Bruderhof Communities

Interesting.

Saturday was our annual JPII Institute fall gathering at Dr. Schindler's home. In the past, it was held at his home in West Virginia, which was gorgeous, so it was a bit sad to be in DC.

At 12pm we began to set up, and a couple from a Bruderhof community in NY came to help as well. They have been sent out of the community to... well I don't know what exactly they're supposed to be doing... I guess just telling others about their community. They showed up at the offices a while back, so Dr. Schindler arranged for them to give a talk. I missed it, but had heard much so I looked forward to meeting them. They are precious. They taught us one of the songs they sing in a round, and sang another one for us as well. They had offered to come help set up because they "know community." I think they were pleasantly surprised to see that we Catholics "know community" too... in fact, can you fully know the meaning of community without the Eucharist? I don't know... I don't think so. And I hope they saw the beauty of family life and the value we place on it. I think the woman especially misses her 3 daughters- the youngest of whom is only 18 months. Isn't it strange that a Christian community would send you and your husband away from your children for an undetermined amount of time?! There's something wrong with that. I hope they could see it.

They have invited any of us interested up to visit. I would looooove to. It would be stepping into a different world, but one that I think human beings are meant to live in. One where you would not spend hours a day staring at a computer screen. Where you would actually use your body to do useful work, and spend your days in community. I guess I'm torn between this desire to escape and just form your own "perfect" community and the fact of living in this world and being called to transform it from within. But I can daydream about an ideal Catholic community, can't I? A place to gather all my friends and loved ones into one place and not have to say goodbye so much.