The Long Loneliness

A wonderful memoir. Very interesting to read about Dorothy Day's journey. It was interesting to learn about how she struggled reconciled her commitment to nonviolence and the support of the working class with her conversion to Catholicism. Also very interesting to learn about her love for literature, particulary Dostoevsky.

When I think of the human suffering, the terrible amount of energy needed to move even infinitesimally toward a more decent life I am amazed at human patience.

If I got down on my knees I thought, “Do I really believe? Whom am I praying to?” A terrible doubt came over me, and a sense of shame, and I wondered if I was praying because I was lonely, because I was unhappy.

The most significant thing is community, others say. We are not alone anymore. But the final word is love. At times it has been, in the words of Father Zossima, a harsh and dreadful thing, and our very faith in love has been tried through fire. We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.