Upcoming Events

Our ScheduleWho Are We?Showers M, T, Th, 8:30--11am volunteers 8 am–noon

Prayers M & F 6 am

Community Meal Th 5–7 pm

Group Workday Monthly, 2nd Sat 9 am–1 pm

Roundtables Monthly, 3rd Fri 7--8:30 pm

Community—Cherith Brook is a residential Christian community committed to sharing table fellowship with strangers, and all our resources with one another. We have found our inspiration from the early church, the Church of the Savior, and the Catholic Worker. Mercy—Our daily lives are structured around practicing the works of mercy as found in Jesus’ teachings. We are committed to regularly feed-ing the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, visiting the prisoner and the sick in the name of Jesus.

Peacemaking—As followers of Jesus, we understand our lives to be centered in God’s Shalom. Cherith Brook strives to be a “school” for peacemaking in all its dimensions: political, communal, and personal, working constantly to undo poverty, racism and militarism.

These three orbs can be summed up as the struggle to connect with the God of life. We pray that Cherith Brook is a space where all of us—the broken—can come to learn and relearn the ways of Jesus; a place to struggle together for God’s call of love, mercy, peace and justice.

November 15 Roundtable: “Worker Jus-tice”, Alice Chamberlain of Communities Creating Opportunity (CCO)

November 27-29 closed for Thanksgiving

December 14 Work day 9am-1pm

December 22 - January 6 closed for the holidays

January 11 NO work day

January 17 Roundtable: “Contemplation in a World of Action,” Sr. Therese Elias of Mt. St. Scholastica.

February 8 Work day 9am-1pm

February 21 Roundtable: TBA

Cherith Brook Catholic Worker

3308 East 12th StreetKansas City, MO 64127(816) 241-8047

cherithbrookkcmo@gmail.comhttp://cherithbrookcw.blogspot.com

Northend NativityBrian Kavanagh

Hartford Catholic Worker18 Clark St. Hartford CT 06120

Brian Kavanagh

ing, and if it belongs to those who live now by the freedom of God’s Spirit, then shouldn’t it be recognized as a gift God gives to some that benefits the rest of us? I am convinced there is such a charism because I’ve experience it. When you meet someone like Nate Licktieg, one is immedi-ately stunned by his sparkle. There is so much

about him that oozes joy. How many first-time guest at our house have not been able to hold back a smile, chuckle or full-blown laugh-ter when encountering Nate. Some are so caught off guard by his quirky cheer that they try to dismiss him, but it doesn’t last long. Eventually all are drawn in by his magnatism.

In Luke’s account of Christmas, the angel tells the dusty, tired shepherds not to be afraid. Our news is good and it will bring you “joy.” Matthew says that when the star stops above the stable “joy” overcomes the sages from the East. The coming of the Christ child elicits joy, one that the entire world could recognize. The word “joy” has caught my attention lately; it’s not in my vocabu-lary. I wonder if I’m alone in this? There’s lots of talk about “happiness”—“Do what makes you happy!” or “Why am so I unhappy?” Perhaps we have all been socialized by the utilitarian credo: “avoid suffering and maximize your happiness”? And then we chase after it in a tired, anxious and de-pressed fashion. But when was the last time someone described their day as joy-ful? If there is a New Testa-ment equivalent to our word “happy” I have yet to find it. Perhaps because what we mean today by hap-piness is not part of the vision of God’s New Creation. I suspect it’s because the joy coming about through God’s new order is something entirely different. Paul is very clear that joy is a fruit planted, tended and grown in us by the Spir-it of God. Indeed, he calls it a spiritual attribute second only to love and the preface to peacemaking. Perhaps part of its spiritual quality in-cludes the fact that when Paul writes, “count it all joy” he doesn’t leave out the suffering bit. It was “for the sake of joy,” after all, that Christ endured the cross (Hebrews 12:1-2). It’s curious, however, that Paul doesn’t list joy as one of the spiritual gifts. If it describes the feeling born from the Christ-child’s com-

When our rooster starts crowing in the middle of the day, I suspect Nate is some-where close by. He mimics our rooster so masterfully he can get an almost instant reply. I’ll come outside to find Nate propped against the fence, head thrown back, red curls dangling and throat thrust forward in full boast that seems to make our rooster jealous.

Then he turns to me with a side-ways grin and a “Hey!” Sometimes I puzzle at the nature of his enjoyment of life. I want to uncover the secret. So I enlist him in service: Can you help me bring over some food from the café? Sure! Can you set the tables, “Sure!” Can you feed the scraps to the chickens? Sure! Sweep the floor? “Sure!” turn of the light? Sure!...Sure!...Sure! Certain days I’m inclined to doubt Nate’s sincerity. So I make a game of it. Is there some-thing I can come up with that Nate will complain about? (why do we want to douse the joy of others?) I don’t mean to be cruel, just skeptical. But born from Nate’s natural playfulness is a little teasing out of me. His authenticity makes it contagious. On a bad day I become annoyed with Nate, I confess. How can he always be so damn cheerful? Doesn’t he know what’s going on around here? Doesn’t he know

how hard life is? How hard HIS life is? I prowl about in the shadows waiting for some sign of irritation, some flaw in his joy so that I can catch him and shout, “I knew it!” But as I peek around the corner Nate jumps out, “gotcha!” and giggles at the game. Of course

by Eric Garbison

Advent 2013

Ode to JoyCherith Brook

P r a c t i c i n g G o d ’ s M e r c y & G o s p e l R e s i s t a n c e

C A T H O L I C W O R K E RS o E l i j a h d i d a c c o r d i n g t o t h e w o r d o f t h e L o r d ; h e w e n t a n d l i v e d b y t h e C h e r i t h B r o o k … a n d t h e r a v e n s b r o u g h t h i m b r e a d … I K i n g s 1 7

Angels, Shepherds & SheepBrian Kavanagh

Hartford Catholic Worker18 Clark St. Hartford, CT 06120

Continued on page 4

Brian Kavanagh

2 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker Advent 2013

House Notesby Eric Garbison

Bee hives have distinct cycles. There are the seasonal cycles: harvesting nectar and pollen, raising brood, swarming, producing honey in preparation for winter. There are also the broader cycles of life: new hive building up comb; a summer drought limits the winter storage; queens age and need replacing; An in-vasion of mites, beetles or moths test the hive’s resilience. These broader changes may make us beekeepers a little nervous, but the bees just keep on doing their work. After all, not every challenge is a hive collapse. The longer you are around hives the more you recognize that change in quality and quantity is part of the cycle. This is my experience of beekeeping and my experience of community as well. We are pres-ently experiencing a broad cycle that is new to us. In September we celebrated five fun years with Nick Pickrell and sent him off with our love and blessings. We are now four adults—Allison, Eric, Jodi and Lonnie—when only a year ago we were eight: A new cycle for sure. It is not entirely clear to me what to make of this time except to live it. We are trying to sit with the reality of who we are. We are discern-ing how to live into this present cycle. We are celebrating growing intimacy among the four of us, at the same time praying for new com-munity members who are called to this work.

We surely don’t feel like the hive is collapsing, but we sometimes feel more fragile. And we’ve made lots of adjustment. It may take different skills and energy, but we are convinced the best way to face it is by living into our praxis: hos-pitality, nonviolence, prayer, voluntary poverty,

community. None of the change changes our aims and means. I am also aware where the analogy with a bee hive breaks down. While you want a hive full of bees, is a full community always a guarantor of health (in some ways we feel healthier)? Is be-ing small in numbers a sign of crisis or a chance to deepen faith and get back to basics? And yet, this cycle includes grief for the change in friendship patterns, stress of adjusting to new jobs and new arrangements, new energy to see the potential, patience to live present today and hope for what the future will bring. Some have asked how we go about getting new members. We say to them and remind ourselves, “we trust the process.” It looks something like this: We want inquirers to have personal exposure to our day to day. This also allows us a chance to get acquainted. If they’re of local ilk they can come volunteer anytime. If they’re not we invite them to “come and see.” After that initial exposure we invite them to join us on pilgrimage for a period of time. After awhile God may be calling them to covenant with us, this includes making clear commit-ments to the community, exploring the com-mon purse and taking on more responsibilities. Discernment is always a two way street and we believe the Holy Spirit works to unite both sides in consensus. Waiting is part of our schooling into the Divine Life and the present cycle truly requires a revolutionary kind of patience. Some days what we really need is not to plan more or vision more or stress more, but to sit with our smallness, and, like Elijah on Mt. Horeb, hear God in the silence--we need prayer. We also covet your prayers: pray that God will continue our commitment and joy in this work. Pray that new folks will hear the call to join us on pilgrimage. Pray that we will continue to rec-ognize, nurture, and celebrate the depth of our extended community. Pray, because it will not

happen overnight. Our extended community of vol-unteers, friends and supporters has been a great support. We thank all of you for the encouragement we have received. As to our do-ings, we have some personal highlights: Canning peaches and tomatoes; A unique harvest including

figs and fifteen gallons of honey; Lonnie has lived

with us almost a year and is exploring a cov-enant commitment; Eric is happy being unem-ployed and volunteering full time at the house, finishing projects, presenting on our work and filling in the gaps; Allison has adapted well to her new job schedule and, with several community friends, she is founding a house church in the neighborhood; Jodi has discov-ered yoga and is tickled watching her refugee students learn a new language; The Garbisons finished redoing their bathroom to make space for two teenagers; Ana was accepted into City in Motion Apprentice Company and runs cross country; Henri started his own lawn business, loves repairing weed-eaters and was invited to the high school robotics team. We want to highlight our upcoming round-tables. We have a variety of speakers and topics (Anarchism, Contemplation, Working Class, Worker justice, Drones...see our schedule on the back of this paper). All relate to the Catholic Worker aims and means but ultimately to the radical nature of the gospel as it confronts the world with God’s abundant love. Thanks to Micah Waters, Chris Homiak and Amy Hansen-Malek for their creativity, planning and leader-ship. The roof of the house at Cherith Brook is in desperate need of replacement. We have been patching and repairing it since we moved in almost 7 years ago. It is now beyond the patch and repair approach. This is not a project we have the skill or time to do ourselves. We rarely ask directly for money but, with our simple budget and our commitment to pass along our resources quickly, we need to raise $15,000 for this roof. Please consider this special request. We look with anticipation as to what this new cycle will bring us. But as we wait, like the bees, we just keep on doing the work. Together we can approach it with faith and hope.

Zach and Abhi (ends) of Jerusalem Farm, with students from Avila and Creighton built a new chicken house to accomodate our growing flock. Catholic Workers Nicole Linsmeier and Theo Kayser (center) paint on the finishing touches.

Henri and Allison harvest honey with a hand cranked extractor.

7

by Alice Chamberlain

do. Raising wages for the nation’s lowest-paid workers puts money into the hands of people who spend their incomes at the highest rates, boosting demand for goods and services in our neighborhood businesses. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, every $1 in hourly wage increase for a minimum wage worker results in $2,800 in new consumer spending for their household the following year. Communities Creating Opportunity, a faith-based or-ganizing effort in the greater Kansas City metro, has been supporting this low-wage worker effort. As people of faith the plight of low-wage workers is not just an economic issue— it’s a moral issue. We believe that all are created in

the image and likeness of God, which means we are all born with dignity. Unfortunately we have created conditions in this city under which too many people labor all day and are denied their dignity. Our people cry out for justice. That’s the movement that started this summer with two one-day strikes in July and August respectively. Hundreds of low-wage work-ers, many of them carrying their children on their backs, stood in the rain and in the heat to witness to the cause of their own dignity. Nationally, they were joined by thousands who took action in seven cities, calling for work with dignity.  We seek an economy that values the sa-cred dignity of every person. Those who work full-time and serve our community should not live in poverty, labor without healthcare, or lack the ability to give their children a better life. We need jobs that give everyone a

fighting chance. Good jobs will make a better Kansas City for us all. For more information or to get involved, contact Alice Chamberlain at alice@cco.org.

Advent 2013 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker

House NeedsSugar

Creamer

Vinegar (gallon size for cleaning)

Baking Soda

Dish Soap

Toilet Paper

Milk

Butter

Dried Beans & Rice

Salt & Pepper/ Shakers

Salad Dressing

Hot sauce

Bicycles

Old candles

Straw bails

Canning lids & Jars

Shower NeedsTennis Shoes (men’s & women’s)

Jeans & Belts

(men’s 30-34, women’s 4-6, 16-18)

Men’s Underwear (size 32-38)

Women’s Panties (esp. 4-7)

Pads & Tampons

Shampoo & Conditioner

Deodorant & Razors

Tube Socks

Foot Powder

Toothpaste & Brushes

Theraflu & cough drops

Laundry Soap (high efficiency)

Bus Passes

Stamps

Long Underwear (see jeans sizes)

Winter Gloves & Hats

Winter Coats & Hoodies (esp. L & XL)

“There is a demand for justice that is sweeping across the nation. It is a demand for justice that is both localized here in Kansas City, but it is also globalized across the world. Don’t think too little of what you are doing here today. You are part of a larger, greater movement that I believe a divine hand is upon” – Rev. Dr. Vernon Howard, Second Baptist Church of Kansas City, addressing Fast Food Workers This summer Kansas City joined the national move-ment of fast-food and retail workers organizing for economic dignity. Workers from almost 40 fast food and retail stores joined hundreds of community members to fight for a living wage and a voice on the job. Stand-

ing with civil rights legend C.T. Vivian and Tex Sample, Kansas Citians united to declare “We’re worth more.” Right now 26,000 hard-working families of fast food workers are struggling paycheck to paycheck. Across the Kansas City area, workers in our fast-food industry make just $294 per week, if they work full time, with no health-care insurance or sick days. Workers’ wages are so low, it’s hard for them to afford the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, transportation. They have to choose between pay-ing bills, putting food on the table, or going to the doctor when they are sick. Most low-wage workers have to keep two, even three jobs to have a fighting chance of keeping a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs. Terrance Wise, a fast-food worker at Burger King and Pizza Hut, recently became homeless. Others worry they won’t have food for their children every night or money for much needed medicine. Currently we the taxpayers support this unjust wage system and subsidize the profits of many of these corporations through public safety net programs. Given their starvation wages many fast-food employees are dependent on public assistance to survive. For example, Walmart employees create the largest single demand on the food stamp program. Economic dignity and a livable wage for fast-food work-ers is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to

Economic DignityJust Wages for Fast-Food Workers

6 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker Advent 2013

Just Be Better“The only thing I like to talk about is God,” John said. He had explained his percep-tion of the differences in the way love is described in the Old and New Testaments. “Well, we have that in common” I said, “To be honest I’m not sure what else there is to talk about.” John was waiting his turn for the shower, his clean clothes, towel, and toothbrush in a neat pile next to him. It was Friday morning at Cherith Brook and I was happy to be back, cleaning the bathrooms in between showers and hanging out with ev-eryone. Meeting new people and renewing acquaintances was a wonderful thing. Check-ing out Bryce’s new red bike, learning about the nuances of New York traffic from Scott and spending time with Nick on what turned out to be his last Friday as a community member was all pure grace. I always learn something important when I am there. This time it was the encoun-ter with John that stayed with me. Not so much the theology, which I really didn’t follow exactly, but just the conversation itself. I could feel his love of God. We had been talking about his new painting job and he had seam-lessly and effortlessly moved the topic from painting walls to theology. He instructed with authority and without hesitation or fear. We agreed that love as taught by Jesus is all-inclusive. That is something I can al-ways count on, and one of the more surprising things to many people, that with an open mind and heart, we can all learn from each other. Whether from a recent immigrant, or from someone with mental health or substance issues, or from another volunteer with her own brokenness, we all have a truth that needs to be told. A truth that is instructive and em-powering to others. That is what God wants for us all. To challenge each other. To grow and change together. Those holy conversa-tions seem to come from nowhere. Happy circumstance aided by putting ourselves in the right spot at the right time. By doing, rather than watching. We watch television, movies, sporting events, our kids, and even live music. Much of our time is spent watch-ing rather than actually living. It was during a second Saturday workday earlier this year that my eleven-year-old son and I fixed a fence throughout the morn-

by Brandon Pomeroy

ing. Putting up new wood slats, replacing screws, it was a beautiful early spring day. It reminded me of similar days helping my grandfather on his farm in southeast Kansas. We met young people from a youth group, talked with community members and neighbors. On other Saturdays I have pulled weeds, cut down trees, mulched, cleaned the back alley, made lunch, and organized the clothing closet, working with different people each time. I am truly unskilled labor, but these days always inspire me to dream of how things could be. Mutual aid. Work-ing together for a common good. Care and love for our neighbors. Sharing work and tools, talking and learning from and about

each other, and later sitting down to a meal, those Saturdays are a wonderful model of community life. Private business tax incentives, a govern-ment shut down engineered by corporations, the continued and accelerating marginaliza-tion and criminalization of the poor and un-dereducated, these forces and more increas-ingly call for an alternative for a growing number of people. We can’t buy our way out of this. Government GDP calculations and corporate profits bring death rather than life. The not so secret thing about capital-ism is that it is unsustainable. Destroying the earth in the search for fossil fuels, build-ing the military to wage continuous war, and incarcerating an ever-larger number of young black men in more and more private prisons may look like growth on a spread-sheet but it is a losing game.

Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day discov-ered an alternative over 80 years ago. By providing houses of hospitality, periodic meetings for clarification of thought, and a back to the land movement, they preached abundance rather than scarcity. If we can meet each other on common ground. If we can learn from each other. If we can trust each other. If we can all finally admit that there is abundant housing, food, clothing, love, family, and stability for all. By working together, living smaller, building on each other’s skill, strength, health, passion and intellect, little pockets of heaven on earth can start to appear. God’s kingdom begins to break through. A new civilization created

in the shell of the old. New wine poured into new wine-skins. By using our time, re-sources, muscle, spirit, and heart to help create com-munity we can truly create life. Writing a check to a 501c corporation that I have never visited and might have only vague ideas about what they do and how they do it may or may not help me or the intended receiver. It certainly won’t change the world. It is mercy that is required, not sacrifice. It is risky, messy, inconvenient personalism, not distant and showy donations of the leftovers of our abundance. As Peter Maurin said, “The world would be better

off if people tried to become bet-ter. And people would become better if they stopped trying to be better off.” That is the key to life right there. Stop worrying about being better off. Just be better. Talking to each other openly, respectfully, and lovingly. Spending time helping each other physically and spiritually. Sharing a meal. Spreading the circle wide. Spreading it wide enough to include everyone. Maybe wide enough so that instead of including just the people that look and dress and act like us it includes the whole world. A circle shaped like a globe.

Tuesday volunteer crew: Ellen, Jodi, Peggy, Allison, Gary, Shirley, Domenick & Barbara

3Advent 2013 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker

by Brian Terrell

Drones and GadfliesOn May 23, President Obama gave a major address from the National Defense Uni-versity, ON THE FUTURE OF OUR FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM, in which he ac-knowledged for the first time the US govern-ment’s still officially secret program of as-sassination by remotely controlled drones. I was able to watch this televised speech from the privileged vantage of a federal prison on the last day of a sentence resulting from my protest of drones lethally operated from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri over various countries around the world. My own anti-drone activism began with protests at Creech Air Force Base in the Nevada desert in April, 2009. Even some otherwise well informed people were skepti-cal, back then, that such things were even possible, much less happening daily. Many who were aware accepted the simple and happy narrative of drone warfare as a pre-cise new high-tech system in which soldiers from a safe distance of thousands of miles can pin point those who mean us imminent harm with little or no collateral damage. Even some among our friends in the peace movement questioned the wisdom of focus-ing attention on drones. Must we protest every new advance in weaponry? Can’t we allow for methods that are at least improve-ments on indiscriminate carnage? Is not a precisely aimed and delivered drone attack preferable to carpet bombing? Is it not pref-erable to invasion? Does it make a difference to the victims, in any case, whether there is a pilot in the plane that bombs them or not? The fact that four years later on the day before my release from prison, the president of the United States was defending the use of drones before the country and the world is truly remarkable. This is not a discussion that he or anyone else in the government, politics or the military encouraged or one that the media was anxious to take on. The fact that the issue is up for discussion at all is due to considerable efforts of the few here in the US and the UK in solidarity with many in the streets in Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan protesting this foul weaponry. Communities of protest and resistance in Nevada, New York, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, England and Iowa thrust the issue into local forums, courts and media through creative actions and legal strata-gems, effectively demanding that grievance over drone killing be heard. The president’s own speech was itself only rescued from being the cleverly constructed but empty litany of alibi, half-truth and obfuscation that it was intended to be by the interrup-tion by our friend, Medea Benjamin.

The narrative of humanitarian war via drone had begun to unravel in the public eye in the months leading up to the presi-dent’s speech and has since fallen further into disrepute. Months before the president made the assertion in his May 23 speech that “by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life,” his administration had already revised earlier claims that the drone programs in Yemen and Pakistan had yielded zero known noncombatant deaths to one death to finally admitting to a death toll in “single digits.” By almost any accounting the

noncombatant tolls in those countries have been at least in the hundreds. Just weeks after the president spoke at the National Defense University, a journal published by that institution published a study that debunked his assurance that “con-ventional airpower and missiles are far less precise than drones, and likely to cause more civilian casualties and local outrage.” Drone strikes in Afghanistan, the study found, were “an order of magnitude more likely to result in civilian casualties per engagement.” Another assurance given in this speech, that “America cannot take strikes wher-ever we choose; our actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty,” was discredited on June 8 when the US ambassador to Pakistan was

summoned by the prime minister of that country angry over a US drone attack that killed nine people. “It was conveyed to the US chargé ď affaires that the government of Pakistan strongly condemns the drone strikes, which are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs. “The importance of bringing an immediate end to drone strikes was emphasized.” “We act against terrorists who pose a con-tinuing and imminent threat to the Ameri-can people.” Formerly the word “imminent” referred to something about to happen at any moment and using the generally ac-cepted definition of the word one might con-

strue in the president’s words a guarantee that drone strikes are used only to stop “terrorists” engaged in acts that would cause immedi-ate harm to Americans. John Brennan, now director of the CIA, suggested in September 2011 that “a more flex-ible understanding of ‘imminence’ may be ap-propriate when dealing with terrorist groups.” This more flexible un-derstanding of immi-nence justifies the as-sassination not only of those caught in the act, but also of targets who are suspected of having written something or said something to make someone think that they might have some-thing to do with an

attack on the US someday. A person who is caught on the drones video feed from 7,000 miles away as acting in a manner consistent with someone who might harm one day may now be eliminated as an imminent threat. Referring to the killing of Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen in Yemen, the presi-dent assured us that “for the record, I do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any US citizen — with a drone, or with a shotgun — without due process.” The general usage of the words “due process” would cause the misapprehension that the right of a citizen to have trial by jury before being executed is being reaffirmed here. “This is simply not

Framing the Debate on War by Remote Control

Continued on page 4

Lonnie Welch

4 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker Advent 2013

accurate,” says Attorney General Eric Holder. “‘Due process’ and ‘judicial process’ are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial pro-cess.” The burden of “due process” can now be met when the president decides based on secret evidence that a citizen should die. “For me,” the president said on May 23, “and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live.” Those words had a truer ring a few days later spoken on NBC news by Brandon Bryant, an Air Force drone operator who confessed to being haunted by 1,600 deaths he took part in. Bryant admitted that his actions made him feel like a “heartless sociopath,” and he described one of his first kills, sitting in a chair at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada when his team fired on three men walking down a road in Afghanistan. It was night in Afghanistan, and he remembers watch-ing the thermal image of one victim on his computer screen: “I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot.” Bryant watched the man die and his image disap-pear as his body attained the ambient tem-perature of the ground. “I can see every little pixel, if I just close my eyes.” The remote-ness of the drone warrior is no protection from the moral damage of war, and these people are victims as well, and it is on their behalf as well that we protest. We cannot know the hearts of President Obama and those in his inner circle but it is not hard to wonder whether they are truly haunted by the deaths of those killed by drones at their commands. If they may not be haunted by their own consciences, perhaps the responsibility of haunting them falls to us.

Drones...Continued from page 3

Nate gets irritated at times and in his own ways, but our humanity does not undermine a charism, it only clarifies its source. In reality, Nate’s life is filled with the struggles of poverty. He lives from check to check, eking out his meals where he can. But his joy is also a real, authentic. Perhaps Nate’s gift is to help us be hopeful in spite of all the facts. Perhaps equal to his bleak mate-rial needs is his ability to find and inject joy into life and behalf of the community. His presence is a force and it is infectious. Stand-ing somewhere between a St. Francis and “Holy Fools” (the silly saints of history) Nate is care-free amidst the chaos of poverty. I mean, there is something divine going on here that’s impos-sible to create with our human effort. Activists are often stereotyped as nay-sayers, dooms-dayers and gadflies. And as Catholic Workers we have more than our share of them all. Our daily expo-sure to poverty, abuse, addiction, violence of street life can feel weighty. Going up against the growing leviathan of Nukes and Drones can suck the joy right out of you, with despair quick to fill the void. After years of the dirt of poverty, the mundane chores of hospitality and the incessant knocking, more than a few of us have gotten the grumpy bug or become too serious for our own good. The Nates of our lives are God’s gift to us. They are Christ’s joy incarnate, reminding us that without delight we will likely drowned in our despair. From the stories I’ve heard, I doubt the first impression Dorothy Day left those who met her was cheery. But from her writings she clearly knew the call to joy. Reflecting back on their Christmas celebration in 1955 she wrote, “All this merry making lightens the heart, and makes one realize how necessary it is to cultivate a spirit of joy. It is psychological truth that the physical acts of reverence and devo-tion make one feel devout, the courteous gesture increases one’s respect for others, to act loving is to begin to feel loving, and certainly to act joyful brings joy to others, which in turn makes one feel joyful.” In her devotion to the Christ of Joy she called others to “the duty of delight.” This duty is not shallow escapism; we do

Joy...not desire joy in spite of the tragedies of the human experience, but amidst them. And perhaps this is one of the most important gifts we can bring to the suffering, violence and poverty of our world. In Christ’s New

Age the tables have turned: my poverty of spirit is exposed by the power of joy which then overflows into my life and sweeps me away in its abundance. We have made so much pageantry out of Christmas that we have forgotten it’s tragic poverty—Jesus born in a stable. And yet, the story reveals that the human response to this is not dullness or depression, anger or anxiety—its joy to the World, a joy that overcomes. This is the Christmas story. Thanks, Nate, for the reminder.

Nate hangs out in one of his favorite places--the chicken pen!

Continued from page 1

Picture page-First Row: Bryce, Jimmie, Robert, Anne Marie, Lucy, Allison.

Second Row: Russel, David, Darlene, Bobby.

Third Row: Sauol, Baldemar, Matt, Chad, Lonnie, John. Fourth Row: Rick, Jason, Evelyn, Tommy, Lydell, Sid.

Fifth Row: Tim, Coleen, Tom, Eric & Jodi .

Note: Brian is a co-coordinator of Voices for-Creative Nonviolence and lives on a Catholic Worker Farm in Maloy, Iowa. We are grate-feul that we could use portions of his article. See the complete version in the December NY Catholic Worker paper.

5Advent 2013 Cherith Brook Catholic Worker