I found this bio a compelling testimony of the experience I had in my late twenties visiting a Bruderhof’s contemporary effort to replicate the first Christian community described in the Bible in Acts 2:43-45. I was stunned by their hymn singing just before evening meals. Silently seated at long tables, 200 people all burst into song together, adults and children, invoking a frisson of awe.
Its members endeavor to enact an idealistic phrase within the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9-13) by living and working together in 27 communities sharing common goods and services. They have mostly succeeded, though admit to occasional missteps.
Like the Amish and other Anabaptist denominations, they practice ‘believer baptism’ in Christ, do not hold private bank accounts, take no salary, and devote all their resources to the utopian ideal. Marriage is ‘one man, one woman for life,’ and children encouraged to explore outside worldly opportunities at 18 years old. Many return home, disgusted with the grim and grimy secular world.
I learned Catholics are not allowed to join unless they renounce, as reported in my autobiography through a dialogue with a Bruderhof elder. (Path Perilous-My Search for God and the Miraculous.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruderhof_Communities
This begs the question: why have no lay-Catholic communities formed? Perhaps the Catholic bishops are too busy counting the loss of members and money at Mass to wonder why. I asked that same critical question in Reddit. The comment forum is long but this caught my attention.
Honestly I’m feel this really hard as well. I’m currently converting to Catholicism and one of the biggest regrets I have about leaving Protestantism is that I was part of a faith community that is really intentional about discipleship and missional living. I want to carry that on in Catholicism as well but it’s difficult because I’m joining a parish with mostly older folk and families, which I have nothing at all against them and only love for them, but I find it very difficult to share the sort of vision I have with folks in that demographic. My previous faith community was made up of primarily youth, and our discussions were like none I ever see elsewhere in Christianity except among academics. I hope I can find some fellow Catholics to join me in bringing about this same missional vision.
Looking for a difference from boring tours, lectures, and predictable movies glamorizing drugs porn, greed, and violence? From a million novels published every day that are nothing more than pulp? From plastic people with commercial smiles and masquerade charm pretending to be pious?
Global Bruderhof communities welcome extended visitations. You will be gripped by the infinite.
THE TRIQUETRA OF LIFE: Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness 
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