Tom McDonough, author of
An Eye For Others, Dorothy Day, Journalist: 1916-1917, spoke about the book and Dorothy's early life on Friday, May 27, 2016 at Maryhouse, the Catholic Worker house of hospitality where Dorothy died. Jane Sammon introduced the speaker with: "I love this book!"
In 1948, Dorothy wrote "It is not true love if we do not know them [the poor], and we can only know them by living with them, and if we love with knowledge we will love with faith, hope, and charity." In 1917, she did not have the faith, hope, and charity she later had, but she was experiencing the daily sufferings of the poor as she visited them in their homes and wrote their stories.
McDonough documented Dorothy's emotions during her first year in New York City: loneliness in the big city, anger at the injustices she saw, fear and anxiety as the anti-pacifist sentiment got physical, discouragement when the battle for peace was lost, and, ultimately, the dejection that led her to leave the Bohemian scene, at least temporarily.
He also emphasized her involvement in the intellectual ferment of Greenwich Village before and during America's entry into World War I with brief descriptions of some of her friends with whom she remained loyal even after their spiritual and political lives diverged.
Friday night "Clarification of Thought" sessions have been a part of the Catholic Worker mission since 1934.
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An Eye For Others?
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