IN OUR TIME the Dorothy Day Guild
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Dorothy Day IN OUR TIME Guild Newsletter of the Dorothy Day Guild A Woman of Conscience Volume 3, Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2018 A Saint for Our Time Dear Friends, Greetings from the Guild! Spring’s buds have given way to summer’s blossoms. Some Catholic saints actually have flowers associated with them. Lilies often are found in depictions of St. Kateri Tekawitha and St. Dominic; roses grace the images of St. Cecilia and St. Elizabeth of Hungary; St. Sebastian and St. Agnes are frequently pictured with palm fronds. It’s not beyond imagining that some such symbol might one day be ascribed to Dorothy Day. But what would embody her spirit? Albeit beautiful, it’s hard to conceive of anything even remotely approaching a hothouse plant! No, for this Catholic saint for our times, this uniquely orthodox/radical woman, only a less traditional symbol will do: the ailanthus tree. The “tree of heaven” as, curiously enough, it’s called. Dorothy writes of it outside her window at Maryhouse where she lived and died among homeless women. The tree that still grows in Brooklyn (her birthplace), and almost everywhere else. “No matter where its seed fell,” explains the novel that made it famous, “it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps, and it was the only tree that grew out of cement.” Dorothy loved it because it was an unabashed symbol of hope — reminding us that God’s grace can be found anywhere. Even, perhaps especially, among the poor. Her voluminous writings are dedicated to reporting its appearances, its myriad shapes and forms. “Mulberry Street” (please see p. 10), uncovered by our researchers, is her only known poem. This issue of the newsletter looks at the meaning of Christian hope. Like the other theological virtues of faith and charity, its practice is essential to the Church’s naming a saint. We deeply thank Paul Wadell for his insightful “Good Talk” (p. 2) and Louise Zwick for her moving reflection on “hope in action” ( coined by Pope Benedict XVI) at the Houston Catholic Worker in “Breaking Bread” (p. 8). Hope roots our work at the Guild (check “Dispatches!,” p. 5). When we gauge all that has been done to date, we feel empowered to take on the more still needed. But when we recognize all that’s still to do, we feel humbled by the task (see “Saintly Matters,” p. 6). One thing for certain. We are more inclined to be hopeful, as St. Thomas Aquinas observed, when we have friends to rely on. Faithful friends like you! It is no glib truism: we can’t carry on without your support. Please, if it’s time to renew your annual Guild membership dues, do so today (membership form on p. 11). And raise your voice! Let your families and friends, people in the pew and out, know that truly, in Dorothy Day, we have a saint for now. Together, let us proclaim our stubbornly held hope: that through her canonization, her Gospel witness will spread far and wide to the unlikeliest of places — branching heavenward, like the ailanthus tree. *The “Ichthus” image (“the sign of the fish”) was used by the early Christians as an easily recognizable symbol for Jesus. Dorothy Day’s saintliness, we pray, will become increasingly recognizable—easy for all to see. GOOD TALK with Paul Wadell (One of the virtues that must be evidenced in the very life, love, goodness, and joy ical virtue that must be infused in us in the life of any proposed candidate for that is God. Thus, Christians yearn for by God. For Christians, God is both canonization is hope. We are so grateful to a fulfillment that utterly transcends the object of our hope and the means to have Paul Wadell, professor of theology and anything we could ever give ourselves, attaining it. religious studies at St. Norbert College in which is why Christian hope rests in The greatness of our hope will always De Pere, WI, reflect with us on its impor- a gift. This is exactly what Paul meant be in proportion to the greatness of tance and meaning.) when he wrote in Romans 5:5 that the good on which we have set our You’ve called hope the “forgot- “hope does not disappoint, because lives. Dorothy Day surely believed ten” virtue. Pope Francis has the love of God has been poured out this; indeed, her life exemplified why called it “hidden.” Arguably, it’s into our hearts through the Holy Christian hope is inherently audacious. the least understood of the theo- Spirit that has been given to us.” Paul She knew that the scope of Christian logical virtues. What basically is suggests that the very good we hope hope is not determined by our own the Christian notion of hope? for is the divine gift out of which we power, resources, or ingenuity—much already live, the unassailable grace In general, hope is an orientation to less the need for everything to go our that anchors and sustains us through way—but by God’s unceasing love life rooted in the belief that there is the tribulations of life. It is also why something good — something truly and goodness. Christian hope rests in Thomas Aquinas says that, yes, hope is the knowledge that the best thing we blessed and worthwhile — that can a virtue, but it is specifically a theolog- be achieved, but not without difficul- can hope for in our lives is precisely ty. Because hope concerns a future good—something we want but do not In the heart of the Great Depression, The Catholic Worker was yet possess—there is always a “not distributed on May Day, 1933, to throngs of demonstrators in yet” or unfinished quality to it. Hope New York City’s Union Square, marking the movement’s start. Its stretches us by focusing our lives on first editorial was dedicated to the bringing of hope — a mission, something good, and inspiring and 85 years later, that hasn’t changed: empowering us to pursue it. For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight. Christianity dramatically expands the For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain. horizons of hope because the “good” For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for for which Christians hope is everlast- work. ing life with God and the saints, that For those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition unbreakable communion in which all of their plight — this little paper is addressed. of us together love and glorify God It is printed to call their attention to the fact that the Catholic as we love and rejoice in one anoth- Church has a social program — to let them know that there are 2 er. Christian hope is rooted in the men of God who are working not only for their spiritual but for steadfast conviction that God not only their material welfare. wants our good, but wants us to share what God wants to give us. Aquinas inclination to life. put it best perhaps when he said that Put differently, our we grasp the true nature of hope only desires for fullness when we “hope for nothing less from and completion, for God” than God’s very self. deep and abiding Pope Francis said that “hope joy, and for loves is never still, hope is always that never die and journeying, and it makes us are never betrayed journey…” are not foolish fantasies we should That’s absolutely correct. We don’t abandon, but the hope by standing still, by being disen- very things for gaged from life. Hope implies move- which we should ment, purpose, direction, and action. always hope and The nature of hope is to set us on a strive. journey toward what we believe will Breadline, NewYork City, 1932 fulfill us by answering our hearts’ deep- Despite the hard- est and most persistent longings. In encountered along the way, especially ships and tribulations of life—and fact, we can say that hope must always the most forgotten, overlooked, and despite how bleak and unpromising unfold into a journey since it calls us excluded members of society. Her both the present and the future can out of ourselves in pursuit of something vision and hope for the future totally sometimes appear—there is in all of good and lovely and beautiful — some- shaped the way she lived in the pres- us a natural gravitation to life and, thing far greater than anything we could ent. Her passion for justice, her desire therefore, to hope. Anyone who has have made of ourselves. to create communities where all are read Dorothy Day knows that she was no stranger to sorrow, adversity, And yet, the nature of our hope will welcomed and loved, and her belief that we should befriend others as God and great disappointments. Still, she always be informed by our under- persevered and, even amid suffering, standing of the journey. The theologian has befriended us, all can be traced to the fact that she never lost sight of the never abandoned the belief that life, David Eliot observes that what hope even when it is hard and asks more of means for us depends on how we un- feast to which God calls every human being. She knew the Christian life was us than we think we can possibly give, derstand both who we are and where can be lived fully and joyfully.