LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

...I thought it a worth sharing specifically.

"The impulse to stand up against the state and go to jail, rather than serve, is an instinct for penance; To take on some of the suffering ot the world - to share in it".

Dorothy Day
February 1969

Dorothy Day was another person who was the personification of the word, "Christian". In the 1920's she and her spiritual mentor, the French peasant and philosopher, Peter Maurin, founded a newspaper called The Catholic Worker and that in her time she was viewed by many to be a dangerous radical. She was considered such a menace that J. Edgar Hoover even kept a file on her....(Charlie Chaplin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King and John Lennon also had files - that's pretty good company to be in!)

Dorothy Day not only dedicated her life to the poor and dispossessed, she lived among them and humbly counted herself as one of them. The newspaper that she and Maurin co-founded in 1929 was the on;y voice in its time for the downtrodden. It still survives to this day. Its price remains, as it has been since the day of its inception, a penny per copy.

In the early 1930's, in the midst of what we now call "the great depression" she opened up a free shelter for the homeless in New York City, the first of its kind. Name din the honor of the Blessed Mother, to whom she was so devoted, Mary House was a miracle of hope to a people who had previously viewed their situation as utterly hopeless. At a time when even "progressive" northern cities operated within the framework of a Jim Crow mentality, there were absolutely no restrictions with respect to race or religion. The only requirement was that a person or family were in need of food or shelter. She also ran a soup kitchen that fed everyone who couldn't be housed due to lack of space. No one walked away from Mary House without, at the very least, a decent meal and a cup of coffee. Dorothy Day made a difference! Within a couple of years Mary Houses were opening up all over the United States.

They also founded Mary Farm in Newburgh, NY (fifteen miles from where I sit) that grew the crops that fed their beloved masses. It survives today as the Peter Maurin Farm, 41 Cemetery Road, Marlbourough, NY 12542. It is run by my friends, Tom and Monica Cornell, devoted friends of Dorothy who have dedicated their lives to her memory and her mission.

Dorothy Day passed from this life on November 29, 1980 at the far-too-young age of 83. Our generation desperately yearns for a person of her stature and saintliness. When one compares her to some of today's so-called "men of God" - the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons - praying on national TV for tax relief for the richest two percent and calling for the assassination of ?Hugo Chavez, the duly elected leader of a sovereign nation - one wants to weep.

Jesus wept.

It's easy to speculate that the likes of Dorothy Day will never pass this way again - but we can hope can't we? Hope is all we have....and prayer.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
"The Rant" by Tom Degan

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