The Motivation and Philosophy of A Simple House
Behind the motivation of A Simple House are three personal objectives:
- "To live a life without division between faith, labor, and living.
- To implement Jesus’ suggestion to the rich young man.
- To follow Christ in simplicity.
Besides these underlying motivations, A Simple House believes in the following:
- Allegiance to the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
- Friendship and the personal nature of evangelization.
- Prayer and the sacraments as the essence of our relationship with God.
- The three parts of almsgiving.
- Spiritual poverty as the largest problem facing southeast Washington, DC.
- Observance of voluntary poverty.
Behind the motivation of A Simple House are three personal objectives:
To live a life without division between faith, labor, and living.
To live a life without division entails that there is no ‘going home’ or ‘getting off work.’ Although it is helpful to have specific times reserved for prayer, we are also told to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5:17). In the same way, there may be certain events related to evangelization, but we should also constantly evangelize. A Simple House is trying to live ministry and Christianity.
Pope Benedict XVI points out:
For what faith really states is precisely that with Jesus it is not possible to distinguish office and person; with him, this differentiation simply becomes inapplicable. The person is the office, the office is the person. Here there is no private area reserved for an “I” which remains in the background behind the deeds and actions and thus at some time or other can be “off duty”; here there is no “I” separate from the work; the “I” is the work and the work is the “I”.
And precisely because this being, as a totality, is nothing but service, it is sonship. To that extent it is not until this point that the Christian revaluation of values reaches its final goal; only here does it become fully clear that he who surrenders himself completely to service for others, to complete selflessness and self-emptying, clearly becomes these things – that this very person is the true man, the man of the future, the commixture of man and God.
Jesus calls us to an adopted sonship when he says, ‘whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother’ (Matthew 12:50). A Simple House is an attempt to pursue sonship through complete service.
Some modern attempts at service have divorced material service and service to the Truth. Volunteers of A Simple House are trying to be generous by giving their most precious possession, the Truth contained in our Catholic Faith. Truth only becomes our real possession when we have an experiential knowledge of it. Volunteers at A Simple House gain this experiential knowledge through prayer, reading, and charitable works.
To implement Jesus’ suggestion to the rich young man.
The rich young man asked Jesus how to obtain eternal life, and Jesus told him to keep the commandments. With this answer, the young man recognized his desire for something more. When the young man asked what he lacked, Jesus told him the secret of being complete. ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’ (Matthew 19:21).
Volunteers at A Simple House are trying to keep the commandments and pursue perfection through voluntary poverty and following Christ.
To follow Christ in simplicity.
A Simple House is an opportunity for volunteers to live a simple religious life that breaks down imagined barriers between the laity and holiness. To the detriment of everyone, Priests and religious are often placed upon pedestals. This becomes an excuse for the unconsecrated laity to ignore the universal call to holiness, and the pedestal can become a stumbling block for those trying to balance upon it. A Simple House is creating an atmosphere where unconsecrated laity realize their call to sanctity.
A Simple House is largely influenced by the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi and the Desert Fathers. Francis and the Desert Fathers began following Christ as an experiment in radical discipleship. Many beautiful traditions have grown out of these experiments and born fruit for the church. A Simple House is trying to embrace the spirit of the original experiment while observing reverence for the traditions that have developed from it.
Besides these underlying motivations, A Simple House believes in the following:
Allegiance to the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
We believe that the Catholic Church is the apostolic guide for Christians. Following the guidance of the Catholic Church entails obedience to sacred scripture, the magisterium, the Catechism as an official statement of the magisterium, and the diocese in which we live. We never do anything contrary to the guidance of the bishop with regards to his diocese or the guidance of any pastor with regards to his parish and parish boundaries.
The bylaws of A Simple House of Sts. Francis and Alphonsus include the following section, “Bishop’s Veto – The leading Bishop of a diocese may veto any decision of the Board that relates to work within his diocese.”
Friendship and the personal nature of evangelization.
Christ is transmitted through relationship with others, and human relationship is a necessary precondition of conversion. God has willed that we know Him through each other.
A Simple House believes that the most effective evangelists of history have worked through personal relationships and friendship evangelization. In this sense, we do not try to argue someone into the Church. We strive to love them into the Church. When Christ is our intimate friend, it feels natural to introduce another friend to Him. If Christ is not our friend, we are talking about someone we do not know and an awkwardness results. Friendship evangelization starts by developing friendship with Christ and ends with a natural, effective, and loving evangelization.
Prayer and the sacraments as the essence of our relationship with God.
Simple House volunteers try to live a rich sacramental and prayerful life in order to develop a deeper relationship with our savior. Every day, full-time volunteers attend mass, pray morning and evening prayer, and read the bible. Full-time volunteers are also encouraged to find other devotions, books, and prayers that help them develop their relationship with God.
The three parts of almsgiving.
A complete charitable act should have three parts that please God. The sacrifice of the giver is a denial of self which pleases God. The interaction of rich and poor with care, love, appreciation, and thankfulness blesses both parties and pleases God. And finally the alleviation of suffering is good and just in God’s eyes.
Most charity fails to capture even two of these three aspects. Modern charity can be obligatory, faceless, overly institutional, not God-centered, and received with entitlement.
A Simple House tries to honor all parts of almsgiving by:
- Encouraging donors to give for their own good and to develop a consciousness of giving.
- Allowing volunteers to meet and greet the poor in the homes of the poor. Let the poor know that donations come from the goodness of Christians who love them, and let the rich experience the appreciation of the poor through newsletters, volunteering, friendships, and prayer.
- Diagnosing the immediate and unique needs of the poor and meeting them in ways that institutional charities cannot.
Spiritual poverty as the largest problem facing southeast Washington, DC.
Southeast Washington, DC is a place where:
- there is enough food but children go hungry because of neglect,
- cars are not stolen for profit but for fun,
- people understand that drugs ruin lives, but they use them anyway,
- women are prostituting themselves without pimps or physical coercion.
This is also a place with few missionaries and many children. This is spiritual poverty.
There is a temptation to become engrossed in the idea of a political solution to the problems of the inner-city. The study of social welfare, welfare economics, and sociology all focus on the political aspect of the problems. Every political solution is fundamentally a material solution, but materials do not seem to be lacking in the inner-city of Washington, DC.
Jobs, treatment for addiction, and food are available, but it’s as if something mysterious stands in the way. The poor have experienced a great loss of hope which leads to self-defeating behavior. It has been called ‘a situation that defies a solution.’ The real problem is a spiritual problem, and to provide material goods without friendship or spiritual support only continues the problem.
When someone loses hope, they lose interest in their own welfare and their family’s future which causes behaviors resembling a slow suicide. They need to be convinced to live! This is a hard job and A Simple House is trying to reach some of the hardest cases.
Observance of voluntary poverty.
Observing poverty involves a sacrifice and faith in God’s providence. Poverty is not a goal in and of itself. It is not a moral rule or commandment. Poverty is a means to develop a closer relationship with Christ. The sacrifice of property is emphasized in the Old Testament by the idea of burnt offerings and in the New Testament by the apostolic life described to the rich young man (Matthew 19:21), by Jesus’ responses to the objections of those hesitant to follow (Luke 9:57-62), and by Jesus’ praise of the widow’s pence (Mark 12:41-44). Holy sacrifice is an act of love.
Dependence upon divine providence requires prayer and teaches humility. This is illustrated throughout the Old Testament, and it is especially obvious in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Israel’s salvation was won by an invasion of frogs, bugs, and bloody water. This pattern continued with the parting of the Red Sea and the manna from heaven. Every day, the Israelites literally asked the Lord for their daily bread, and they could not claim credit for their liberation or their survival (Exodus 7-16; Deuteronomy 8:14-17). In the New Testament, providence was emphasized in Jesus’ packing instructions for the seventy (Luke 10:4), in His advice against anxiety (Luke 12: 22-34), and in the petition for our daily bread within the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:11).
Our motto is to ‘wonderfully and radically fall upon the cross of Christ for grace and support.’ Corporate and personal poverty are both necessary to consciously live in God’s providence and make a meaningful sacrifice.
A Simple House lives personal poverty by being completely run by volunteers. A Simple House lives corporate poverty by avoiding the ownership of any fixed asset, not having a savings account, and trying to spend one third of its money every month.