{"id":2851,"date":"2012-08-09T10:52:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-09T15:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:51:49","slug":"two-worker-houses-where-stranger-becomes-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2012\/08\/09\/two-worker-houses-where-stranger-becomes-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"Two worker houses: where ‘stranger becomes neighbor’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blogger, Amy Nee<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

One evening in May I sat on windowsill in the room I\u2019d recently moved into at New York\u2019s Maryhouse\u00a0Catholic Worker. With legs folded into the frame, I watched a little window of sky that subtly made the dramatic shift from pale yellow to blazing pink without comment.\u00a0 I was sitting with the thought that while I had spent my day absorbed in preparing for, hosting and cleaning up after a memorial service at Maryhouse, my Chicago-area White Rose Catholic Worker<\/a> friends were participating in a nonviolent uprising that swelled in response to the NATO summit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/a>
Demonstrators gather during the NATO Summit in Chicago, May 2012. Photo by Julia Walsh, FSPA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These two communities, offshoots from the trunk of one movement, are sustained and shaped by the life and writings of the same woman (the venerable Ms. Day<\/a>), and have at different times been home and church and classroom to the same woman (the ephemeral Ms. Nee). Yet, to the untrained eye, these sister houses can look almost opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

White Rose: a half-dozen, highly educated, fair-skinned youths with the occasional overnight guest, all dedicated and devoted to sustainable living, social justice education and nonviolence not only in every action but in every word and expression as well.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Maryhouse: twenty-five folks, a majority over fifty years old, of varying color, creed and acumen together in a household that day after day admits dozens of women and offers showers, clothes, a balanced meal and company (not guaranteed to be cheerful, but ever-present, nonetheless).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Maryhouse Catholic Worker captured by Julia Walsh, FSPA, during her April 2012 visit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0At the former I would spend three hours in a meeting (the results of which would be revisited, rehashed and revised the following week).\u00a0 At the latter I spend three hours folding clothes that the following day will be stashed in bags, tossed on the floor and probably, eventually abandoned on park benches.\u00a0 I often find both tasks more maddening than enlightening.\u00a0 All the same, I consider the time well spent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the former, each day, we concerned ourselves with the issues of the world \u2013 war, torture, environment, oppression of all kinds. And, we sought to educate (ourselves and others), create alternatives and partake in nonviolent demonstrations, open the door to others that we might eat and talk and play and pray together.\u00a0 At the latter we concern ourselves with individuals in our community and neighborhood: the hungry, sick, lonely, weary in innumerable ways. We cook lunches, wash dishes, offer clean clothes and showers, visit hospitals, celebrate and mourn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am often astounded at how two communities of the same movement could be so different.\u00a0 One might be tempted to compare: which is better? which more successful? which meets the greatest need?\u00a0 These questions, I think, are alluring as forbidden fruit that promises the knowledge of good and evil upon ingestion.\u00a0 The end result, as our first parents demonstrated, is not an answer that reveals truth, but a blade that cuts apart holy wholeness, introduces shame and accusation and ultimately separates the seeker from the Word of Truth, that is to say, Love.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018In the end, the only thing that matters is love,\u2019 those are the last words I ever heard from her mouth,\u201d a woman shares at the memorial for Rita Corbin <\/a>held at Maryhouse\u00a0on Sunday.\u00a0 Hers was one of many stories remembering the life of this prolific artist whose woodcuts, since the 1950s, have oft adorned the pages of the Catholic Worker newspaper and whose life infiltrated and enriched far more than just our readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Rita Corbin’s “Works of Mercy”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gathering elicited reflections that evoked both laughter and tears.\u00a0 Rita\u2019s now adult children played folk music.\u00a0 We served coffee and punch and huge platters of fried rice and salad with Wasabi-citrus dressing that had been specially prepared at St. Joe\u2019s for the occasion.\u00a0 I alternately filled and washed plates, introduced the food and myself, listened to reminiscences from Rita\u2019s brother and showed visitors to the bathroom.\u00a0 All the while members of the White Rose, along with thousands of others, marched and sang and maintained a peaceful presence outside (some eventually inside) Obama\u2019s campaign headquarters, amidst an anxious crowd of activists and likely more anxious officers in full riot gear ready to make use of their training and tazers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0A critic of one persuasion might consider Maryhouse mundane and trifling, while one of another might consider the White Rose naive and dramatic.\u00a0 Neither assessment is accurate, nor is the assessment that their actions are so very different.\u00a0 Both are engaged in attending to matters of life and of death (which one might argue are themselves part of one whole), both are engaged in practicing, to the best of their ability, the Works of Mercy.\u00a0 These seemingly separate houses seek the same revolution, a revolution of the heart where \u201cstranger\u201d becomes \u201cneighbor\u201d and we learn to love our neighbor as our self; that self that is a divine vessel, bearing the very image of the God who is Love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guest blogger, Amy Nee One evening in May I sat on windowsill in the room I\u2019d recently moved into at New York\u2019s Maryhouse\u00a0Catholic Worker. With legs folded into the frame, I watched a little window of sky that subtly made the dramatic shift from pale yellow to blazing pink without comment.\u00a0 I was sitting with...","protected":false},"author":4256190,"featured_media":2852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[698755603],"tags":[324493,622043,105638545,5617853,34684401,59942268,803673],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-service-on-the-margins","tag-catholic-worker","tag-dorothy-day","tag-maryhouse-catholic-worker","tag-nato-summit","tag-rita-corbin","tag-white-rose-catholic-worker","tag-works-of-mercy","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/nato_julia-2.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"

Two worker houses: where ‘stranger becomes neighbor’<\/a><\/blockquote>