We had a wonderful talk on Wednesday by Fr Ashley Beck about Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. Everyone has their different take on Dorothy Day, their own way of summarising what this vision was all about. Fr Beck put her mission under three headings:
(i) An unconditional love for the poor. The key word here is unconditional. She set up houses of hospitality; not temporary refuges or drop in centres, but homes, where someone would live without conditions, as a sister or brother, a member of the family, who didn’t need to do anything in order to belong.
(ii) Pacifism. To do anything and everything in the cause of peace, but never to cross the line into violence. Even when the Church has recognised that there is such a thing as a just war, and that self-defence is sometimes a legitimate stance, Dorothy Day held to her pacifist principles, believing that if one was to follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly, and to take seriously the principles of the Gospel, this meant refraining from violence.
(iii) A love for the devotional life of the Catholic Church. That her mission of peace and love for the poor was not just a human endeavour, but sprang from her Catholic faith, and was constantly nourished by the prayer and liturgy of the Church, by the witness and teaching of the Church, and by the love and support of her fellow Christians.
Fr Beck also put us onto a set of YouTube videos about the Sainthood Cause of Dorothy Day, which you can find here. Here are the first two, about Dorothy Day’s life, and then about the process of canonisation that is underway (gradually!).
I am thankful for Dorothy Day’s witness., I believe we too often fail to distinguish between the role of the nations of this world who ‘bear not the sword in vain’ and Christians who are called to be the light of the world, not the sword of the LORD.
http://christianpacifismblog.wordpress.com/scripture-and-pacifism/
Thank you for this and your other post about Dorothy Day. I confess that, until then I had never heard of this remarkable woman.
“…Even when the Church has recognised that there is such a thing as a just war, and that self-defence is sometimes a legitimate stance …”
Father, that’s a very tendentious “sometimes”. Can you tell me when self-defence is not a legitimate stance?
(This isn’t to knock Dorothy Day, St Francis-like in her time, but just to ask for a clarification of what you wrote.)
Maybe I wasn’t clear. I meant that sometimes, even if it is legitimate to defend yourself using violence, you may choose to renounce violence even if it means the loss of your own life. E.g. many of the martyrs. E.g. Jesus himself, who had every right to defend himself, yet choose to meet violence with non-violence, compassion and forgiveness.
Such a beautiful lady, inside and out. And in her older years she looked exactly like my nanny wise, and just as strong a charcater too.
Very real and inspiring.
However it doesnn’t matter how familiar she feels to me, and she does, I still keep getting her name wrong, I just submitted my assignment for uni and refered to her as Doris Day 0- :O( 0-:O)
This isn’t related to your post, but trying to pass the message on! :)
ROSARY TOMORROW, 5th February, 12 am GMT, FOR THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE
Tomorrow (5th of February), the first bill proposing same-sex marriage is going to be heard in British Parliament. I ask you to join me, and many others, in the praying of a rosary tomorrow to ask for Our Lady’s intercession in this. We are aiming to pray together at 12 am, noon (GMT) tomorrow. Pray whatever you are able to do – a decade, a Mystery, the full Rosary, even a short prayer to Our Lady -to beg for her help.
It is our hope that if Catholics pray together for this, we can gain Our Lady’s intercession in this dark hour.
Please pass the message on any way you can! Email, blog, text, social media. 12 am tomorrow – a worldwide rosary for the defense of marriage.
God Bless.
Maria Kolbe
After examine a few of the blog posts on your website now, and I truly like your manner of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark web site list and will probably be checking again soon. Pls check out my web site as well and let me know what you think.