Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker Movement, and Advent

In addition to founding the Catholic Worker movement with Peter Maurin in 1933 and which today numbers 203 communities around the world, Dorothy Day started a journal that is still alive and well in various forms.

I subscribe to the Houston Catholic Worker and in its most recent issue it has many articles worthy of our attention including many sharings of immigrant stories, a reflection on the newly named Cardinal Ramazzini of Guatemala, called a “friend of the poor,” and a list of the services offered by the Casa Juan Diego. 

One of the articles that stood out for me and seems especially timely contains a meditation on Advent by Dietrich Bonhoeffer which offers a commentary on Mary, the mother of Jesus,’ Magnificat as given to us in Luke’s Gospel.  The prayer goes like this.

My soul magnifies the Lord
And my sprit rejoices in God my Savior;
Because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid;
For behold henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
Because He who is might has done great things for me, and holy is His name;
And his mercy is for generation to generation to those who fear Him.
He has shown might with His arm,
He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has given help to Israel, his servant, mindful of His mercy.
Even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever. (Luke 1.)

Bonhoeffer’s sermon from this prayer of Mary goes like this: “This song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn.  It is the most passionate, most vehement, one might almost say, most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung.  It is not the gentle, sweet, dreamy Mary that we so often see portrayed in pictures, but the passionate, powerful, proud, enthusiastic Mary, who speaks here. 

None of the sweet, sugary, or childish tones that we find so often in our Christmas hymns, but a hard, strong, uncompromising song of bringing down rulers from their thrones and humbling the lords of this world, of God’s power and of the powerlessness of women.  These are the tones of the prophetic women of the Old Testament: Deborah, Judith, Miriam, coming alive in the mouth of Mary.”

Notice how Bonhoeffer and Luke’s Mary reject sentimentalism which is so often a cover for refusing to look at issues of justice and injustice.  Mary and Bonhoeffer offer us a version of advent and therefore of Christmas that is beyond sentimentalism.

See Houston Catholic Worker: Publication of Casa Juan Diego House of Hospitality, Oct-Dec. 2019, vol. 39, no. 4.

See Matthew Fox, “On Desentimentalizing Spirituality,” in Matthew Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets, pp. 297-316.  The article walks one through Anne Douglas’ book on sentimentalism, The Feminization of American Culture.

Banner Image: Famous Icon of Dorothy Day sitting with a poor man affectionately with her comforting arm on his back, along with soup and coffee. The special teaching of the icon is that the traditional halo w/letters of Christ’s name, is around the poor man identifying the Christ presence in the lowliest among us. Photo used with special permission from the artist Kelly Latimore. Purchase HERE

Queries for Contemplation

Does Bonhoeffer’s reflections on Mary speak to you?

How does this “oldest Advent hymn” speak to you and to your spirituality and its quest for mysticism and prophecy? 

How does it and/or Bonhoeffer’s sermon assist your preparation for Chanukah or for Christmas?

Recommended Reading

Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life

In one of his foundational works, Fox engages in substantive discussions with some of history’s greatest mystics, philosophers, and prophets on today’s social and spiritual issues on such challenging topics as Eco-Spirituality, AIDS, homosexuality, spiritual feminism, environmental revolution, Native American spirituality, Christian mysticism, Art and Spirituality, Art as Meditation, Interspirituality, and more.

Learn More