The Dorothy Day IN OUR TIME Guild Newsletter of the Dorothy Day Guild A Woman of Conscience Volume 4, Double Issue Winter 2019 A for Our Time

Dear Friends, Greetings from the Guild! Winter, in its stark beauty, is upon us. And faith, we’re told, is the seed beneath the snow. Even in these seemingly dark times. It was another winter in another dark time, following America’s entrance into World War I, when Dorothy Day was caught unawares by her “first beginning and last end.” In the smoke-filled backroom of a Greenwich Village bar, listening to a boo- zily rendered recitation of “The Hound of Heaven,” intoned from memory by her companion/fellow wanderer, the aspiring playwright, Eugene O’Neill, she began to find “direction rather than drift.” It led her in time to live but a short distance away, sheltering the homeless, speaking out against violence, and witnessing to a radical belief in a merciful God. At the time of her death in 1980, she was famously called by historian David O’Brien, “the most important, interesting, and influential figure in the history of American Catholicism.” Others simply called her a saint. Dorothy conveyed, however, in conversations with psychiatrist/author Robert Coles that really she wanted to be considered, “a humble person of faith who tried her best to live in accordance with the biblical teachings she kept pondering,” particu- larly, “the Sermon on the Mount.” The Church views faith as a virtue and its heroic practice as one of the critical measures of sainthood. This winter’s newsletter is dedicated to its exploration. Faith in the Catholic tradition “seeks understanding,” and we owe many thanks to this issue’s contributors for helping us do just that. Please be refreshed by Eric Martin’s keen insights in “Good Talk” (starting on p. 2). Kate Hennessy, the youngest of Dorothy Day’s grandchildren, shares, thanks to America magazine, an intimate, intergenerational portrait of faith (p. 16). Lawrence Cunningham, whose scholarship has always reflected his passions, offers a moving meditation, triggered in part by the Guild’s new prayer card (p. 7). And the work of the late June O’Connor helps illuminate the depth of Dorothy’s conversion experience (p. 12) even as Dorothy’s own personal reflections help trace the different paths constituting her faith’s long journey (p. 10). The Guild continues on its journey of advancing the cause for . Like any journey worth taking, it has encountered bumps and challenges (this past fall, for example, we bypassed publishing the newsletter because the coffers were low, account- ing for this double issue now). But we remind ourselves that it’s always harder to round third base and come home than to round first. And we’re very close to home — in this case, the Vatican’s Congregation for — completing the Inquiry’s diocesan phase and beginning the final, Roman one (please see “Dispatches!” on p. 5). We remain confident that Dorothy Day — and the unique model of holiness she provides — will be recognized (canonized) in our time. The reasons for the hope within us? In part: you! Your long standing commitment, your prayers, your encour- agement. Your generosity of spirit and your financial support. In short, your own faithfulness. We are immensely grateful for your continuing to remember our Loaves and Fishes Campaign (where no contribution is too small!). Or for your joining the Guild or renewing your annual membership (please see p. 19). Dorothy believed that saints give us a glimpse of eternity, even through the fog of darkness. Let us brave together this New Year, forwarding her cause, sustained by her faith and theirs.

*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 Eric Martin (We’re very happy for the opportunity to huddled, hungry figures waiting in the tive, faith’s essential meaning? enjoy this “good talk” with Eric Martin. dark for food. Probably not! There are lots of differ- Eric is co-editor of The Berrigan I think too Dorothy’s endless curiosity ent Catholic perspectives, so maybe it Letters and a doctoral student in theology fed her spiritual genius. She could take is best for me to simply offer an exam- at Fordham University where he teaches this from Abbé Pierre, that from St. ple. I used to chop vegetables with Art The Bible and Social Justice.) Thérèse, something else from Dom Laffin of the D.C. Catholic Worker. When a friend who worked Hélder Câmara and something from On Thursdays, we would make meals closely with Dorothy was asked Marx, and join them in a synthesis with that were served to homeless people what her greatest gift to us was, the Beatitudes and the present moment. near the White House. I struggled with he immediately responded, She knew how to read the world flu- this. Obviously, it’s good to feed the “Faith.” The interviewer was ently in conversation with the practical hungry, but is it the “best” way to act taken aback, clearly expecting and theoretical wisdom she learned justly? Wouldn’t revolutionizing food something else. Do you see her elsewhere. She downplayed her intelli- systems be more Christian? Once, faith as foundational to all else? gence, but I think her faith is interwo- I voiced my doubts to Art as he was Hmmm. Well, this might say more ven with a massive moral brilliance. pulling a huge tray of steaming rice about me than Dorothy, but I see a The language of faith is richly out of the oven. He stared at it for a constellation of interlocking traits varied. Sometimes faith is cast while, then smiled and said, “Isn’t it at her foundation. Certainly faith is as “belief ” or “trust.” Or as beautiful? It’s all right here, and it’s there, but the first thing I think of is “intellectual assent” or “living theirs. It couldn’t be more direct.” her brazenness. Her faith was bold and encounter.” Can you help us I didn’t really know how that was uncompromising, and I see that as a grasp, from a Catholic perspec- an answer to my question. Art was continuation of the pre-conversion Dorothy who weathered fasting and fearful treatment in jail. I think that early Dorothy is a great gift too. She was already committed to the disen- franchised, the never-enfranchised. Her faith is unrecognizable with- out that, which is what makes Fritz Eichenberg’s Christ of the Breadlines such an apt image for the Catholic Worker. Her visions of Christ and 2 the poor intermingled; they couldn’t be pulled apart. That haloed figure is Christ and at the same time the cold, further along in faith than I was: that and I think that has to do with her the works of mercy are inherently awareness of the value and limitations worthwhile. I think he caught what of reason, and how it relates to faith. Dorothy knew, that the “little way” of As I said before, I think she doesn’t get St. Thérèse is a way of God’s. I can’t enough credit for being a genius. grasp faith’s essential meaning, but I As she eloquently voiced in think lived examples do more to get her autobiography, The Long us there than propositions, and that Loneliness, Dorothy came to Art’s teaching points us in one of many believe that every soul has a good directions. natural tendency toward God. Often we think of faith as being Still, she would pray with St. more akin to possessing some- Augustine, “Help, Thou, my thing than to practicing some- unbelief.” Mother Teresa (now thing. Dorothy doesn’t seem to St.) wrote of the absence of God have made such a distinction. in her life. Is doubt then as “nat- She also didn’t seem interested in pos- ural” as faith? sessing much. I think she said it in the Cornel West, a public intellectual I title of her column, “On Pilgrimage.” Thomas Merton, “The Sky Hook,” described think Dorothy would appreciate, said as “the only known image of God” Faith is a journeying, an adventure, an it’s inherent to faith. “There has to be on-the-way-ness. To where? We don’t there are beautiful things, then how some serious doubt, otherwise faith get to see that directly. I think what can God not exist? becomes merely a dogmatic formula, Thomas Merton said of the Desert Dorothy was never – thanks be to an orthodoxy, a way of evading the Fathers is also true of Dorothy. He said God – a logician, but reason helped complexity of life, rather than a way the point of their prayer laboratories lead her to faith and she later used it of engaging honestly with life.” I think was salvation. Again, I can only speak to apply her faith. Philosophers like Dorothy understood that better than of how I perceive what Dorothy was up Martha Nussbaum have made clear most. The last time I taught The Long to, but I think she saw herself as explor- that emotions are tied to reason, and Loneliness my students found it hilar- ing her way toward salvation, and not I think Dorothy’s emotional response ious when Dorothy, questioning her just for herself. She was in touch with to having a baby (which played a large newfound faith, criticized herself for the tradition from which Jon Sobrino role in her conversion to Catholicism) feeling as contented as an unthinking would claim, “No salvation outside the had rational components to it. The cow. “Do I really believe? Whom am I poor.” The Catholic Worker strikes questions she asked after Tamar’s birth praying to?” she asked herself. “Prayer me as an organism, doing this through helped pave the way to her faith life. with you is like the opiate of the communal pilgrimage. She would constantly be reasoning out people.” You can hear her grappling Can you shed some light on the what a commitment to the Beatitudes with doubt, churning over the Marxist nature of faith vis-à-vis reason? and Matthew 25 meant for the social critique of religion – which she was emergencies of her day. honest enough not to pretend didn’t Very little, so I think it’s good to defer exist – and testing it against the reli- to Dorothy here. One of my favorite I’ve always loved the story of Dorothy gious experiences she was having. It’s lines from The Long Loneliness is when giving that big, fat diamond ring to a wonderful testament to the fragility she asks, “How can there be no God, a regular at the Worker. A staffer and struggle inherent in faith, which when there are all of these beautiful thought she was acting more or less never fully conquers doubt. things?” It’s sort of the opposite of irrationally, and her answer employed those “problem of evil” arguments reason that hinged on an article of I don’t know the direct answer to your that say basically: (1) if an all-loving, faith: “Do you suppose that God question, but I think that faith implies all-knowing, and all-powerful God created diamonds only for the rich?” doubt. Kierkegaard hammered this exists, God would not allow evil; (2) She wouldn’t cede the rational ground point. If there’s no doubt, there’s certi- tude, which destroys faith. It’s because evil exists; (3) therefore, God doesn’t but she staked her reason on her faith. 3 exist. Dorothy looked to beauty and Stories like this are the spiritual equiv- there’s no objective knowledge – we turned the argument on its head: if alent of beholding Einstein’s work, (Good Talk, cont’d on p. 4) (Good Talk, cont’d from p. 3) to avoid state execution but willed found her real identity in relationship himself on. Faith-as-struggle, which to and with God. I see Dorothy’s will could all have it wrong about God! – implies a central role for the will, is coming from that divine “We” rather that there is passion. (And Dorothy had in the genetic makeup of . than an egocentric “I.” Her stubborn- plenty of passion.) Part of what makes I don’t know how else to read the ness was a holy emanation. the psalms so human is their yearning story of Gethsemane, Jesus’ “trial,” for something other than God’s hidden- Dorothy’s “baby” brother John, the Cross, or even the twelve year-old ness. Like Mother Teresa, the psalmists whom she lovingly cared for Jesus evading his parents to remain in wanted God to come be their light, to and who later became a com- Jerusalem’s temple for three days. Try show God’s face. Dorothy knew such mitted Communist, once told reading the letter of James without darkness, and I think that’s why she saw me wistfully that he thought noticing the high value it places on the her life as a pilgrimage, a striving-to- religion was like listening to will. wards. There’s a reason she didn’t call Mozart. “Some people hear it; her autobiography I Have Arrived. But, this conception of the will gets some don’t.” Is that why faith is complicated because it’s not just a me referred to as a “gift” — a “theo- Dorothy at times seemed to logically infused” virtue? And if “will” her faith. “I wanted to so, how might we cultivate it in believe, and I wanted my daugh- our lives? ter to believe, and belonging to a Church could offer her a grace I prefer John Coltrane to Mozart, and as priceless as faith in God.” Can a line that sticks with me from his you reflect a bit on the intersec- “Psalm” is, “Keep your eye on God.” tion between faith and will. Forget hearing. I hear a lot of talk about faith and see much less of it Sure. I know people who say they enfleshed. How do we cultivate faith in “want to believe in God,” but just can’t our lives? Live it! I don’t read Dorothy seem to make themselves do it. That for her rhetorical flourishes but for suggests that we can’t just will our- Day helped revive for the Catholic commu- her lived witness, which infuses all she selves into faith. A constant in most all nity the Biblical injunction to be peace- has to say with a stamp of authority no the Christian traditions is that faith is makers, “to beat swords into plowshares.” mere human imprimatur could grant. born of God’s initiative, not ours. So willing but a We. Matthew has Jesus We have more than enough that has we can start there. preaching that heaven is for those been written or said about faith, and But the will still seems to have a lot doing God’s will and John has Jesus I can offer no novel thoughts on the to do with it. Dorothy was an excep- saying he came to do God’s will rather subject. The saints do faith. They pray tionally strong-willed person, and than his own. Jonah basically told on their knees behind closed doors, one of the things I admire most about Ninevah that God would rain down but also with their feet, as Abraham her was her will to say no. No to calamity upon them if the city didn’t Joshua Heschel said. Cardinal Spellman when he under- align itself with God’s will. From the I think Dorothy knew what Coltrane paid striking gravediggers; no to the Garden of Eden, through the proph- was talking about. She kept her eye police when they harassed the United ets and the Gospels, right on to Paul, on God, and followed accordingly. Farm Workers; no to the temptation there’s a biblical call to avoid certain She knew it meant moving herself to collapse the Gospels into a social desires, to stifle the unbridled will and into new spaces, as if on a hunt or program; no to official teachings on align it with God’s will. What does this chase. She went where the rich young just war! Her faith was etched through mean exactly? The obliteration of the man refused to go, with Jesus into much effort of will and stubbornness. self? uncomfortable, demanding spaces. It’s a needed antidote to the kind of Though Dorothy thought faith meant This goes back to the will. Dorothy bourgeois Christianity that predomi- struggle and even suffering, her life was willing. Is this will a gift? Yes and nated her time and arguably ours. doesn’t suggest annihilating the self or no. It is accepted and asserted, as far as I Pilate probably thought Jesus was one’s will. I see in her much more of can tell. We’re at the heart of Mystery, 4 hard-headed, and he was probably what Merton observed: that the saint of God-talk, and we can only bump right. Jesus had many opportunities is the one who is truly herself, who has (Good Talk, cont’d on p. 18) DISPATCHES! We’re happy to announce the arrival of a new Dorothy Day prayer card, available in Spanish as well as in English. The card features a photographic portrait (designed to complement the beautifully rendered oil portrait by Geoffrey Gneughs on the original card). A revised intercessory prayer, inviting individual requests, is on the reverse side. (To view, see p. 9). Prayer cards may be ordered by writing the Guild at 1011 First Avenue, Seventh Floor, New York, NY 10022 or emailing dorothydayguild@ archny.org. A donation, if at all possible, to help offset printing and han- dling costs would be very helpful; suggested amount is 15 cents/card. VOX POP Prayer — in its original form as We closed out 2018 with significant progress made towards completing a prayer of petition — is nothing the local archdiocesan inquiry. Thanks to a grant from the Archdiocese other than the voicing of hope. of New York, the Dorothy Day Archives at Marquette University is now “The people” continue to sign 70% complete with the task of digitally scanning 36 boxes of Dorothy the petition (available on back Day’s unpublished writings. Our theological censors have read through cover of this newsletter or at once/reviewed all of her published writings, and 62% of these 1,250 www.dorothydayguild.org), publications have been read by two censors. Our Historical Commission asking that Dorothy Day be has begun a biographical sketch, and 25% of the diaries have been tran- named a saint — and to hope scribed. With full funding and a strong team of volunteers, we hope to they will be heard. Here are some of the reasons why: finish this part of the process by Labor Day, 2020.

I had the privilege of spending time in her Over forty volunteer transcribers are working with us to transcribe all presence. She is certainly a saint for our 6,800 pages of Dorothy Day’s diaries. Some of these transcribers live in times. New York City, but most work from home throughout the United States Lillian Sharrock, Union City, NJ and several foreign countries, including India, Portugal, Canada, and Seriously, I wonder if I would have Australia! A few knew Dorothy, and all have been greatly inspired. One remained a Catholic if it weren’t for was baby-sat by Dorothy and has the childhood picture to prove it! Dorothy Day. And what I like about her is We are grateful to all those who responded to our request for transcrib- that she wasn’t pious, she didn’t “act holy.” ers. If we double their number, we could ensure completion of diary Dr. Kathryn Mahon-Lowe and letter transcription by September, 2019. Please consider joining East Harlem, NY our group of volunteer transcribers — and inviting potentially She had such a deep understanding of the interested friends — to help with this vitally important and, we’re told, gift of faith. Something that needs to be gratifying task. Contact [email protected]. Transcribers passed on for everyone in today’s time. work with diary excerpts of 10-20 pages. Br. Randy Hoover, S.M. Washington, D.C. The response to our newly launched Loaves and Fishes Campaign to Dorothy Day’s life has inspired me. I do secure modest gifts from many donors has been strong: thank you! We believe her example will help us to live are extending the Campaign through May in the sure hope (and need!) of Gospel lives. growing the over $25,000 received to date. The goal is to raise $50,000. Sr. Edna Hersinger, S.C. Every contribution, no matter the size, is meaningful and much appreci- Convent Station, NJ ated. (Please see p. 19 for more information.) A woman of great faith and courage. 5 Marianne Moore, Derwood, MD (“The Vine and the Branches”—a metaphor for Christian discipleship and an apt image for the growing Guild—inspired the iconography in this column by Catholic Worker artist, Ade Bethune.) SAINTLY MATTERS n an interview with La Repubblica (October 1, 2013), Pope Francis wasted no words. “I believe in God, not in a Catholic God, there is no Catholic God, At Root… there is God….” I The saints give proof that the Less a mystery than this “not-Catholic God” but a mystery nonetheless: the Catholic Church. A sacred portal to that God for millennia. For Dorothy Day, Gospel can be lived. And by a convert, the Church became her spiritual home, the only place on earth wide extension, that God exists. If enough and deep enough to contain and nourish the fullness of her being. faith, as Dorothy Day con- tended, is a gift, the saints But as we know, from the anguish of history and our own time, “Holy Mother were her guides. Church” can be as much a stumbling block to faith as an entranceway. A scandal defiling even its own children. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Accordingly, over the centuries, some of her greatest saints have dedicated them- — St. James selves to its reform. called on the medieval church to return to the simplicity of the Gospel. St. vigorously attacked abuses of It is easier for us to get to know God power (“You there, with the mitre,” he addressed one visiting archbishop.) Teresa than to know our own soul…God is of Avila and John of the Cross, leaders of the Carmelite movement, withstood the nearer to us than our soul, for He is notorious Spanish Inquisition. The list goes on. As St. Paul assured the Romans, the ground in which it stands…so if “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” we want to know our own soul, and For other of her saints, faith propelled them outward: the brokenness of the enjoy its fellowship, it is necessary to world, the locus of their vocation. It’s their ranks that Dorothy would join, root- seek it in our Lord God. ing and building on her already highly developed, pre-conversion vocation to the — St. Julian of Norwich poor. Part of the nature of belief is to leave Sometimes, however, even Day’s co-religionists (let alone her old radical doubts possible. friends), in spite of their admiration for her work for justice, were confounded — St. Thomas Aquinas by her reluctance to address the sins of her Church. And they were mystified by her seeming acquiescence when the Archdiocese of New York’s then Auxiliary Remember that you have only one soul; Bishop McIntyre, later Cardinal, at the request of Cardinal Spellman, paid a that you only have one death to die; personal visit, suggesting she close the Catholic Worker down (or stop calling that you have only one life, which is it “Catholic”). Shouldn’t she have cried foul and pointed a stern finger at the short and has to be lived by you alone; Church’s often falling short of the Gospel it preached? and there is only one Glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be But finger-wagging or name-calling was never Dorothy’s way. “If our dear, sweet many things about which you care cardinal, who is the vicar of Christ in New York City, told me to shut down nothing. the Catholic Worker, I would close it down immediately,” socialist Michael — St. Teresa of Avila Harrington, than a young editor of the paper, reported her saying. Not that she was blind to the Church’s failings. Hardly, as her journals and diaries attest. Of the O life so dull and monotonous, how Church, she often liked to quote Jesuit theologian Romano Guardini’s haunting many treasures you contain! Through assessment, “The Church is the cross on which Christ is crucified.” But, like him, the eyes of faith, no two hours are she would always add, “And you can’t separate Christ from His cross.” alike, and the dullness and monotony Was it just her disposition that prevented her from being a more direct critic? Her disappear. long-forged personal identity as a social radical coupled with a disinterest in, even — St. Faustina Kowalska boredom with, institutional reform? Her gratitude to the Church she loved? Her We believe because we love. understanding of and desire to be a faithful daughter? — Blessed John Henry A case, arguably, can be made for all. What Dorothy tells us was she knew her- Newman self to be a sinner (like Pope Francis who crisply introduced himself as a sinner, 6 period). She saw her own sins first. The fact that the Church sins (how could it (Saintly Matters, cont’d on p. 18) Dorothy Day and Sainthood: A MEDITATION — Lawrence S. Cunningham

orothy Day is now known in the Catholic tradition as a “Servant of God.” In due course, we hope and pray, she will be beatified and canonized. If she is “called to the altars,” to use Dthe language of the tradition, it will mean that she can be venerated with a feast day and a liturgical office in the entire Church. In other words, she will be publicly recognized as one of those who see the face of God in heaven. While every person in heaven is a saint, only a select few are recognized and venerated in the liturgical life of the Church. Of course, each year we celebrate the Feast of All Saints.

If/when Dorothy Day is canonized, it a given time but is a vast community reform of the sixteenth century. By will not mean that she is or was holier of those in Christ who belong to the contrast, some saints demonstrate than she was when she drew her last entire Church — in heaven, earth, and that there are profound depths in the breath in 1980. From the memories of on the purgatorial path. It allows us old teachings of Catholic spirituality. her contemporaries, from her volumi- to join our praise with those “friends Mother Teresa of Calcutta was not a nous writings, from her record in mul- of God” in heaven, and permits us to ground-breaking innovator; she simply titudes of the memoirs of others we ask them to intercede for us and for chose to live with the poorest and know a good deal about this complex our needs before the throne of God. serve them after the Gospel mandate woman. Canonization must not be Finally, it gives us models for wildly to see Christ in every creature, to allowed to sanitize this all-too-human divergent ways of following the One be like the Samaritan and bind up person. She herself thought that call- who says, “I am the way.” wounds. She did what saints did a mil- ing her a saint was too dismissive. (It Some decades ago, the late Karl lennium before: be selfless in serving is well to remember Ambrose Bierce’s Rahner wrote that the saints allow us others. She did it in a media age where cynical observation that a saint is a to see how we might follow Christ she was noticed. “sinner edited and revised.”) in a new way. It is true that Saint Which brings us back to Dorothy Canonization, however, is no mean Francis showed a new way of following Day. The prayer card from the Guild thing. It is not an irrelevancy. The Christ when compared to the monas- I have before me singles out her life process provides the Church with an tic saints who came before him. As of prayer, voluntary poverty, woks of opportunity to do a wide variety of Chesterton once put it pithily, what mercy and witness to the justice and things: it serves as a reminder that in Benedict stored, Francis scattered. It peace of the Gospel of Jesus. It goes every age the Church produces people is likewise true that Saint Ignatius of on to hope that her life will inspire of heroic holiness. It underscores the Loyola (whom Rahner had in mind) others to turn to Christ and see the 7 fact that the Church is comprised not developed a religious community aptly face of God in the world’s poor, and simply of who happens to be alive at suited for the period of the Catholic (Meditation, cont’d on p. 8) (A Meditation, cont’d from p. 7)

Cherry Street, c. 1941 / Mott Street, c. 1936 PHOTO, REBECCA LEPKOFF Catholic Worker House of Hospitality

to raise their voices for the justice vividly recall her persona. She was a hood of Dorothy Day (and Greenwich of God’s kingdom. It then concludes strikingly beautiful older woman who Village, close by, will always evoke her with an invitation to ask for “favors” wore a plain dress and sensible shoes. bohemian days. And recall her friend- through Dorothy’s intercession. Such What most impressed me is that she ship with fellow convert and “beat” favors would include possible miracles came to town on a Greyhound bus, in his own time, Thomas Merton. needed to advance the canonization for she said that was the way the poor Merton lived on Perry Street when he project. It is a beautiful prayer and travelled. was a graduate student at Columbia strikes me as appropriate, in what it Years later my oldest daughter grad- University, the same street that can says about Dorothy and the signifi- uated from Notre Dame and went to boast the little Episcopalian Church cance of her life. I keep it on my desk New York City to seek her fortune. where Day’s parents were married.) as I write these lines. She had a tiny apartment in what Despite that brief meeting with Day Here, however, I should interject is known as “Alphabet City” on the and my nostalgia for the Lower East a few personal reflections — since Lower East Side. When we visited and Side, my love for Dorothy comes Dorothy Day was my somewhat older walked through her neighborhood, I mainly from reading her writings contemporary. I met her some years came to recognize some of the streets ( I have read The Catholic Worker for back. I was a friend of the late William because Day had mentioned them in about sixty years), and those written Miller, her biographer. He invited Day her “On Pilgrimage” column: Ludlow about her. I have loved her traditional to campus, so I had the chance to hear Street, Cherry Street, Mott Street, the sources of prayer: the office of the her speak before a group of students Bowery. I discovered, quite acciden- hours; her love for the Mass; her devo- and to spend an evening — an engag- tally, that Maryhouse was but a few tion to the saints and stories about ing one — at the Millers’ home. I blocks from Sarah’s apartment — just them. I treasure the good art that she was suitably awestruck, despite the a quick walk beyond the clubhouse encouraged in her paper, and her love fact Dorothy was unpretentious, soft of the Hell’s Angels! The area is now for beautiful music, and her capacity spoken, perhaps a bit weary from being rapidly gentrified, and the for literature. She read great fiction – travel, and there was no indication that streets are filled with as many hipsters Dickens and Dostoevsky among many 8 she thought of herself as a celebrity. I now as recent immigrants. Still for others – as true spiritual reading. cannot recall her talk, but I do quite me, it will always be the neighbor- That is the traditional aspect of her “When did I ever see you, Lord?”

Upper left: Dorothy Day and guest, c. 1955 Lower left: St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality, East 1st St.

Homeless on the Bowery

life; she was Catholic to the bone. and find Christ in all. phetic edge. That life makes a mockery Fully integrated with that, however, Lest we think in terms of a saint as of our petty middle class satisfactions; was her passion for social justice and someone cast in plaster and suitable for our willingness to distinguish between her love for the poor. Both derived a church niche, one cannot forget that the worthy and the unworthy poor; from the fact that there are so many Day’s life and work had a sharp pro- (Meditation, cont’d on p. 18) poor. Here is not an odd way to put it: she fought for social justice precisely so there would be no more poor. That might not be completed until PRAYER FOR THE CANONIZATION OF the Kingdom of God is fully achieved, SERVANT OF GOD DOROTHY DAY but between the now and the not-yet, God our Father, we perform the works of mercy until Your servant Dorothy Day exemplified there is no need for them. the Catholic faith by her life If we honor Dorothy Day because of prayer, voluntary poverty, works of mercy, and of her holiness, it is not for some witness to the justice and peace abstract holiness. Rather, it is a vivid of the Gospel of Jesus. form of Catholic holiness, embodied May her life inspire your people in a woman who was a political rebel, to turn to Christ as their Savior, a sometime jailbird, an unmarried to see His face in the world’s poor and, mother, a journalist and novelist, a lover to raise their voices for the justice of opera, and a voracious reader. When of God’s kingdom. one thinks about Dorothy’s life, it is Day PrayCard English 3x5.Front .indd 1 8/31/18 2:28 PM I pray that her holiness may be recognized useful to think of the good householder by your Church and that you grant described by Jesus in the Gospel who the following favor that I humbly ask was able to “bring forth old things and through your intercession: new.” Out of the matrix of traditional (here mention your request). Catholic spirituality, Dorothy exempli- I ask this through Christ our Lord. 9 fied a model of how to thirst for justice Amen. FROM UNION SQUARE TO ROME

(From the very beginning, Dorothy and choice, of free will, though Peter stressed the importance of the daily perhaps at the time I would practice of the “corporal” works of mercy. have denied free will…. Feeding the hungry and the Catholic Worker May the Lord forgive me. are almost synonymous. But equal stock It was the arrogance and was placed on the practice of the “spiri- suffering of youth. It was tual” works of mercy. For Dorothy, writing pathetic, little, and mean was part of that practice. In the excerpts in its very excuse for itself. below from From Union Square to (Editor’s note: since From Rome, she struggles to explain to her old Union Square to Rome is Communist friends her decision to become more an apologia than an a Catholic. It is written as a letter to her autobiography, Day offers younger brother John, himself a dedicated no detail; presumably she’s party member.) referring, in part, to an It is difficult for me to dip back into affair with a Hemingway- esque newspaper reporter the past, yet it is a job that must be Union Square habitués, readers of The CatholicWorker done and it hangs over my head like a that led to an abortion and cloud. St. Peter said that we must give a rebound marriage of a …Hear, O lord, my prayer: give ear a reason for the faith that is in us, and I year’s duration). to my supplication in thy truth: hear am trying to give you those reasons. Was this desire to be with the poor me in thy justice. And enter not …I am a woman forty years old…. and the mean and abandoned not into judgment with thy servant: for What I want to bring out in this book unmixed with a distorted desire to be in thy sight no man living shall be is a succession of events that led me with the dissipated?.... justified. to his feet, glimpses of Him that I I write these things now because For the enemy hath persecuted my received through many years which sometimes when I am writing I am soul: he hath brought down my life made me feel the vital need of Him seized with fright at my presumption. I to the earth. and of religion. I will try to trace am afraid, too, of not telling the truth He hath made me to dwell in dark- for you the steps by which I came or of distorting the truth….But my ness as those that have been dead of to accept the faith that I believe was whole perspective has changed and old: always in my heart. when I look for causes of my conver- And my spirit is in anguish within Though I felt the strong, irresistible sion, sometimes it is one thing and me: my heart within me is troubled. attraction to good, yet there was also, sometimes it is another that stands out at times, a deliberate choosing of in my mind. …Hear me speedily O Lord; my evil. How far I was led to choose it ...Do you know the Psalms? They spirit hath fainted away. it is hard to say. How far professors, were what I read most when I was in Turn not away thy face from me, lest companions, and reading influenced jail in Occoquan. I read with a sense I be like unto them that go down my way of life does not matter now. of coming back to something that I into the pit. The fact remains that there was much had lost. There was an echoing in my Cause me to hear thy mercy in the of deliberate choice in it. Most of the heart. And how can anyone who has morning; for in thee have I hoped. time it was “following the devices and known human sorrow and human joy desires of my own heart.” Sometimes fail to respond to these words? Make the way known to me, wherein I should walk: for I have it was perhaps the Baudelairean idea of Out of the depth I have cried to 10 lifted up my soul to thee. choosing “the downward path which thee, O Lord: leads to salvation.” Sometimes it was of not the Holy Spirit that comforted pulled out. And if you pull her out of me, how could I have been comforted, the lake, let her come to Paradise, but how could I have endured, how could I if the onion breaks, then the woman have lived in hope? must stay where she is.’ The angel ran …I felt in the background of my life to the woman and held out the onion a waiting force that would lift me up to her. ‘Come,’ said he, ‘catch hold, eventually. and I’ll pull you out.’ And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just I later became acquainted with the pulled her out, when the other sinners poem of Francis Thompson, “The in the lake, seeing how she was being Hound of Heaven,” and was moved drawn out, began catching hold of her by its power. Eugene O’Neill recited so as to be pulled out with her. But it first to me in the back room of a she was a very wicked woman and she saloon on Sixth Avenue where the began kicking them. ‘I’m to be pulled Provincetown players and playwrights out, not you. It’s my onion, not yours.’ used to gather after the performaces. As soon as she said that, the onion I fled Him, down the nights and broke. And the woman fell into the down the days, lake and she is burning there to this Cell at Occoquan Workhouse, VA, site of I fled Him, down the arches of the day. So the angel wept and went away.” Day’s imprisonment with other suffragettes year; Sometimes in thinking and wonder- in 1917 I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ing at God’s goodness to me, I have thought that it was because I gave away All through those weary first days in ways an onion. Because I sincerely loved His jail when I was in solitary confine- Of my own mind; and in the mist of poor, He taught me to know Him. And ment, the only thoughts that brought tears when I think of the little I ever did, comfort to my soul were those lines in I hid from Him. I am filled with hope and love for all the Psalms that expressed the terror those others devoted to the cause of and misery of man suddenly stricken Through all my daily life, in those I social justice. and abandoned. Solitude and hun- came in contact with, in the things ger and weariness of spirit — these I read and heard, I felt that sense of But always the glimpses of God came sharpened my perceptions so that I being followed, of being desired; a most when I was alone. Objectors suffered not only my own sorrow but sense of hope and expectation. cannot say that it was fear of loneliness the sorrows of those about me. I was …Do you remember that little story and solitude and pain that made me no longer myself, I was man. I was no that Grushenka told in The Brothers turn to Him. It was in those few years longer a young girl, part of a radical Karamazov? “Once upon a time there when I was alone and most happy movement seeking justice for those was a peasant woman and a very that I found Him. I found Him at last oppressed, I was the oppressed. I was wicked woman she was. And she died through joy and thanksgiving, not that drug addict, screaming and toss- and did not leave a single good deed through sorrow. ing in her cell, beating her head against behind. The devils caught her and Yet how can I say that either? Better the wall. I was that shoplifter who for plunged her into a lake of fire. So her let it be said that I found Him through rebellion was sentenced to solitary. I guardian angel stood and wondered His poor, and in a moment of joy I was that woman who had killed her what good deed of hers he could turned to Him. I have said, sometimes children, who had murdered her lover. remember to tell God. ‘She once flippantly, that the mass of bour- As I read this over, it seems, indeed, pulled up an onion in her garden, said geois smug Christians who denied over-emotional and an exaggerated he, ‘and gave it to a beggar woman.’ Christ in His poor made me turn statement of the reactions of a young And God answered, ‘You take that to Communism, and that it was the 11 woman in jail….And yet if it were onion then, hold it out to her in the Communists and working with them lake, and let her take hold and be (Union Square to Rome, cont’d on p. 12) (From Union Square to Rome, cont’d from p. 11)

that made me turn to God. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these brethren, you have done it unto me.” Feeling this as strongly as I did, is it any wonder that I was led finally to the feet of Christ? I do not mean at all that I went around in a state of exaltation or that any rad- ical does. Love is a matter of the will. You know yourself how during a long strike the spirit falters, how hard it is for the leaders to keep up the morale of the men and to keep the fire of hope burning within them. They have a hard time sustaining this hope them- selves. St. Teresa says that there are three attributes of the soul: memory, Communist-organized Hunger Marchers, Washington, D.C., 1932. Used by permission. understanding, and will. These very leaders by their understanding of the country, through their memory of past is enabled to love one’s fellow. And struggle, how victory is gained very struggles, are enabled to strengthen this strength comes from God. There often through defeat, how every little their wills to go on. It is only by exert- can be no brotherhood without the gain benefits the workers all over the ing these faculties of the soul that one Fatherhood of God. D

On Pilgrimage (Perhaps no image holds more sway over our Conversion. Conn, professor emeritus of popular understanding of Christian con- Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova version than that of St. Paul being thrown University, talks about the affective, cog- from his horse, dramatically thrust to the nitive, moral and religious dimensions of ground. Certainly it captures the radical conversion. What follows is excerpted/edited impact of conversion, the about faceness it from an article O’Connor published in causes. But it also suggests that conversion 1990, “Dorothy Day’s Christian Conversion” is a one-time, singular event as opposed to [complete text available online]). a more developmental sequence, an arc of O’Connor affirms conversion as a experiences — and, for Dorothy Day, expe- process that effects a profound change, riences lived over a lifetime. She was always what Conn (and Bernard Lonergan “on pilgrimage,” the title of her column in before him) describes as a basic trans- The Catholic Worker. formation of a person’s way of seeing, June O’Connor, the late professor of feeling, valuing, understanding, and One early memory is the sense of joy Religious Studies at the University of relating. She relates how Dorothy she felt at the age of eight, when, after California, Riverside, and author of The herself tried to understand the mul- the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, Moral Vision of Dorothy Day, tiple inspirations and meanings of her neighbors reached out to help one found an illuminating lens for understand- 12 conversion, visiting and revisiting the another. ing Dorothy Day’s conversion experience in events that became symbolic in her Walter Conn’s seminal study, Christian memory, going far back into childhood. (On Pilgrimage, cont’d from p. 12)

What I remember most clearly were united in Christian soli- about the earthquake was the darity. human warmth and kindliness Another formative childhood mem- of everyone afterward. Mother ory was of a neighbor woman, Mrs. and all our neighbors were busy Barrett. Bursting into the Barrett from morning to night cooking apartment, looking for her friend and hot meals. They gave away every playmate Kathryn, Dorothy found extra garment they possessed. Mrs. Barrett in the act of prayer. They stripped themselves to the bone in giving, forgetful of the In the front bedroom, Mrs. morrow. While the crisis lasted, Barrett was on her knees, saying people loved each other. They her prayers. She turned to tell me that Kathryn and the chil- realized their own helplessness BOB FITCH dren had all gone to the store while nature “travaileth and Morning Mass and Prayers, NYC, 1973 groaneth.” It was as though they and went on praying. And I felt a warm burst of love toward Mrs. Barrett that I have never forgot- It was human love that helped ten, a feeling of gratitude and me to understand divine love. I happiness that still warms my was grateful for life, and living heart when I remember her. She with Forster made me appreci- had God, and there was beauty ate it and even reverence it still and joy in her life. more. He had introduced me to so much that was beautiful and This moment became an enduring good that I felt that I had owed symbol of mystery and meaning. to him too this renewed interest All through my life what she in the things of the spirit. was doing remained with me. This, together with her awe at “the And though I became oppressed stupendous fact of creation” in child- with the problem of poverty and birth, “spiritually and physically a injustice, though I groaned at tremendous event,” moves Dorothy to the hideous sordidness of man’s worship. lot, though there were years when I clung to the philosophy Forster had made the physical of economic determinism as an world come alive for me and had explanation of man’s fate, still awakened in my heart a flood of there were moments when in the gratitude. The final object of this midst of misery and class strife, love and gratitude was God. No life was shot through with glory. human creature could receive Mrs. Barrett in her sordid little or contain so vast a flood of love tenement flat finished her dishes and joy as I felt after the birth at ten o’clock in the morning of my child. With this came the and got down on her knees and need to worship, to adore. prayed to God. Dorothy’s deeply felt human love But it was her adult love for Forster coupled with her feeling of being Batterham, Dorothy writes, that finally “in love with the masses” were the brought her to God for good, nature doors that opened a recognition of “Waiting,” Fritz Eichenberg, (in and receptivity to God, enabling, in 13 The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day) that brought her to faith. (On Pilgrimage, cont’d on p. 14) (On Pilgrimage, cont’d from p. 13) the full moral autonomy essential to reminding herself that prayer was the Conn’s terms, her “affective” con- decision-making. Simply put, moral opiate of the people. Yet a persistent version. Affective conversion elicits conversion is the choice, based on a desire to pray — out of happiness a “radical reorientation of our pas- realization of the difference between and gratitude, she noted, not out sionate desires from obsessions with “value” and “what’s good for me,” of of sorrow — led her to trust this self-needs to concern for the needs of value over personal satisfaction. instinct to pray. Eventually, she came others.” Given Dorothy’s intense and inten- to trust her experience of prayer over The affective dimension of Day’s adult tionally directed moral sensibili- its Marxist repudiation, allowing its conversion in turn makes possible a ties that mark her entire adult life, spontaneous expression and natural “cognitive” conversion. Not, Conn O’Connor finds the moral dimension development. This in turn moved her stresses, to be understood in an intel- of her conversion particularly illu- toward a desire for baptism for Tamar lectualist way. In fact, he sees cognitive minating. Dorothy brought to her and herself and with that desire came conversion as affective at its very core. conversion an unconventional morality a feeling of tornness, a wrenching, as For the depth of feeling is so great that was shaped not only by an early she realized this would end her family that it often gives shape to a person’s interest in a Communist workers’ relationship with an unsympathetic whole sense of purpose and direction. revolution but also an attraction to a Forster. When the time for her bap- Ideas were powerfully important to philosophical anarchism that sustained tism finally arrived, she participated Dorothy Day, and ideas that could be itself throughout her life. Part of the out of sheer conviction, without any translated into action appealed in a anarchist ethic lies sense of joy, consolation, or peace. special way. How, she wondered and in not waiting to be prayed, could she use best her talents asked, not waiting on behalf of the poor? to be ordered, not Enter Peter Maurin and the birth waiting for permis- of the Catholic Worker. It was Peter sion. One should who supplied her with a historically notice and respond, and theologically informed vision of see a need and meet her newly embraced faith tradition it. One must notice, which she then made her own. Her decide, and act; one once Communist sympathies would must not rely on gov- be modified by the social encyclicals. ernments, organiza- Together with the thought of Thomas tions, or institutions Aquinas, Jacques Maritain, Hilaire to dictate or direct Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Eric Gill, one’s judgments and Dorothy and Forster Batterham on beach, Staten Island, Vincent McNabb, and others, they actions. c. 1925 would in time become regular read- Even though moral conversion, Conn It is through such discoveries and ing for Day. Captivated by Maurin’s explains, can be a conversion to a con- decisions that one becomes in Conn’s vision, partly because it called on and ventional morality that is “essentially schema the author of one’s own moral affirmed her own already well-formed uncritical, locating authority in abso- life. This process of discernment and interests in the plight of the poor, lutely given social values,” the moral decision wherein one appropriates Dorothy then found — and created — conversion he respects is growth into oneself as the final criterion of mean- her “vocation.” Her partnership with an unconventional or “post-conven- ing and value for one’s life constitutes Maurin freed her to use her journal- tional” morality wherein one relativ- his “critical moral conversion.” istic talents on behalf of her two great izes conventional values and discovers As an anarchist, Day brought a crit- loves: God and the poor. the final criterion of value in one’s ical eye on conventional morality to But if cognitive conversion fosters own critical judgment. her Christian conversion. She sub- insight which allows one to forge Influenced by Marxist values during sequently used that critical view to new, life-transforming, directions, her college years, Dorothy dropped critique conventional Christianity and 14 Conn believes that only a deeper, religion. Years later, when she found American Catholicism as well. For critical “moral” conversion affords herself praying, she felt embarrassed, example, she was less than enthusias- tic about the Catholic school system The struggle she endured about this Because of her chosen entry into with its seeming preoccupations with love was not with her church or its the Roman Catholic Church, one fund-raising and building projects. She moral precepts, O’Connor asserts, but understandably may wonder how the urged city pastors to open up houses with her own sense of realism about Christian version of this anarchist of hospitality within the parish com- the relationship. The relationship could relates to the structure of the church. munity and not merely refer the des- not continue as it was because the one What are her feelings about, and what titute to Catholic Worker houses. She thing that mattered most to Dorothy is her stance toward this more authori- argued for the voluntary poverty she now was abhorrent to the man she tative, hierarchical body? lived. She accepted without question loved. Religion angered and alienated Dorothy Day was seemingly uncrit- persons of every religious persuasion Forster: Dorothy not only knew it, she ical when it came to theological and and of no religious inclination long felt its pain and power to render their doctrinal matters. before ecumenism became a part of relationship of intimacy impossible. the American Catholic landscape. Without even looking into the Using Conn’s terms, this was no claims of the Catholic Church, The turning point in Day’s conversion “borrowed” morality. Day appears to I was willing to admit that for process was effected by her love of have been working out an authentic me she was the one true Church. Forster and the birth of Tamar. Her personal morality based on her chang- She had come down through the growing awareness of God in the midst ing interpretations, newly emerging centuries since the time of Peter, of these loves produced an immediate commitments, and realistic judgments. and far from being dead, she held the allegiance of the masses of people in all the cities where I had lived. They poured in and out of her doors on Sundays and holy days, for novenas and missions. What if they were com- pelled to come in by the law of the Church…. They obeyed that law. They were given a chance to show their preference….. It may have been an unthinking, unquestioning faith, and yet the chance certainly came, again and again. American muckrakers, Jack London and Upton Sinclair, helped form her conscience, as did Yet as this passage also indicates, Dickens and Dostoevsky. Dorothy had her own criteria for Dorothy’s conversion rendered her conflict. Her intimate relationship credibility. The church’s age and alone, without the mate with whom with Forster was now threatened and continuity through history together she was much in love. Yet in spite of approaching an end. But O’Connor with the affection and loyalty of the membership in her new community, stresses that Dorothy’s struggle can- urban immigrant masses she observed she felt alone in the church as well. not be reduced to the non-legal or in many cities throughout the country She had been impressed with the large non-sacramental status of their union. moved her to pay attention to this masses of poor, largely immigrant Her conflict, as she experienced it church, to appropriate it and make people, who filled the city churches and articulates it, was far more basic, it her own. She held no great esteem when she went to Mass. But a radical namely, Forster’s repudiation of her for personal autonomy as distinct anarchist Catholic was surely a rarity. interests in religion and in God. These from or in competition with exter- She felt very much alone as a believer, commitments offended his atheistic nal authority. She trusted the masses and this was surely compounded by a sensibilities, and she finally ended the more than she trusted the single sense of aloneness endemic to being relationship when her health began to individual self. Her judgments were a working single parent of a young 15 break from the tension. formed reflectively and deliberately child. (On Pilgrimage, cont’d on p. 18) Voluntary poverty was for many years a bone I chewed on as I felt the burden of being raised in involuntary poverty, though this was not so easy to define. At one level, my mother chose a life of voluntary poverty, and it came natu- rally to her. She did not need much in the way of material goods other than her gardens and tools, her looms and spinning wheels, her kitchen and her books. But as a single mother of nine, she spent years worrying about whether she could put enough food on the table or celebrate Christmas or fix the car or keep the house warm and the water pipes from freezing in the brutal Vermont winters. But nothing from my upbringing engendered the same by Kate Hennessy weighty feeling and confusion that the basic question of faith (Like her grandmother, Kate Hennessy is a writer. She is the author did. of the widely acclaimed book, The World Will Be Saved by Two faces of faith Beauty: An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother, pub- When I was a teenager, I began visiting my grandmother at lished in 2017. We thank America Media for permission to reprint the Catholic Worker at Maryhouse on East Third Street in this article, “Under the Gaze of Dorothy Day: Living with My New York City. I would travel down by bus from Vermont Grandmother’s Faith,” originally published on May 8, 2017.) during school breaks, leaving the hills and trees, the rhythm My grandmother, Dorothy Day, believed that to lose one’s of the distinct seasons and a life on the farm that I never faith was the greatest sadness. My mother, Tamar, Dorothy’s expected to leave, to enter the grit of New York City in the only child, believed to her dying day that she had lost her 1970s, when it was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. own faith. What can I make of these two interwoven strands I would be greeted at the double of the most influential doors of glass and wrought iron women in my life? How do I by women who were sometimes understand my own sense of delighted to see me, sometimes not, faith? Do I have faith? then walk up the stairs to that room I have often felt that I needed on the second floor, my grand- a new vocabulary that speaks mother’s room, where she spent the to my condition, as the last three years of her life. Quakers would say. In fact, I Her failing health and loss of mobil- often do not understand what ity became my gain as I was able to people mean when they talk spend more time with her, a time Mother and daughter, Dorothy and Tamar about “my faith”; they seem of listening to her ruminate on her to speak a secret language past, often laughing as she did so, or as she read letters from that can feel more punishing than uplifting, more like a people around the world—a priest in Uruguay, a friend proclamation than a way of being. Is there some mysteri- from Mississippi or a member of an ashram in India. Even ous transformation that happens inside us when we make a as a 16-year-old I felt the pull of the magnet that was my proclamation of faith that I am not seeing? grandmother. But I also began to feel a struggle within Growing up with Dorothy and the Catholic Worker as part myself. I was drawn by the power and luminosity of her of my family, I picked up quite a tangle of odd phrases while faith, but I was deeply loyal and more naturally bent toward lingering around the grownups: voluntary and involuntary my mother’s way of being: unadorned, unspoken and rooted poverty, Christian anarchism, pacifism, the works of mercy, in the natural world. houses of hospitality, the primacy of conscience. I made It was not until I read my grandmother’s diaries that I what I could of them, growing into them with each passing 16 more clearly understood the pain Dorothy endured as she stage from childhood to young adulthood and now middle watched her daughter—the daughter whose birth led to age, having interior arguments along the way. Dorothy’s conversion — leave that expressions of what that faith very church. In 1965, Dorothy can mean. Dorothy provided the wrote: “I consider the loss of faith ritualistic expression of a deeply the greatest of disasters — the held faith she came to as an adult, greatest unhappiness. How can and she lived a life that acted this one help grieving over friends and out in an open and full-bodied relatives. How necessary to pray way. Though a cradle Catholic, without ceasing for them.” Tamar came to live a quiet faith, I know she was speaking of us. She unadorned by ritual, and yet one was so very careful to never impose that also imbued her daily life. Dorothy’s gestures were seen by this pain on me. She never once, Kate Hennessy that I can recall, suggested that I many; Tamar’s were seen only by go to Mass, though when I did, it was so important to her those who knew her intimately. My mother had an abiding that she would write of it in her diary. What delicacy, what belief in the goodness of life and of people, a keen sense, respect she had for a teenager, I can now see. awareness and perceptivity of those — human, creatures or flora — we live with day to day. “Pay attention!” she But at 16 all I could feel was her penetrating and unnerv- would scold me. Pay attention to what is going on, both ingly direct gaze, a gaze well known by those who often the joy and the suffering. Be with each other, be there, found themselves pinned by it. (Tamar referred to it as “the show up. Tamar’s was a faith that held at its heart the belief Look,” which she had, too, though she was unaware of it.) that with loving kindness, and perhaps good soil, we will Under that gaze, I felt I had no chance of experiencing any- all flourish. thing of the nature and power of my grandmother. Under that gaze, I felt unworthy, particularly when she asked me Between mother and daughter after I graduated from high school, “Now, what are you going At a fundamental level, Dorothy believed she could see to do, Katy?” It is unfortunate that the face of God in those who are at that moment all I could see was destroyed, rejected and forgotten by what she had accomplished, not all society, and Tamar believed we all those steps, whether deliberate or are children of God. What clearer wildly inspired, she had taken to expressions of faith do I need? Entire get there. But truthfully, for years, treatises could be written on either I wanted nothing to do with a statement. And so I came to under- church that could leave my mother stand that what lingered within me, feeling she had no place in it, that this history of grandmother and left her with a burden that seemed Dorothy with Tamar mother, contained no divide, no con- insupportable. flict, no exile. I believed for decades, as I think my mother also believed, I have spent the past seven years writing about this relation- that in the face of Dorothy’s faith anything less could only be ship between mother and daughter, and many people have felt as a lack of faith. The force of her faith was so strong and asked me what surprised me most during the process. Did sure. How could Tamar have felt there was any other way I learn anything that I had not known? Dorothy and Tamar for her to express her own? This tension was passed down were both unusually direct and honest storytellers, so there to me, and I am learning how to untangle the strands on my were no great revelations. But there has been a surprise, and own terms. Unlike Tamar, I was not raised in the church; it lies within myself: a deepening sense of falling in love with and unlike Dorothy, I am slow and cautious in my approach the two of them not only for their profound love for each to faith. other but also for the pain that existed between them. And Ultimately, I believe that Tamar did not lose her faith with this comes my own burgeoning sense of faith — even if D and that I simply grew up with two outwardly different I have yet to be able to define this. 17 (On Pilgrimage, cont’d from p. 15) in relation and response to a commu- conversion is a religious conversion. ground and all else the figure. nity of people she loved and trusted. It was not simply a new recognition As her pilgrimage was nearing its end, And they were formed at no small of God, though it included that. It Dorothy herself reflected that if she cost. was more: a receptivity to God as a had she accomplished anything in her Clearly, Day’s rediscovery of God personal and creative being in her life life, it was because she wasn’t afraid involves affective, cognitive, and moral and in relation to her other loves, so to talk about God. Her long journey transformations. But is her Christian that her whole life was transformed, of faith became a genuflection, a bow conversion also a “religious” conver- suffused with a sense of the presence before God in gratitude, a bow before sion requiring, in Conn’s understand- of God. God was no longer an element others in love. D ing, an arduous path: a life committed in her consciousness. God was now the to the gospel call of loving service to the neighbor? Readily, he acknowl- edges its rarity. (A Meditation, cont’d from p. 5) (Saintly Matters, cont’d from p. 6) He identifies religious conversion as a our rote attention to the life of prayer; not, she reasoned, if it’s made of men “special, extraordinary transformation our toleration of the lies and obfusca- and women?) pained her greatly but of religious consciousness” through tions of politicians; our comfort with also provided a strange reassurance which a person who is religious all the slick superficiality of contem- that truly she belonged. becomes religious in a new way. porary popular culture. Not to put too I image her today, standing with those While Christian conversion involves fine a point on it: when I look on her other saintly women at the foot of a turning from God to self in Christ, face on my “holy card,” I see both the Christ’s Cross, taking his body down, religious conversion is a transforma- luminosity of her life but also, fearfully, awaiting in faith his Resurrection. tion of that relationship. The perspec- an eye that judges me for my medioc- tive of the infinite becomes real. In the rity. And that is exactly what a contem- — C.Z. richly-imaged language of Lonergan, porary saint ought to do. D religious conversion is a falling-in-love (Lawrence S. Cunningham is John A. with God that enables self-surrender O’Brien Professor of Theology (emeritus) at without conditions, qualifications or the University of Notre Dame.) reservations. O’Connor concludes, using the prism of Conn’s definition, that Dorothy’s

(Good Talk, cont’d from p. 4) up against our finitude, our inability Dorothy’s spirit in varied ways today: to grasp the transcendent in language people like Liz McAlister, Joanne and understanding. So I won’t try to Kennedy, Martha Hennessy, Ellen map out a theory of cultivating faith Grady, Sue Frankel-Streit, Megan or solving the relationship between Townsend, and so many others crafting grace and human initiative. Perhaps it’s new ways to sainthood in our midst. as simple as what Jesus said, giving all And more important, let’s learn to see you have to the poor and following in the beatified we turn away from, for Fritz Eichenberg, detail of woodcut, “The his way, which is what Dorothy did. who they are. Dorothy knew them as Last Supper” Her life is a far better answer than God does. They might never be canon- anything I could offer on paper. ized, but she wouldn’t want them to D 18 Anything you’d like to add, Eric? be dismissed so easily anyway. Let’s remember those living out WANT TO HELP ?

DONATE to the LOAVES AND FISHES CAMPAIGN We all know the story: how as news of Jesus’ teachings and deeds spread, his follow- ers grew in number. How without adequate provisions to feed them, Jesus gathers five loaves and two fishes from a young boy in this large company, and after giving thanks to God, distributes them, managing to feed all who are hungry. As momentum builds toward Dorothy Day’s canonization, we need to gather “loaves and fishes” to offset increasing costs – trusting, as Dorothy did, to the ongoing miracle of their multiplication. No matter how small the amount (or conversely, how large!), please make a tax deductible donation online (dorothydayguild.org) or mail a check (payable to The Dorothy Day Guild) to the Guild’s office (address below). Thank you!

RITA CORBIN JOIN ADE BETHUNE The DOROTHY DAY GUILD The Dorothy Day Guild is the official body charged with forwarding her cause. In turn, the steady growth In Our Time of Guild membership points to the vitality of grassroots Editor, Carolyn Zablotny support essential to canonization. Copy Editor, Tom Cornell Graphic Designer, Rose Tannenbaum, Members make an annual offering of dues (amounts noted on membership form Berkshire TypeGraphic, below) and receive hard copies of the quarterly newsletter, In Our Time. Great Barrington, MA Lettering, Linda Henry Orell Photographs, Courtesy of Stanford RENEW University/Bob Fitch Archive; YOUR GUILD MEMBERSHIP the Department of Special Collections and Memberships are for one-year, subject to renewal. But admittedly, with our modest University Archives, Marquette University staff, we’re not able to keep track of technically “lapsed” memberships. Nor are we Archives particularly interested in doing so, being much more “spirit of the law” than “letter of the law” types. To Contact: c/o Dorothy Day Guild But with new, pressing needs, we may have to change. Or, at least, ask for your help. 1011 First Avenue, Room 787 Would you kindly look into when you paid your last dues, and, if it’s time, renew your New York, NY 10022 membership? Thank you so much for playing detective. More importantly, thank you e-mail: [email protected] so much for your faithful support — past, present, and future. Truly, we count on you! www.dorothydayguild.org

DOROTHY DAY GUILD MEMBERSHIP FORM Just clip out and mail to the Guild address above. You may also submit online at www.dorothydayguild.org. n I would like to become a new member n I would like to renew my membership

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______Email ______Phone______$ ______Annual Offering: student $15; individual $25; family $40; organization $100 $ ______Additional Donation (over and above annual membership offering) 19 Dorothy Day Guild 1011 First Avenue, Room 787 Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE New York, NY 10022 PAID www.dorothydayguild.org PERMIT NO. 95 GT. BARRINGTON, MA 01230

ADVISORY BOARD PETITION Alex Avitabile Sr. Mary Donald Corcoran, O.S.B. Ask that Dorothy Day be named a Saint Monica Cornell The life of Dorothy Day (1887-1980) embodies the powerful message of Pope Tom Cornell Francis’s first encyclical, Lumen Fidei — “the light of faith is concretely placed at the Robert Ellsberg service of justice…and peace.” Robert Gilliam We believe she is a saint for our time. Geoffrey B. Gneuhs Martha Hennessy Please sign this petition to advance her cause not because she needs it, but Kathleen DeSutter Jordan because we today need her witness and model of holiness. David Mueller Mail to: Phillip M. Runkel The Dorothy Day Guild, 1011 First Avenue, Room 787, New York, NY 10022. Most Rev. Dennis Sullivan Petitions also available online: www.dorothydayguild.org. Thank you! Msgr. Kevin Sullivan Name______Louise Zwick ——— Print above and sign here ______Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo E-mail______Vice-Postulator Country ______Street Address ______George B. Horton Vice-Postulator City/State/Zip______Fr. Richard Welch, C.Ss.R. Comments (optional): Cardinal’s Delegate ——— Jeffrey Korgen Guild Coordinator Anthony Santella Web/Social Media Director