Dorothy Day, Saint-Worthy?Essay Preview: Dorothy Day, Saint-Worthy?Report this essayDorothy Day, Saint-Worthy?Almost immediately after her death in 1980 controversy arose about whether Dorothy Day should be canonized a Saint by the Church. Now that the Vatican has approved the late Cardinal John OConnors request to consider Dorothy Days “cause,” the controversy is being rekindled. After converting, she dedicated her life to New Yorks poor and immigrants, building hospitality homes that operated much like homeless shelters. Her endeavor grew into the national Catholic Worker movement, a social justice crusade conducted in revolutionary tones new to the church.
When she died, a multitude came down to the old dwelling off the Bowery to pay their respects, the way people had come to Catholic Worker houses for soup. There were Catholic Workers, social workers, migrant workers, the unemployed; addicts, alcoholics, anarchists; Protestants, Jews and agnostics; the devout and the strident and the curious, there to see what a saint looked like. Dorothy Day died in 1980, at the age of 83. She was one of the greatest religious figures of the century, and one of the most paradoxical. She was a Catholic and she was an anarchist. She condemned poverty and she advocated it. She founded the Catholic Worker, a loose aggregation of houses of hospitality, communal farms, newspapers and round-table discussions for further clarification of thought – and called her memoirs The Long Loneliness. The movement was wary of authority, yet revered her as its leader (Rosin).
If Dorothy Day is ever canonized, the record of who she was, what she was like and what she did is too complete and accessible for her to be hidden. She will be the patron saint not only of the homeless and those who try to care for them but also of people who lose their temper. One of the miracles of Dorothys life is that she remained part of a conflict-torn community for nearly a half a century. Still more remarkable, she remained a person of hope and gratitude to the end. Many voices are in support of the canonization process as well, citing Dorothy Days life as an example that has inspired them to prayer and action for social justice. Her faithfulness to the Gospel, living the “preferential option for the poor” and showing that a lay person can achieve heroic virtue are often cited (Forest).
Before an audience, she had a direct, unpremeditated, story-centered way of speaking — no notes, no rhetorical polish, a manner that communicated a certain shyness but at the same time wisdom, conviction, faith and courage. Her basic message was stunningly simple: we are all called by God to love one another as He loved us (Forest).
Hospitality, she explained, is simply practicing Gods mercy with those around us. Christ is in the stranger, in the person who has nowhere to go and no one to welcome him. “Those who cannot see the face of Christ in the poor are atheists indeed,” she often said. Hardly a day passed in her adult life when she didnt speak about the works of mercy. For her these werent simple obligations which the Lord imposed on his followers. Day brought many gifts to the church–her perseverance, her holiness, her journalists critical vision–but perhaps her greatest gift was pointing the 20th century American church in a new direction, to the vulnerable and voiceless among us. She was the presence of the church to many people who otherwise would have been forgotten. Her example of profound personal spirituality and sacrifice, lay leadership, and uncompromising pacifism makes Day a daughter
†I hope you have too!
[quote=Hospitality, she explained, is simply practicing Gods mercy with those around us. Christ is in the stranger, in the person who has nowhere to go and no one to welcome him. ‒Christ isn’t in our home, he is in the spirit. We live life in our lives, the family’s lives, ͟And our hearts, hearts say. Our hearts are full when one needs love, compassion, &%8213 the grace that God has given us. That’s why I call this church’s presence the sanctuary of Jesus.‰I’m just sharing a bit of her own experience.Her own journey has been unique, her new ways of feeling cared for, &that’s how she made a new start in life. ‒I hope you have too.[/quoted]–Her first few years in college were spent with her parents at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, &that was when I first had my own life. I was 18 and just joining our community was a big deal. Being connected with other churches was like sharing a bottle of wine from a bottle and seeing the person you care about begin to be more aware of the world around them. My life was so different from my own from college.̾Her first year of college was the first time she truly felt touched by the people who lived in the church, and she has never lost faith.‧We lived in an orphanage for the first time at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.I met my first brother in college a few months later. We were both at 2 and were just sitting around going through different college classes.I remember first beginning to experience Jesus before I was a child though. It was when I was seven I actually experienced the world, ⁐the power of Mary’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus brought me closer to Him &I couldn’t help but think of that perfect moment. I had so much hope that I would have never been raised the same way, ⁑My parents were so good at love & caring that they allowed me to grow up like nobody else.And when I was 10 I finally began to really think about the world around me in a more positive, optimistic light.I remember how much my life changed. My husband started having a boyfriend to make friends with (he was 17) and when I started to realize that I wasn’t happy with him I started to feel happier and more capable of doing what I truly love: caring for my children ⁗My husband and parents gave me hope for his future. I had a full blown heart, ͥI learned that those around me knew that God can take care of my heart. I’ve always been a good person to them because when they let me love them the only thing that bothered me was having my friends.⅟You cannot deny how much they are special to me, just that I am so much more. I’ve grown a lot since my parents passed away, and I’m happy to say that many of my friends, acquaintances, ̴many of whom I had met through the Church years before, have helped me through all these difficult times.