MARY, MOTHER OF GOD PARISH

April 1: Holy Spirit Renewal Recollection

3/23/2023

March 27-29: Lenten Triduum with Bishop Bartosic

3/15/2023

March 25: Lenten Retreat with St. Gregory's Hall

3/13/2023

March 23: Roundtable Discussion - Solidarity Gardens

3/11/2023

We’d like to announce Solidarity Gardens, a collaboration of Mary, Mother of God parish churches and St. Francis Catholic Worker!

We are gardening together in our community to provide food for our Soup Kitchen, Food Pantry, and people in our neighborhoods in need. In addition to vegetables, a chicken coop with a few chickens is also planned! Parish communities can be creative communities. Our Eucharistic faith calls us to make the land fruitful and offer our gifts to God. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis draws our attention to the concept of Integral Ecology– the idea that the health of our church and community depends on the health of the land around us. If you are interested in gardening, have experience (or none!), have always wanted to garden, like being outside then we're looking for you to help with caring for the gardens and chickens!

For more information, please join us on Thursday, March 23rd at Canterbury House (Rectory next to St. Thomas of Canterbury Church) for a light meal and informational meeting! 6:00 PM Meal, meeting starts at 6:45 PM. Come alone or come with friends or bring the whole family!

19 de marzo: Retiro de cuaresma

3/10/2023

March 16: Calling on the Irish to Save Civilization... Again

3/1/2023

Roundtable Discussion at Canterbury House
(rectory at St. Thomas of Canterbury at 4827 N. Kenmore)

Dinner: 6 PM
Discussion: 6:45 PM

Photo courtesy of Fordham University Press

First there is an Irish monk, copying a Latin manuscript salvaged from one of the fallen outposts of the Roman Empire. His brothers are engaged in similar work all across Ireland. For the geographic area we now know as Europe, civilization has effectively ended.

Next, during the Great Depression, there is a house in a poor neighborhood in New York City. Catholic Workers there provide shelter to people struggling - to find work, to stay sober, to keep a place in the hollowed-out society they used to be in.

What do the monk and the Workers have in common?

The Catholic Worker Movement’s program of action is partly based on the work of ancient Irish saints. Founded by Peter Maurin and Servant of God Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker’s program has three “pillars”: clarity of thought, houses of hospitality and Catholic Worker farms.

Peter Maurin often spoke of the “Three C’s”: Cult, Culture, and Cultivation. “Cult” can be understood as liturgy, “culture” was literature and the arts, and “cultivation” agriculture. The Catholic Worker’s program of action is an attempt at synthesizing these Three C’s into our lives and society. Jesus – in the poor, the Eucharist, and prayer (cult) – was at the center of the program.

Responding to a Red Revolution with a Green Revolution

When the Catholic Worker started in 1933, the Great Depression was in full swing. Millions were unemployed and people were looking for ways to address the deep uncertainty of this era. Communism was one of them.

Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day, and by extension, the Catholic Worker movement, proposed a different response, which they sometimes called the Green Revolution. Maurin wrote a series of funny, pithy, and almost poetic writings that condensed complex ideas into easy-to-read essays. These are known as Peter Maurin’s “Easy Essays”.

Addressing communism, he wrote:

The only way
to prevent
a Red Revolution
is to promote
a Green Revolution.
The only way
to keep people
from looking up
to Red Russia
of the twentieth century
is to make them look up
to Green Ireland.
of the seventh century.

In another Irish essay Peter Maurin writes:

The Holy Father and the Bishops ask us
to reconstruct the social order.
The social order was once constructed
through dynamic Catholic Action.
When the barbarians invaded
the decaying Roman Empire
Irish missionaries went all over Europe
and laid the foundations of medieval Europe.
Through the establishment of
cultural centers,
that is to say, Round-Table Discussions,
they brought thought to the people.
Through free guest houses,
that is to say, Houses of Hospitality,
they popularized the divine
virtue of charity.
Through farming colonies,
that is to say, Agronomic Universities,
they emphasized voluntary poverty.
It was on the basis of personal charity
and voluntary poverty
that Irish missionaries
laid the foundations
of the social order.

Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day looked to the early Irish monks for inspiration, though the founders of the Catholic Worker spoke of “reconstructing the social order,” as Pope Pius XI asked of Catholics. They did not view themselves as saviors of civilization. But with society increasingly polarized and fragmented, there is hunger for a new civilization, one shaped not by conquest and taking, but by charity, voluntary poverty, and truth open to all people.

Canterbury House is pleased to announce that Lincoln Rice, who edited and annotated Peter’s Essays in the book “The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin,” will be leading a round-table discussion on Maurin’s “Irish” Easy Essays. Join us on March 16th at Canterbury House as we kick off St. Patrick’s Day a little early, to learn how Peter’s program - rooted in Ireland and its saints - can bring light to our own “dark age” in Chicago.

Contact James Murphy with any questions.

Lenten Devotions -2023

2/23/2023

February 23: Roundtable Discussion -Pilgrimage in Catholicism

2/17/2023

At Canterbury House
4827 N. Kenmore (in the rectory next to St. Thomas)

Potluck meal: 6 PM
Discussion: 6:45 PM

Canterbury House is pleased to welcome Will Peterson, founder of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, a ministry dedicated to deepening faith and building community across the United States through walked pilgrimages in the Catholic tradition. Mr. Peterson will explain the roots and history of pilgrimage and ways to plan your own pilgrimage to American holy sites, including the Chicago area.

As we journey through Lent and continue our efforts around the Eucharistic Revival, Mr. Peterson will also discuss his work with the National Eucharistic Revival team in promoting Eucharistic processions around the United States. Join us for food, thoughtful discussion and fun!

February 19-April 2: Sung Compline on Sundays at St. Thomas of Canterbury

2/17/2023

February 17: Holy Hour for Victims of Dating Violence

2/16/2023

<<Previous

April 1: Holy Spirit Renewal Recollection

March 27-29: Lenten Triduum with Bishop Bartosic

March 25: Lenten Retreat with St. Gregory's Hall

March 23: Roundtable Discussion - Solidarity Gardens

19 de marzo: Retiro de cuaresma

March 16: Calling on the Irish to Save Civilization... Again

Roundtable Discussion at Canterbury House
(rectory at St. Thomas of Canterbury at 4827 N. Kenmore)

Dinner: 6 PM
Discussion: 6:45 PM

Lenten Devotions -2023

February 23: Roundtable Discussion -Pilgrimage in Catholicism

At Canterbury House
4827 N. Kenmore (in the rectory next to St. Thomas)

Potluck meal: 6 PM
Discussion: 6:45 PM

February 19-April 2: Sung Compline on Sundays at St. Thomas of Canterbury

February 17: Holy Hour for Victims of Dating Violence

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Regular Meetings

Archives

MARY, MOTHER OF GOD MASS SCHEDULE

Roundtable Discussion at Canterbury House (rectory at St. Thomas of Canterbury at 4827 N. Kenmore)

Dinner: 6 PMDiscussion: 6:45 PM

At Canterbury House4827 N. Kenmore (in the rectory next to St. Thomas)Potluck meal: 6 PMDiscussion: 6:45 PM

Regular Meetings

Archives

MARY, MOTHER OF GOD MASS SCHEDULE

Roundtable Discussion at Canterbury House
(rectory at St. Thomas of Canterbury at 4827 N. Kenmore)

Dinner: 6 PM
Discussion: 6:45 PM

At Canterbury House
4827 N. Kenmore (in the rectory next to St. Thomas)

Potluck meal: 6 PM
Discussion: 6:45 PM