Second Day at Catholic Worker Farm

On Friday October 12th I went to the farm again. This time I knew what to expect so I wasn't nervous. I was actually excited becasue I got to see Mary and the kids again. Jessica came along with me this time. When we first arrived we were sent outside to the garden to weed. I also picked peppers and eggplant. As we worked outside I had fun talking to Mary's two boys Francis and Patrick and her little girl Ester. I asked them if the had to work on the farm like we were doing. Of course they said yes. I also talked to them about what they liked to do and what they were doind at school. Mary informed us later that she homeschooled her children. I myself have mixed feelings about homeschooling becasue I can see it as a positive and a negative. It is a positive because children get to be with thier families and in MAry's case the boys are around to help her with the farm chores. The negative is that kids that are homeschooled don't get as much of a chance to go out and socialize and experience new things.
After we worked for about an hour we wnet back inside and I asked Mary some questions. I learned what their mission statement was first. Second I had her describe to me what her spirituality was. I lved her basic answer. She said her spirtuality was that of a radical christian- to go back to christs teachings of serving, loving, and bringing peace especially to the poor.I thought this was interesting because it ties right in to what we are learning in class. Jesus' main goal is to serve the poor as is theirs at the farm.
I went on to ask her what others form the outside society did for them. She replied that many individual contribute things such as money or food for Hope House. Also a church took out a second collection for this purpose. Also in order for the family to pay for thier home the BVM's from sisters of the chairity gave them a $60,000 no intrest loan. I think that it is amazing about how generous people are. It really doesnt matter how much you give, as long as your giving. Even the smallest amount can truley help people out there that are starving and hame no clothing or shelter.
After my questions were asked I went back outside to weed a strawberry bed. Then once all the weds were out I mulched around the plants. MAry really didn't have much for me to do after that so I called it a day. Before I left I overheard one of the residents from Hope House say that her parents were not religious. This just made me think that you don't have to be born into a religious family in order to have a religion. You are the one that chooses your own spirituality and you can be the one to decide which faith based community, if any you want to join.