Dorothy Day ~ It was Mrs. Barrett who gave me the first impulse toward Catholicism. It was around ten oclock in the morning that I went up to Kathryns to call for her to come and play. There was no one on the porch or in the kitchen. The breakfast dishes had all been washed. They were long railroad apartments, those flats, and thinking the children must be in the front room, I burst in and ran through the bedrooms. In the front bedroom Mrs. Barrett was on her knees, saying her prayers. She turned to tell me that Kathryn and the children had all gone to the store and went on with her praying. And I felt a warm burst of love toward Mrs. Barrett that I have never forgotten, a feeling of gratitude and happiness that still warms my heart when I remember her. She had God, and there was beauty in her life. All through my life what she was doing remained with me. And though I became oppressed with the problem of poverty and injustice, though I groaned at the hideous sordidness of mans lot, though there were years when I clung to the philosophy of economic determinism as an explanation of mans fate, still there were moments when...life was sot through with glory. Mrs. Barrett in her sordid little tenement flat finished her breakfast dishes at ten oclock in the morning and got down on her knees and prayed to God.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:01:59 +0000
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