Fwd: St. Louis CW newsletter and update
Catholic Worker
This will be our second Christmas here on Mora Lane, a full run through a calendar year. 2025 has been a doozy and we’ve been lucky to have folks like you along for the ride!
Before we turned the calendar to December, St. Louis had already been seeing frigid temps. It’s looking like our 2025 will end in the same way as it began, with plenty of evenings spent helping with Winter Outreach. This will be our second year as coordinators for their street outreach efforts. You might catch us out on the street offering cold gear and rides to shelters on any given night where the low is predicted to dip below 25, but Monday evenings are when we’re in charge! We’re hoping this winter will be a little less icy than last, but if it’s not you can find Winter Outreach online to learn more about volunteering.
Once spring started to thaw out the midwest, we hopped in the car for a week long road trip with our friends from the Ozark Foothills CW Farm! Our whirl wind adventure saw us connecting with the Cherith Brook Catholic Worker and the CW adjacent Jerusalem Farm in Kansas City, Brian and Betsy (who both knew Dorothy Day as youngsters in New York) at the Strangers and Guests CW Farm in Maloy, IA, and the off-grid White Rose CW Farm near Kirksville, MO.
As if that wasn’t enough Catholic Worker connecting for 2025, all three of the STL CWs journeyed all over the broader CW world.
Theo visited his alma mater the LACW for a Catholic Worker wedding in May (and joined in some anti-ice protests for good measure) while Lindsey had her turn to travel to Los Angeles for their annual retreat in September. September also saw Chrissy and Theo traveling with STL CW regulars Sarah and Tess to the MidWest Catholic Workers’ annual gathering in Iowa known as Sugar Creek. There was something for everyone with round table discussions, a talent show, and some pick up soccer! Soon after Theo found himself in San Antonio for that CW’s 40th anniversary celebration while Chrissy made it out to Boston for this year’s National War Tax Resistance conference. Thanks to Haley House for putting her up!
Speaking of roundtable discussions, this STL CW year was full of great clarification of thought! We read books together, learning about the gift economy from The Serviceberry and asking “what do humans need?” with A Psalm for the Wild-built. We had movie nights where we learned about the nuclear waste pollution in North St. Louis County from Atomic Homefront and discussed love, dreams, and revolution after viewing Kiss of the Spider Woman. And if that wasn’t enough, we also got together to talk about Pope Leo XIV’s recent document Delexi Te: On Love For The Poor with all of its exhortation that care for our neighbors lies at the heart of true Christian faith.
If you want to join us for clarification of thought in 2026, make sure you're on our email list by sending us a message at StLouisCat...@gmail.com.
We’ve been lucky this past year to be able to spread word about the Catholic Worker to new folks throughout our St. Louis area too! Whether at schools, churches, or street corners, we’re always excited to talk about the works of mercy and resisting the filthy rotten system. This past year we were invited to Eden Theological Seminary, Saint Louis University, St. Francis Catholic Church, Rosati Kain Academy, Chaminade College Prep, and at a Dorothy Day book promotion put on by the archdiocese- just to name a few. Theo even preached the sermon at St. Louis Mennonite Fellowship one week!
Our burrito project continues on. As always, we couldn’t do it without all of our friends. Not only do we need a few sets of hands to help us roll ‘em a couple times a week, we rely on our friends to keep the pots full of beans and rice. Thanks a bunch to St. Cronan’s parish for repeatedly collecting burrito ingredients for us and to Sue who threw us a fundraiser concert again this summer!
We’re so excited as we look forward to 2026 with all the potlucks, prayer, food prep, and people it will bring to our lives! We hope to see you there! Ω