Sharing life with the poor in crowded row houses in a neighborhood where crack cocaine flowed freely was not for everyone. It was eventually not for us. One night at dinner, Carl noted that every man at the table had punched him or Scott at least once. The mayhem we once found exhilarating now exhausted us. Like many Catholic Worker couples, we fell in love while working at the houses. We got married in Washington, DC in 1984 on the feast of a married saint, Thomas More, and then moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. We found a cheap apartment and took jobs that gave us flexibility to focus on anti-nuclear activism. To keep life simple, we decided to do no hospitality. That decision did not hold. Shortly after our first child, Justin, was born, Scott served a thirty-day jail sentence for a protest against nuclear weapons. While in jail, he met an inmate who was due to be released before Christmas. Since Kenny had nowhere to go, we took him into our apartment until he could get settled. Hosting him reminded us that we liked the Catholic Worker’s unique combination of the works of mercy with the works of peace and justice. Together with three friends, we spent several months in prayer and discussion to discern the possibility of forming an intentional community. As part of our discernment, we gradually began to incorporate Catholic Worker practices. We ate together weekly and joined a local vigil against nuclear weapons. Inspired by the journalism of Dorothy Day, we began publishing the Catholic Radical, a newsletter that continues to this day. In the summer of 1986, our family moved into a large inner-city apartment with Dan Ethier and Sarah Jeglosky and started the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker.

When the Guild was contemplating the launch of the digital version of its newsletter, In Our Time , we knew we needed some “Ades” of our own to help us. We found them and they found us: Bro. Martin Erspamer, OSB, and Bro. Michael (Mickey) McGrath, OSFS. Bro. Martin is a Benedictine brother while Bro. Mickey is an oblate of the Order of St. Francis de Sales. Each is an accomplished artist in his own way. Like Ade before them, both are liturgical artists who share a vocation to create beauty that sparks our imagination, bringing people closer to God and to one another. I first met Bro. Martin through an illustration of his on the jacket of a book about the parables. Despite the proverbial warning, I confess I did get it because of its cover. I just couldn’t resist Martin’s earnest yet girlish sower: long-haired, open-eyed, and forward-stretching in spite of—or maybe because of—her pointed, mismatched slippers.