Lo stile di vita monastico

Per quanto riguardava lo stile di vita autosufficiente e comunitario, le comuni agricole prendevano ispirazione anche dallo stile di vita monastico. In fattispecie si ispiravano ai si improntavano sul modello dei primi monasteri irlandesi324 e benedettini325. Tutta la loro influenza era evidente nel saggio di Maurin “Cult Culture and Cultivation”:

“Cult

The central act of devotional life in the Catholic Church is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The sacrifice of the Mass is the unbloody repetion of the Sacrifice of the Cross. Culture

The motto of St. Benedict was Laborare et Orare, Labor and Pray. Labor and prayer ought to be combined;

labor ought to be a prayer. The liturgy of the Church is the prayer of the Church.

People ought to pray with the Church And work with the Church.

The religious life of the people And the economic life of the people

324 _{Zwick, The Catholic Worker Movement. Intellectual and Spiritual Origins, pp. 42-57; Marc} H. Ellis, Peter Maurin. To Bring the Social Order to Christ, in Coy, A Revolution of the Heart:

Essays on the Catholic Worker, p. 18.

325

“We have tried, all of us, to be workers and scholars, and to combine work and prayer, according to the Benedictine ideal,” Dorothy Day, “To Christ – To the Land,” The Catholic

Worker, vol. 3, n.1, gennaio 1936, pp. 1-2; “He [Peter Maurin] urged study of religious

community, especially of Benedictine monasteries as models of community life, and urged that families come together to live in this way, making a living by a diversity of talents, as well as by farming. This of course pointed to the development of crafts as a means of earning a living,” Day, “Community of Brothers,” Day, The Catholic Worker, vol. 22, n. 10, dicembre 1955; Day, “Houses of Hospitality – Primacy of the Spiritual,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 48, n. 1, gennaio – febbraio 1982 (reprinted from the January 1948 issue), p. 8; Dorothy Day, “Work,” The

89 Ought to be one.

Cultivation

Andrew Nelson Little says: “The escape from industrialism Is not in Socialism or in Sovietism.

The answer lies in a return to a society where agriculture is practiced by most of the people.

It is impossible in fact impossible for any Culture to be sound and healthy

Without a proper respect and a proper regard for the soil , no matter how many urban dwellers think that their food comes from groceries and delicatessens Or the milk from tin cans. This

Ignorance does not release them form a final dependence upon the farm”326.

La giornata ideale in una Catholic Worker farm, allo stesso modo dei primi monasteri irlandesi ‒ “The Irish scholars established agricultural centers al lover Europe where they combined cult –that is to say liturgy with culture – that is to say literature with cultivation – that is to say agriculture”327 ‒ e benedettini, si divideva tra attività cultuali, agricole e intellettuali:

5-7 work in the fields 7-9 Mass

9-10 breakfast

10-11 lecture or discussion 11-2 rest or study

326 _{Peter Maurin, “Easy Essays,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 39, n. 4, maggio 1973, p. C; Peter} Maurin, “Easy Essays,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 42, n. 4, maggio 1976, p. 5.

327 _{Peter Maurin, “Irish Scholars,” in Catholic Radicalism, p. 114; Collinge, “Peter Maurin and} the Green Revolution” (giugno 1977).

90 2-3 lecture or discussion

3-4 cold lunch

4-5 lesson in the handicraft 5-8 work in field

8-9 dinner 9-5 sleep328

Le Farming Communes erano anche “Agronomic Universities” – centri di studio come i monasteri irlandesi e benedettini ‒ nelle quali gli studenti sarebbero diventati lavoratori e i lavoratori studenti329. E in cui le persone avrebbero acquisito gli strumenti necessari all’autosufficienza; avrebbero imparato come: “To build their houses, how to raise their food, hoe to gather their fuel, hoe to make their furniture, how to emply themselves and to use their hands as well as their heads”330. Si trattava di un approccio alla realtà alternativo e radicale, vicino allo stile di vita di una comunità religiosa: “CWM is for Christian Communism, as practiced in Catholic monasteries and by the early Christians, as an economy of perfection, possible only if based on voluntary basis”331

. Il lavoro, infatti, secondo la filosofia CW, era un dono, non un bene; “Laborers of a Faring Commune do not work for wages; they leave that to the Farming Commune. Laborers of a Farming Commune do not look for a bank account; they leave that to the Farming Commune. Laborers of a Farming Commune do not look for an

328

Vedi Collinge, “Peter Maurin and The Green Revolution” (giugno 1977); Dorothy Day,

Loaves and Fishes, Harper and Row, New York, 1963, p. 99, Zwick, The Catholic Worker Movement, p. 52; Day-Sicius, Peter Maurin. Apostle to the World, p. 166.

329 _{Maurin, “A Question and an Answer on Catholic Labor Guilds,” in Catholic Radicalism, p.} 34; Maurin, “Reconstruction,” in Catholic Radicalism, p. 43-44; Maurin, “Communist Ideal,” in

Catholic Radicalism, p. 62; Maurin, “The Catholic Worker,” in Catholic Radicalism, p. 64.

Dorothy Day, “Day After Day,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 7, n. 2, febbraio 1940, pp. 1,4; Dorothy Day, “ On Pilgrimage –May 1948,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 15, n. 5, maggio 1948; Dorothy Day, “On Pilgrimage – May 1956,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 23, n. 5, maggio 1956, p. 7; Dorothy Day, “Peter Maurin Farm,” The Catholic Worker, vol. 36, n. 8, ottobre-novembre 1970, pp. 1, 2, 7. Sheehan, Peter Maurin: Gay Believer, pp. 70-71 e p. 109.

330 _{Montesano, “The Green Revolution” (gennaio-febbraio 1983).}

331

91 insurance policy; they leave it to the Farming Commune. Laborers of a Farming Commune do not look for unemployment insurance; they leave that to the Farming Commune. Laborers of a Farming Commune do not look for an old-age pension; they leave that to the Farming Commune. Laborers of a Farming Commune do not look for economic security; they leave that to the Farming Commune”332.