Play, pray, and Catholic Workers

I recently went on a Pallotine retreat. Besides the much needed and much gained sleep, and the renewed love of basketball and oranges (both peculiarly of the color orange. hmm.), the major benefit gained was a renewed recognition of the importance of play (like basketball, and blogging!) and prayer. It helped me keep my school work in perspective. I came across a reading today that began to challenge that perspective.

Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on." Luke 21: 1-4

After reading this, I began to think, hey, why am I still in school? Why am I just going through the motions when I should be out there giving my all for Jesus. Then I quickly realized my problem. Notice that part when I said "going through the motions"? Yeah, there's my problem. I need to give Jesus my all by giving my all in everything I do to the greater glory of God. Sure one day that may look a bit more radical or revolutionary, but Jesus will work through me right where I am. I may want to be a rad liberal hippie, but I don't need to be in order to be giving it all up for Jesus.

But it is still fun to think about all of the rad liberal hippie things I want to do eventually. Obviously, I will never go on "trips" (with drugs that is). That would pretty much cancel out any health benefit of being vegetarian (check for hippie-ness on that point). I've also considered and quickly ruled out growing out my hair. All fashionable reasons aside, it would just be a time-consuming nuisance to have to maintain. Anyone who views the state of my hair on a regular basis can tell I don't put much stock in fashionable reasons, or spending any time maintaining my hair. I want to buy clothing not made in sweatshops (once my shoes wear out, I want to buy no sweat red high tops). I would like to drastically limit my participation in economic consumption. That is, I don't want to buy what I don't need to buy. And even when I need something, I might consider dumpster diving first. A large part of my consuming goes unnoticed by me because it occurs in the use of utilities like electricity and water and gas that I (or my parents) don't pay for right away. So I would like to conserve such resources as much as possible by eliminating unneeded showering, riding my bike (which ironically increases my need for showering), and turning off the TV/computer/lights/air conditoner or at least replace incandescent bulbs with compact halogen ones. When I'm not watching the commercials on TV, I would rather be reading or sharing in community with friends. I would like to shower with unscented soap. I personally find it boring when everyone smells like one of 13 different "scents" (cough... chemicals). I would like to grow vegetables and fruits in my own garden, and keep a compost pile. I want to respect and protect the environment however I can. Most importantly, I want to work for the coming of God's kingdom on earth, protecting human rights and simply loving my neighbor. What's great is that all (or most) of that stuff that I just talked about is all wrapped up in Karen House and the Catholic Worker Movement. I just volunteered there for the third time this afternoon, cooking a meal and playing with the kids. At one point, I began to think, hey wouldn't this get boring to do day after day after day? Then I realized what any job is like and what school is like for me right now. Except often school doesn't bring me much happiness or peace, but volunteering at Karen House does. So I would love to be able to do that day after day after day. Several of the workers I've met are vegetarian. (none of the guys have long hair). All workers live in voluntary poverty: second-hand clothes, no entertainment technology, riding bikes or buses, limited utilities. They have a compost pile and a garden. They are activists, speaking out against social injustice and war. They pray together in an intimate chapel. And they are constantly at service to the poor, literally living among their guests. It seems that the workers there don't have families of their own, and for the first time, I can see the benefit of the vocation of being single. I can now see how much my parents had to give up in terms of their own work for the coming of God's kingdom throughout the earth in order to raise my brother and I and reveal God's kingdom to us. I feel like they have raised me to be like St. Francis: revealing to me the limited happiness of the material world so that I may choose poverty and a life of service to Jesus, a life full of limitless joy, for myself.

So for now, I thank God for the opportunity to learn diligently in school and the blessing of volunteering at Karen House. That volunteering might quite possibly be an exploration of my future vocation.