Karen House Catholic Worker
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Karen House Catholic Worker |
The RoundTable 1980
Major Articles
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Karen House: 1840 Hogan St. Saint Louis, MO 63106 Contact Us: 314.621.4052 |
On Dorothy Day
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Dorothy Day’s pilgrimage ended in New Your in the late afternoon of Saturday, November 29. She died in her own room at Maryhouse. We rejoice with her, for (as she wrote of Peter Maurin’s death), “we are sure that he welcomed Sister Death with joy, and that underneath him he felt the Everlasting Arms.” She lives now in the fullness of life that Christ promises us.
Dorothy was laid out at Maryhouse in a simple grey dress, her casket a pine box. The funeral Mass for family and people of the Catholic Worker was at Nativity Church on the following Tuesday morning. A public memorial Mass was held at a later date. Sue Lauritsen, Phyllis Gilbert, and her four children attended the funeral to represent the St. Louis Catholic Worker. Here in St. Louis, as in many places around the world, there was a memorial Mass to celebrate the life and death of Dorothy Day. Over 100 of our friends and guests joined us. Archbishop May presided. John Kavanaugh was the homilist. Kevin Burke, Cathy Nolan, Celine Zidar, and Mary Elizabeth Herdliska led us in singing.
We read Dorothy’s description of Peter’s death, heard the first Suffering Servant song from Isaiah, and the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. In prayer and reflection, we rejoiced in the vividness these readings take on in the light of Dorothy’s life and faith. Because of Dorothy, the Gospel is no longer a metaphor for many of us. She has shown us a way to make the Good News our daily life. Because of her, we dare to believe in the reign of God on earth, to take Christ’s words seriously, to believe in the power of voluntary poverty and political witness on behalf of the Gospel. Through her voluntary poverty and political witness, hundreds of thousands have been fed, sheltered, known love, and come to believe in and work toward a Christian social order.
So we rejoice, and we know Dorothy is still very near us.
“She will not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smouldering wick; she will make justice shine on every race, never faltering, never breaking down, she will plant justice on earth, while coasts and islands wait for her teaching.” (Is. 42: 3-4) |
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The Round Table Summer 1979