Today is Dorothy Day’s birthday. She was born on this day in 1897 in Brooklyn Heights, New York. She and Thomas Merton were both lifted up, along with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Abraham Lincoln were lifted up by Pope Francis in his address to the US Congress on September 24, 2015. Calling them “four representatives of the American people,” Pope Francis lauded Day, King, Lincoln and Merton for using their dreams of justice, equal rights, liberty and peace to make America a better place.
Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day were not only contemporaries in the realm of social justice work, they exchanged letters with each other which can be found in the volume of his letters The Hidden Ground of Love. One particular portion of a letter he wrote caught my heart several years ago and is on one of my favorite t-shirts. It says: Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. The full quote is below:
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.
On this day I remember and celebrate two spiritual mentors who weren’t afraid to shake up the status quo or the religious and civil powers on behalf of the voiceless poor and oppressed. A blessed birthday, Dorothy Day, and thank you for your inspiration in the lives of so many, including this humble Padre.
Verse of the day
Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.
– 1 Corinthians 10:24
Voice of the day
[W]hatever that you do, you begin from the premise that you’re human together.
– Musimbi Kanyoro
Prayer of the day Remind us of our shared human commitments to each other.
I had a discussion with a friend about the relevance today of Thomas Merton’s writings during the era of Civil Rights, the Anti-War and Anti-Nuclear peacemaking movements. It is often quite a jolt to me how often Merton speaks to my heart about issues and concerns of my own heart. The following words from volume four of his journals spoke to me today.
It is shocking that so many are convinced that the Communists are about to invade or destroy America: “Christians” who think the only remedy is to destroy them first. Who thinks seriously of disarming? For whom is it more than a pious wish, beyond the bounds of practicality? I need patience to listen, to learn, to try to understand, and courage to take all the consequences and be really faithful. This alone is a full-time job. I dread it, but it must be done, and I don’t quite know how. To save my soul by trying to be one of those who spoke and worked for peace, not for madness and destruction. — November 12, 1961 (Turning Towards the World: The Pivotal Years)
In today’s sermon, I shared the following quote from Saint Clare of Assisi: Love God, serve God; everything is in that. Perhaps that was the desire of Merton’s own heart as he wrote these words in his journal. To speak and work for peace, not for madness and destruction. How can we love and serve God as we seek to be instruments of God’s peace in this world? That is a quest of a lifetime that begins with taking the first step. Will you join me, dear reader?
“When you start with a conception of God as an old white man sitting in the clouds, it is of little surprise that white men, preferably empowered white men, are considered the closest to God.”—Richard Rohr
The sunset and the beautiful colors of nature warmed my heart this evening. We had a lovely late afternoon with friends and this scene greeted us as we drove back into our neighborhood. These words of Thomas Merton spoke to my heart as well. Considering the wonder and beauty of God’s creation I cannot help but feel the certain kinship that he talked about in his journal entry on November 4, 1964.
In the afternoon, lots of pretty little myrtle warblers were playing and diving for insects in the low pine branches over my head, so close I could almost touch them. I was awed at their loveliness, their quick flight, their hissings and chirpings, the yellow spot on the back revealed in flight, etc. Sense of total kinship with them as if they and I were of the same nature, and as if that nature were nothing but love. And what else but love keeps us all together in being? — Dancing in Waters of Life: The Journals of Thomas Merton (vol V)
“I don’t think the moral life of a social activist is a separate matter; I think we are responsible for how we behave with each other—(when) making a protest, taking a political stand; and if we exploit each other personally and keep holding our placards . . . then we’ve become hypocrites. I’m afraid I was in that kind of trouble when I was young.”—Dorothy Day
I sat on an old chair under the skinny cedars, with my feet in the brown, frosty grass, and reflected on the errors of my monastic life. They are many and I am in the midst of them. I have never seen so many mistakes and illusions. It should be enough for me that God loves me. For His love is greater than anything else. It is the beginning and end of all. By it and for it all things were created. Yet, outside His love, I am tempted to erect a cold house of my own devising—a house that is small enough to contain my own self, and that is easier to understand than His incomprehensible love and His providence. November 7, 1952 — A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life—The Journals of Thomas Merton, vol 3
There are some times when a passage from his journals simply speaks to my soul. Yes, it is tempting to build that house away from everything and everyone… at about that time, God’s love washes over me and invites me to lose myself and my ego… only to be wrapped in God’s loving grace and presence. To be still and know…
“No matter how another person treats us, how difficult a situation might be, or which of our personal needs we feel wasn’t met, we actually have the power to transform our own state of mind from resentment to peace and contentment.”—Anyen Rinpoche
“Gratitude is a practice that can begin with the smallest acknowledgment and be expanded out to every facet of our existence.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
How might gratitude help you to cultivate a healthy asceticism and a rejection of consumerism?
“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point.”—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
