Tag: Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day’s sainthood cause advances

The diocesan phase of the cause for canonization of the Servant of God Dorothy Day closes officially on December 8, 2021. The Archdiocese of New York will now send the gathered documentation to the Holy See’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Holy Mass will note this advancement will be offered by Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 7:30 p.m. on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The diocesan work for the Cause was overseen by an army of people (circa 100) coordinated by the Dorothy Day Guild: George Horton and Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo, vice postulators, members of the Ignatian Volunteers, Day’s granddaughter Martha Hennessy and supported by the current and previous two archbishops of New York. The collaboration had the goal of keeping the process local and simple so that it abided with the focus that Day had in life.

Just to give you a sense of the work in gathering Dorothy’s written work: it measures 32 square feet. No doubt that what Day communicated contributed to the conversion of countless people.

And so we pray for God’s grace in this proposal of Dorothy Day being recognized as a saint. In the spirit of Day, we are all called to be saints. As Day loved the saints, so we ought to be real saints.

Servant of God Dorothy Day, pray for us.

Revisiting Dorothy Day

In the August edition of The Current, Blake Billings an Oblate of Portsmouth Abbey and faculty member of the School, wrote a terrific piece on the Servant of God Dorothy Day in light of her own oblation to the Benedictine charism.

I have been waiting for someone to take the time to curate the information on the role of the Benedictine charism in the life and work of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. As persons with human and spiritual desires we need an organizing principle to root the heart, to situate our intellect, and to focus our energies for the better, for the good, for joy. That’s whatthe Benedictine way of life gives to those who adhere to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the magisterium, and the Rule of St Benedict. I was elated that Blake Billings did what I was looking for…perhaps the essay would be useful to you.


Take some time to read “Revisiting Dorothy Day“:

Will we Reclaim Christian Charity?

Somehow I stumbled upon Dorothy Day’s 1949 essay, “The Scandal of the Works of Charity,” and found it challenging enough to ask if it is possible for 21st century Christians to reclaim a life of charity based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Can we who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, worship the Blessed Triune God through the Divine Liturgy (or the Sacrifice of the Mass) assist our brothers and sisters in need?

According to Day, Peter Maurin has an answer for us to consider and to enact. In part he says,

To get to the people, he pointed out it was necessary to embrace voluntary poverty, to strip yourself, which would give you the means to practice the works of mercy. To reach the man in the street you must go to the street. To reach the workers, you begin to study a philosophy of labor, and take up manual labor, useful labor, instead of white collar work. To be the least, to be the worker, to be poor, to take the lowest place and thus be the spark which would set afire the love of men towards each other and to God (and we can only show our love for God by our love for our fellows).

Striking is Day’s comment that “WE ARE ALL devoured by a passion for social justice today” given all the talk and public demonstration for racial justice today. I tend to think that secular and church people alike have an anemic even wrong sense of what constitutes justice and social reform. Much of the rhetoric is pure fantasy –shallow at best. What is missing in the conversation and in action is Jesus Christ. What is missing is having, knowing, loving the Savior at the center of everything. What is missing is prayer: the sacred Liturgy (Mass and Divine Office, personal and corporate). What got my attention in Day’s essay is her mentioning of the Catholic spirituality she fostered:

We have daily Mass at the Farm, and we are permitted by the Chancery Office to have the Blessed Sacrament at all times while a priest is with us and we are blessed in having an invalided priest visiting us these past fifteen months or so. We have Prime and Compline, we have sung Masses for all the big feast days, we have reading at the table during retreats, and sometimes when there is no retreat but a feast day to be celebrated.

The loss of the Center means the acceptance of alternative forms of centering; if Christ is not the center then the vacuum will be filled by something counterfeit. It seems to me that Catholics have forgotten the source and substance of Day and Maurin and the cloud of witnesses (saints). The people who have really forgotten the Day-Maurin source and substance are those who run Catholic Worker Houses with their secular agenda and no Christ-center. Of course, there are a few exceptions like the Catholic Worker House operated by Larry Chapp and his wife in Pennsylvania.

The works of Charity, spiritual and corporal, are revealed in the Gospel but are also found in the Old Testament. But sticking with the Christian dispensation I notice that there is typically no mention of Jesus’ Good Word in the sermonizing of the clergy. The Catholics of East and West have neglected to preach on Matthew 25 while giving good witness to the scope of what of is revealed. The result is that real face of the faith community’s “performance of the works of mercy” has become bourgeois and has virtually vanished. This neglect has contributed to the crazy-talk of what justice really means and why we all need to have a concern for matters of justice.

If we are going to be serious about the recovery of Works of Mercy we need allow our hearts and minds and hands be moved by the Gospel and good worship of God. Nothing fake and scandalous. The true scandal of the Works of Mercy is that it forces us to move from being self-made persons to the recognition that we are the Lord’s. The injustices we face today, then, are resolved in true faith in the Heart of Christ. It is there we know to whom we belong.

Dorothy Day’s new biography

The Servant of God Dorothy Day has a new critical biography penned by accomplished biographers John Loughery and Blythe Randolph. According to the NYTimes review of the book, the authors viewed their subject as “challenging and complex.” Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century is a portrait of Day but it is incorrect to claim that it is the first in 40 years. There are a few other biographies of Dorothy Day published in recent years. I look forward to delving into the Loughery and Randolph volume; my hope is that they did not merely perpetuate the same old cliches. But I doubt it. Already in the review one gets the sense that Day is treated more as a political person than someone who encountered Jesus Christ and desired to live in creative tension and toward the Gospel and the Tradition of the Catholic Church. Terms used to describe Day without due attention to her relationship with Christ and the Mystical Body of Christ are misleading. Happy reading.

The review can be read here.

Saint’s granddaughter writes: Dorothy Day in a new perspective

kate hennessyKate Hennessy has written about her grandmother, the Servant of God Dorothy Day in a new memoir, Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty: An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother.

A look at Kate Hennessy’s book can be read here. You can also listen to the interview in the aforementioned link.

From the article:

From the Is Day a saint then in the final analysis?

“It’s complicated,” Hennessy says. “She is foremost my grandmother, that’s the most important relationship for me. The process for canonization is very much a church process and the church needs to do what it needs to do and I hope it’s not going to become bogged down in proceduralism or conflict.” Hennessy said.

Then she quickly adds, “I absolutely believe she’s a saint, aside from the canonization. Just the way she leads us to change our perception of ourselves and the world around us, I think is so full of grace.”

Me, too. I hope that the sainthood study process does not stall. May the Lord be blessed with Dorothy’s beatification!

Dorothy Day’s teaching on Justice

dorothy-day“If you find the life of Dorothy Day inspiring, if you want to understand what gave her direction and courage and strength to persevere, her deep attentiveness to others, consider her spiritual and sacramental life.”

These are the words of Jim Forest published in an article, “What I learned about justice from Dorothy Day,” that originally appeared in the July/August 1995 issue of Salt of the Earth magazine. This article is really good and I highly recommend it. One reason being you really do locate the source of Day’s thinking and spirituality in the Eucharistic Heart of Our Savior, Jesus.  Is there really anything more to be taught/learned by way of praying before the Blessed Sacrament?

Jim Forest began his association with Dorothy Day in 1961, when he moved to New York City to join the Catholic Worker community there. Jim is the author of an excellent introduction on the life and work of Dorothy Day called All Is Grace.

Dorothy Day’s caused for sainthood has been introduced. It would be good to learn from Day on how to be an authentic Catholic and not some secularist: Go to Jesus through the example of Dorothy!

St Teresa –thirsting for God

Mother Teresa & Dorothy Day, New York 1979 (Photo by Bill Barrett)I saw this picture of Servant of God Dorothy Day and Saint Teresa and wondered what they talked about. Did they pray? I wondered what the visit meant to each of them, and what was the lasting impact the meeting had for them and their co-workers. Saints meet saints and encourage others to be saints.

The other day Cardinal Pietro Parolin concluded a homily by remembering the two simple words of the newly canonized Saint Teresa of Calcutta posted in every house of the Missionaries of Charity: ‘I thirst’.

‘I thirst,’ the cardinal said, ‘a thirst for fresh, clean water, a thirst for souls to console and to redeem from their ugliness to make them beautiful and pleasing in the eyes of God, a thirst for God, for His vital and luminous presence. I thirst; this is the thirst which burned in Mother Teresa: her cross and exaltation, her torment and her glory.’

Both Dorothy Day and Saint Teresa give witness to thirsting for God.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!