Dorothy Day, Saint of the Gutter Beautiful

"The burn of Love's hand is just another day in the Soup Kitchen..." And so begins my book, Resplendent In Rags... For every Catholic Worker House and Community, the Works of Mercy form the very core of life, work, and purpose. The particular emphasis of each House may vary, but in essence, they are all the same: more of you, less of me... Is it a hungry man at the door? Feed him first... Is it a migrant mother? Welcome her and her children with open arms... Is it a war on the horizon? Organize and resist...

It has been seven years since I left the Soup Kitchen that I founded (and in which I worked for 30 years). For the first few years, I returned there in my dreams several times a week... the past few years, well, it still just continues... (Can I go back?) Exactly like Dorothy Day used to say about the Catholic Worker, it was my school of love... And no doubt also like Dorothy, the love that I / we received from those whom we served simply overwhelmed us. It is a profoundly humbling thing to receive such giving, continually resplendent, love... And oh how my heart would break, over and over and over again, to the point that I could laugh at a line from Leonard Cohen and say "Yes! That is exactly it!"

"There is a crack in everything... that's how the light gets in..." (Leonard Cohen) These words -- this insight -- of Cohen's is the life that is lived in a Soup Kitchen, a House of Hospitality and an Intentional Community. But this is not a line that borders upon a mental breakdown... This is really good stuff! Let's meander through this... First, there is another line, it's in the Book of Genesis (1:3) "And God said, Let there be light and there was light." "Light" or Energy is the building block of all matter and life: atoms whirl in amazing patterns of manifestation! Now this, now that: from the First Burst of Possibility into Existence to the steady Evolution that has manifested Consciousness. Still in Genesis (1:27) "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Of course, this is an ancient creation myth from among countless creation myths: but there is scientific and metaphysical truth evident in this particular story: Light and Evolution: all existence is built upon light and humans are an evolutionary expansion of consciousness (that seems to mirror the Source...)

Secondly, vast empty space is the greater "part" of all that exists. Light and Consciousness require that vast empty space in order to "get in"! The art of Alex Grey might be helpful here to better visualize the wonder and the mystery of light, consciousness, and the "how" of this "getting in"... But I want to advance to the point of this blog. Attuning oneself to the "spiritual life", in essence, means to willingly allow one's awareness of the Light and Consciousness to flood one's being. The "spiritual life" is the intentional cultivation of practices that enhance and deepen awareness... into the "steady" state of awakening... Dorothy Day was a nuts and bolts kind of person, so the Works of Mercy especially appealed to her (as it did to me, after her example): feeding the hungry was something to do! It was work! Yeshua said, "I was hungry and you fed me" and so there was an obvious plan of action!

​If you've a mind to, you can look up a traditional list of the Works of Mercy. They are an essential part of every "spiritual life". However, like everything else, the 21st century demands an update, or perhaps better, "an-other look". So, this is what I was noodling over while walking our dog this evening, carefully, over ice and snow for a couple of miles: what I think of as The Works of Divine Presence... 1) Human intimacy and loving are fully Sacred and Holy; 2) Human family and community are fully Sacred and Holy; 3) The education, the nurturing, and the serving of children (every child) is fully Sacred and Holy; 4) The building of soil and the regeneration of the Earth is fully Sacred and Holy; 5) The serving and building of justice and liberation is fully Sacred and Holy; 6) The creative arts and life are fully Sacred and Holy; 7) The loving and yearning embrace of the human and the One Consciousness is the Sacred and the Holy.

In my old Soup Kitchen I used to love making the weekly menus and collecting the needed ingredients, so I have a tendency to like making lists! My so-called "Works of Divine Presence" is just such a list... and, I suppose, the simple point of the exercise of a list like this  is simply to acknowledge and remember this one thing: everything that we do is our spiritual life. There is no such thing as "this for me" and "this for the Divine Beloved"! Unless it is all the same, there is no spiritual life!   

An important aspect of Celtic, or Creation, spirituality is the "dailyness" of surprise: living with a vibrant sense of anticipation. One might compare this anticipation as similar to a child's day of celebration for her birth: and the unexpected delights that are given by her family in gratitude and blessing. This anticipation is the always-and-everywhere-presence of the Divine Beloved: the Light Energy upon which all of creation is constructed...

A "Celtic secret" is the cultivation of this attitude / perspective of the always-and-everywhere-presence of the Divine Beloved: in our daily lives. Do you see the light in the sky? Do you see the vista of blue and cloud? Do you see those magnificent "heaven-stones"? Do you see the carpet of magenta flowers? And then looking within, do you recognize the Face of the One gazing back at you -- through your own eyes? In the eyes of your family, your neighbor, in every single "other"? This seeing is precisely why St. Hildegard of Bingen wrote and spoke so forcefully for justice: why St. Francis of Assisi could embrace and kiss the lepers: and why Dorothy Day could announce with such certainty, in keeping with the words of her Master, "whatsoever you do to the least person among you" you / we do the very same to him, to Yeshua the Poet of Nazareth, our brother...

In his book, The Rebirthing of God, author John Philip Newell quotes John Scotus Eriugena as writing that the Light of God is the "essence of all things". And Newell goes on to write, "everything should be regarded as a theophany, a showing or revealing of the Divine". This outlook follows after the shifting of our in-look to one of a child's anticipation. To make of our daily lives an anticipation of the surprise theophany is to consecrate our everyday-moments with a deeply cherished sense of gratitude and delight. This changes everything! When global economics and politics are transformed from greed and grasping into the asking of "how can I help?" everything will change! When we look at the serious likelihood of global climate change and the very real possibility of global catastrophe through the lens of the Celtic Question "how can we regenerate the Earth and serve the children seven generations forward?" everything will change!

The Surprise Theophany is the gracious re-ordering of of our perspectives and attitudes all the way from "me" to "us" -- and an "us" that includes everyone and everything, leaving no one behind and nothing left out. Such a surprise theophany is neither "Right" nor "Left", but rather, profoundly interior. By looking within to the Divine Light that holds us -- everyone and everything -- in It's embrace, we can enthusiastically give our "Oh yeah!" or "Amen!" to St. Hildegard's saying "God hugs us from the inside out". Also, by intentionally cultivating this contemplative way of life (regardless of where we live and who we are), we ready ourselves for the transformations that are our birthright as the children of the One, the Light, the Divine Beloved...

                                    An Activated Conscience, A Revolutionary Act

The last book written by Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer, is a user's manual -- not only on the maintenance of a life of deep interior prayer, but also on the essential development of an activated conscience. Everyone has a conscience, but unfortunately, not everyone puts theirs to significant use. As I was pondering Merton and conscience this morning, it dawned upon me that conscience is a revolutionary act...

Perhaps for most of us, if we think about conscience at all, we think of conscience as "that little voice who tells us if doing this or that is either good or bad". Such a "definition" is, though,  but the beginning of conscience. A deeper truth is that an activated conscience is a dynamic force, or energy, for personal and social transformation. This is of paramount importance! Many of us have witnessed powerful examples, such as: the Civil Rights Movement. All of "white America" was comfortable with race relations before the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Stories of a bus boycott barely moved that white America. But when nonviolent black marchers were hosed by firemen, bitten by police dogs, and clubbed by white protesters our consciences were stirred. Eventually, that stirring led to a collective activation of conscience that led to the beginnings of a significant degree of social change.

​When I started a little Catholic Worker House and began to feed the homeless and hungry in Salinas, we were ignored, opposed, and then ignored some more. But after years of showing up and standing alone, awareness of poverty in our midst, led to an increase of understanding and a commitment to change a lack of concern into a vital caring. And so our eventual Soup Kitchen became a center for, not only expanding services, but more importantly, a center for interfaith and community engagement. As the community conscience was activated, an energy was released to accomplish so much more than was first imagined.

As I scan the news on a daily basis, a number of things are increasingly obvious. Perhaps the first that comes to mind is the "rise" of the so-called nationalist, or white supremacist, movement in the U.S., Ontario Canada, much of Europe, and now Brazil. As a counter cultural radical, I find this profoundly disturbing. But looking to my spiritual mentors like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton (pictured above), St. Francis, St. Hildegard, and Rumi, I know that I (we) can't, in turn, simply be reactive. So, getting back to my morning pondering, I am thinking that opposition to nationalism and the idea of white supremacy must, at its core, be about a call to conscience. Individually, nearly all people are "good"; it's when we are in a crowd, and our individuality is submerged in "the group", that we do things that we never would if we saw ourselves as standing alone. 

Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, St. Francis, St. Hildegard, and Rumi, through all their days as mystic-activists, stood alone. Immersed in contemplative prayer, they each looked out upon the world from the vantage point of an absolute belief in the value of every life: nurtured and made available to them precisely because of their "self-annihilation" and surrender in prayer. Emptied of the habitual "priority of self" -- whether of the body, soul, perception, opinion, politics, or religion -- they each could enter into the self of the other in a type of soul-communion and so they changed: their vision enlarged, their hearts expanded: and in some mystical way, they "could become the other -- every other". This is the most revolutionary act any human being can make... And this is the end result of an activated conscience... Is it any wonder then, that so few of us want to make this journey? 

I need to mention another observation, which has been increasingly considered by many, and that is the power of "the group" in social media. Manipulators of our minds and passions clearly understand the power present in "the group" -- and so they feed us the allotment of information that they already know will mold us into willing consumers of whatever it is they are selling. It might be, literally, anything. But only some things are a clear and present danger! Anything that proposes a "good - bad", "better - worse", or "us - them" scenario, needs to be questioned or resisted! Like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, St. Francis, St. Hildegard, and Rumi, we must learn to "stand alone" in deep interior contemplative prayer, if we are going to activate our conscience and contribute to a revolutionary act. What the world needs, above all else, are crowds of people who "stand alone" before the wonder of the Universe... Who attune their minds, bodies, and souls to the magic of love... Who revel in gratitude, simple living, gracious harmony, and an abundant hope... Who live a contemplative life (while not forgetting to wash the dishes)... And who pursue the Beloved Community by remembering that, in the words of William Blake, "we are put on earth for a little space that we may learn to bear the beams of love."  

 

This image, a photo of a sculpture's "capture" of yearning, is key to understanding the importance of desire in cultivating an expansive spiritual life. From the angle of the photo, St. Teresa's face is only partially revealed, but nevertheless, she appears to be positively orgasmic, does she not? The angel with the knowing arrow to pierce Teresa's heart, also beams with evident pleasure at the role "it" is playing in Teresa's ecstasy. Notice her limp hand and her curling toes: sure signs of orgasmic delight. As in sexual orgasm, but even more, her every cell is vibrating with a heightened force to the point of mystic-trance -- into the sublime union with the Divine Beloved. The yearning for this dynamic surrender-into-total-self-annihilation-in-Love-for-the-Cosmic-Other is the supreme reason for the practice of any religion. 

The access point for mystic-faith is the heart: the heart is the spirit's brain: it is source for our highest intellectual capabilities. The heart is the center of our "divine" possibilities to fully "mirror" the image the Divine within us / within every single atom of the physical universe. "To consciously enter into the heart" is the work of the spiritual life. There are many methods to this madness...

I suppose that the very first step is the working assumption that one really knows nothing and likely never will. Doubt of one's opinions and perceptions is essential, as well as the ability to laugh at oneself and the seriousness with which we approach our spiritual life. We are, at every moment, only a beginner... So wash the dishes. Scrub the toilet. Rub your partner's back. Everyday -- multiple times everyday -- tell your kids that you love them. Look them in their eyes, lock eyes with them, and tell them how you adore them. Grow a garden. Get dirt under your nails. Hug and slow dance around your living room with your partner. If you are certain the kids are asleep, make love right there on the floor... Spirituality is attention given to the every sacred moment that fills your day, and most especially, to every person with whom you share your life. For too many years, I was focused on my "work", my "vocation", my "spiritual life" -- and my real life received far too little, and that ended up costing me dearly in unnecessary suffering, later, down the road... So, humility and attention, are the beginning of the spiritual path (and also every step of the way)...

Secondly, "to enter the heart", means several things. It means to cultivate the virtues of the heart: empathy, compassion, mercy, kindness, peace, and justice. Without these virtues, the heart will never be other / more than an instrument for the maintenance of bodily life. So we must practice: volunteer in or start a Soup Kitchen; volunteer in a Rape Crisis Center, a Food Pantry, a Homeless Shelter, an Immigrant Rights Center, an Interfaith Gathering: anything that will carry you out of your "regular" routine and daily concerns. The heart desperately wants to expand: your heart intuitively knows that it was made with the same capacity for divine-yearning as St. Teresa's! "To enter the heart" also means to "knock on its door"...

Sitting comfortably, incline your head ever so slightly to the left, as if focusing your intention upon your heart. Stir your mind with a chosen love-word. Choose a two syllable word that you find resonates with your spirit (possibilities include Jesus, Mary, Mother, Allah, Abba, Amma, Krishna, Kuan Yin, etc.) Attach that two-syllable word to the slow and gentle flow of your breath. But more, kiss that holy word as it passes through your slightly parted lips: mentally swirl your tongue around the word as it slides down, down, down into your heart, there to take up residence in its newly opened Home... Every part and particle of creation is energized and amplified by the Encouraging and Energizing Thought of the Divine Beloved!

If all seven+ billion of us human beings on Planet Earth were to have all of the empty space within the atoms that make up our bodies removed: and the remnants swept up, those collected remnants would amount to something about the size of a single grain of rice! Emptiness is as much (or more) our nature as is physicality. The true "fullness" of our humanity is its divinization! It is within our heart that we may merge in ecstatic union: our "nothing" with the "Big No One": our gifted love with the Pure Thought of the One Love: this is the Mystery of Being-ness: empty / full, beyond duality but loving within multiplicity, the Abode of the Divine Beloved within us... This "Loving Breath" meditation is the humble practice of interior adoration and surrender: it is the "little way" of cultivating Divine Yearning... Before there was existence, there was Non-Existence. Before there was thought, there was No Thought. Yearning raised the possibility of Someone To Love, Something To Discover... Yearning is the Seed-Bed of Every Possibility... Yearning is the Secret Name of G-d! Filling our hearts with Little Bits of Divine Yearning, we naturally seek pleasure and sexual union and the gifting and receiving of orgasm, we love this Precious Blue Planet and seek its blessing in regeneration, we love and lift up our children and every child, we practice daily compassion and justice, we walk lightly upon the Earth and cause as little harm as possible, and we forget! Of course we forget! But as soon as it dawns upon us -- oops I forgot again! -- I practice my intention to remember, and so begin again...

Our loving breath meditation becomes the very breath of our breath: we learn to begin making love to the moments of our daily lives. We pause and weep for all those who hurt -- especially for those whom we have hurt. We learn, perhaps, how to even dwell in tears. We practice forgiveness: perhaps some of the people whom we loved, or failed to love in the ways they needed, have removed themselves from our lives: we keep space for them in our hearts. We steadily learn that we are loved by the One Breath of All Life: It, in fact, is breathing within us through our breath / as our breath. Our loving breath meditation is an "any moment / every moment" bath in the Breath of the Divine Beloved... our contemplative breath is awakening to the Beatitude Vision: the entirety of Creation / Universe is interrelated: is an Inter-being... And in this day of manufactured distractions and cultivated divisions, we pierce through this fog and recognize the Face of G-d in the faces of Every Other... Master Yeshua, the Exemplar of Love-In-Action, strides today through our pursuit of the Beloved Community: welcoming home and leaving no one behind... 

That place of the Divine Within us, is the place of prayer and transformation...
That place of the Divine Within us, is the place where we are enfolded in Love...
That place of the Divine Within us, is the place where all creativity is born...
That place of the Divine Within us, is the place where the future is vitalized...
That place of the Divine Within us, is the place where we live now our resurrection...

In conclusion, scroll back up to the photo of the Teresa sculpture, look at it intently and know that you too -- and every last one of us -- were born for ecstasy...   

Supposedly -- at least according to Jesus -- the Great Commandment is a combination of "Yum": "You must love G-d with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind"... and "Yuk": "And love others as you love yourself"... "Yum" is the average religion of the average person of faith: and it doesn't matter in the least which faith he might profess. Every believer finds a G-d he can be comfortable to yum with...

"Yum" saves. "Yum" feels good. "Yum" promises an eternity of more yum... My "Yum" has a Holy Book that I read. My "Yum" has teachers of yum to ensure that my yum is the correct yum... If only everyone had my "Yum"! Scum-buckets either don't know or they reject my "Yum". If they don't or won't change their minds, my "Yum" will banish them into a forever without yum... So, be assured that "Yum" is good!

Go ahead, admit if you dare, that Jesus was a preacher of not only "Yum", but also a hell-of-a-lot of "Yuk": all that "Whatever you do to the least person among you, you do the very same to me" stuff qualifies as yuk. "Yuk" is the co-equal part of the Great Commandment: "Love others as you love yourself"... Most religion finds it simply "Yucky" to hear anyone say, "Faith without works is dead!" So when "Yum" meets up with "Yuk" something has to give... And wouldn't you know it, but "Yuk" is nearly always the "one who walks away" from faith...

The comparison to a coin is valid: both sides, front and back, equal and necessary for the coin to exist. It is impossible to have a one-sided coin. And yet, perhaps the majority of religion, is the deliberate attempt to justify a big game of pretend: "it is possible to have a one-sided coin!" Yippie! "Jesus didn't really mean that stuff about feeding the hungry, being just, getting rid of wealth, or the Beatitudes! He was just speaking prophetically about how it's going to be in heaven!" Of course, this is equally true with Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, in fact, of every faith: there are always "prophets" and "teachers" who explain the necessity of "Yuk" away. Whew!

It's easy to convince ourselves that we truly do love "Love" (for G-d is Love). We adore. We pray. We volunteer. We sing in choir. We put money in the basket. We might even donate to "good" causes. And if a particular person doesn't look like a drug addict, we might give a buck to her as we walk by. In an emergency, we can be extraordinary, we can even be heroic. We are proficient in keeping "Yuk" tightly bound and shoved into a back-room closet. We might even forget that "Yuk" exists...

The "Yuk" problem of religion needs to be brought out into the open. I mean, seriously, what if Jesus wasn't a liar? What if he meant even half of what he said? What if "Woe to you rich" is really meant to be a building block of international economic systems? What if "How blessed are you peacemakers" actually meant that we are supposed to become practitioners of a radical nonviolence? What if "love your neighbor as you love yourself" truly meant that the dude pictured above is my brother-to-whom-I-must-cause-no-harm? What if that "brother-sister" stuff is supposed to include every opposite or difference possible in the world: like, Jew, Muslim, Immigrant, Black, Lesbian, Feminist, Democrat, Republican, Native, Straight, Farmer, Baptist, etc. etc.? The "Yuk" half of the religion "coin" means that we love Love by the practice of loving... and we take to heart the words of Dorothy Day, "You love God only as much as the person you love the least." It is right here, in the place where "Yuk" and "Yum" meet, that faith both begins and ends: this "no difference" is all the difference in the world.

[I once told all of this to "the fool on the hill". But he was both smart and crafty. He had some incredibly fine and sharp electric saws. He set about his self-appointed task of proving me wrong. He succeeded in sawing all of his coins in half... which doubled the number of his coins and reduced their value to nothing... Even so, he refused to concede my point, and continued to reject "Yuk" (actually, he turned right around and spent the rest of his days trying to convince me that "Yuk" was really just that, so, he said, I had better just "Yum")...]