Contemplation

This week I finished Jim Forest's  All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day,  just published by Orbis Books. I highly recommend this inspiring and beautiful book, filled with photos and quotes of Dorothy Day, the founder of  The Catholic Worker.

One quote really struck me. About 1970 she visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and spoke with the novices of her order, the Missionaries of Charity.

Christ remains with us not only through the Mass but in the 'distressing disguise' of the poor. To live with the poor is to live in the constant presence of Jesus.

Though I live, for now, in a fairly comfortable house in Santa Rosa de Copán, I often have the privilege of visiting rural villages, sitting in people's home, sharing a meal, and occasionally sleeping over.  For me, this has been a real gift of grace. They are moments of contemplation, of encounters with God.

All this fills me with joy and gratitude to God, to the poor, and to the people who help me be here. Another quote of Dorothy day, from her early book From Union Square to Rome well expresses how I feel tonight:

Gratitude brought me into the Church and that gratitude grows, and the first word my heart will utter when I face God is "Thanks."

Deo gratias!