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
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 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
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
By Mark Engler Published on February 23, 2006 In the center of the CostOfWar.com home page, an upward-racing ticker, presented in a large, red font, keeps a steady tally of the money spent for the U.S. war in Iraq. Every … Continue reading
November 7, 2007 By R. W. Dellinger Rosa Balam, a robust-looking woman, stills wears her name tag from the Westin Hotel. But she hasn’t worked as a housekeeper there for 2 1/2 years, and doesn’t expect to ever work anywhere … Continue reading
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
Hi everyone, On the advice of a great friend I’ve decided to start sending out email updates about my life. If you’ve received this email it means that I like you and that I want to get these updates. Congratulations! … Continue reading
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
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
By DAVID BACON [posted online on August 22, 2007] A year ago, in the middle of the nation’s most bitterly fought union organizing drive of the past decade, management at the Smithfield Foods pork slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, North Carolina, … Continue reading
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
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
By Barbara Ehrenreich, Barbaraehrenreich.com Posted on July 17, 2007, Printed on July 31, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/story/56965/ It’s always nice to see the President take a principled stand on something. The man formerly known as “43,” and now perhaps better named “29” for … Continue reading
Caitlin G. Johnson – OneWorld US NEW YORK, May 31 (OneWorld) – U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law Congress’ plan for continued war funding last Friday — and with it, an attached proposal to raise the federal minimum wage … Continue reading
Published on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by CommonDreams.org by Holly Sklar Minimum wage workers made $5.15 an hour when Harry Potter became a sensation a decade ago, and nothing more until July 24, three days after the final Harry Potter book … Continue reading
Published on Saturday, July 28, 2007 by The Boston Globe http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/28/2824/ by Derrick Z. Jackson The Democratic presidential candidates were asked in the CNN/YouTube debate if they were willing to work in the White House for the national minimum wage. … Continue reading
I am still running the Center for the Working Poor (aka the Burning Bush Community), delivering food to families of the working poor, writing and speaking about issues of poverty, and supporting local living wage and immigrant rights campaigns. In the last seven months, there have been some big changes at “the Center.” Then again, the whole journey thus far has been a whirlwind. Continue reading
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
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
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
Are We Cells in a Mystical Body? Center Update 2018
December 24th, 2018
As many of you know, I am a social justice geek. I compulsively read and think about social movements, and have been doing this for a long time, and am now considered a specialist in the field commonly referred to … Continue reading
January 18th, 2018
The election of Trump was like somebody threw a political bomb into the middle of a crowded room. For undocumented people, it meant fear of losing DACA and being deported. For labor unions and the working poor, it meant losing … Continue reading
