“Peter Maurin: Master Agitator”: A Recap of the Peter Maurin Conference

During the first-ever Peter Maurin Conference—hosted by Mary, Mother of God parish in Chicago on the first weekend of September—one truth emerged above all the rest: we need Peter Maurin.

In an age oversaturated with information, we need his clarity. In a Church drowsed by complacency, we need his vision. In a time ravaged by boredom and busyness, we need his exhortations to dignified work and study. And in a world captivated by consumption, we need the lived witness of his commitment to the poor.

I think that the whole weekend would have made Peter proud.

I imagine that he himself, albeit nearly 100 years ago, commissioned the large pot of bean soup and crusts of bread with butter that greeted us on Friday night as we walked into the gathering space of St. Gregory’s Hall.

Eager anticipation illuminated the room’s basement ambiance. It was impossible to feel out of place, even among strangers, who, admittedly, would not be strangers by the end of the weekend.

We seemed to be linked to one another by this anticipation—ragtag bunch though we were—academics and students, veteran Catholic Workers and youngsters like myself and Jeromiah Taylor. Jeromiah, a fellow Catholic Worker from Wichita, joined me on the 12-hour drive to Chicago.

But perhaps something deeper than anticipation linked us together.

Later that night, we stood dispersed in the candlelit sanctuary of St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, individuals united in a common voice, offering up our Night Prayer, we were a stirring reminder of the Body of Christ. Many of us—so used to offering hospitality ourselves—became grateful recipients, sleeping in a youth hostel arranged for us by the parish.

The Peter Maurin Conference was as much a celebration of his life as a rekindling of his vision. The Friday keynote address from Jon Sozek reacquainted us with the philosophical undertones of Peter’s program—personalism. And Lincoln Rice’s Saturday talk clarified Peter’s legacy by contextualizing his Easy Essays. Peter’s Easy Essays have been ordered and reprinted in Rice’s book The Forgotten Radical. I still find myself mentally reciting lines from Peter’s essays, seeing new ways in which his words can connect to every aspect of life.

Roundtable discussions, led by Catholic Workers, academics, farmers, activists, and writers, gave us the chance to tease out what Peter’s vision means for us now, in the modern world. The roundtable that I attended in the morning session, led by Brian Terrell and Jeromiah Taylor, challenged me to expand my understanding of “protest” from marches and picket signs to the way that I choose to live; when it is consistent with the radical message of the Gospel, it becomes in itself a protest against selfishness, materialism, exploitation, and injustice.

The afternoon roundtable that I sat in on, led by the Maurin Academy and Georey Gneuchs, tied in threads of economics and challenged me to consider more elaborately my commitments to voluntary poverty, localism, and cooperative economics. I was left asking myself, how can my choices more coherently reflect the Kingdom for which I long?

We ended Saturday in classic Peter fashion, drawing on his practice of oral indoctrination by sharing selected Easy Essay recitations and original works of poetry and song, with an eccentricity attributable to our collective identity as Catholic Workers: testaments to our God-given creativity and originality.

I am certain that those of us who were gathered in Chicago have continued to meditate on what we discussed, clarified, questioned, and were left pondering. But, consistent with the witness of Peter’s life and the history of the Movement, we know our responsibility is to waste no time acting. 

For all of us, Peter Maurin’s life and writings are a compelling antidote to the afflictions of our time. In his spirit, the spirit of the Catholic Worker, and especially the spirit of Christ, let us not give up meeting together for clarification of thought. Let us practice genuine Christian hospitality and charity. Let us respect the soil, for from it come the gifts of life. And let us “imitate the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary by trying to give all we can” (from the Easy Essay “Tradition or Catholic Action”).