We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.

Dorothy Day

Categorized in : Heaven Bread Companionship

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 is too much work to do.

Dorothy Day

effort deeds people

As we come to know the seriousness of the situation, the war, the racism, the poverty in our world, we come to realize that things will not be changed simply by words or demonstrations. Rather, it's a question of living one's life in a drastically different way.

Dorothy Day

our-world racism war

What 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....We can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.

Dorothy Day

oasis cells heart

The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.

Dorothy Day

undeserving poor forever

Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other's faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much.

Dorothy Day

sacrifice heart love

If you feed the poor, you're a saint. If you ask why they're poor, you're a Communist.

Dorothy Day

communist saint poor

I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.

Dorothy Day

women god-love history

The 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 Day

passion brother heart

Over and over again, people had to disobey lawful authority to follow the voice of their conscience. This obedience to God and disobedience to the State has, over and over again, happened throughout history. It is time again to cry out against our 'leaders,' to question (since it is not for us to say that they are evil) whether or not they are sane.

Dorothy Day

voice evil people

No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There's too much work to do.

Dorothy Day

down-and wisdom peace

We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community.

Dorothy Day

community-living being-alone loneliness

Don't worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth.

Dorothy Day

effectiveness worry success

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.

Dorothy Day

rotten tyrants acceptance

We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.

Dorothy Day

sight comfort people

The 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 Day

grace love people

How necessary it is to cultivate a spirit of joy. It is a psychological truth that the physical acts of reverence and devotion make one feel devout. The courteous gesture increases one's respect for others. To act lovingly is to begin to feel loving, and certainly to act joyfully brings joy to others which in turn makes one feel joyful. I believe we are called to the duty of delight.

Dorothy Day

kindness joy believe

An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all.

Dorothy Day

hope courage love

I 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 Day

community cities people

There is plenty to do, for each one of us, working on our own hearts, changing our own attitudes, in our own neighborhoods.

Dorothy Day

neighborhood heart attitude

Do not give to the poor expecting to get their gratitude so that you can feel good about yourself. If you do, your giving will be thin and short-lived, and that is not what the poor need; it will only improvish them further. Give only if you have something you must give; give only if you are someone for whom giving is its own reward.

Dorothy Day

gratitude feel-good giving