So Lent is here. I have high expectations for this Lent, as I usually do right before my intentions are nullified by my human nature. But this Lent I am jazzed about reading "The Duty of Delight", the published personal diaries of Dorothy Day. As always, she never fails to disappoint.
I love how she writes with such ease and compassion about the drunken man who stole $5 from her, "he must be tormented in soul as in body." (1935) She talks about the mentally ill, the addicts, her anger at her own personal failings and shortcomings (she is ridiculously hard on herself). She is impatient with the foul smells that seem to permeate whatever room she is in and speaks of it often. She is a mother, worried about her daughter, Tamar. Dorothy craved time with her and was racked with guilt over every minute they were apart. I love, absolutely love, every word she has written in this book.
It is painfully honest as she writes about her depression and loneliness. The burdens she carried as her co-workers, The Church and her own family analyzed and criticized her every move. I can't begin to conceive how much she sacrificed for Christ; she gave it all to Him.
The life of this Saint. Amazing. May your Lent draw you closer to the Living Christ!
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