Painless Papers

Marquette University Archive

What are "Painless Papers?"

Well, they are a play on the "Easy Essays" of Peter Maurin (pictured here). Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day were co-founders of the Catholic Worker Movement in America, a collection of autonomous communities striving to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ" (more on Catholic Worker's aims and means here).

Here is what Dorothy Day had to say:

"Peter’s teaching was simple, so simple, as one can see from these phrased paragraphs, these Easy Essays, as we have come to call them, that many disregarded them. It was the sanctity of the man that made them dynamic."

I have written the following 'phrased paragraphs' to expound upon themes of faith and philosophy of which I have come to be convinced. Enjoy!

Vivian Cherry, 1959

"Friend of God"

Do you think that helping others is good?

But some are far easier to ignore.
Our friends, our family, our country folk

Are in clearer focus than enemies.
I am a friend of God who loves all things.

He is my reason when reason runs dry.

"I for I"

Some who wish to save the world say let’s start

Where we all agree: with respect for all.
But Viking and Quaker do not agree,

The one place they share is respect for “I”.
This is our sin that is shared, I for I.

We do not want to start “saving” with this.

"Rule-giver"

I believe in miracles precisely
Because exceptions prove there is a rule.

Show me the precepts of scientism,
I will ask for the science that proves them.

And if you ask me for the rule-giver,
I will show you God, who makes and breaks them.

"Kenotic"

Our God, the Trinity, is kenotic.

Before the beginning of time He was
Pure self-gift, processing outward in love.

It is only from perfection that one

Can perfectly give. So I have no doubts

That Greece has to do with Jerusalem.

"God's Word"

How do we know the Bible is God’s word?

Any other book that says it's divine,

we put aside and rightly disbelieve.

A tug at your heart? A spiritual pull?

The Mormons, Muslims, and New Age have that!

A good God would give means to verify.

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