'The Central Message Of Dorothy Day's The Long Loneliness'
The central message of The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day’s autobiographical account of her progress from journalist and budding activist to unassuming co-founder of the socioreligious Catholic Worker movement, is contained within her simple question, “The problem is, how to love God?”1 For the past three years since I first encountered Day’s work as part of an
exploration of social activist movements, this essential question and Day’s offering of the story of her own life as a means of answering it have remained with me as a reminder and an assurance that ministry happens wherever we happen to be, both literally and figuratively.
Day and her fellow activist, Peter Maurin, embraced a practical form of advocacy and social support that did not …show more content…
Day and Maurin found their remedy for this evil in a commitment to living in poverty among those whose burdens they sought to relieve. While speaking and marching on behalf of trade unions, and writing, publishing, and circulating The Catholic Worker monthly newspaper, Day and Maurin lived and worked with colleagues, volunteers, and an endless succession of
1 Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
Dorothy Day (New York: Harper & Row, 1952; reprint, New York: HarperCollins, 1997), …show more content…
Earlier in her narrative, Day unhappily recalls a brief stint in an anonymous boarding house “where each one was isolated from the other, each afraid another would ask something from him.”6 Such an isolation, and such a fear, are what divide us today from our neighbors in
need. We cannot go far, however, before we are forced to confront Christ’s commandments, and either embrace or deny him. As Day writes, “One of the disconcerting facts about the spiritual life is that God takes you at your word. Sooner or later one is given a chance to prove [their] love.”7 The greatest challenge that Day’s example presents to me is not the necessity of poverty,
but her insistence that “the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”8 I
welcome solitude and agree with Day’s definition of privacy as “that greatest of all luxuries.”9
exploration of social activist movements, this essential question and Day’s offering of the story of her own life as a means of answering it have remained with me as a reminder and an assurance that ministry happens wherever we happen to be, both literally and figuratively.
Day and her fellow activist, Peter Maurin, embraced a practical form of advocacy and social support that did not …show more content…
Day and Maurin found their remedy for this evil in a commitment to living in poverty among those whose burdens they sought to relieve. While speaking and marching on behalf of trade unions, and writing, publishing, and circulating The Catholic Worker monthly newspaper, Day and Maurin lived and worked with colleagues, volunteers, and an endless succession of
1 Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
Dorothy Day (New York: Harper & Row, 1952; reprint, New York: HarperCollins, 1997), …show more content…
Earlier in her narrative, Day unhappily recalls a brief stint in an anonymous boarding house “where each one was isolated from the other, each afraid another would ask something from him.”6 Such an isolation, and such a fear, are what divide us today from our neighbors in
need. We cannot go far, however, before we are forced to confront Christ’s commandments, and either embrace or deny him. As Day writes, “One of the disconcerting facts about the spiritual life is that God takes you at your word. Sooner or later one is given a chance to prove [their] love.”7 The greatest challenge that Day’s example presents to me is not the necessity of poverty,
but her insistence that “the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”8 I
welcome solitude and agree with Day’s definition of privacy as “that greatest of all luxuries.”9