At yesterday’s #DorothyDay symposium at Maryknoll both her granddaughter Kate and I spoke about the lessons we had learned from her. In my case those lessons began when I went to work with her when I was 19. Here was my list:
Conversation
1. From Dostoevsky: “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” Dorothy was not sentimental—she knew the sights and smells of life among “the insulted and injured. It was exhausting and unrelenting.
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2. And yet you had to learn to see beneath the surface of things. There is beauty everywhere, a dimension of truth, goodness. Dorothy could recognize that—in sunlight, on the waves on the bay, in a tree, in an act of kindness. Her underlying attitude was gratitude.
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Your reflections make me cry. Thank you for reminding me of this wonderful woman who transcended both worlds so majestically.
We need alot more Dorothy Day-like loce on this world. You have opened the door to those rememberies.
Thank you. ♥️
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