Involuntary versus voluntary penance

St. Angela of Foligno said that penances voluntarily undertaken are not half so meritorious as those imposed on us by the circumstances of our lives and cheerfully borne. ...

Most of us have not the courage to set out on this path wholeheartedly, so God arranges it for us.

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

You know, that never would have occurred to me. It provides food for thought about how I live my life. For one thing I am terrible about taking up voluntary penances for the improvement of my soul. It is a comfort to think that God provides anyway.

Not that I love inconvenience or hardship, but we can't escape it so this is just one more way to orient myself toward the good that can come (and is intended) from it.

Prayer for a Busy Day

What kind of an interior life can a mother of three children have who is doing all her own work on a farm with wood fires to tend and water to pump? Or the grandmother either?

[...]

How to lift the heart to God, our first beginning and last end, except to say with the soldier about to go into battle — "Lord, I'll have no time to think of Thee but do Thou think of me."

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

Within those ellipses (...) Day gave a summary of all her activities on the farm with her daughter. Oy veh!

You don't have to be a mother with little ones to occasionally look at the day ahead and foretell so much activity that just keeping on track is a chore, much less hoping for any spare time to feel the presence of God. I love that prayer for that very reason.

First Friday and Our "Saint of the Day" - Dorothy Day

I forgot to mention that it is First Friday when some fellow bloggers and I fast and go to adoration for an end to abortion.

On my way out the door, I figured that I'd better have something to read ... so I grabbed Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Dorothy Day by David Scott. (I'm not going to go into the series of circumstances that reminded me that I had it languishing in the bookshelf ... just take my word for it that it was fortituous to say the least).

Of course, that was just what I needed to be reading to really let the plight of babies, parents, and abortion providers sink into my heart in a new, universal way. As well as keeping the sidewalk counselors and all those working to help fight abortion in my prayers as well.

A sampling of what I came across:

Ten Meditations for Our Time

8. I love God as much as I love the one I love the least.

Father Hugo

9. Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.

Dostoyevsky

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The Seed of Divine Life

In a book by Hugh of St. Victor which I read once on the way from St. Paul to Chicago, there is a conversation between the soul and God about this love. The soul is petulant and wants to know what kind of a love is that which loves all indiscriminately, the thief and the Samaritan, the wife and the mother and the harlot?

The soul complains that it wishes a particular love, a love for herself alone. And God replies fondly that after all, since no two people are alike in this world, He has indeed a particular fondness for each one of us, an exclusive love to satisfy each one alone.

It is hard to believe in this love because it is a devouring love. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a living God. If we do once catch a glimpse of it we are afraid of it. Once we recognize that we are sons of God, that the seed of divine life has been planted in us at baptism, we are overcome by that obligation placed upon us of growing in the love of God. And what we do not do voluntarily, He will do for us.

Now, as I was meditating upon all these things and much more, to be sure, in my mind's eye it was as if Dorothy was standing in front of me. I realized that I had become acquainted with her and then let her slip from my mind.

And when I realized this, she nodded and said forcefully, "Well, it's about time."

Bam!

Then I come back here and Father Martin's blog tour posts have Dorothy Day woven in everywhere. I can't look anywhere without seeing her being mentioned by someone.

Ok. Message received.

I believe I am going to reread On Pilgrimage and put a request into the library for The Long Loneliness (I think that's the name).

I must put in a personal thank you here to David Scott for his insistence on introducing me to Dorothy. He knew we'd get along and he was right.