Reader letters (March 14, 2024)
A Trappist monk 'meets' Dorothy; living sustainably in the Pyrenees mountains.
Note from a Trappist Monk
Several weeks ago, we asked how readers first encountered the Catholic Worker Movement. We received this letter from Christopher, a Trappist monk:
Well, this will probably be a somewhat different response to the poll: I am a Trappist monk and every year I ask God to send me a saint to be my special heavenly friend, patron, mentor, and supporter for that year. This has been a great blessing to me. So as usual, on January 1st, 2023, I prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, went to our library, picked up a book of saints, opened the book at random, and found myself looking at Dorothy Day. I know that she is not yet officially a saint, but God sent her! So, in 2023 I turned to her for guidance and intercession and read up on her and her life and work. I read her autobiography, The Long Loneliness. She was a great friend and I learned a lot! I still invoke her for our guest hospitality here at the monastery. I also became interested in the Catholic Worker movement. I have a bit of the radical in me and am interested in social justice and how people are treated. My way of helping the world is prayer and sacrifice for the spiritually destitute, but I’m so glad for those working in the world.
God bless you all, the CW is in my prayers!
Br. Christopher
Sustainable living in the Pyrenees
Ernest Tomic responded to our poll about sustainable living with this extended note from the Pyrenees:
I've read this perhaps a week too late. I want to briefly reply to your offer about living sustainably, although I've a lot to say about it.
I live near the Pyrenees, in Spanish Catalonia. I say that because Catalans believe Catalonia extends over the border into France, but that's another story.
We live in a one room annex to an old stone farmhouse. It's well insulated, south facing and the south wall is all windows, so it doesn't get very cold in here and we haven't had to use the wood stove.
We get water from roof run off, collected in big water containers below the house and then electrically pumped to us. We also have a well about 150 metres from the house. Again, the water gets pumped electrically if we need it.
It's a dry area so we limit our use of water as much as possible. That means showering once a week, and that means with a bucket of water and a sponge. We heat the water on the cooker.
We hand wash our clothes, and have worked out how to do that without soap so we can recycle the water for the garden. All the water for the garden is recycled and as with clothes washing, we avoid soap and detergent or just use it minimally.
Drinking water we bring from outside. There was a fountain in the nearby village where we'd fill up two five litre bottles and then walk home up the mountain with them, but the local council, in its wisdom, decided to turn it off, to save water. Very ironic for us considering our use of water is a small fraction of what people use in the village, but water there has been denied us. So I get water from the town where I work, either at the Sikh temple, or at work, and bring it home, two five litre bottles, in the pannier bags of my bicycle.
I don't have a car so I get to work and back using my bicycle. It's not an electric bike. Between walking and cycling I do about 20 kilometres every day, and that's on a near vegan diet. My wife is from Bangladesh and very used to frugality and making the best of things, and cooks very nourishing vegetarian meals. She won't let me cook, although I know how to, but that's another story.
No eggs, rarely any milk or cheese, no meat, little need for a fridge either. We've found even in the summer fruit and veg last pretty well for a week, between Mondays, which is when the farmers market happens. We go into town using the bus then.
For traveling we use the bus or the train. The train more often when we're in France.
We don't have a TV or a computer, but we're connected to internet by our smart phones and tablets, and we use those for several years before we renew them.
We're connected to the Ark community, La Borie Noble, in France. The one Lanza del Vasto founded. We visit there every year. A lovely place.
Great to read about Peter Maurin Farm. I met Jim Dowling when he was at the Catholic Worker House in East End, Brisbane, back in the 90s. I stayed there a couple of times and really loved it. I met his brother too back in 1986 up at Cape Tribulation in North Queensland but only realised they were brothers when we met again 10 years later.
Best wishes and Ramadan mubarak!
Ernest Tomic