By By Mary Ellen Mitchell When we were 24 (in 2005), Meridith and I took a trip up the east coast to visit intentional Christian communities and imagine what our futures might be. Our last stop was the Bruderhof, which Meridith described as “kind of Amish, kind of Catholic worker.” We stayed with a family, worked in the laundry, and saw their peace barn. Years passed, Lydia’s House was born, and we looked to lots of places to get help and inspiration for this work. In 2019 Bethany Kurtz came to us, as she was leaving the Bruderhof, having discerned that
Halloweekend In Review
Halloween weekend was plum full of different events and fun times! On Saturday we had a busy day with two different things happening. Here at Lydia’s House, we had middle schoolers from Good Shepherd Catholic Montessori spend the day with staff learning more about Lydia’s House and helping us out with some projects as well. While some of our staff worked with our middle school volunteers, Grace and Ashley went with a group of Lydia’s House families on a trip to Gorman Farms. The weather was in our favor and it stopped raining just in time for us to take
Our New Atrium Space
Our new Atrium space is finished and open for children to interact and learn about God! The past month our friends Dan Aerni, Dane Miller, Dennis Bishop and Steve Whitlatch have been hard at work preparing our new classroom space for our Wednesday night Atrium religious education program. We put in a new wall in order to have two separate classrooms to divide up our age groups, repainted, and set up all of the different interactive stations. Putting in the drywall and getting it painted. About two weeks ago, all of the construction was completed and
Summer 2023 in review
Summer fun is a big part of life at Lydia’s House. This summer we were pleased to offer field trips, camps, and parties. We took a day trip to the Cincinnati Zoo. Special thanks to our summer intern, Melinda, for adding some order to this chaos! The boys really loved getting to climb on the gorilla statues there! Before the Norwood Day Parade we had a very nice magician, Richard, come and interact with the kids, showing them some cool magic tricks. We also spent some time at Procter Episcopal Summer Camp and Camp Joy. At these two amazing camps,
By What’s the Catholic Worker?
By Mary Ellen Mitchell If you’ve ever looked closely at our publications, you’ll see that we offer “Hospitality in the Catholic Worker Tradition.” The Catholic Worker is a model that Meridith and I drew inspiration from in our young years of formation when we volunteered at the Open Door Catholic Worker Community in Atlanta, Georgia, serving grits and boiled eggs to folks in their breakfast soup kitchen. Meridith went on to live with this community for several years as a resident volunteer. Different than a typical non-profit, Catholic Worker houses are typically founded by a small group or community of