September 2, 2011
UE grad chooses life in Catholic community
Allyson Hoch smiles after an interview, outside the Newman Campus Ministry Center at the University of Evansville, Aug. 29. (Message photo by Paul R. Leingang) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
“I’m very excited to get to live the Gospel message, within a community,” said Allyson Hoch. She is one of 10 adults and three children living in community on a farm in West Virginia.
“Jesus lived a perfect life, and we’ll try our best,” she said during an interview at the Newman campus ministry center at the University of Evansville. “We won’t be perfect.”
Hoch is from Greenwood, Ind., and graduated in May 2011 from the University of Evansville. She’ll be using some of the skills she learned in college living in her new home — not perhaps the art therapy courses she studied, but the people skills and conflict resolution she learned as an R.A.
Nazareth Farm is a small Catholic community near Center Point, W. Va. Community members will work and live in common on the farm, but much of their time will be spent in service to other residents of the area – doing home repair, fixing porches and taking on other projects.
Community members will also host groups of 40 volunteers at a time, witnessing to them, giving them a chance to see both the work and the words of Catholic Social Tea-ching. Their witness includes a lifestyle that is concerned with conserving natural resources and living responsibly.
Hoch’s commitment is for at least a year, maybe two years. What it does not include is any kind of fundraising activity. Or any salary.
She’ll live in the community, “eat less meat and conserve water,” she said.. “It’s a radical life,” and she’s excited about it, and eager to tell friends and acquaintances.
Hoch came to the U.E. campus ministry fall kick-off Aug. 29. Conversations and questions, punctuated with welcoming hugs and hellos, allowed Hoch to fill in her friends about her commitment.
Find out more about Nazareth Farm
See http://www.nazarethfarm.org
Nazareth Farm is a Catholic community in rural West Virginia that transforms lives through a service-retreat experience. We are devoted to living out the Gospel message through the cornerstones of community, simplicity, prayer, and service. We serve alongside our neighbors to address substandard housing by providing home repair. We celebrate the richness of Appa-lachia and experience God by building relationships between our volunteers and the local community.
Contact information:
Nazareth Farm
RR 2 Box 194-3
Salem, WV 26426
Telephone: 304-782-2742
E-mail: nazarethfarm@gmail.com
She first found out about Nazareth Farm when she was a sophomore and went on a spring break service project. She returned the next May, and now she’s a member of the community she found so attractive on her visits.
It is a place “where you can talk seriously about social issues,” and it is a place of prayer. She has been part of the community since early August, and she enjoys her new life.
“The first thing we do in the morning is prayer,” she said. Then, “we pray before meals, we pray when we get into the truck to go to work . . . and we have evening prayer.”
Hoch won’t be spending much time with clay, her favorite artistic medium, but she does intend to “integrate art in the community’s prayer services, and to be teaching the kids in the community to express themselves.”
Her friends and relatives have been supportive, in the main, with no one outright questioning her choice of life after college. “People are really open to the idea,” she said. “And they know I am happy.”
Her younger brother is just starting his college life at Loyola in Chicago, so it’s a new experience for her parents, too. They have been supportive of her decision, and continue to be supporting youth ministry.
“They’re really excited,” Hoch said about her parents. “They know it is God’s work, and they know I love it.”