Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation, of silence. Waiting for our Lord to be born. A pregnant woman is so happy, so content. She lives in such a garment of silence, and it is as though she were listening to hear the stir of life within her. One always hears that stirring compared to the rustling of a bird in the hand. But the intentness which which one awaits such stirring is like nothing so much as a blanket of silence.
Dorothy DayThe holy man was the whole man, the man of integrity, who not only tried to change the world, but to live in it as it was.
Dorothy DayWhen it comes down to it, even on the natural plane, it is much happier and more enlivening to love than to be loved.
Dorothy DayCastro wasn't a Marxist. He was a Catholic educated by the Christian Brothers and the Jesuits. But fundamentally, I'm not talking about practising Catholics, but rather about something which is inbred; that is, a part of your country, your heritage, your life.
Dorothy DayI offered up a special prayer, a prayer which came with tears and anguish, that some way would open up for me to use what talents I possessed for my fellow workers, for the poor.
Dorothy DayAnd I was to find out then, as I found out so many times, over and over again, that women especially are social beings, who are not content with just husband and family, but must have a community, a group, an exchange with others. A child is not enough. A husband and children, no matter how busy one may be kept by them, are not enough. Young and old, even in the busiest years of our lives, we women especially are victims of the long loneliness.
Dorothy DayThe biggest mistake sometimes is to play things very safe in this life and end up being moral failures.
Dorothy DayVoluntary poverty isn't going around with some burlap bag around you and imitating the poor. It means being indifferent to the material, doing as Christ said. He went and sat down with the rich and Zachaeus and publicans and sinners.
Dorothy DayI do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor.... Here, within this great city of nine million people, we must, in this neighborhood, on this street, in this parish, regain a sense of community which is the basis for peace in the world.
Dorothy DayThe older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them.
Dorothy DayThink what the world could look like if we took care of the poor even half as well as we do our Bibles!
Dorothy DayThere is plenty to do, for each one of us, working on our own hearts, changing our own attitudes, in our own neighborhoods.
Dorothy DayIt wasn't until Castro marched triumphantly into Cuba that you might say the whole thing grew into a Marxist revolution.
Dorothy DayWhen you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them. God sees Christ, His Son, in us and loves us. And so we should see Christ in others, and nothing else, and love them. There can never be enough of it. There can never be enough thinking about it.
Dorothy DayThis is so rich a country that luxury has developed at the expense of necessities, and even the destitute partake of the luxury. We are the rich country of the world, like Dives at the feast. We must try hard, we must study to be poor like Lazarus at the gate, who was taken into Abraham's bosom.
Dorothy DayWith prayer, one can go on cheerfully and even happily. Without prayer, how grim a journey!
Dorothy DayWriting is hard work. But if you want to become a writer you will become one. Nothing will stop you.
Dorothy DayWe certainly can try to grow in love, and it is good practice, this giving what we've got, whether it is a cup of coffee or money to pay the grocery bill.
Dorothy DayTo love with understanding and without understanding. To love blindly, and to folly. To see only what is loveable. To think only of these things. To see the best in everyone around, their virtues rather than their faults. To see Christ in them!
Dorothy DayWhere were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?
Dorothy DayYou will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. You will know. You will know when it's right.
Dorothy DayOne of the disconcerting facts about the spiritual life is that God takes you at your word.
Dorothy DayYour love for God is only as great as the love you have for the person you love the least.
Dorothy DayOne of the greatest evils of the day among those outside of prison is their sense of futility. Young 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; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment.
Dorothy DayThe only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.
Dorothy DayEverything a baptized person does each day should be directly or indirectly related to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Dorothy DayThe greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us. When we begin to take the lowest places, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers with that burning love, that passion which led to the cross, then we can truly say, 'Now I have begun'.
Dorothy DayBe close enough to people so that you are indifferent to the material. And also have faith.
Dorothy DayWhat we would like to do is change the world - make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do.
Dorothy DayWe cannot build up the idea of the apostolate of the laity without the foundation of the liturgy.
Dorothy DayThe Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.
Dorothy DayMaybe I was praying for him then, in my own way. Does God have a set way of prayer, a way that He expects each of us to follow? I doubt it. I believe some people-- lots of people-- pray through the witness of their lives, through the work they do, the friendships they have, the love they offer people and receive from people. Since when are words the only acceptable form of prayer?
Dorothy DayThe theoretician of the Marxist revolution in Cuba certainly wasn't Castro. It was Don Carlos Rafaelo Rodriguez. He was the theoretician and very often people say he will take over. But I don't believe it. I think that it's a very good combination - the Catholic man working together with a man like that who has everything pretty well planned.
Dorothy Day