Ordinary saints

Dorothy Day is the best example of a saint we have today. She lived during most of the 1900s. She founded the Catholic Worker, a social justice movement that served the poor, social misfits, and all sorts of damaged people, including broken and alcoholic priests. She became a Catholic not because she had to to do her work but so she could survive it. At age 79, and still doing the work, she said, I feel like an utter failure... the older I get the more I feel that faithfulness and perseverance are the greatest virtues." The Catholic Worker fed, clothed and housed the poor in New York City through the depression and after in tenements and on a couple of farms in the country. Day was constantly in motion writing for the Catholic Worker newspaper, raising funds for the work and speaking. Take as many steps as you can, she said. Bear witness, stand fast, huddle together in faith and community and Dream of a better world. And she said work on your spiritual life - it can take up to three hours a day. Dorothy was an activist but she was something of a mystic too. She took her coffee with a side of the Psalms every day. She followed the teachings of Jesus. Some criticized her for being too spiritual, others for not being Christian enough. She was called a Communist for her support of striking longshoremen, a troublemaker for her civil disobedience which earned her jail time even at age 79! Few called her a saint til after her life. She said don't call me a saint it's just a way of dismissing me. She was a layperson who put her faith to work every day. Three things it was said of Dorothy that fueled her drive: prayer, the sacraments (she was at mass daily), and works of mercy.

She took a vow of voluntary poverty so she could live like the people she served. She lived in the same tenements, used the same outhouses, suffered through hot summers and cold winters. Eating what was at hand, wearing a few clothes, having no need for modern conveniences she allowed herself a record player to listen to opera and she needed coffee. She loved the ocean and the land with its flowers but she was able to find beauty wherever she was. She was happy, content. Christ understands us when we fail, she said and God understands us when we try to love.

Dorothy broke up plenty of fights in the soup and bread lines and in the shelters. Hurt people can  carry a lot of anger. She lived in the midst of people who were frustrated and demanding ready to lash out at any time. She didn't talk about love much but she tried to love by listening, giving space to work out issues, and meeting basic needs.

Dorothy didn't start a church and she was not a pastor or priest. Simply she lived and practiced a faithful life following the way of Jesus. It is a good example for the church today.