Dear Friends of Casa Juan Diego, The joy of Christmas comes as a great gift, breaking into the despair, sadness, and fear of violence that surrounds us and others in many parts of the world. All the hype about Christmas shopping (since July 4) simply cannot drown out the Good News of this Silent Night:… continue reading
The Incarnation: Receiving the Lord in the poor, the stranger, the broken-hearted
November 18, 2024 by
It seems that sometimes we Catholics neglect to mention that the Lord Jesus explicitly told us why he was sent by the Spirit of the Lord, as he quoted the Old Testament prophecy. Recent experiences reminded us. We received a call from a hospital asking if we could accept an 18-year old mother of tiny… continue reading
Catholic Workers and Food
November 2, 2024 by
The guests living in our Casa Juan Diego Houses of Hospitality, along with the Workers who live and work there, eat the same food, together. Our meals are simple, nourishing, and lovely at times. Feeding and serving food happens all the time at Casa Juan Diego as an act of generosity and love. Food, however,… continue reading
Becoming a People–The Peter Maurin Conference, Chicago, September 6-7, 2024
October 27, 2024 by
The Peter Maurin Conference was, from the beginning, a labor of love. A group of 12 gathered over Zoom in early 2023 to discuss plans for a Peter Maurin conference in Chicago. Why Chicago, for a conference dedicated to a man born in France, who became famous in Union Square, and was buried in New… continue reading
Review: Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion: A Graphic Novel
October 24, 2024 by
Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion, Written by Jeffry Odell Korgen and Friar Mike Lasky, OFM Conv., Illustrated by Christopher Cardinale, Pauli’s Press, 2024. With the canonization process moving ahead for Dorothy Day, interest continues to grow for the Servant of God who famously said, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that… continue reading
Can We Survive the Storms Around Us? Insights from Henri de Lubac, SJ
September 20, 2024 by
Sometimes we ask ourselves how we can keep going in the midst of the storm around us, the people with all their needs, their anxieties, the traumas they carry with them, their health problem. We have to ask the Lord to be with us each day as he calmed the sea for the disciples during… continue reading
Stories of Hospitality at Casa Juan Diego
September 20, 2024 by
When asked what we do at Casa Juan Diego, I used to respond with generalities, abstractions that didn’t really answer the question. Over the years, though, I have responded more and more by telling stories about what happens when Catholic Workers and newly arriving migrant persons interact. Although each story is unique, they do fall… continue reading
Tenderly to the Poor in the Catholic Worker
September 9, 2024 by
Within The Catholic Worker, there has Always been emphasis placed on the woks of mercy, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the harborless, that it has seemed to many of our intellectuals a top-heavy performance. There was early criticism that we were taking on ”rotten lumber that would sink the ship. “Derelict” was… continue reading
Peter Maurin Conference
August 7, 2024 by
September 6 – September 7 Date: September 6-7, 2024 Location: St. Gregory the Great Church, 5545 N Paulina St., Chicago, IL Conference exploring the life, sources, and vision of Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. This event will delve into Maurin’s Easy Essays, which promoted philosophical personalism and economic distributism based on Catholic… continue reading
Spiritual Foundation Informs the Work of Casa Juan Diego
July 28, 2024 by
Father Francis Gruber, O. Cist., is currently working on his doctorate in philosophy in Rome. It is with a sense of wonder that I recall my time at Casa Juan Diego in the summer of 2012. I believe that this feeling of awe can be attributed to one of its most unique and defining… continue reading
