Category Archives: Distributism

Prairie Hoof Farm

It seems like there’s been a flurry of meritorious GoFundMe campaigns during this Lenten/Easter season. Well, there’s another worthy campaign that I am bringing to your attention…

PLEASE… if you can.. support Prairie Hoof Farm by Kevin and Mary Ford in their attempts to re-establish their farm to the Topeka, Kansas region.

The Fords:

TheFordFamily

Kindly go to the GoFundMe link and read up on it; Kevin tells it much better than I can.

But in short, the Fords currently run a farm in south-central Kansas. It has experienced a few bad years, “bad” enough that it would have convinced most people to hang up their mucking boots (or whatever it is that farmers wear when they muck around in pig … stuff…) and repurpose their life. But not Kevin. Kevin, you see, is the founder of the “New” Catholic Land Movement. Kevin descibes the NCLM succinctly:

“A great hope we have for our farm is to make it a place where families can come to live, work, and pray together. Our culture so fragments life today that we feel an experience like this on a farm could really help families to be what they are meant to be. Making our business successful will help us to be able to fulfill this ministry. We would like our farm to one day be a base for the New Catholic Land Movement to use to train families in homesteading and farming-related skills.”

This is Kevin with a pig friend: (The boots he’s wearing are what I was referring to a couple of paragraphs above.)

Kevinmuckingwithapig

Kevin maintains a site and blog dedicated the the NCLM, where there is a more complete description of it: Introduction to the New Catholic Land Movement.

Please find it within yourself to contribute… This is an excellent opportunity to help an independent business, complete with family to boot AND help an aspect of American culture that need invigoration. If you are a Catholic who supports certain aspects of Catholic Social Teachings such as “solidarity” and Distributist economics, this is a way to get involved. Thanks!

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Lacunae

Sometimes it is within the lacunae of the day, or of one’s life, that you discover meaning.

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Sometimes I get overly excited about an article that comes across my social media feeds. The one in the attached link at the end is one of them.

Normally when I share something online, I quote some interesting snippets. But not this one, please READ THE WHOLE article.

It would appeal to people highly critical of the “modern world,” and about how things are done and what that’s done to us.

Also, if you grokked “Small is Beautiful,” by E.F. Schumacher, you’ll dig this piece.

Against Productivity

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Faith, Justice and Matthew 25

Since the year began I’ve taken a greater, more focused interest in Matthew 25: 31-46, the Gospel account known as the “Last Judgment.” In it, Jesus tells people what will happen at The End when He returns to judge all nations. From it, The Catholic Church derives the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

They are:

Corporal Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry

Give drink to the thirsty

Shelter the Homeless

Clothe the naked

Visit the Sick

Visit the imprisoned

Bury the dead

Spiritual Works of Mercy

Correct the sinner

Instruct the ignorant

Counsel the doubting

Comfort the sorrowful

Be patient with those in error

Forgive offenses

Pray for the living and the dead

I’ve also taken to reading as a part of my early morning devotionals two books that are a collection of writings from Blessed Theresa of Calcutta (“Mother Theresa”). Naturally, they are frequently about the poor and marginalized, and our responsibilities towards them. I am also slowly making my way through a book on the spiritual and intellectual underpinnings of the Catholic Worker Movement. The Beatitudes and Matthew 25 were their modus operandi.

On Sober Catholic I’ve been writing about these Works of Mercy (partly in connection with helping my wife, Rose, sell products emblazoned with them. A portion of the proceeds goes to life-affirming charities).

I’m volunteering at a thrift store and food pantry.

Rose and I, along with a sister of hers, are also considering the idea of opening a thrift store, somewhere. Not a short-term goal, but hopefully sometime this year.

I’ve also been spending quite a bit of time on Facebook “Liking” Pages and joining Groups that reflect the values associated with Matthew 25. Not many are Catholic or Christian, but that’s besides the point. Pages related to organic gardening, small-scale farming, homesteading, frugal living, simplicity (not immediately obvious how these are related to Matthew 25, but in a direct or indirect sense, they are.) I’ve been doing the same on Google+, but as of now, there’s fewer such resources.

Not sure where this is all going, but stuff seems to be coming together in an expression of the Catholic Faith that is faithful to the orthodox teaching of the Church and Her Authority, as well as a combination of Her moral teachings (stereotypically described as “conservative”) and Her social teachings (stereotypically described as “liberal”). The usual things I’ve been interested in such as the pro-life movement; but also “strange” things like “Distributism,” “subsidiarity,” and “solidarity.”

I may be writing about them from time to time.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)