For Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker community afforded a context in which the daily realities of life were fully experienced and faith, hope, and love were tested.
Community is a reminder of what we often forget, that love is not a feeling but an action – an act of will. Dorothy drew on the spiritual genius of Dostoevsky who wrote in The Brothers Karamazov that “One can love one’s neighbors in the abstract, or even at a distance, but at close quarters it’s almost impossible.” And yet, “the impossible” is what the Gospel asks of us.
Dorothy knew well the challenges of community. She also knew its joys. The Catholic Worker community was a source of encouragement and companionship. As she wrote in the postscript to her autobiography, “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
