Dorothy grew up with a secret longing for spiritual truth which she successfully ignored for a number of years in which she had an affair, was deserted by her feckless lover, had an abortion \u2013 \u201cthe great tragedy of her life\u201d \u2013 twice attempted suicide, made a brief unsuccessful marriage and then entered into a common-law relationship which, paradoxically (God can use any circumstance to effect transformation, however seemingly unpropitious) was the direct cause of her conversion.<\/p>\n
Living in a beach house on Staten Island during her last relationship, she unexpectedly became pregnant and felt that God had given her a second chance at motherhood. Not yet a Catholic she wanted baptism for her baby daughter, Tamar, while knowing that it would mean the end of her relationship to the anarchist and free spirit, Forster Batterham, with whom she had set up home.<\/p>\n
Dorothy wrote later that it only slowly dawned on her that \u201cworship, adoration, thanksgiving, supplication \u2013 these were the noblest acts of which men were capable in this life.\u201d From her earliest years she had had a strong social conscience; now her Catholic faith gave her the spiritual underpinning to live out this deep humanitarian impulse and to love those at the bottom of the social heap for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n
For Dorothy the acute question was, was it possible \u201cto promote and live according to the ideas of Catholic Social teaching and philosophy in a way that would serve others and promote the common good?\u201d <\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n "Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them". — Marlinda Stull (@binkyboo42) November 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
~Dorothy Day
8 Nov. 1897-29 Nov. 1980
Painting by Ruben Ferreira#dorothyday<\/a> #thecatholicworker<\/a>#thedutyofdelight<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wKDtGVbeIl<\/a><\/p>\n