"I still hold that it is the main earthly business of a human being to make his home...
as symbolic and significant to his own imagination as he can;
whether the home be in Notting Hill or Nicaragua, in Palestine or in Pittsburgh."-G.K.Chesterton, "The Artistic Side"

Saturday, March 29, 2014

FRIDAY April 11, 2014 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians and Friends!

At our Friday April 11 meeting we will be concluding our discussion of G.K. Chesterton's book Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized SocietyThe  chapters remaining for discussion are chapters 10-17. Although this is a little larger reading section than we usually select, please give it your best try. Reading the chapters before the meeting is strongly encouraged, but please don't stay away from the meeting just because you haven't gotten through them!
(For information about the book and where to find it see the January entry of this blog page.)

A Lenten kind of Chestertonian conviviality:

This year as we journey through the great season of Lent, a particular paradox has gotten my attention. Affluent emptiness is everywhere. Our materialistic culture is increasingly impoverished of what is authentically Good, True, and Beautiful. Our powerful, successful country is full of people suffering from profound, spiritual destitution.

Of course, Chesterton saw this coming, and points us to the remedy. 

He once wrote, "...Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.” 

You may have noticed that when people encounter G.K. Chesterton, he often leads them to a life-giving encounter with Christ and the richness of His Church.

This Lent, as a local Chesterton Societies we have been asked, along with local Chesterton Societies all over the country, to make a Lenten alms giving donation to the American Chesterton Society. As you may be aware, the American Chesterton Society is a non-profit apostolate, completely dependent on the charity of others for its existence. 

In order to make our WPA Chesterton Society alms giving effort a truly Lenten and penitential practice, we will not have our customary refreshment table at the April 11 meeting. Instead there will be a collection box. In lieu of our usual contributions of food and beverages, we each will have an opportunity to make charitable contributions of alms designated for the American Chesterton Society. I will consolidate the money, and send it to the ACS as a donation of alms from our Western Pa Chesterton Society. If you miss the meeting and would like to participate, you can make your donation directly to the American Chesterton Society on their website www.chesterton.org, or mail it to me and I will add it to the collections from the group.

In doing this, our Western PA Chesterton Society will support the American Chesterton Society's mission to bring Christ to people around the world by introducing them to Chesterton. Imagine the good that would be accomplished if every local Chesterton society member were to give something, no matter how small a gift. If, by our alms giving, we charitably present G.K. Chesterton to the world in the midst of this “wintertime" of western civilization, we will be privileged to watch as he leads the unfortunate out of the cold and into the warmth and light of Christ's fire.

As usual...
Our meetings are held in the Village of Middle Lancaster, at the Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, in Butler County PA. Kings Ally is off of Rt. 19 approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, and just north of the Zion Lutheran Church and just south of East Lancaster Road. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.) 

The doors open at 7:00pm, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting wraps up sometime around 9:30pm.

Please consider bringing alms in lieu of contributions to the refreshment table, and as always, feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have and questions or comments.