“For a sun and a shield is the Lord God; grace and glory God bestows.“ Psalm 84:12
Pray with Dorothy:
We can be thankful for the trials of the past, the blessings of the present, and be heartily ready at the same time to embrace with joy any troubles the future may bring us.
The Catholic Worker, November, 1936
Dorothy Day of New York, who began the Catholic Worker movement in the 1930s, provides an outstanding example of a Christian mystic, a woman fully alive. She gave great glory to God in her remarkable life. Since her death in 1980 people have come to realize that she was indeed a mystic, a woman who gained wisdom through love by accepting God’s love for her. She returned that love in her life of prayer and in doing works of justice and mercy.
In her early years Dorothy Day led a wild, bohemian life. She dropped out of college after her second year, and as a young journalist wrote for a socialist newspaper, the New York Call. Her personal life in her twenties gave little indication of her future path.
Her first marriage failed. Later when she was dating someone else, she had an abortion and was devastated emotionally and physically. She left New York for California to recuperate. There she wrote movie scripts and a novel (largely autobiographical). This novel later caused her embarrassment and anguish. She wished it were possible to destroy every copy of it.
Returning to New York, she entered into a common law marriage with a man who was an anarchist and atheist. She loved him deeply and referred to her time with him as one of natural happiness. However, in the surprising way of God, she began to feel drawn to prayer and the life of faith.
Her happiness knew no bounds when their daughter, Tamar Teresa, was born. Dorothy had decided during her pregnancy to have her child baptized even though she knew her husband would leave her if she did. He did leave when she herself became a Catholic–to his dismay and that of her friends.
Dorothy’s conversion required great personal sacrifice. A conversion experience often brings joy to those who choose to accept a life of faith or to follow a call to leave others behind. But it also can require great courage to leave the familiar for the unknown.
Reflect on changes you have made in the past because of your faith. Ask for courage to make any changes that may be asked of you now or in the future. Share with God your thoughts and feelings, fears and desires.
Dorothy’s conversion came during the depths of the depression in the 1930s. Dorothy Day was searching for a way to live out her faith when she met Peter Maurin, a wandering French peasant, teacher, and philosopher. Together they began the Catholic Worker movement. Peter’s vision of a Catholic social order resonated with her own. Peter, who had been living a life of voluntary poverty in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, taught Dorothy the history and meaning of Catholic social justice teachings.
Together they spread these teachings on social justice in The Catholic Worker newspaper which first appeared on May 1, 1933, and sold for a penny a copy. Until shortly before she died, Dorothy continued to write a column, “On Pilgrimage,” in which she shared her rich insights on prayer, justice, and hospitality. The circulation of the paper rapidly grew as its message touched the hearts of many Christians eager to embrace the teachings of Jesus on love of God and of neighbor. The Catholic Worker still continues to be published and read today.
During her long life Dorothy lived out the spiritual and corporal works and wrote about the importance of putting into practice this teaching of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel (25:31-46.) “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers (and sisters) of mine, you did for me.” This passage served as a guide for Dorothy and the many people attracted to her work.
Review the gospel corporal and spiritual works of mercy listed below: corporal–to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to ransom the captive, to give shelter, to visit the sick, and to bury the dead; spiritual–to admonish the sinner, to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the sorrowful, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive all injuries, and to pray for the living and the dead. Consider how you have personally performed these works of mercy. Give thanks to God for all the times you acted with mercy.
The love of Jesus guided Dorothy each day. She lived out the advice of St. Paul the Apostle to “pray always.” She was nurtured by psalms that expressed longing for God. Two favorite verses were, “As the deer longs for running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1); and “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all my being, bless (God’s) holy name” (Psalm 103:1.)
Over and over again she insisted that prayer is the foundation and motivating force of the Catholic Worker movement. Jim Forest, who worked with Dorothy at the New York Catholic Worker house and later became managing editor of the newspaper, wrote that she taught him that justice begins on the knees. He added that he never knew anyone who was more a praying person than Dorothy Day.
Dorothy’s spirituality was rooted in the Word of God. She loved praying the psalms and reading the letters of St. Paul. Like St. Paul she saw Christ in others, especially those most in need. The gospel shaped her ministry day to day, asking her to take no thought for the morrow and to see Christ in all who came.
In her words, “the most radical thing we can do is to try to find the face of Christ in others, and not only those we find it easy to be with” (quoted from an article by Jim Forest in U.S. Parish, August, 1995).
Dorothy wrote that throughout all of her life she had somehow been haunted by God. Like St. Augustine in his dissolute young life she had experienced a restlessness for God. She desired fullness of life for herself as well as for everyone else. Her prayer always embraced neighbors close at hand and far away.
Dorothy Day worked principally as a journalist and as author of eight books in which she expressed her faith and spirituality. Her writings helped support herself, her child, and the Catholic Worker movement. She addressed many of the causes of injustice and violence affecting people who were poor or oppressed.
She gave witness by joining protests, picket lines, and boycotts in support of obtaining justice for workers. Occasionally she spent time in jail for her convictions, the last time at age 76 because she participated in a non-violent demonstration in support of the United Farm Workers.
All of her life she was a pacifist and often met with opposition to her anti-war stands. She was among those in the 1960s who formed Pax Christi, an international organization that continues to work for peace. Her personal journals show that in all of these causes and conflicts she never lost sight of her search for God.
People who knew Dorothy Day in person speak of her authenticity and integrity. Writer-editor Robert Ellsberg says that there was no distinction between what she believed, what she wrote, and how she lived. Others agree that what they saw was what she was. She had an extraordinarily well-developed sense of humility, of the truth of herself.
Her spirituality was strongly shaped by her reading, and she read a great deal. The novels of Dostoyevsky and others sustained her in her search for God. As she grew older, she loved reading the lives of the saints, and in a sense, walked in their company. That company included Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, and especially Therese of Lisieux.
She found herself drawn especially to the “little way,” a phrase used by St. Therese to describe her approach to God. This “little way” of doing all things lovingly meant that the power of love can change the world. Dorothy Day understood that change occurs not in large dramatic events but in living attentively moment by moment.
Some people today would like to see Dorothy formally canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church. Other friends say that she “would die” if she were named a saint. Canonization for Dorothy would be ironic because many Catholics and others early on were so opposed to her teachings on pacificism and non-violence.
In the 125 houses of hospitality which have now been established all over the United States, many needy people are now–as then–fed, clothed, and sheltered. You may be familiar with a Dorothy Day Center near you.
If you have time and are able, visit a shelter or soup kitchen as a volunteer. Pray with and for the people who are lonely and seek to have their needs met there. In her autobiography The Long Loneliness Dorothy uses “loneliness” to mean a longing for God. This longing continued to deepen as she grew older.
Like Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich, Dorothy did not stand on a pedestal to be admired, but lived a simple, humble, action-filled life. She had a passion for God and God’s people and believed that all is possible with God. Throughout her life she was fully alive and gave glory to God in all that she did. She can be still alive today for anyone who followers her way.
As you conclude this retreat, reflect once more on the men and women you have met here: Paul, Hildegard, Francis, Julian, Teilhard, and Dorothy. How did each encounter the living God? How did each live life fully and joyfully?
How will this retreat help you to live your life more fully and in so doing Give glory to God?