, 2007

by Mark Zwick (Author), Louise Zwick In the 1990s, a prominent American Catholic journal pronounced, “the Catholic Worker movement is dead,” a decade and a half after the death of the movement’s renowned co-founder, Dorothy Day. Such a sweeping declaration … Continue reading



The Irresistible Revolution (Forward)


September 5th, 2007

Shane Claiborne is a good example of the old adage, “Be careful what you pray for.” Evangelicals like to pray that Christian young people will learn to love Jesus and follow in his steps. Well, that’s exactly what this young … Continue reading



Preaching the Anti-shopping Gospel


September 5th, 2007

2007-07-15 Los Angeles Times by Erika Hayasaki NEW YORK — Familiar in his clerical collar, cream-colored suit and dyed-blond pompadour, the Rev. Billy has spent much of the last decade parading through the streets of Manhattan, shouting through a megaphone … Continue reading



Sacred Refuge


September 5th, 2007

With comprehensive immigration reform off the congressional agenda, the New Sanctuary Movement steps into the breach. by Alexia Salvatierra When the immigration agent came to deport Liliana, her 7-year-old son William was confused and furious. “My mama is not a … Continue reading



A Brief Introduction to the Catholic Worker Movement


November 23rd, 2006

By Tom Cornell The Catholic Worker movement is made up of people motivated by the teachings of Jesus, especially as they are summarized in the Sermon on the Mount, and the teachings of the Catholic Church, in the writings of … Continue reading



Starting The Center for the Working Poor: Don’t Mess With God’s Crazy Plan


November 22nd, 2006

By Paul Engler The Summary I still run the Center for the Working Poor, delivering food to impoverished workers, writing, speaking at churches, and supporting living wage boycotts. While doing this, the House of Representatives passed a law designed to … Continue reading



The Birth of The Burning Bush: The Center for the Working Poor


May 12th, 2006

BY PAUL ENGLER Our project is called The Burning Bush: Center for the Working Poor, and has a fancy new website which can be reached at: centerfortheworkingpoor.org. We take our biblical name from the unexpected signal God gave Moses to … Continue reading



The Catholic Worker Movement


March 29th, 2006

This essay was written by Jim Forest on the Catholic Worker Movement for The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History to be published by the Liturgical Press. Jim Forest, once a managing editor of The Catholic Worker, is the author of … Continue reading







We will All Become Pilgrims: 2022 Newsletter Summary

December 19th, 2022

By Paul Engler Whenever I write my newsletter, I am afraid a subtle or not-so-subtle repetition will be noticed—I fear I write the same thing over and over again! Generally the theme has something to do with change, uncertainty, and … Continue reading

Liminality is a Recipe for Navigating Winter: Becoming a Pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago

December 19th, 2022

Whether you’re in a midlife, quarter life, or general life crisis, the proverbial crap hits the wall. You break up with your girlfriend, your community starts falling apart, your movement dies, your organization goes bankrupt, you lose the political campaign. … Continue reading

2022 House Journal

December 19th, 2022

I’m happy to report that our community has stabilized at the Center for the Working Poor house. We haven’t had one person leave in the past year! A welcome contrast to 2021, when we had so many people come and … Continue reading

2021 CWP Newsletter Summary

December 15th, 2021

There is a big debate among economists about a curious phenomenon unfolding right now called “The Great Resignation”. We have an immense labor shortage because people are not returning to work as the experts expected (common after a recession). There … Continue reading

2021 Center Update: Ring the Bell of Hope… Again, and Again

December 15th, 2021

This fall, in one of my first trips to visit my coworkers from the Ayni Institute in Boston, I stopped by New York City to visit one of my closest friends, Eric Stoner. And I was sitting on his couch, … Continue reading

2021 House Journal

December 15th, 2021

The Center for the Working Poor was founded in 2006, but we didn’t move into our large Victorian house until 2007. Therefore, we have been in the house for 14 years now; and throughout this time, only Paul Engler has … Continue reading

The Story of Community Counseling

December 15th, 2021

Over the last year, we have started beta groups for a new model of mutual aid counseling, called Community Counseling that has engaged dozens in weekly small group counseling practice and training. In November, I went to Boston to lead … Continue reading

2020 Center Update: Surrender and Become Attentive

December 17th, 2020

“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die …” — Ecclesiastes 3:1 “Surrender to what is dying, and become attentive to what is emerging.”  — … Continue reading