Ah! Peter!
"When I first met Peter Maurin my impression was of a short, broad-shouldered workingman with a high, broad head covered with greying hair. His face was weather beaten, he had warm grey eyes and a wide pleasant mouth. The collar of his shirt was dirty, but he had to dress up by wearing a tie and a suit which looked as though he had slept in it. (As I found out afterword, indeed he had.) What struck me first about him was that he was one of those people who talked you deaf, dumb, and blind, who each time he saw you began his conversation just where he had left off at the previous meeting, and never stopped unless you begged for rest, and that was not for long...
"He was born in a small village called Oultet in the southeastern part of France, in the Pyrenees... Peter was educated in the village school and went on to the Christian Brothers School in Paris, where he became a teacher...
"Peter's teaching was simple, so simple, as one can see from these phrased paragraphs... that many disregarded them. It was the sanctity of the man that made them dynamic.
"Although he synopsized hundreds of books for all of us who were his students, and that meant thousands of pages of phrased paragraphs, these essays were his original writings, and even during his prime we used them in the paper just as he did in speaking, over and over again. He believed in repeating, in driving his point home by constant repetition, like the dropping of water on the stones which were our hearts." -- Dorothy Day
Many years ago, while working in the kitchen in the county hospital in Salinas, a co-worker brought in a copy of the Catholic Worker. He said that he'd noticed the kind of books I would read during our lunch break, and thought I might be interested. Besides, he said, his mom always threw it out as communist propaganda. That first issue for me was like a revelation: articles on nonviolence, justice, poverty of spirit, and so-called "Easy Essays" by Peter Maurin. This was what I had been searching for! After studying Gandhi, King, Chavez, Francis, and Merton -- here, finally, was the means to the New Creation. And surprisingly, it was no big deal: it was bread and hands. It was a pot of soup on the stove. It was the activation of compassion. The "revolution" was "showing up"...
"It took us a long time to pry Peter's story from him... When Peter first came to this continent, he settled in western Canada, where he homesteaded. Later he wandered as an itinerant lumberjack. He came over the border into New York State illegally, and traveled all through the Eastern and Midwestern states, working in steel mills, coal mines, on railroads; digging ditches and sewers or serving as janitor in city tenements... He lived on vegetables and bread...
"Slowly, I began to understand what Peter wanted: we were to reach the people by practicing the works of mercy... It had such appeal that it inspired us to action -- action which certainly kept us busy and got us into all kinds of trouble besides... we soon began to have a community, and it was pretty much a community of the poor...
"Is this what you meant, Peter?" I asked him once about an overcrowded house of hospitality.
"Well," he hesitated. "At least it arouses the conscience."
Which is something." -- Dorothy Day
In response to the radical joy of St. Francis, I had become a Catholic. Now, in response to the writings of Peter Maurin and the example of Dorothy Day, I decided to take a next step and become a Catholic Worker. I put an announcement in the Salinas newspaper: if interested in starting a Catholic Worker House in Salinas, please attend a meeting, at such-and-such time, to talk about it. Surprisingly to me, a few folks actually showed up! For the next few months, we got to know each other, talked about our interests, about the needs we saw in our area, and about ways in which we might be able to make a difference...
Finally, it became obvious to everyone that we needed to start and do something. So we made 65 egg-salad sandwiches, scratched out a last-minute sign: "Free Sandwiches", and headed out to "Chinatown-Salinas". Two hours or so later, we left the street: leaving behind a promise to return tomorrow: and so began what eventually became "Dorothy's Place Hospitality Center", a non-profit called the "Franciscan Workers", and an intentional community called the "Companions of the Way". Together we had served over two million free meals in the 30 years I had the privilege of working there. We started a day shelter called the "Day Room" (after Dorothy Day, of course) with all the services one would expect: like, friendship, reverence, restrooms, showers, laundry, advocacy, and recreation. We started an emergency overnight shelter for homeless women called "Women Alive!". We started an outreach program in migrant farm worker labor camps: food assistance, health clinics, and an after-school enrichment program for the children called "Margaret's Place". We started summer camps for children, mixing inner city kids with migrant farm worker kids: and then including young people with various physical disabilities: and then expanding the camps to year-round enrichment opportunities and field trips called "Camp St. Francis". We started the "Peter Maurin Work Co-op" and made pottery, books, cards, and eventually silk-screened T-shirts "employing" homeless folks from Dorothy's Place. We started the "@risK art studio and gallery" and offered art camps for youth, classes for the homeless, and art outreach in the community through the gallery, especially with youth and the wildly popular graffiti art. We started "Immersion Experiences" for high school and college students to come and dedicate a few days or a few weeks to volunteering with us. And the highlight of my thirty years: we started the "Dorothy Day House of Peace": a "Welcome Home" for the homeless folks who had steadily persevered in planning the shelter over the course of about two years: the brief time that Michelle and I and our children had in living with Brittany and Audrey and our now "homed" family was the very best time of my life!
Beginning with nothing more than the spiritual imperative of "We Must Do Something!", we did something -- which continues today with others in the lead and "filling the empty spaces". Through the years there were many "incarnations" of community: a very narrow "Catholic" perspective eventually broadened to become interfaith without a loss of either spirit or passion. People experienced love and loss -- (including me) -- and discovered the renewal of life and hope in the miracle of a dream. People came and left -- (including me) -- and discovered that there is no real leaving: the love that is given freely lives forever in the Mystery of Every Thing and Every One... The point of this? You, too, are fully capable of "doing something"! In the surprise of the Holy One, you simply begin: and then hang on: for sure and for certain, you'll be in for one-hell-of-a-ride!
Selections From the Easy Essays of Peter Maurin
People in need are the ambassadors of God.
There is no better way to be
than to be
what we want the other fellow to be.
Labor is not a commodity
to be bought and sold --
Labor is a means of self-expression,
the worker's gift to the common good.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to keep trained minds from becoming
academic.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to keep untrained minds from being
superficial.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to learn from scholars
how things would be, if they were as
they should be.
We need Round-Table Discussions to
learn from scholars
how a path can be made
from things as they are
to things as they should be.
We need communes
to help the unemployed
to help themselves.
We need communes
to make scholars out of workers
and workers out of scholars,
to substitute a technique of ideals
for our technique of deals.
We need communes
to create a new society
within the shell of the old
with the philosophy of the new,
which is not a new philosophy
but a very old philosophy
a philosophy so old
that it looks like new.
What we give to the poor
for Christ's sake
is what we carry with us
when we die.
Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be what he ought
to be,
if everybody tried to be
what he wants the other fellow to be.
The Common Good movement
is not a movement that divides,
it is a movement that unites.
To be our brother's keeper
is what God wants us to do.
To feed the hungry
at a personal sacrifice
is what God wants us to do.
To clothe the naked
at a personal sacrifice
is what God wants us to do.
To shelter the homeless
at a personal sacrifice
is what God wants us to do.
The future will be different
if we make the present different.
I want a change,
and a radical change.
I want a change
from an acquisitive society to a
functional society
from a society of go-getters
to a society of go-givers.
The remedy for unemployment
is employment,
and there is no better employment than
self-employment.
Self-Employing Centers
are small shops
where repairs can be made
and workers can be found
to do work outside.
With the Self-Employing Centers
could be connected
Houses of Hospitality
where the self-employing workers
could find shelter.
It is in fact impossible
for any culture
to be sound and healthy
without a proper respect and proper
regard for the soil.
"An institution," says Emerson,
"is the extension
of the soul of a man."
Institutions are founded
to foster the welfare
of the masses.
Corporations are organized
to promote wealth
for the few.
So let us found
smaller and better
institutions
and not promote
bigger and better corporations.
A leader
is a fellow
who refuses to be crazy
the way everybody else is crazy
and tries to be crazy
in his own crazy way.
The Communitarian Revolution
is basically
a personal revolution.
It starts with I,
not with They.
One I plus one I
makes two I's
and two I's make We.
We is a community
while "they" is a crowd.
To be radically right
is to go the roots
by fostering a society
based on creed,
systematic unselfishness
and gentle personalism
To foster a society
based on creed,
instead of greed,
on systematic unselfishness
instead of systematic selfishness,
on gentle personalism
instead of rugged individualism,
is to create a new society
within the shell of the old.
Communitarian Personalism
is based on the power
of thought and example.
You cannot go
where you want to go
by taking a road
which does not lead you there.
Having pure aims
and using pure means
is making the right use
of freedom.
Personalist vision
leads to personalist action.
Personalist action
means personal responsibility.
Personal responsibility
means dynamic democracy.
"He was born in a small village called Oultet in the southeastern part of France, in the Pyrenees... Peter was educated in the village school and went on to the Christian Brothers School in Paris, where he became a teacher...
"Peter's teaching was simple, so simple, as one can see from these phrased paragraphs... that many disregarded them. It was the sanctity of the man that made them dynamic.
"Although he synopsized hundreds of books for all of us who were his students, and that meant thousands of pages of phrased paragraphs, these essays were his original writings, and even during his prime we used them in the paper just as he did in speaking, over and over again. He believed in repeating, in driving his point home by constant repetition, like the dropping of water on the stones which were our hearts." -- Dorothy Day
Many years ago, while working in the kitchen in the county hospital in Salinas, a co-worker brought in a copy of the Catholic Worker. He said that he'd noticed the kind of books I would read during our lunch break, and thought I might be interested. Besides, he said, his mom always threw it out as communist propaganda. That first issue for me was like a revelation: articles on nonviolence, justice, poverty of spirit, and so-called "Easy Essays" by Peter Maurin. This was what I had been searching for! After studying Gandhi, King, Chavez, Francis, and Merton -- here, finally, was the means to the New Creation. And surprisingly, it was no big deal: it was bread and hands. It was a pot of soup on the stove. It was the activation of compassion. The "revolution" was "showing up"...
"It took us a long time to pry Peter's story from him... When Peter first came to this continent, he settled in western Canada, where he homesteaded. Later he wandered as an itinerant lumberjack. He came over the border into New York State illegally, and traveled all through the Eastern and Midwestern states, working in steel mills, coal mines, on railroads; digging ditches and sewers or serving as janitor in city tenements... He lived on vegetables and bread...
"Slowly, I began to understand what Peter wanted: we were to reach the people by practicing the works of mercy... It had such appeal that it inspired us to action -- action which certainly kept us busy and got us into all kinds of trouble besides... we soon began to have a community, and it was pretty much a community of the poor...
"Is this what you meant, Peter?" I asked him once about an overcrowded house of hospitality.
"Well," he hesitated. "At least it arouses the conscience."
Which is something." -- Dorothy Day
In response to the radical joy of St. Francis, I had become a Catholic. Now, in response to the writings of Peter Maurin and the example of Dorothy Day, I decided to take a next step and become a Catholic Worker. I put an announcement in the Salinas newspaper: if interested in starting a Catholic Worker House in Salinas, please attend a meeting, at such-and-such time, to talk about it. Surprisingly to me, a few folks actually showed up! For the next few months, we got to know each other, talked about our interests, about the needs we saw in our area, and about ways in which we might be able to make a difference...
Finally, it became obvious to everyone that we needed to start and do something. So we made 65 egg-salad sandwiches, scratched out a last-minute sign: "Free Sandwiches", and headed out to "Chinatown-Salinas". Two hours or so later, we left the street: leaving behind a promise to return tomorrow: and so began what eventually became "Dorothy's Place Hospitality Center", a non-profit called the "Franciscan Workers", and an intentional community called the "Companions of the Way". Together we had served over two million free meals in the 30 years I had the privilege of working there. We started a day shelter called the "Day Room" (after Dorothy Day, of course) with all the services one would expect: like, friendship, reverence, restrooms, showers, laundry, advocacy, and recreation. We started an emergency overnight shelter for homeless women called "Women Alive!". We started an outreach program in migrant farm worker labor camps: food assistance, health clinics, and an after-school enrichment program for the children called "Margaret's Place". We started summer camps for children, mixing inner city kids with migrant farm worker kids: and then including young people with various physical disabilities: and then expanding the camps to year-round enrichment opportunities and field trips called "Camp St. Francis". We started the "Peter Maurin Work Co-op" and made pottery, books, cards, and eventually silk-screened T-shirts "employing" homeless folks from Dorothy's Place. We started the "@risK art studio and gallery" and offered art camps for youth, classes for the homeless, and art outreach in the community through the gallery, especially with youth and the wildly popular graffiti art. We started "Immersion Experiences" for high school and college students to come and dedicate a few days or a few weeks to volunteering with us. And the highlight of my thirty years: we started the "Dorothy Day House of Peace": a "Welcome Home" for the homeless folks who had steadily persevered in planning the shelter over the course of about two years: the brief time that Michelle and I and our children had in living with Brittany and Audrey and our now "homed" family was the very best time of my life!
Beginning with nothing more than the spiritual imperative of "We Must Do Something!", we did something -- which continues today with others in the lead and "filling the empty spaces". Through the years there were many "incarnations" of community: a very narrow "Catholic" perspective eventually broadened to become interfaith without a loss of either spirit or passion. People experienced love and loss -- (including me) -- and discovered the renewal of life and hope in the miracle of a dream. People came and left -- (including me) -- and discovered that there is no real leaving: the love that is given freely lives forever in the Mystery of Every Thing and Every One... The point of this? You, too, are fully capable of "doing something"! In the surprise of the Holy One, you simply begin: and then hang on: for sure and for certain, you'll be in for one-hell-of-a-ride!
Selections From the Easy Essays of Peter Maurin
People in need are the ambassadors of God.
There is no better way to be
than to be
what we want the other fellow to be.
Labor is not a commodity
to be bought and sold --
Labor is a means of self-expression,
the worker's gift to the common good.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to keep trained minds from becoming
academic.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to keep untrained minds from being
superficial.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to learn from scholars
how things would be, if they were as
they should be.
We need Round-Table Discussions to
learn from scholars
how a path can be made
from things as they are
to things as they should be.
We need communes
to help the unemployed
to help themselves.
We need communes
to make scholars out of workers
and workers out of scholars,
to substitute a technique of ideals
for our technique of deals.
We need communes
to create a new society
within the shell of the old
with the philosophy of the new,
which is not a new philosophy
but a very old philosophy
a philosophy so old
that it looks like new.
What we give to the poor
for Christ's sake
is what we carry with us
when we die.
Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be what he ought
to be,
if everybody tried to be
what he wants the other fellow to be.
The Common Good movement
is not a movement that divides,
it is a movement that unites.
To be our brother's keeper
is what God wants us to do.
To feed the hungry
at a personal sacrifice
is what God wants us to do.
To clothe the naked
at a personal sacrifice
is what God wants us to do.
To shelter the homeless
at a personal sacrifice
is what God wants us to do.
The future will be different
if we make the present different.
I want a change,
and a radical change.
I want a change
from an acquisitive society to a
functional society
from a society of go-getters
to a society of go-givers.
The remedy for unemployment
is employment,
and there is no better employment than
self-employment.
Self-Employing Centers
are small shops
where repairs can be made
and workers can be found
to do work outside.
With the Self-Employing Centers
could be connected
Houses of Hospitality
where the self-employing workers
could find shelter.
It is in fact impossible
for any culture
to be sound and healthy
without a proper respect and proper
regard for the soil.
"An institution," says Emerson,
"is the extension
of the soul of a man."
Institutions are founded
to foster the welfare
of the masses.
Corporations are organized
to promote wealth
for the few.
So let us found
smaller and better
institutions
and not promote
bigger and better corporations.
A leader
is a fellow
who refuses to be crazy
the way everybody else is crazy
and tries to be crazy
in his own crazy way.
The Communitarian Revolution
is basically
a personal revolution.
It starts with I,
not with They.
One I plus one I
makes two I's
and two I's make We.
We is a community
while "they" is a crowd.
To be radically right
is to go the roots
by fostering a society
based on creed,
systematic unselfishness
and gentle personalism
To foster a society
based on creed,
instead of greed,
on systematic unselfishness
instead of systematic selfishness,
on gentle personalism
instead of rugged individualism,
is to create a new society
within the shell of the old.
Communitarian Personalism
is based on the power
of thought and example.
You cannot go
where you want to go
by taking a road
which does not lead you there.
Having pure aims
and using pure means
is making the right use
of freedom.
Personalist vision
leads to personalist action.
Personalist action
means personal responsibility.
Personal responsibility
means dynamic democracy.