Ways of Resistance

“So what new forms could the classical desert [read: abandoned places] take in the world of the twenty-first-century? The possibilities are endless. Catholic Worker Houses, the Simple Way, The Open Door, New Jerusalem, The Bruderhof, Jonah House, Camden House, Rutba House, and countless others illustrate the endless possibilities. The following desert-inspired ingredients seem to influence their development: God-seeking and prayer will have the primary place, but be thoroughly integrated with life and witness. We will build the practice of Sabbath freedom into the rhythms of our calendar, lives and work. Our reverence and love for God will be connected to and include all of God’s creation. Hospitality in the form of sharing food, roof and friendship with neighbors will foster both compassion and engagement and will be a form of holy communion with marginal cultures and poor populations. The issues of our time, such as militarism, nuclearism, poverty, homelessness, and ecological problems, as manifested on the margins, will call for our personal and communal conversion in the form of disciplined resistance in lifestyle and engagement in the search for solutions. This resistance and engagement will be as much prayer as it is work. Promotion of alternatives to violence and imprisonment will be practiced as well as promoted. Presence and witness will have a prophetic quality that comes from God’s spirit. Personalist and communal rather than institutional models of organization will be characteristic. Numbers and finance will not dominate or dictate our concerns. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the “Powers” of Empire. We will employ the organic (yeast-like), grassroots model that starts with oneself and reaches to ever-widening circles, rather than the top-down approach to social transformation. We will live and witness from the inside out. With the early Christians and the deserts hermits of the fourth-century, we will invite the Holy Spirit to reveal possibilities of creative non-participation in Empire’s oppressive self-glorification. What we promote, we will begin by practicing. Ordinariness rather than impressiveness will mark the style. The pursuit of a healthy reciprocity of receiving as well as giving will be a practice of humility, respect and justice.”–Sr. Margaret McKenna (School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism, p. 20-21)