1614

In our extended saga to discover the name of our Catholic Worker house, we tried just about everything under the sun. We prayed about it, talked about it and came close to settling on a name a couple of times. We wanted to recognize the Dominican tradition or perhaps the Precious Blood order. We thought about Latino-oriented names. We pondered saints, themes, places.

Erin even facilitated a naming discernment session where we had large poster paper sheets taped to the walls of the living room with ideas all over them in an attempt to brainstorm and zero in on something. Still, nothing.

We've been quite simply the Columbus Catholic Worker House and I suppose that is just fine.

Among the naming methods tried, we toyed with using our address. We are at 1614 Oakland Park Avenue. What does the Good Book have to say about 1614? A few books in the Bible have a chapter 16, verse 14, and I almost fell off my chair when I read a couple of them. Whether they can be adapted into good names or not, they really capture our values:


Deuteronomy 16:14, New American Bible/Jerusalem Bible

You shall make merry at your feast, together with your son and daughter, your serving men and women, and also the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community.


I Corinthians 16:14, New American Bible

Your every act should be done with love.