Roomin' House Blues

I have been studying the pronouncements, activities and history of Pope Francis with an hopeful intensity since his surprise election. His choice of name and, the simplicity of his of first appearance and his style of behavior became immediate indicators that something was different, but it remained to be seen what wold be the substance of that difference.  One of the immediate surprises is that after election, he went to pay his hotel bill, and then he moved into the Vatican guest house, Domus Sanctae Marthae, rather than the papal apartments.  He freed himself slightly from his staff by this, setting some of his own appointments, lived a in slightly simpler manner and became in my mind "The Rooming House Pope."  He had a Rabbi friend come and stay with him in the guest house, invited the Editor of La Republica over for an interview, kissed cleaned and kissed the feet of prisoners on Holy Thursday and did numerous acts that constituted his style. I explored his...

If you have never seen Entertaining Angels about dorothy Day, here is the trailer. You can find it in your local video store s

Feminist for Life tells me that they ran a story on Dorothy Day a while back.  Go to page 20 on this pdf  http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/1999/winter/Winter99-00.pdf

For those of us who are Christian, or any kind of monotheistic believer, faith is a core element of our spirituality. Paul abjures us to the virtues of "Faith, Hope and Charity". It is generally thought that conversion, religious commitment, begins with belief and that belief and faith are the same.  But are those things true. Many Jews say that your religion is what you do, not what you believe, cited the medieval theologian, philosopher and physician, Moses Maimonides. What they mean is that your commitment to the practice of your religion is more important than conventional notions of belief.  At the other end of the spectrum on this question, many Evangelical Christians think that salvation is assured by answering an altar call and never wavering in belief, while the practice of ones faith is a small matter, since Jesus died for our sins. It's difficult to square that with the Epistle of James or many par...

Prayer for the Intercession of Servant of God Dorothy Day G od our Creator, your servant Dorothy Day exemplified the Catholic faith by her conversion, life of prayer and voluntary poverty, works of mercy, and witness to the justice and peace of the Gospel. May her life inspire people to turn to Christ as their Savior and guide, to see his face in the world’s poor and to raise their voices for the justice of God’s kingdom. We pray that you grant the favors we ask through her intercession so that her goodness and holiness my be more widely recognized and one day the Church may proclaim her Saint. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Prayer composed by Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Executive Director of The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York If you would like to submit the prayer requests of the results of your prayers to the Dorothy Day Guild, they can be contacted at:    ddg@archny.org   If you live in the New York area ...

Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers movement did not approach the social problems of our society as materialist philosophers, but rather as followers of the Beatitudes of Christ.  Dorothy said repeatedly that she completely agreed with the teachings of the church, and it is for this reason that today she is Servant of God.  Although efforts are being made to canonize her, she always said, don't call me a saint. Dorothy said that not everything about our social problems should be handled by the state.  Citing papal teachings on the matter, she said that subsidiarity needed to be used, dealing with problems on there lowest level.  She saw unions, cooperatives, credit unions and other non-governmental institutions as an important part of helping solve societies problems and cited Martin Buber to the effect that the state should be a web of communities.  That is that each community at each level should provid...