Reconciling Body and Soul
What if our actions were totally aligned with our spiritual beliefs? Learn more about the inspiring work of Dorothy Day, someone who dedicated her life to offering love and support to those in need. Join us in following her example of embracing Love as a transformative force that we send into the world.
How is our faith intertwined with our activism? In the turbulent landscape of 20th-century United States, Dorothy Day offers an example of embodied contemplative action. Born on November 8, 1897, in New York City, Day’s journey from secular journalist to founder of the Catholic Worker Movement is an example of total dedication and transformation not often seen in modern times.
“For [Dorothy Day], faith was not a distant or abstract ideal but a living, breathing force that impelled her to work tirelessly for the poor and marginalized.”
Dorothy Day converted to Catholicism as an adult with several children—an experience that was not just a personal spiritual awakening but a catalyst for her social activism. For Day, faith was not a distant or abstract ideal but a living, breathing force that impelled her to work tirelessly for the poor and marginalized. She established the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 to align with her steadfast understanding that nonviolence was at the heart of Catholicism. The Catholic Worker Movement is still active today, serving marginalized communities and offering loving support for community organizations.
For Dorothy, embodying Divine love not only meant tirelessly serving the needs of those experiencing hardship and poverty, but also speaking out against the social systems that oppress those living on the margins. She writes, “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 are not alone anymore.”
“How I longed to make a synthesis reconciling body and soul, this world and the next.” — Dorothy Day
At the core of Dorothy Day’s activism was a profound commitment to divine Love. For Day, love was not passive but an active force that demanded both personal sacrifice and collective solidarity. She famously declared, “The final word is love,” emphasizing that the essence of the Catholic Worker Movement was not just poverty or community, but love. This love, according to Day, was both a personal and communal experience—one that could be found in the everyday acts of sharing a meal and building relationships with others.
Dorothy Day’s approach to faith and activism is sometimes described as a “revolution of the heart”—a commitment to transforming society through acts of love and nonviolence. Her activism was driven by her desire to reconcile the sacred and the secular, the spiritual and the material.
Learn more about how the work of the Center for Action and Contemplation intersects with Dorothy Day’s legacy here.
Reflect with Us
What action can you take today that has the potential to awaken your own “revolution of the heart”? Share your reflection with us.
Thank you to CAC’s librarians Seth and Lee for their research on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker’s Movement.
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