All the Way to Heaven

From the Author: ""What I've aimed for... in this book is neither academic analysis nor a history of the Worker movement per se. Rather, my interest has been a theological exploration of the Catholic Worker vision in all its rich and resonating breadth. The goal has been to present and ... to promote that vision as what I am convinced the movement's founders, Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day, understood it to be: not, finally, a matter of political theory or philosophy ... but rather of profound religious conviction and insight."" ____________ ""Indeed, what is most striking about the now more than sixty years of Catholic Worker reflection, writing and living is the movement's audacity of conviction and action: the unflinching consistency of its call to discipleship; the comprehensiveness of its attempt to bring together all aspects of life into a divinely-ordered, balanced whole; the diversity of philosophical and theological sources it seeks to meld into a unified model for truly human living; the unembarrassed simplicity of its hope."" Lawrence Holben was a member of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker Community from 1977 to 1981. In 1978, with Carol Holben, he founded Nuestra Tienda, an at- cost food store for skid row families, and continued operating that project under the L.A. Catholic Worker auspices until 1983, when he moved to San Francisco. He has returned to the Los Angeles community on numerous occasions to present lectures on the philosophy, theology, roots and history of the Worker movement. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Catholic Agitator, The National Catholic Reporter, Sojourners, and the Los Angeles Times; his fiction has been published in Christopher Street. Lawrence and his partner Ken Solus are currently volunteers with Temenos Catholic Worker, San Francisco, which provides harm reduction, intervention and outreach services to homeless youth and street sex workers. All the Way to Heaven is his first book.