Friday, June 20, 2025

The Long Loneliness

(c) Wikipedia Commons


(c) Bob Fitch Photography Archive / Department of Special Collections / Stanford University Libraries

 

The Long Loneliness

​​“People have so great a need to reverence, to worship, to adore; it is a psychological necessity of human nature that must be taken into account. We do not like to admit how people fail us. Even those most loved show their frailty and their weaknesses and no matter how we may will to see only the best in others, their strength rather than their weakness, we are all too conscious of our own failings and recognize them in others.” TLL p. 84

 

Every strike was an unjust strike according to the newspapers, and every strike ended in failure to achieve the demands of the workers according to the same papers. The reader never took into account the slow and steady gains, wrung reluctantly from the employer by virtue of everyone of these strikes, the slow advance made to appear in the wrong when on the picket line. This is the most I had suffered in the cause of labor.  TLL p 100

 

When I was a child, my sister and I kept notebooks; recording happiness made it last longer, we felt, and recording sorrow dramatized it and took away its bitterness; and often we settled some problem which beset us, even while we wrote about it. TLL p 115

 

…of course the Church was lined up with property, with the wealthy, with the state, with capitalism, with all the forces of reaction. This I had been thought to think and this I still think to a great extent. ‘Too often,’ Cardinal Mundelein said, ‘has the Church lined up on the wrong side.’ TLL p 149

 

… I wanted to be poor, chaste and obedient. I wanted to die in order to live, to put off the old man and put on Christ. I loved, in other words, and like all women in love, I wanted to be untied to my love. TLL p 149

 

“The scandal of businesslike priests, of collective wealth, the lack of a sense of responsibility for the poor, the worker, the Negro, the Mexican, the Filipino, and even the oppression of these, and the consenting to the oppression of them by our industrialist-capitalist order—these made me feel often that priests were more like Cain than Abel. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” they seemed to say in respect to the social order. There was plenty of charity but too little justice. And yet the priests were the dispensers of the Sacraments, bringing Christ to men, all enabling us to put on Christ and to achieve more nearly in the world a sense of peace and unity. “The worst enemies would be those of our own household,” Christ had warned us.”

But I know nothing of the social teaching o the church at that time. I had never heard of the encyclicals. I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor, that St. Patrick’s had been built for the pennies of servant girls, day nurseries, hos of the Good Shepherd, home for the ages but at the same time, I felt that I did not set its face against a social order with made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity? And it was not just human pride but a strong sense of man’s dignity and work, and what was to him in justice, that made me resent, rather than feel proud of so might a sum total of Catholic institutions. TLL p. 150

 

Many times we have been asked why we spoke of Catholic workers, and so named the paper. Of course, it was not only because we who were in charge of the work, who edited the paper, were all Catholics but also because we wished to influence Catholics. They were our own, and we reacted sharply to the accusation that when it came to private morality the Catholics shone but when it came to social and political morality, they were often conscienceless. Also, Catholics were the poor, and most of them had little ambition or hope of bettering their condition to the extent of achieving ownership of home or business, or further education for their children. They accepted things as they were with humility and looked for a better life to come. . .. TLL 210

 

Peter’s plan was that groups should borrow from mutual-aid credit unions in the parish to start what he first liked to call agronomic universities, where the worker could become a scholar and the scholar a worker. Or he wanted people to give the land and money. He always spoke of giving. Those who had land and tools should give. Those who had capital should give. Those who had labor should give that. “Love is an exchange of gifts,” St. Ignatius had said. It was in these simple, practical, down-to-earth ways that people could show their love for each other. If the love was not there in the beginning, but only the need, such gifts made love grow.

“To make love,” Peter liked to study phrases, and to use them as though they were newly discovered. (Honest to God was the title of one of his series of essays).

The strangeness of the phrase “to make love” strikes me now and reminds me of that aphorism of St. John of the Cross, “Where there is no love, put love and you will find love.” I’ve thought of it and followed it many times these eighteen years of community life. TLL p 224

“Eat what you raise and raise what you eat” meant that you ate the things indigenous to the New York climate, such as tomatoes, not oranges; honey, not sugar, etc. We used to tease him because he drank coffee, chocolate or tea, but “he ate what was set before him.” TLL p 227

 

“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” TLL p 286

 

While I was in Puerto Vallarta, my friend Richard was reading The Long Loneliness, the autobiography of the Catholic social activist, Dorothy Day. I have always been intrigued by her–a devout Catholic who sought not just to serve the poor but address the social structures can made them poor. Even as a youth, she had yearned to be with the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. This led her to be associated with leftist activists, communists and labor leaders, supporting their efforts to address the root causes of want. She worked as a journalist, writing about labor strikes and labor conditions; she protested with suffragettes in their cause to give women the right to vote, and supported pacifists during World War, not a popular stand. As a young woman, she had many tragic relationships and had an abortion. She finally found happiness with Forster Batterman, her common law husband, with whom she had a daughter, Tamar. But ultimately, she listened to her interior callings of the divine, and ultimately converted to Catholicism, which caused Batterman, who was an atheist, to break with her and her daughter. While Dorothy grieved the loss of the great love of her life, she believed that this was the price for following Christ.

 

A few years after becoming a Catholic, she was introduced to Peter Maurin, a peasant scholar, who aligned with Dorothy’s inclinations to the poor, to live simply and put into effect the Beatitudes. Peter, who at one time had been a Salesian brother, taught her of Catholic culture and understandings: the Desert Fathers, the Catholic Church’s social teachings and theological understandings of the common good. Peter, who at one time had been a Salesian brother, sought to create a society where it is easy for people to be good. Together with other like-minded folks, they sought out to live out the radical teachings of Jesus, e.g. loving one’s enemy, turning the other cheek and living out Matthew 25’s commands. Peter and Dorothy founded The Catholic Worker, a newspaper that highlighted their lived Gospel values, papal encyclical teachings, contemporary labor disputes, and pacifist views. Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality, run by single and married lay persons living simply in community, were established in many cities to feed the hungry and provide shelter for the unhoused. Some houses were established in rural areas for workers and families to live in community and till the land to raise crops and livestock.

 

I appreciated reading Dorothy’s first-hand account of her life. She strikes me as refreshingly human and real. She longed to have a man by her side that she loved and loved in return. “It was years before I woke up without that longing for a face pressed against my breast, an arm about my shoulder. The sense of loss was there.” And like all of us, she made mistakes and sinned. “Aside from drug addiction, I committed all the sins young people commit.” She struck me as a contemporary woman feeling empathy for the marginalized and disenfranchised even as a young person. She tells of protesting and participating in a hunger strike for women’s right to vote. She spoke of her admiration of communist and atheist colleagues who sacrificed lives of comfort for a greater cause, for the sake of others.

 

As a Christian, Dorothy seemed practical, not theoretical. Her words were rooted in the Gospel and her actions in seeing Christ in fellow human beings, and  loving them. Once a woman came to her door asking if Dorothy had visions and ecstasies, to which she responded curtly, “I have visions of unpaid bills.” Like St. Francis of Assisi, she presented a radical return to simplicity in how she lived her life: Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the peacemakers. Love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Feed the hungry. Welcome the stranger. Clothe the naked.

 

She speaks embracing poverty and being depending on the providence of God. She refers to the miracle of the fishes and loaves, taking the little that you have and sharing it and watching it multiply. If you have $100, give it to the poor and watch it come back two-fold, five-fold, even ten-fold. And she speaks of community, as the early Christians lived or as a lay community of monks, living out the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience while serving the poor. She has no illusions that working with the poor or living in community are easy. The poor are often smelly and ungrateful. She cites many incidents where living in community fell apart, but the desire to love continues to be borne out in with others sharing a common purpose. 

 

As someone who is both drawn to and repulsed by those who are unhoused, Dorothy Day is a local saint. I recognize how dirtiness and bodily odors repel me but I admire their vulnerability and how they live with so little, wholly dependent on the kindness and generosity of others. And in this time of horrendous ICE raids on the undocumented in this country and the demonization of refugees, I look for her guidance. 

 

*****

“Aside from drug addiction, I committed all the sins young people commit today.

 

“It is people who are important, not the masses.”

 

“We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.”

 

“I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor,... but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity? And it was not just human pride but a strong sense of man's dignity and worth, and what was due to him in justice, that made me resent, rather than feel proud of so mighty a sum total of Catholic institutions.”

 

“Once a priest told us that no one gets up in the pulpit without promulgating a heresy. He was joking, of course, but what I suppose he meant was the truth was so pure, so holy, that it was hard to emphasize one aspect of the truth without underestimating another, that we did not see things as a whole, but through a glass darkly, as St. Paul said.”

 

“I felt, even at fifteen, that God meant man to be happy, that He meant to provide him with what he needed to maintain life in order to be happy, and that we did not need to have quite so much destruction and misery as I saw all around and read of in the daily press.”

 

“I was lonely, deadly lonely. And I was to find out then, as I found out so many times, over and over again, that women especially are social beings, who are not content with just husband and family, but must have a community, a group, an exchange with others. Young and old, even in the busiest years of our lives, we women especially are victims of the long loneliness.”

“It was years before I woke up without that longing for a face pressed against my breast, an arm about my shoulder. The sense of loss was there.”

“I never was so unhappy, never felt so great the sense of loneliness. No matter how many times I gave up mother, father, husband, brother, daughter, for His sake, I had to do it over again.”

“Tamar is partly responsible for the title of this book in that when I was beginning it she was writing me about how alone a mother of young children always is. I had also just heard from an old woman who lived a long and full life, and she too spoke of her loneliness.”

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Be grateful

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


 Happie Bday Susan! <3 u

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Tony's Chocolonely

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Dear Oskar:

I hope you:

taste new foods,

explore your world,

play improvisationally,

create art,

tell stories,

sing songs,

dance exhaustively,

make friends,

and rest peacefully

Happy bday. 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Family Traditions

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


 Happy Father's Day

Friday, June 13, 2025

Live, Laugh, Love

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


 Congrats Ade on graduating from UCLA

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Congratulations

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


 Happy Retirement Paloma!

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Blessing of Hope

 (c) "hope" by transp is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

BLESSING OF HOPE

So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day—
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:

hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,

hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,

hope that has breath
and a beating heart,

hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,

hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,

hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause,

hope that raises us
from the dead—

not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.


--Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief


 

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Maybe faith, maybe hope

 

(c) Johan Neven
In the winter I am writing about, there was much darkness. Darkness of nature, darkness of event, darkness of the spirit. The sprawling darkness of not knowing.

 We speak of the light of reason. I would speak here of the darkness of the world, and the light of___. But I don’t know what to call it. Maybe hope. Maybe faith, but not a shaped faith—only, say, a gesture, or a continuum of gestures. But probably it is closer to hope, that is more active, and far messier than faith must be. Faith, as I imagine it, is tensile, and cool, and has no need of words. Hope, I know, is a fighter and a screamer.

 --Mary Oliver 

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Congratulations!

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee

 Congrats Lucy Maes on graduating from St. Ignatius!

Friday, May 30, 2025

DREAMS

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee

 Congratullations Rubén on your retirement!

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Celebrate

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Happy 33rd bday to James, my new neighbor.
 

Sunday, May 18, 2025

may you be happy

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 Happy 60th Birthday Adrian!

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Celebrating

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 Happy 50th Birthday Octavio!

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Art for Older Adults

Paintings from my Art for Older Adults Class at City College of SF.

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee


Monday, May 12, 2025

Habemus Papam: Pope Leo XIV

While I was at work, I got a text that a new pope had been chosen. I was searching to see who it was but I, and the whole world, was waiting for the announcement. The new pope was Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the second pope from the Americas; he was born in the US and a naturalized citizen of Peru. He was from the Order of St. Augustine; he has been bishop of Chiclayo in Peru for 20 years and was elected prior general of the Order from 2001-2013. Most recently he had been appointed to head the Discastery of Bishops, the office responsible for selecting priests to be bishops. Pope Leo XIV.

 

I was actually surprised and not a little worried that the pope was from the United States, as the hierarchy of the US has become increasingly conservative, often aligning itself with the Republican Party, for its support for abortion restrictions, anti-gay restrictions, and other cultural issues. I have become disappointed with the US Catholic Conference of Bishops for its tepid response to President Trump’s treatment of immigrants, refugees and blind eye to corruption. The word on the street is that the cardinals would elect a pope who would temper the progressive initiatives of Pope Francis who championed dialog and people on the margins.

 

We have to see how Pope Leo guides his flock. There are indications that are hopeful. While he comes from the US, which is often parochial and self-referential in outlook, Pope Leo seems to have a global outlook; he has been a missionary, who speaks five languages (English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese), and has served the universal Church.

 

He has chosen the name Leo, in reference to Pope Leo XIII, who initiated the Church’s social teaching with the encyclical Rerum Novarum, which defended the rights of workers to fair wages, safe working conditions and rights to form trade unions, while defending the property rights and free enterprise. This began the church’s advocacy for the social conditions that are necessary for the full development of the human being. Sin was not only a personal failing; sin was also evident in the structures that oppressed and destroyed human lives, and as such the Church had a role in decrying such structures. 

 

But ultimately, it is how Pope Leo XIV comes to bear Christ in our modern times. What does Jesus have to say to us in these times of war in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Sudan? What does the Gospel have to say to us in this time of political upheaval, closing borders and stark economic inequality? What we need now is a shepherd that speaks the gospel with clarity in these dark and confusing times. We need a shepherd that smells like sheep because he is among the sheep and knows the signs of the times. We need a shepherd that goes to the margins and is dirty, and smelling, and exhausted because he is not afraid of being with his flock. We need to hear words of faith, love and hope. In his first homily, Pope Leo XIV speaks of advocating for the poor and migrants, of aligning himself with ordinary people and not the rich and powerful. 

 

This photo of the Vicar of Christ gives me hope.

 

via James Martin SJ

 

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Jumping for Joy

© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee

Felíz día de las madres
 

Sunday, May 4, 2025

LOVE: do your part

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 #ppcearthday2025

Sunday, April 27, 2025

the coffee


© 2025 Hector Viveros Lee