(Oops, got busy doing other things and didn't get to this 40 Days for Poor project for, hmm, I think three days. I'll have to go count!)
I think one way for us not-poor-people (like me)to cultivated a heart for the poor is to read about admirable people who really do put the poor first. Dorothy Day, who was just named a Servant of God by the Catholic Church, is one such person. I remember when Dorothy Day died. I had never heard of her but I had an appointment with my academic counselor at college. Tacked up on his door was a newspaper article about Dorothy Day. She had just passed away. While waiting outside his door for the student ahead of me to finish up, I read it. My appointment turned out to be more of a discussion about Dorothy Day than about my academics! I didn't act on my new found knowledge, but I thought about her often.
Fast forward a couple of years and somehow I picked up a copy of Day's book The Long Loneliness. I've read a couple other collections of her writings as well. I have also see the movie Entertaining Angels. It has a made for TV quality about it but it is very true to her story and for that kind of movie, I thought it told her story well.
I used to be attracted to The Catholic Worker. I read the newspaper and I met some folks who worked at The Catholic Worker house in DC many years ago. I have to say they struck me as being part of the tribal social justice left who are more political leftists than Catholic. Which is not true to Day's legacy. She was very devout and orthodox in her faith, but lived it out in a very radical way. The weird bifurcation of Catholic social teaching by U.S. politics is so sad. The "seamless garment" got ridiculed and rejected by the right while the political left decided bigger government always means justice for the poor. I am oversimplifying for sure here! But in my opinion neither side has remained true to the gospel or Day's legacy.
Anyway, maybe 10 years ago I stumbled on the astonishing fact that my grandfather, John Brophy, knew Dorothy Day! Here's an open letter to him (they misspelled his name initially) published in the Catholic Worker. Here's another article where Day refers to a conversation she had with my grandfather.
Anyway, all this just thrilled me. And I am very excited that Dorothy Day is now on her official way to Sainthood. I think for the new year, she will be my patron.
Even though the left has loved her for years, I have noticed that more typically conservative voices are starting to speak with admiration as well. That's good! And gives me hope.
Dorothy Day, pray for us!
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