The discipline of waiting. . .

 

Do Nothing

It is so hard to sit and do nothing. And yet in many a case that is all one can do. Just listen. And do nothing.

Dorothy Day
Source: The Catholic Worker (November 1951)

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Fundamentals

Never Too Late

It is no use to say that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts. But now it is with the voice of our contemporaries that he speaks, with the eyes of store clerks, factory workers and children that he gazes; with the hands of office workers, slum dwellers and suburban housewives that he gives. It is with the feet of soldiers and tramps that he walks, and with the heart of anyone in need that he longs for shelter. And giving shelter or food to anyone who asks for it, or needs it, is giving it to Christ.

Dorothy Day
Source: The Catholic Worker (December 1945)

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Poverty

Poverty is a strange and elusive thing.  I have tried to write about it, its joys and its sorrows, for thirty years now; and now I could probably write about it for another thirty years without conveying what I feel about it as well as I would like.  I condemn poverty and I advocate it; poverty is simple and complex at once; it is a social phenomenon and a personal matter.  Poverty is an elusive thing, and a paradoxical one. 

We need always to be thinking and writing about it, for if we are not among its victims its reality fades from us.  We must talk about poverty because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.  So many good souls who visit us tell us how they were brought up in poverty, but how, through hard work and cooperation, their parents managed to educate all the children--even raise up priests and nuns for the Church.  They contend that healthful habits and a stable family situation enable people to escape from the poverty class, no matter how mean the slum they may once have been forced to live in.  The argument runs, so why can't everybody do it?  No, these people don't know about the poor.  Their concept of poverty is of something as neat and well-ordered as a nun's cell.

Dorothy Day

from "The Faces of Poverty," in Loaves and Fishes (1963)

reprinted in The Catholic Worker (May 2010)

"Don't call me a saint!"

My soul draws inspiration from Dorothy Day. Her work, her writing, her soul, all combine to inspire. Possibly most inspiring were her honest struggle and her humility.

"The Duty of Delight"

Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement, kept personal diaries throughout her life. She left explicit instructions that her journals not be published or shared with the public until 25 years after her death. Day died in 1980. And now Marquette University Press has published her diaries. Edited by Robert Ellsberg, one of Day's followers from late in her life, the collection of personal reflections is titled The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day.

Fascinating reading that provides an unique look into the life and soul of Dorothy Day, activist and pilgrim.

Here's an excerpt from Ellsberg's Introduction to the collection:

If Dorothy Day is one day formally canonized, this diary will offer something quite unusual in the annals of the saints--an opportunity to follow, almost day by day, in the footsteps of a holy person. Through these writings we can trace the movements of her spirit and her quest for God. We can see her praying for wisdom and courage in meeting the challenges of her day. But we also join her as she watches television, devours mystery novels, goes to the movies, plays with her grandchildren, and listens to the opera.

Many people tend to think of saints as otherworldly heroes, close to God but not exactly human. These diaries confirm Thomas Merton's observation that sanctity is a matter of being more fully human: "This implies a greater capacity for concern, for suffering, for understanding, for sympathy, and also for humor, for joy, for appreciation for the good and beautiful things of life."

To be human is constantly to fall short of the ideals one sets for oneself. Dorothy Day was no exception. There are frequent reminders in these pages of her capacity for impatience, anger, judgment, and self-righteousness. We are reminded of these things because she herself points them out. ("Thinking gloomily of the sins and shortcomings of others," she writes, "it suddenly came to me to remember my own offenses, just as heinous as those of others. If I concern myself with my own sins and lament them, if I remember my own failures and lapses, I will not be resentful of others. This was most cheering and lifted the load of gloom from my mind. It makes one unhappy to judge people and happy to love them.") And so we are reminded too that holiness is not a state of perfection, but a faithful striving that lasts a lifetime. It is expressed primarily in small ways, day after day, through the practice of forgiveness, patience, self-sacrifice, and compassion.

This will be a good and inspiring read, I can tell already.

[Order a copy of The Duty of Delight by clicking on the Amazon.com thumbnail to the right and below. Your purchase will benefit Central Dallas Ministries!]

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