{"id":19065,"date":"2020-07-13T09:04:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T13:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19065"},"modified":"2020-07-13T09:12:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T13:12:03","slug":"peace-and-advocacy-for-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19065","title":{"rendered":"Peace and Advocacy for the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Peace\nand Advocacy for the Poor<\/strong><br>\nMonday, \u202fJuly 13, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t-29WLQ3trA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Dorothy Day (1897-1980) gives us a\nclear example of a contemplative activist. In her case, she began with\nactivism, converted to Catholicism around age 30, and eventually lived out her\ntwo callings in a powerful and effective way. My friend John Dear, himself a\ncontemplative activist, writes this about Dorothy Day:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An activist and journalist living in New York City\u2019s\nGreenwich Village, [Dorothy Day] fought for labor rights, women\u2019s rights, and\nan end to World War I. In 1927, after her daughter Tamar was born, she was\nfilled with gratitude and received the gift of faith. She decided that the two\nof them should be baptized in the [Catholic] Church. In response, her partner\npromptly left her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was 1932, and Dorothy didn\u2019t know what to do or how to\nbe a radical Catholic Christian. While attending a march against hunger in\nWashington, D.C., she prayed that God would open up a way for her to practice\nher radical politics as a devout Catholic. Her prayer was answered in the\nperson of Peter Maurin, a French peasant intellectual who was waiting for her\nback in New York. Within a few months, they founded the Catholic Worker\nMovement [on May 1, 1933]. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Catholic Worker Movement is alive and well today,\nwith over 200 active communities. Catholic Workers commit to voluntary poverty,\nprayer, nonviolence, and hospitality to those in need. They also protest and\ntake action against systems of injustice, war, racism, and all forms of\nviolence.<\/em>&nbsp;[2] <em>Robert\nEllsberg, who worked with Dorothy Day in New York, continues:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Dorothy Day\u2019s] spirituality and her social witness were\nequally rooted in the radical implications of the Incarnation. In Christ God\nassumed our humanity. And we could not worship God without honoring God\u2019s image\nin our fellow human beings. We should feed them when they were hungry; shelter\nthem when they were homeless. We should not torture them; we should not kill\nthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 1950s Day and the Catholic Worker took on a more\nactivist profile. She was repeatedly jailed for refusing to take shelter during\ncompulsory civil defense drills in New York City. In the 1960s her activities\nreflected the turbulence of the times\u2014protesting the Vietnam War, fasting in\nRome during the Second Vatican Council to advance the cause of peace. She was\nlast arrested while picketing with the United Farm Workers in 1973 at the age\nof seventy-five.\n\nBy\nthis time she was widely honored as the radical conscience of the American\nCatholic church. But her life was not primarily occupied by activism or\nprotest. She was a woman of prayer, beginning each day with meditation on\nscripture, attending daily Mass, and reciting the breviary [daily psalms,\nscripture readings, and prayers]. By and large, her life was spent in very\nordinary ways, her sanctity expressed not just in heroic deeds but in the\nmundane duties of everyday life. Her \u201cspirituality\u201d was rooted in a constant\neffort to be more charitable toward those closest at hand\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Who am I when\nthere is no more rushing around? Troubling emotions arise to the surface even\nin my dreams. In contemplation I find a spacious place where I can bring the\nmessiness of my inner world to a peaceful center. From there flows service to\nthose in my immediate circles, particularly my elderly parents. In little\nthings I take delight: conversations over coffee with my wife, a morning jog,\nthe sighting of a goldfinch.<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014Tom A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Contemplation: A Life&#8217;s Journey<\/strong><br> Sunday, \u202fJuly 12, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe that the combination of human action from a\ncontemplative center is the greatest art form, one that takes our whole lives\nto master. When action and contemplation are united, we have beauty, symmetry,\nand transformation\u2014lives and actions that heal the world by their very\npresence. Jesus is the perfect example of this, but we can also point to the\nlives of many saints, mystics, teachers, and even people we know who share this\ngift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For most people, the process begins on the side of action. We learn, we experiment, we do, we stumble, we fall, we break, and we find. Gradually, our thoughts and actions become more mature, but it is only when we begin to question our own viewing \u201cplatform\u201d that we begin to move into the realm of contemplation. <strong><em>The contemplative side of the soul will reveal itself when we begin to ask, \u201cHow can I listen for God and learn God\u2019s voice? How can I use my words and actions to expand and not to contract? How can I keep my heart, mind, and soul open, even \u2018in hell\u2019?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contemplation is a way to bring heaven to earth, but it begins with a series of losses, largely of our illusions. <strong><em>If we do not enter the learning process deeply, with curiosity and openness, we will use our words and actions to defend ourselves. We will seek to protect ourselves from our shadow, and build a leaden cover over our soul and our unconscious. We will settle for being right instead of being whole and holy, for saying prayers instead of being\u00a0prayer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True\ncontemplation is really quite down to earth and practical. It does not require\nlife in a monastery. It is, however, an utterly different way of receiving the\nmoment, and therefore all of life. In order to have the capacity to move the\nworld, we need some \u201csocial distancing\u201d and detachment from the diversions and\ndelusions of mass culture and our false self. Contemplation builds on the hard\nbottom of reality\u2014as it is\u2014without ideology, denial, the contemporary mood, or\nfantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nreason why the true contemplative-in-action is still somewhat rare is that most\nof us are experts in dualistic thinking. And then we try to use this limited\nthinking tool for prayer, problems, and relationships. It cannot get us very\nfar. <em>We cannot grow in the great\nart form of action and contemplation without a strong tolerance for ambiguity,\nan ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety, and a\nwillingness to not know\u2014and not even need to know. This is how we allow and\nencounter Mystery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week the Daily Meditations feature contemplative activists who encountered Mystery and felt called to live out Jesus\u2019s prayer that God\u2019s will be done \u201con earth as it is in heaven\u201d (Matthew 6:10). Their lives embody the beautiful struggle that is revealed when we seek to hold heaven and earth together through our love and faithfulness to God, humanity, and creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>What word or phrase resonates with or\nchallenges me? What sensations do I notice in my body? What is mine to do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prayer for Our Community:<\/strong><br>\n<em>O Great Love, thank you for\nliving and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep\nconnection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably\nshares each other\u2019s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts\u2019\nlongings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . .\nKnowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers\nin all the holy names of God, amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-muralk-tlkrijkrdu-y\/\">Listen to Fr. Richard read the prayer.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Story from Our\nCommunity:<\/strong><br>\n<em>Who am I when there is no more\nrushing around? Troubling emotions arise to the surface even in my dreams. In\ncontemplation I find a spacious place where I can bring the messiness of my\ninner world to a peaceful center. From there flows service to those in my\nimmediate circles, particularly my elderly parents. In little things I take\ndelight: conversations over coffee with my wife, a morning jog, the sighting of\na goldfinch.<\/em> \u2014Tom A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peace and Advocacy for the Poor Monday, \u202fJuly 13, 2020 Dorothy Day (1897-1980) gives us a clear example of a contemplative activist. In her case, she began with activism, converted to Catholicism around age 30, and eventually lived out her two callings in a powerful and effective way. My friend John Dear, himself a contemplative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19065"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19067,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19065\/revisions\/19067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}