The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Dorothy Day on Love & Action as
a Harsh & Dreadful Thing
By Matthew Fox 3/05/2026 |
Dorothy wrote about her experience in solitary confinement in prison for doing non-violent disobedience. She reminds us that suffering can open us up so we become far bigger than our own ego, we learn to identify with others who are suffering. She writes: |
All through those weary first days in jail when I was in solitary confinement, the only thoughts that brought comfort to my soul were those lines in the Psalms that expressed the terror and misery of man suddenly stricken and abandoned. Solitude and hunger and weariness of spirit—these
sharpened my perceptions so that I suffered not only my own sorrow but the sorrows of those about me. I was no longer myself. I was man. I was no longer a young girl, part of a radical movement seeking justice for those oppressed. I was the oppressed. |
Dorothy Day, Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, holding up her prison outfit, signed by all her fellow prisoners. Photo by Chris Payden-Travers, posted by Jim Forest on Flickr. |
I was that drug addict, screaming and tossing in her cell, beating her head against the wall. I was that shoplifter who, for rebellion, was sentenced to solitary. I was that woman who had killed her children, who had murdered her lover. Suffering can empty us of ourselves and put us more
in touch with others with their suffering. The via negativa teaches us important truths, including how we are all connected. Dorothy continues: The blackness of hell was all about me. The sorrows of the world encompassed me. I was like one gone down into the pit. Hope had forsaken me. I was the mother whose child had
been raped and slain. I was the mother who had borne the monster who had done it. I was even that monster, feeling in my own heart every abomination. |
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| Thich Nhat Hanh writes of
parallel experiences, how he was the young girl raped on a boat fleeing the Vietnam War; and he was the pirate doing the raping. When ego melts either in the Via Positiva of awe and wonder and ecstasy or in the depths of despair and suffering, we learn |
our oneness with others and with the universe anew. Dorothy talks elsewhere about her vision for bringing about a better world, a modest kingdom/queendom of God on this earth, perhaps, a “beloved community” in King’s language. This is her manifesto. We are not expecting utopia here on this earth. But God meant things to be much easier than we have made them. A man has a natural right to food, clothing, and shelter. A certain amount of goods is necessary to lead a good life. A family needs work as well as bread. Property is proper to man. |
We must keep repeating these things. Eternal life begins now, ‘all the way to heaven is heaven, because He said, ‘I am the Way.’” The Cross is there, of course, but ‘in the Cross is joy of spirit,’ and love makes all things easy… And she stuns us with her bluntness that so marries the via
negativa and the via positiva, the Christ and |
Icon of Dorothy Day recognizing the Christ presence in a homeless man. Image by iconographer Kelly Latimore; used with permission. Purchase HERE. |
and
each of us as other Christs. Love is indeed a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, of each of us, but it is the only answer….To the saints, everyone is child and lover. Everyone is Christ. |
Queries for Contemplation Is it your experience that the via negativa teaches how we are all connected
and how universal suffering is? Do you learn important things from times of darkness and despair? Do you agree that love is indeed a harsh and dreadful thing at times–but that it is the only answer? And everyone is another Christ? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
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