After graduation, architect Michael Murphy met Bruce Nizeye a local builder in Rwanda, who he calls a brilliant engineer and a healer. (I usually don’t think of those two images together) Nizeye teaches Murphy about “Ubudehe,” which means “community works for the community.” Nizeye also introduces him to lo-fab (locally fabricated way of building with: “…four pillars: hire locally, source regionally, train where you can and most importantly think about every design decision as an opportunity to invest in the dignity of the places where you serve.” WOW! Places have dignity.
What an amazing concept! I wonder what our U.S. cities would look like if we practiced Ubudehe (community works for the community), and lo-fab building, i.e. hired locally, sourced regionally, trained where we can and most importantly think about every design decision as an opportunity to invest in the dignity of the places where we serve? Michael Murphy in his February 2016 TED Talk “Architecture that’s built to heal” shares how after completing an architectural degree in the U.S., he ended up in Rwanda and learned this new vision of architecture from the poorest in the world, often I believe, our best teachers.
Dan O’Donnell, a layman has covenanted with the Chicago Community. In addition to the standard covenant, Dan promises to work at connecting all partners known and unknown, to a conscious following the the way of Jesus, the way of the cross which Dan believes transforms all failure, democratizing the human journey
We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.
