I reread the autobiography of Dorothy Day these past few days – it’s called The Long Loneliness, and the book ended this way.
You might need a tissue; I did.
“We have all known the long loneliness,” she wrote,” and we have learned that the only solution is love and that loves comes with community. It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is all going on.”
Like everyone reading this, I have known the long loneliness – a part of life we all share- and the solution for me was also love and community.
Day fought for everything Jesus preached in his Sermon On The Mount: lift the poor, support the worker, show mercy to needy people, and give more than you receive.
She called and marched and campaigned for a just and compassionate world and care for the poor and the outcast. She founded hospitality centers for the hungry.
Mostly, he has been forgotten by the modern-day Catholic Church and so many of its followers.
I first read this autobiography – it was written in 1952 – a long time ago; I was happy and inspired to re-read it now; it has more relevance than ever. It’s fuel for honesty and the caring.
Day didn’t just talk about compassion and mercy; she lived and fought for it daily. Her book fuels anyone with compassion and understanding, and empathy in their hearts and souls.
Day was anarchist, a position I understand better every time I see the news.
I can’t imagine a better role model for younger people, especially women of all ages, who are coming of age politically in a profound way.
Day did it first, and she did it brilliantly. She founded the Catholic Worker Movement and wrote for its publication, The Catholic Worker, which is still published seven times a year in New York City.
It is hard to grasp what happened to Christianity if you follow the news in 2023, but Day is a reminder of what it meant and what faith, morality, and empathy can and must achieve in our world.
Our country is a mess just now, but reading Day and her writing about the long loneliness and its only solution gave me hope.
This spirit lives, and we can reclaim it one person at a time, one good deed at a time, from the bottom up.
Day didn’t stay out of the fray; she was the fray, and she was happy to march, protect, write, and get a rest for compassion and justice for people in need. Boy, do we miss her now? I wish I was as brave as she was.
She was the very embodiment of “woke” and would drive the culture vultures and greedy and power-mad pastors and child persecutors mad.
Dorothy Day has been called many things. and was a social activist, pacifist, radical, journalist, anarchist, ferocious advocate for working people, Catholic writer, and journalist.
In contrast to the faux Christians who run around today invoking Christ, she made it a mission to follow his true beliefs and calls for mercy and justice.
She has long been a hero of mine, and I sat outside in the garden and tried to send her a message across time: “We need you, Dorothy Day, now more than ever. Please come home and guide us to the right path.”
No answer, but I bet she’s out there somewhere dying to get back down here.
Day was one in a million, so it isn’t surprising there isn’t another one rising to take her place – I would nominate Joan Chittister if I had a vote. (I don’t.)
Day is being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church; I am pretty sure she would hate that.
After she died in 1980, David O’Brien, writing in Commonweal, called her “the most important, interesting, and influential figure in the history of American Catholicism.”
At the time, that might have seemed a bit of an overstatement. But it was prescient. Years later, it seems not only plausible but hard to argue.
The tragedy is that she is gone; she is what we need and are waiting for. She understands that compassion and morality go hand in hand and that cruelty and hatred are evil.
The Catholic Church believes in resurrection, and since she became a devout Catholic when her daughter was born, maybe it’s possible she’ll return.
Day showed us what it means to be a faithful Christian in a Church that claims to confront the social structures of sin and immorality, works for peace and ecological wholeness, and embodies a spirit of mercy and reconciliation.
We don’t yet seem able to produce another Dorothy Day, as much as we need her. But even remembering her gives me hope.
That is the vision that Dorothy Day embodied. That’s the vision I follow. Come home, Dorothy.
That book hasbeen on my “wish list” for a long time. I may take your recommendation and finally buy it. Thanks.
Jon I wish that you had lived in Cambridge earlier. There was an amazing man named Walter Hooke who lived in town. Dorothy Day use to escape to Walter and his wife Caroline’s house when she needed some down time. Walter’s niece Sister Megan Rice recently died. She was the elderly nun who just walked into a nuclear plant with 2 middle aged man as part of a protest. Walter was friends with the Berrigan brothers and fought for more than a decade to get medical benefits for military personnel who were exposed to radiation at test sites and for the sheep ranchers who were down wind of the tests. Maria would have loved Caroline and her art. Her art had a dreamlike quality and was very spiritual. She made “dolls” that incorporated stones, shells and sticks among other things.
Thanks for that Laurie, I didn’t know that, I would have loved to have met her..
Read The Long Loneliness this year. Day was an amazing woman. The church I belong to gives a Dorothy Day award every year to the person who most embodies her work. Love the writings of Joan Chittester too
Jon,
Did you know that Thomas Merton spent some time working with Dorothy Day,
before he entered Gethsemane?
Keep healing!
Gill
Yes, he was one of her greatest admirers..
In the Catholic Church, canonization is a long process. There is a movement to make Dorothy Day a Saint. I would love to see that happen in my life time.
Interestingly, the surgeon general just issued a report of the harmful effects of loneliness. It has spiked in Americans since the pandemic.
Thank you for all the flowers.
I just started reading the Long Loneliness the other night 🙏
‘Day was one in a million, so it isn’t surprising there isn’t another one rising to take her place.’ No, Dorothy was one of many and she stressed each one’s personal responsibility. We don’t need anybody to ‘take her place,’ we need everyone to take their own place. Her ‘don’t call me a saint’ quote referred to this kind of idolization as much, if not more, than to formal canonization. Dorothy would be dispirited to know that some people are waiting for someone like her to rise up. She criticized William Miller, who wrote the book ‘A Harsh and Dreadful Love,’ a book that was supposed to be about the CW movement: ‘you put too much emphasis on me and disregard all the wonderful and exciting young people all over the country who do the work while I go around and make speeches.’