Today we will look at a very fascinating candidate for extraordinary living.
Scripture for today: Proverbs 21:13
He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also call and not be heard.
Christ tells us: Matthew 25:35-36; 40
‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me. I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.”
Dorothy Day, Servant of God
Dorothy Day’s life was a journey toward the fulfillment of Christ’s commandment that we love one another. The Sermon on the Mount characterized her work with the poor on New York’s Lower East Side, and her founding of Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality, farming communes, and retreat centers. It also found expression in her practice of nonviolence and solidarity with workers and the poor. For Dorothy Day, to be a Christian meant not only participating fervently in the prayer and liturgy of the Church, but also finding Christ in others. She was born in Brooklyn New York on November 8, 1897, the third child of Grace and John Day…. In 1916, she… moved to New York City where she worked as a journalist on socialist newspapers, participated in protest movements, and developed friendships with many famous artists and writers. During this time, she also experienced failed love affairs, a marriage, a suicide attempt, and an abortion. Dorothy had grown to admire the Catholic Church as the “Church of the poor” and her faith began to take form with the birth of her daughter Tamar in 1926. Her decision to have her daughter baptized and to embrace the Catholic faith came at great personal cost, the end of her common law marriage and the loss of many friends. Dorothy struggled to find her role as a Catholic. While covering the 1932 Hunger March in Washington, DC, for several Catholic magazines on Dec. 8, she visited the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and prayed for guidance on how to use her special gifts in service of the hungry and the poor. The following day, back in New York, she met Peter Maurin, an immigrant from France and former Christian Brother, who had a vision for a society constructed of Gospel values. Together they founded the Catholic Worker newspaper which spawned a movement of Houses of Hospitality and farming communes that has been replicated throughout the United States and other countries. At the Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day lived a life of fidelity to the Scripture, practicing voluntary poverty, the works of mercy, and working for justice and peace. Many of the positions she espoused were prophetic, but always emanated from the Gospel and the example of the saints, like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Teresa of Lisieux. Always present for Dorothy Day, was a question expressed in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, “ Why was so much done in remedying evil instead of avoiding it in the first place…Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to slaves, but to do away with slavery?” Dorothy Day was shot at while working for integration, prayed and fasted for peace at the Second Vatican Council, received communion from Pope Paul VI at the 1967 International Congress of the Laity, and addressed the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. Her pilgrimage ended at Maryhouse in New York City on November 29, 1980, where she died among the poor. (All information in this section can be found at http://dorothydayguild.org)
My thoughts: In order to be effective in society, we sometimes have to be radical. Merely sitting on the sidelines and hoping that things will get better for the least members of society isn’t going to have much of an effect. For those of us who are ill, house-bound, or committed to raising families and caring for family members, our constant prayers are the greatest gift we can give. For the rest of us who have a million reasons why we cannot do more, a radical change of heart is in order. All of us are not called to be Dorothy Days, yet all of us are, in some way, called to make a difference. Let us keep this in mind as we pray to find our role in making the world a better place.
Prayer of Abandonment:
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.
Charles de Foucauld
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