November Birthdays: Dorothy Day

Saints Wendell and Cindy
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

As mentioned yesterday, in November, we remember the birth dates of some of my heroes and folks who I find especially quotable. Today, I'm remembering Dorothy Day...

Dorothy Day

I believe that we must reach our brother, never toning down our fundamental oppositions, but meeting him when he asks to be met, with a reason for the faith that is in us, as well as with a loving sympathy for them as brothers.

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor,... but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity? And it was not just human pride but a strong sense of man's dignity and worth, and what was due to him in justice, that made me resent, rather than feel proud of so mighty a sum total of Catholic institutions.

Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them.

People say, "What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.

Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily.