Ave Maria! Welcome to the Mary's Ward & Catholic Worker Movement, MW & CWM, Blog. Here is where you can find out about the unique Catholic community that is Mary's Ward and about its relationship to the Catholic Worker Movement founded by Servant of God Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. I am Selby Beebe-Lawson, servant leader (sl) of Mary's Ward. I answer also to Grandma.
You can find the history of MW and a brief description of CWM elsewhere on this site. Both are topics for endless exploration. I hope to discuss it all, from the very practical, how to raise goats or get fiber from cattails, to the philosophical, why I avoid plastic, violence, usury and more.
Speaking of usury, the practice of lending money at high rates of interest, Dorothy Day (DD) and Peter Maurin (PM) were absolutely opposed to any form of lending with interest. Interestingly, it is prohibited in the Bible ( cf. Ex.22:25, Lev. 25:36-37, Deut. 23:20-21, Ez. 18:17 and 22z:12, Neh. 5:7, and Ps. 15:5) and was considered illegal until modern times. How many poor countries and poor individuals suffer today due to legalized usury?
SonLight Incorporated, the Maine 501(c)3 nonprofit that supports Mary's Ward---I know,
DD and PM were against any relationship with the government, including nonprofit or corporate status, but some CW communities have opted to incorporate. In SonLight's case, it allows ownership of property for the purpose of carrying out its mission---has been seeking a Portland, Maine base of operations. Properties in Springfield and Lowell, Maine await members/workers/volunteers so doors can open as Houses of Hospitality for families, children, young adults and others.
I have located a distressed property in Portland. In solidarity with the poor and with CW rejection of usury, I hope to purchase the property with funds assembled from all of our pennies. Of course, SonLight will accept donations of any size, but keeping in mind the power of littleness as described by the great saint Therese of Lisieux in her Little Way, and in solidarity with the CW newspaper, which has always and will always sell for a penny a copy, I am begging for pennies.
For one thing, pennies are almost considered trash in our throw away society. You can often find them on the sidewalk or street. Before SonLight ever owned any property, my students and I began picking up pennies in the parking lot of the public housing in which they lived. We used empty cardboard salt containers to collect the pennies. I wrote "Ye are the salt of the earth. Ave Maria." on the containers. We performed these little sacrifices with devotion and diligence. God did the rest. Soon SonLight owned Mary's Wood, and very shortly thereafter, Mary's House, in Springfield, Maine. Two years later my husband Peter died in the line of duty as a volunteer fire fighter. Little sacrifices had given way to bigger ones, but it all started with picking up pennies. And in the end, SonLight owned property.
So I have great faith in asking for pennies. Cash them in and make a donation through PayPal (see "Donate" page on this site) or send a check or drop off a box of pennies on my front steps. I will be keeping track of our progress in terms of pennies.
The property in Portland costs 35,000,000 pennies. Yes, that's right, 35 million pennies. I have placed the purchase under the patronage of Our Lady and St. Nicholas. Everything in Mary's Ward is named for the Blessed Virgin Mary. We practice total consecration to Jesus through Mary, using the formula composed by St. Maximilian Kolbe, founder of the Militia Immaculata and one of MW's patrons. Under the title of Our Lady of Good Remedy, Mary helped St. John Matha raise funds for buying Christian slaves from slave markets, in order to set them free. I also chose St. Nicholas; you know, Santa Claus. He was a real person, a bishop in Asia Minor, now Turkey. He is the patron of sailors, children and the poor. A wonderful story is told about him. Upon hearing about a poor widower who was considering selling his three daughters into slavery or prostitution because he lacked funds for dowries, Nicholas secretly dropped three bags of money into the widower's house through the window. Nicholas is also the patron of pawn brokers and this story is the origin of the three gold balls on the signs of pawn shops.
There are similarities in the stories of John of Matha, whose Trinitarian Order sought the release of Christian slaves, raising the necessary funds under the patronage of Our Lady of Good Remedy, and the stories of St. Nicholas. Both involve money utilized for the redemption of those otherwise condemned to slavery. In placing the collection of pennies for a Portland purchase under the patronage of Our Lady and St. Nicholas I am calling to mind some of the target populations that this property will serve: young adults who have aged out of foster care and who lack viable family connections. These young people, as well as the disabled children and adults served by MW apostolates, including Take The Bus Productions, will be redeemed by MW's Portland base. Twenty thousand young adults age out of foster care in the US every year. Those who lack both family connections and independent living skills frequently end up homeless. All MW Houses of Hospitality will welcome these young adults into our family. The Portland property is zoned for single family occupancy. That is not a problem, as all who inhabit it will be family or guests. Some of these guests may be families of asylum seekers, many of whom have flocked to the City of Portland search of welcome. They, too, will find welcome at MW Houses of Hospitality when the Our Lady & St. Nicholas Project is successful.
More about the property and a tally of pennies collected to date in the next post. Our Lady of Good Remedy and St. Nicholas, pray for us.
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