Dorothy Day was living a radical, bohemian lifestyle in New York City as a socialist journalist, aspiring to save the world while caught up in the social rebellion and loose morals of the time. After suffering an abortion, which failed to save a doomed love affair, she found herself far from God. Though she had feared that He would punish her with barrenness for her sin, a few years later God brought light into her life, granting her a child with the man with whom she was then living. It was the joys of motherhood which drew her back to God, and the desire for eternal happiness for her daughter which gave her the courage to seek Baptism for both of them, even though it meant leaving the man she loved. Dorothy later turned her restless desires toward improving the conditions of the working poor and to founding the Catholic Worker Movement. It is no coincidence that after her conversion she dedicated her life to promoting the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, returning in her work with the poor the mercy she had received. Her cause for sainthood is now open.
Originally printed in IMPRINT Magazine Spring 2015.
