To my detriment, it's been a while since I have read any Dorothy Day so I decided to read a collection of her On Pilgrimage columns from the 1960s.

She writes often of her Catholic Worker cofounder, Peter Maurin, who died in 1949. In one column from May in 1965, she reflects on his philosophy of the freedom to choose. Every one of us has this freedom and it is the core of Day and Maurin's concept of anarchism. Rather than criticizing the state or the church for not doing what we feel they ought to be doing, it is on each person to choose to do their part.

I was particularly drawn to a part where Day writes how there are times when we feel helpless against the big problems or forces in our world. These things cause us fear as individuals. She says,

"Peter Maurin’s teaching was that just as each one of us is responsible for the ills of this world, so too each one of us has freedom to choose to work in the little way for our brother."

The little way is, of course, a reference to St Terese’ little way: doing our small part every day.

I think what resonates here is that fear and helplessness in the face of big problems can so easily take over my thinking. I also get frustrated that other people (not just institutions, but individuals) don’t choose to do their part. But Day argues that the reason to study the saints is to see how their faith manifested in physical work and action for others. I don’t get the sense that she is looking to grand actions, but rather the little way again. The saints show us what it means to love God by loving others in their individual contexts.

Side note: I wrote an essay on Day for my masters that specifically explored her relationship to the saints. I need to put that on here.