As I was cleaning out my "Documents" files, I came across these quotes from Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, which I had saved some time ago. Her words seem very wise today.
Dorothy Day on the "undeserving poor":
The Catholic Worker attitude toward those who were welcomed wasn't always appreciated. These weren't the "deserving poor," it was sometimes objected, but drunkards and good-for-nothings. A visiting social worker asked Day how long the "clients" were permitted to stay. "We let them stay forever," Day answered with a fierce look in her eye. "They live with us, they die with us, and we give them a Christian burial. We pray for them after they are dead. Once they are taken in, they become members of the family. Or rather they always were members of the family. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ."
Dorothy Day on the works of mercy:
If I did not believe, if I did not make what is called an act of faith (and each act of faith increases our capacity for faith), if I did not have faith that the works of mercy do lighten the sum total of suffering in the world, so that those who are suffering in this ghastly struggle somehow mysteriously find their pain lifted and some balm of consolation poured on their wounds — if I did not believe these things, the problem of evil would indeed be overwhelming.
The website of The Catholic Worker has further information on Dorothy Day.
She was an amazing woman. So glad she's in Holy Women, Holy Men. Good reminder of what Christ is all about and how we fall so short.
ReplyDeleteAmelia, I didn't clean out Dorothy's quotes from my documents. She lived the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteShe surely had a colorful history, didn't she? Her life appears all the more human because if it.
Ah yes, living the Gospel. I sometimes (make that usually) despair over our ability to do it and then I remember that there are people like Dorothy Day.
ReplyDeleteYes, thank God for St Dorothy and others like her.
ReplyDeleteI read her autobiography I don't know how many years ago. I don't recall much about it except that I thought she lived a fascinating life. Would that there were more people about like her today.
ReplyDeleteWonderful quotes. Thanks!
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