Category Archives: North America

Bill W.  – January 24

North America, This century (1937-2024),

Bible Connection

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. — Romans 14:1-4

All about Bill Wilson (1895-1971)

Bill Wilson was an alcoholic at a time when there was little understanding of addiction. He had his first drink while in the Army during World War I. “I had found the elixir of life” he recalled, and he soon began to drink heavily. After the war, he married Lois Burnham in 1918, and enjoyed great success trading stocks on Wall Street. He lost all of his money in the stock market crash of 1929, but he continued to trade stocks and managed to earn a modest living. However, his heavy drinking continued to get worse, and it slowly took its toll.

Eventually alcohol completely took over his life. By 1933, he had hit bottom. Bill and Lois were living in her parent’s home in Brooklyn. Lois was working in a department store, while Bill spent his days and nights in a near-constant alcoholic stupor. In 1934 After a binge that nearly killed him, he was visited by an old drinking companion Ebby Thacher and was surprised to find that he had been sober for several weeks under the guidance of the evangelical Christian Oxford Group. Wilson took some interest in the group. He shortly after admitted himself to the hospital to end his binge and detox.

It was while undergoing treatment, Thacher visited and tried to persuade him to turn himself over to the care of God as Christians understood him, the God who would liberate him from alcohol. That evening, as low as ever, he had a spiritual experience that changed his life. According to Wilson, while lying in bed depressed and despairing, he cried out, “I’ll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself!” He then had the sensation of a bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a new serenity.

In the book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age he recounts it in his own words

Suddenly the room lit up with a bright white light. I was caught up in an ecstasy which there are no words to describe. It seemed to me, in the mind’s eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind, not of air bit of spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on the bed but now for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness. All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of presence and I thought to myself, “So this is the God of the preachers.” A great peace stole over me and I thought, “No matter how wrong things seem to be, they are still alright. Things are alright with God and his world.”

He never drank again for the rest of his life. Wilson described his experience to Dr. William Silkworth, his psychiatrist and medical mentor, who told him, “Something has happened to you I don’t understand. But you had better hang on to it”. Silkworth later recounted, “God had done for him what he could not do for himself.” Bill Wilson had a spiritual awakening and his belief in a higher power and the realization that he couldn’t do it alone would help him to conquer his addiction. He continued in the hospital, getting the latest treatment. He wrote about it:

“While I lay in the hospital, the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given me. Perhaps I could help some of them. They in turn might work with others.”

He then came to understand how helping others would be essential to his recovery. After his release, he managed to stay sober. He returned to the hospital frequently to help other alcoholics undergoing detox.

Bill W and Bob S. — co-founders of A. A.

It was during this time that he faced a moment of truth at the bar in the Mayflower Hotel. When he was thinking about whether to drink, he called another alcoholic named  Dr. Bob Smith. Wilson and Smith helped each other and then reached out to other alcoholics. Soon they began to hold meetings for recovering alcoholics. They wanted the support and they thought others would want to welcome in others who were looking for help.

By the time the group had about 100 members, Bill began to write down his philosophy as a series of principles for remaining sober. He eventually published them in a book called Alcoholics Anonymous, which also became the name of the organization that he and Dr. Smith founded. That book is now known as The Big Book.

In it, Bill wrote that the key to sobriety was a change of heart. He defined 12 steps to recovery that included an admission that one is powerless over the addiction, a belief in a higher power, making restitution for the wrongs one has committed, and service to others. The co-founder Dr. Robert Smith, in whose house the first meetings were held, and the Jesuit Father Edward Dowling, may be more responsible for the spiritual foundation of A.A. than Wilson. But he synthesized it all and became the prophet.

Bill did not want anyone to profit from their association with A.A. and he believed that one way to avoid that was for members to keep their identities a secret. Also, A.A. members are not required to contribute and no contribution over $1,000 is accepted. He never took a salary for his work or accepted any financial gifts.

As the membership of A.A. grew, he acted as their public spokesman but he never revealed his identity. Bill testified before the U.S. Senate in 1969, but he would only allow himself to be photographed from behind. He wouldn’t allow himself to be photographed at all “even from behind” for a Time magazine cover.

Lois and Bill Wilson

Alcoholics Anonymous has more than 2 million members in over 150 countries today. A.A.’s success in helping alcoholics caused the American Medical Association to officially recognize alcoholism as a disease instead of a failure of will power in 1956. After Bill Wilson died, his wife Lois founded Al-Anon and Alateen as support groups for spouses and children of alcoholics.

The 12-step program that Bill Wilson developed has been successfully adapted to assist those suffering from many other types of addictive and self-destructive behaviors, and spawned many other recovery organizations, including; Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Gambler’s Anonymous, Debtor’s Anonymous, Smoker’s Anonymous and Workaholics Anonymous.

Writings

Quotes

  • Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life – the one that did not work – for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever.
  • True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the profound desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.
  • Indecision with the passing of time becomes decision.

More

Bio from Stepping Stones, historic home site.

“The spiritual beginnings of AA” from Silkworth.com, a treasure trove of all things AA.

Bill W. the documentary (trailer above)

We know more about addiction these days. Bill W. apparently traded his alcohol addiction for others:

  • Though Bill Wilson’s contributions to the understanding of alcoholism and recovery are legendary, he was not a saint. According to many, he was an unrepentant womanizer after A.A. became famous. Many women were attracted to him due to his celebrity within the organization. He reportedly trolled A.A. meetings for young women and offered them private “counseling.” His wife Lois mostly ignored his infidelities.
  • He was also blind to the ill effects that smoking had on his health until it was too late. He continued to smoke even though near the end of his life he was suffering from advanced emphysema. He was so addicted to tobacco he would turn off the oxygen he needed to assist his breathing so that he could have a cigarette. He died in Miami in 1971.

What do we do with this?

Spirituality is a group project. It is hard to stay “sober” if we are going it alone. Building community is more important than ever in this atomized world. Any lack of effort could be costly.

A.A. is famous for being more accepting and affirming than the church. In that sense it is a superior denomination than many. Can you instigate a dialogue with your pastor or other church leaders about the advantages A.A. built in to making disciples of A.A?

Bill W.’s various levels of immorality and self-destructive behavior might undermine his right to appear in our blog celebrating notable Christians. His orthodoxy even seems a bit weak. But he is a great example of being part of a team and building community. He is a striking example of not taking public credit in a society obsessed with fame. His anti-individualism and unstinting acceptance has saved lives. Do you keep yourself safe in the eyes of others at the expense of saving others?

Thomas Dorsey — January 23

North America, This century (1937-2024)

The Father of Gospel Music Wanted to Be a Secular Star

Bible connection

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Ephesians 5:18-20

All about Thomas Dorsey (1899-1993)

Thomas Dorsey was 33 years old and had a flourishing career in secular music. In the previous fifteen years, the Georgia native had moved to Chicago, completed his musical studies while picking up an endless number of side jobs, and eventually found a way to support himself and his expectant wife as a full-time musician. But it wasn’t to last. In the next months Dorsey lost his wife and newborn son, a tragedy which spurred him to heed the advice of those closest to him. He left the secular music scene behind and fully dedicated his musical gifts to the church.

Over the next 60 years, Dorsey became known as the “Father of Gospel Music,” writing hundreds of songs and redefining the genre in beat, rhythm, and tempo. As The Voice reported, the Chicago musician dubbed his work “songs with a message.”

Here’s the full story:

Thomas A. Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, outside of Atlanta, in 1899, the son of an itinerant Baptist preacher. When his father and mother married, his mother brought a significant amount of land. But within a few years, the family lost their property. Thomas’s father was forced to work as a sharecropper on the very land formerly owned by his wife’s family. In 1908 the Dorseys moved to Atlanta where both parents worked to help the family survive.

Thomas was placed a year behind his classmates in the Atlanta public school system and his peers often made fun of his speech and clothes. He dropped out of school at 10 and began working at a prominent black vaudeville theater, carrying water and doing other odd jobs.

As a young boy, Thomas learned to play the piano from his mother. After the family moved to Atlanta, he walked 30 miles a week to take formal music lessons. As he improved, he began playing for churches, house rent parties (parties organized by tenants to pay for their rent), bordellos, and women’s teas to help supplement his family’s income.

In 1916, at 17, Dorsey moved north to Chicago to pursue a musical career. Success was initially hard to come by. He found he couldn’t earn union scale wages as a musician without a card, and he couldn’t obtain the card without a formal music education. To pay for his education, Dorsey worked days at a steel mill in Gary, Indiana, attended school at night, and established his own nightly rent-party circuit . In 1919, Dorsey completed his musical studies at the Chicago College of Composition and Arrangement and obtained his union card. Now he was free to play anywhere in Chicago and performed with various groups, including the Whispering Syncopators and a jazz orchestra.

Dorsey also joined Pilgrim Baptist Church. A preacher’s kid who had confessed faith in Christ as a child, he had also been influenced by his father’s flamboyant style, which he often imitated on the family porch. But faith wasn’t a serious priority in Dorsey’s life until his early 20s. Initially, Dorsey’s conversion spurred him to end his secular music career, and he began playing for a storefront church. But the salary wasn’t enough to pay his bills. So, once again, Dorsey began to work in jazz and blues clubs. In 1924, Dorsey, with the Wild Cats Jazz Band, debuted with Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, at the Grand Theater in Chicago. Performing with Rainey was a significant career break for Dorsey — she was known as the “Mother of the Blues.”

Despite personal success, depression plagued Dorsey throughout his career. He appeared on stage one night with Ma Rainey and was unable to play. He said, “I could move my fingers. I just couldn’t play. Think of that. I have the muscular ability to move, but I can’t play. In other words, I can’t make music. I can’t create.” Some of those close to Dorsey, however, believed something else was at work. His wife and sister-in-law were unhappy that he had continued to pursue a secular musical career. Dorsey’s wife, Nettie, whom he married in 1925, believed that God had called him to write and sing gospel music and that the source of his inner turmoil stemmed from ignoring God’s calling.

Yet his secular career was rising. In 1928, Dorsey and guitarist Tampa Red released, It’s Tight Like That—a national sensation and a religious scandal. The song’s bawdy lyrics described lovemaking between a man and a woman. It was an instant success, selling over 500,000 copies.

Things began to change for Dorsey in the 1930s when influential church musicians began championing his music. A performance of Dorsey’s composition of If You See My Savior during a morning devotion left people “slain in the spirit.” Two NBC musicians gave Dorsey permission to set up a booth at the 1930 convention where he sold more than 4,000 copies of that song. For his part, Dorsey continued to play secular music while he visited churches and asked pastors to listen to his religious compositions.

In 1932, Dorsey’s battle between secular and sacred reached a tragic resolution. The musician had gone to St. Louis to sing at a revival. During his trip, he received a telegram telling him to return home—his wife had just died in childbirth. His infant son died the next day.

Initially, Dorsey was angry with God, believing God had wronged him. In his grief, he refused to do anything for God; he only wanted to pursue his secular career. But God had something to say to him, as Dorsey later recounted in The Precious Lord Story and Gospel Songs: “You are not alone. I tried to speak to you before. It was you that should have gotten out of the car and not gone to St. Louis. … I said, Thank you, Lord, I understand. I’ll never make that same mistake again.”

The following Saturday after Nettie’s death, Dorsey met up with his friend Theodore Frye. There, he later said, God gave him the words and melody for Take My Hand, Precious Lord: “Something happened to me there. I had a strange feeling inside … a calm—a quiet stillness. As my fingers began to manipulate over the keys, words began to fall in place on the melody like drops of water falling from the crevice of a rock.” The popularity of Precious Lord throughout the country helped revolutionize the worship atmosphere and later, inspired many in the civil rights movement. Frye introduced the song to Martin Luther King Sr.’s Ebenezer Church. On the day he died, Martin Luther King Jr. requested that Precious Lord play at a future event. Aretha Franklin sang it at his funeral. (In the documentary Say Amen Somebody Dorsey tells the story behind the song).

Ebenezer Gospel Chorus

Dorsey dubbed his music “gospel blues” due to the similarity of his gospel rhythms and vocals to those heard in blues and jazz clubs. He employed the “call and response” pattern in his songs that also reminded pastors of songs composed and sung by their enslaved ancestors.

Eventually, Dorsey’s style of worship took hold. In 1931, the established “silk-stocking” Ebenezer Baptist Church organized a gospel choir, marking the beginning of gospel music’s acceptance by mainline churches. The energy from the Great Migration also impacted this social musical revolution. Blacks relocating to the North from the South wanted a type of singing that reminded them of home—songs with rhythm, hands clapping, and feet tapping. Frustrated with the Northern worship style, newly arrived Southern blacks who had joined large churches left and began to join storefront churches where worship services resembled the ones they left in the South. Pastors at traditional churches began to take notice.

At Pilgrim Baptist, Dorsey’s own pastor was encouraged by the success of Ebenezer’s gospel choir, and he soon hired Dorsey to serve as the church’s gospel choir director and musician in 1932. Dorsey held that position for more than 50 years. Ebenezer and Pilgrim’s acceptance of gospel music as a religious genre helped to fuel gospel music’s prominence in church worship not only in Chicago but also across the country.

Thomas Dorsey published and performed his own music for decades. He earned his nickname as “The Father of Gospel Music” because of his impact on traditional gospel from the 1930s to 1950s. For most of his life, when he wasn’t playing or leading music in Chicago, Dorsey traveled around the United States demonstrating his music, conducting workshops, presiding over music conventions, and occasionally writing.

More

From The History of Gospel Music

Dorsey recording

What do we do with this?

For what will we use our talents? For what will we strive? It is a question in every era of our lives, from childhood to old age. So there is probably a choice for you today. Sit back and ask what needs to be done. And read the circumstances, as Dorsey read the tragedy of his life, and see how they inform your choice, knowing Jesus as you do.

Sit back and enjoy inventive, relevant, inspiring and enlivening music from Dorsey’s era.

11th Day of Christmas / Elizabeth Seton — January 4

Christmastide, North America, The Modern Era (1227-1936),

Image result for mother seton

Bible connection

Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. – Luke 6:12-16

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.  So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. – John 8:31-36

All about Mother Seton (1774-1821)

On the eleventh day of Christmas, many Catholics and Episcopalians honor  Elizabeth Seton, or Mother Seton, who was the first native-born American to be canonized as a saint. [Info from the shrine]

Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City on August 28, 1774 to a prominent Episcopal family, and lost her mother at the age of three. In 1794, at the age of 19, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman with whom she had five children. William died in 1803 of tuberculosis, exacerbated by his financial misfortunes, leaving Elizabeth as a young widow. After discovering Catholicism in Italy, where her husband had died after an attempt at convalescence, Elizabeth returned to the United States and entered the Catholic Church in 1805 in New York.

After a number of difficult years, Elizabeth moved in 1809 to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, the first community for religious women established in the United States. She also began St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, planting the seeds of Catholic education in the United States. Her legacy now includes religious houses in the United States and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty in North America and beyond.

Mother Seton, as she is often called, was canonized on Sunday, September 14, 1975 in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Paul VI. Her remains are entombed in Emmitsburg in the Basilica at the National Shrine that bears her name.

Quotes:

  • The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.
  • The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is his will.

More

Everything you need to know from the shrine in Emmitsburg, MD [link].

More from Seton Hall University in NJ [link}. Most people explore their basketball team [link].

She’s recognized by the National Women’s History Museum in DC [link].

Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in PA [link] The federation that unites them with other Sisters of Charity in their network  in the U.S. and Canada [link].

The Fifer — Édouard Manet (1866)

Also, according to the song, on the 11th day of Christmas my true love sent to me… Eleven pipers piping

The “secret” meaning of the song supposedly notes the eleven faithful apostles: Simon Peter,  Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of  Alphaeus,  Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James (Luke 6:14-16). The list does not include the twelfth disciple, Judas Iscariot, who gave Jesus over to the religious leaders and the Romans.

Being faithful disciples is a lifelong matter and could be costly, as Elizabeth Seton experienced. On this day, however, it is kind of fun to imagine them marching through as pipers.

What do we do with this?

Pray: Thank you for choosing me. Reassure me of my calling. May I be free to live as my true self in your presence.

Want to learn more about the apostles? Here is a video narrated by a nice British accent. It has some disputable assertions, but is interesting.

Mother Seton was undoubtedly a good woman. However, she may have been canonized because the Roman Catholic Church needed an American saint. Regardless, she models a life of service to oppressed women and the poor. And she represents a person who stuck with her convictions when it was not easy to do so. None of us need to be sainted. But we will have a reputation and a legacy of one kind or another. What is yours? Journal a prayer about that.

Clara McBride Hale — December 18

North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. — Galatians 5:13-15

All about Clara McBride Hale (1905-1992)

Clara Hale had a mission of motherhood. Her life experiences helped make her extraordinarily empathetic to the pain and suffering of other mothers and children. Her compassion gave her an unusual capacity to love and to find solutions.

“Mother Hale” was born in North Carolina in 1905. After her father was killed, her mom moved the family to Philadelphia, PA. After she married , she had two children, and adopted a third. Her husband moved the family to New York City, but he lost his battle with cancer when Clara was 27.

Through the Great Depression, Hale raised and supported her children, working as a domestic by day and a janitor by night. In 1943, Hale opened a daycare in her home in order to spend time with her children as well as care for others. It grew from a short–term to a long–term care facility. She also took care of foster children.

When Clara Hale retired in 1968 she could not have foreseen that her most notable endeavor, the founding of Hale House, was yet to begin. Hale House started in 1969 when Clara Hale’s biological daughter, Lorraine, brought a mother and child who were addicted to drugs to Hale’s home. She could not refuse the desperate pair. Actually, she had no choice because the mother disappeared and left the baby behind while Hale made a phone call in another room. Hale took the tiny baby girl and nursed her through drug withdrawals. The young mother had other children, and when she returned to Hale’s residence, she brought the others and left them, too. Eventually she returned to take the children back. Hale sent the family off with her blessing and never charged a penny for her help. Within a few short weeks Mother Hale’s apartment was packed from wall to wall with 22 drug-addicted babies. Some of them were abandoned; some were orphaned. As Mother Hale told the tale to Irene Verag of Newsday, “Before I knew it every pregnant addict in Harlem knew about the crazy lady who would give her baby a home.”

Slowly the Hales (Clara, daughter Lorraine, and sons Nathan and Kenneth) allowed their lives to become virtually consumed by the effort to instill hope and to inject healing into the lives of addicted parents in Harlem. The dedicated family worked day and night to support their cause. Mother Hale kept the frailest of the infants in her own bedroom, cradling them and walking the floors all night when necessary to comfort each one through the painful experience of detoxification. The younger Hales took as many jobs as was necessary to bring in the funds to support the many, many children who came into their home. Hale said, “My daughter says she was almost sixteen before she realized all these other kids weren’t her real sisters and brothers. Everyone called me ‘Mommy.’”

She later got a home license as a “child care facility” in 1970, called the Hale House. A few years later Hale purchased a larger building. In 1975 she was able to attain a license for child-care. She raised the children as if they were her own and once they were healthy she would help to find families interested in adoption. “It wasn’t their fault they were born addicted. Love them. Help one another,” Hale explained to others, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune. She took it upon herself to make sure the families were a correct fit and even in some cases turned families down if she thought they could not provide a good enough home for the child. She eventually helped over 2,000 drug addicted babies and young children who were born addicted to drugs, children born with HIV, and children whose parents had died of AIDS. It was simple, she said; “Hold them, rock them, love them and tell them how great they are.”

After the grant that helped her buy Hale House expired her work became a victim of severe cutbacks of state and city funds. Public agencies with competing services repeatedly harassed the center.

Image result for mother hale house

Successfully supported by individuals, churches, and community groups, Hale House nonetheless became unique in its format and demonstrated a sharp contrast to public agencies for the care of children. In the program’s early days when funds for food and supplies were few and meeting payroll was a constant challenge, Clara Hale’s personal faith in Christ and the love and active concern of ordinary people were her only reliable sources of strength and support. They brought her disposable diapers, formula, and other items that were in constant demand.

One notable admirer spent more than two years, off and on, trying to track down Clara Hale because no one among his circle of friends knew her name. Finally, John Lennon found her and sent a check for $10,000. “He came with his wife and son and spent time with the children,” Hale had said. After Lennon’s tragic death the following year, Yoko Ono, his wife, sent more gifts, including a check for $20,000, which arrived every year thereafter.

One morning, another fan made her way to Hale’s doorstep. As she emerged from a black limousine, the usual paparazzi who typically pressed for pictures were elsewhere. This was a private visit, for sure. Nonetheless, the presence of Princess Diana made it a royal and memorable one. As the princess stood at the top of the brownstone stairs, she lovingly held a baby in her arms. “Thank you for the work you’re doing here for these children,” she said to Mother Hale.

On February 6, 1985, at the close of the State of the Union message to Congress, President Ronald Reagan turned to Mrs. Clara Hale, seated at the side of the first lady, Mrs. Reagan, and recognized “Mother Hale” for helping babies of drug–addicted mothers in Harlem, N.Y. The president said to members of Congress and to all America, “go to her house some night and maybe you’ll see her silhouette against the window as she walks the floor, talking softly, soothing a child in her arms. Mother Hale of Harlem, she too is an American hero.”

More

The media made her a bit famous. Here is a Mother’s Day report from NBC in 1984:

Times obituary [link]

What do we do with this?

It may have been harder than Mother Hale let on. By 1983, 28,000 women had succumbed to drug–addiction in New York City alone. More than 50,000 children were born chemically dependent. These children were also at high risk of acquiring AIDS from their mothers during pregnancy. In New York State, there were about 250,000 addicts. At least 450,000 were users of cocaine, with one out of every 20 people over the age of 12 involved in drugs.

Today, such people are officially known to suffer from “Substance Use Disorder.” But in the 1980s, rather than declare their situation a national health crisis, society declared a crime wave was sweeping the nation. Mass incarceration and benign neglect of poor minorities became the response, rather than the implementation of well–funded addiction treatment and mental health programs.

Systemic issues are just that. If you want to make an individual response to social issues, talk to the powers that be as well as act with compassion in your neighborhood.

Love can accomplish a lot, even if you are needy yourself! Spend a minute a let God love you, needy child who you are.

Transformation often starts with a small inspiration or opportunity and grows up to accomplish a lot! Spend another minute and see what love is doing through you or your church. Give praise for how the love of Jesus flourishes even when the powers-that-be are against it. Maybe it is a good day to imagine how Jesus would like to work through you, or yours. Tell someone about the seed thought you may have and see where it goes.

Catherine Doherty — December 14

Europe, North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do so that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false testimony; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man *said to Him, “All these I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you want to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:16-26 (NASB)

All about Catherine Doherty (1896-1985)

Catherine de Hueck Doherty (née Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkina) was a Catholic lay apostle, a social activist, a pioneer in the struggle for interracial justice, a spiritual writer,  a lecturer, and a spiritual mother to priests and laity.

Doherty was born in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia to parents of deep Christian faith, who also communicated to her an extraordinary love for the poor. She was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1920, she was received into the Roman Catholic Church while in London. Over her lifetime, she integrated both traditions within her own spirituality.

In 1910, when she was fifteen, Doherty entered an arranged marriage with her first cousin, the wealthy nobleman, Boris de Hueck. During the First World War (1914-18), she volunteered as a nurse on the German front and was decorated with the Cross of St. George for courage under fire. Boris was an officer in the Russian Army.

As Russia collapsed, the couple returned to St. Petersburg, where they found nothing to eat. They escaped Russia, rummaging through garbage cans in Finland where they were attacked by Bolsheviks for being aristocrats. Westerners, Catherine later insisted, can’t  understand real starvation, “never having really experienced [food’s] complete absence.”

They ended up in London and eventually moved to Toronto where their son was born. Catherine worked at what menial jobs she found to support her infant and her sick husband. After a time, she found a well-paying position as a lecturer on the the Chatauqua circuit, and later became an executive with the Leigh-Emmerich Lecture Bureau in New York City. Meanwhile, Boris managed to form his own company, which went bankrupt in the Great Depression. Their relationship unraveled and their marriage was annulled by the Catholic Church.

Catherine became a single parent with a small child to support. Yet she felt called by Christ.

During those days I was in the throes of hearing the Lord say, “Sell what you possess … come follow me,” and I was running away from him. One night, while dancing with this man, I heard laughter, a very gentle and kind laughter. I heard what I thought was the voice of God laughing and saying: “You can’t escape me, Catherine, you can’t.” I pleaded a headache and went home. Some new phase of my life was about to begin.

With the blessing of her bishop, she went to live and work with the poor in the slums of Toronto, where she founded Friendship House.

When the work fell apart in Toronto, she went to New York. Two things shocked her: the extent of white racism, and the living conditions in Harlem. At Columbia University, she asked a professor why African-Americans weren’t discussed. He responded: “Oh, we don’t study the Negro. We study American history.” The United States, she wrote, “had this marvelous Constitution, but it doesn’t apply to Negroes.”

In Harlem, she found “a no-man’s land of fear and doubt.” She asked, “Where is God in it all?” In 1938 she founded a Friendship House there, an interracial apostolate dedicated to fighting segregation. Similar missions sprang up all over the country, some sponsored by Doherty. A similar mission that became Fellowship Farm near Pottstown started in Philadelphia in 1931. Like her friend Dorothy Day, the “B.” (the Baroness), as they called her, attracted idealistic young people nationwide. One volunteer recalled:

White people, black people—talking, laughing, friendly, sipping coffee. How simple the solution all seemed then: the sooner we of different races learned to work together, to pray together, to eat, to study, to laugh together, the sooner we’d be on the way to interracial justice.

Advocating civil rights in America, she discovered, could be as deadly as revolutionary Russia. She was spit at and called a “n*gger lover.” At a Catholic women’s group, she was berated for eating “with dirty n*ggers.” When a woman told her, “You smell of the Negro,” Catherine lost her temper: “And you stink of hell!” Once at a lecture in Savannah, she was nearly beaten to death by a group of white Catholic women.

“You have to preach the Gospel, without compromise, or shut up,” Catherine said. “One or the other. I tried to preach it without compromise.” She always ended her lectures the same way:

Sooner or later, all of us are going to die. We will appear before God for judgment. The Lord will look at us and say, “I was naked and you didn’t clothe me. I was hungry and you didn’t give me anything to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me a drink. I was sick and you didn’t nurse me. I was in prison and you didn’t come to visit me.” And we shall say, “Lord, when did I not do these things?” I would stop here, pause, and in a very loud voice say, “When I was a Negro and you were a white American Catholic.” That’s when the rotten eggs and tomatoes would start to fly!

One of Catherine’s key supporters was New York’s Cardinal Patrick J. Hayes, who was “always worried” about her. After she organized a study group at Friendship House, the local pastor visited her:

“Listen to me, you Russian nitwit. What are you trying to do? Make them think they are loved just because they have become Catholics? You are giving them the raw Gospel and it isn’t getting you anywhere. Stop it!” I said, “Father, would you like to come with me to see the Cardinal? If he orders me to stop, I will stop.” “Oh, hell,” he said. On the way out he slammed the door and smashed the glass in the window.”

Our Lady of Combermere at Madonna House

Catherine would eventually marry Edward J “Eddie” Doherty, with whom she co-founded the Madonna House Apostolate in 1947 in Combermere, Canada. Their ongoing mission included publishing a newspaper, Restoration, which still exists.

Wherever she worked, Baroness Catherine de Hueck Doherty sought to actualize the Gospel message in the present moment. As she once told a Fordham University Jesuit: “I have never read anywhere in the gospel where Christ says to wait twenty years before living the gospel. The Good News is for now.”

More

  • Read Poustinia, by Catherine Doherty. Borrow it on Internet Archive [link]

The poustinia (literally meaning “desert”) is an Eastern Orthodox tradition in which God calls someone to live in a poustyn—a bare-bones cabin where they pray and fast, alone except for the Holy Spirit. Catherine Doherty brought the idea of the poustinia with her to the States.

“To go into the poustinia means to listen to God,” she wrote. “It means entering into kenosis—the emptying of oneself. This is really a climbing of this awesome mountain right to the very top where God abides in his warm silence.”

Importantly, the poustyn is usually in a village, and the poustinik is also a part of village life, helping where help is needed and always praying and sharing the love of Christ.

“If I touch God I must touch man. … Christ incarnated himself and became man, so I must, like Christ himself, be a person of the towel and the water. That is to say, wash the feet of my fellowmen as Christ did, and washing the feet of my fellowmen means service. …I cannot pray if I don’t serve my brother. I cannot pray to the God who incarnated himself, when my brother is in need.”

The poustinik is always praying, always immersed in the silence of God, even when they are not alone. Every act of service is also a prayer. They carry the poustyn in their heart.

  • Catherine Doherty writes about prayer and sacraments as ways to welcome and know the presence of God in “First Meet God.”  While you are there, check out the rest of the Madonna House Archives.
  • Luminous Lives, a Renovaré e‑course hosted my Mimi Dixon
  • Doherty as Thomas Merton’s spiritual mother [link]
  • Dialogue about her spirituality:

What do we do with this?

The core of Doherty’s spirituality is summarized in a “distillation” of the Gospel which she called “The Little Mandate” — words which she believed she received from Jesus Christ and which guided her life. Use it to ponder your own distillation of the Gospel:

Arise — go! Sell all you possess. Give it directly, personally to the poor. Take up My cross (their cross) and follow Me, going to the poor, being poor, being one with them, one with Me.

Little — be always little! Be simple, poor, childlike.

Preach the Gospel with your life — without compromise! Listen to the Spirit. He will lead you.

Do little things exceedingly well for love of Me.

Love… love… love, never counting the cost.

Go into the marketplace and stay with Me. Pray, fast. Pray always, fast.

Be hidden. Be a light to your neighbor’s feet. Go without fear into the depth of men’s hearts. I shall be with you. Pray always.

I will be your rest.

Margaret Guenther — December 11

North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

To answer before listening— that is folly and shame. — Proverbs 18:13 (NIV)

All about Margaret Guenther (1930-2016)

Margaret Guenther was an Episcopal priest, wife, mother of three children, grandmother, spiritual director, mentor of spiritual directors, retreat leader, prolific writer and, as she said, “administrator, lay medical practitioner, scrubber of floors, washer of clothes.”

As a child she excelled in school but found her greatest joy in long rambles through the countryside with her father, developing a love of the outdoors that she maintained throughout her life. She was happiest sleeping under the stars with just her bedroll, well into her seventies and loved nothing more than waking under a dusting of snow. (WaPo obituary)

She served as Emeritus Professor at General Theological Seminary in New York City where she taught Ascetical Theology.

She was also the Director of the Center for Christian Spirituality, a pioneering program for the training of spiritual directors. She was a noted retreat leader and lecturer both in the United States and abroad, travelling as far away as China and Australia to speak at conferences and lead retreats.

When she began writing about spiritual direction in 1992, Guenther was one of the few women doing so. She noted, “If Priscilla had written our epistles instead of Paul, I suspect there would have been more about Incarnation and relatively little about circumcision.” The “feminine” wisdom in her books offers new ways to talk about spiritual direction, such as allowing the director a measure of self-disclosure (as opposed to the protocol of psychotherapy).

Her approach was simple. After a short “catch up time,” she began sessions with silence, asking the spiritual companion to let her know when she or he was ready. She ended the meeting with a “little” prayer. She kept no written records and cautioned spiritual directors to recite ten “Jesus Prayers” before saying anything or interrupting.

In June 1997 Guenther retired from General to write more books, give retreats and lectures, and serve as Associate Rector of St. Columba’s Church in Washington, DC.

Quotes

“The New Testament is not very helpful about family values. Jesus, unmarried at an age when most Jewish men were husbands and fathers, exhibits a cavalier attitude toward families as he gathers his followers around him. Think about the call of the disciples from their wives’ point of view: Jesus meets Peter and Andrew, James and John, as they are tending their nets. he says, “Follow me,” and immediately they abandon their livelihood without a second thought. They abandon their families as well: did they ever go home to tell their wives that they would not be there for dinner? Did they make any provision for their families? When, in my imagination, I translate this story into the present time, were I the wife of Peter, Andrew, James, or John, I would be furious. “You did what? What about the health plan? Your pension? College for the children? Are you planning on coming back sometime? How am I going to manage? Who will look after the children if I have to get a job?” … Jesus might have been an effective healer, but he also certainly knew how to disrupt a household.” ― At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us

“The spiritual director has the double task of holding up the demands of absolute responsibility and the promise of absolute forgiveness.” — Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction

“[My students}… presented me with thoughtful and candid papers. They had examined their use of time and energy, reflected carefully on their relationship with those whose lives touched theirs (including the difficult and incompatible ones), scrutinized their performance as custodians of God’s creation. All in all, it was exemplary work except for one thing: these were grim, dreary schedules that allowed no place for fun. No room for holy uselessness or the joyous and restorative wasting of time, a spiritual discipline that bears absolutely no resemblance to guilt-producing procrastination or avoidance of whatever the next step might be. If they were able to live out the plan that they laid out for themselves, they would be exemplary citizens, conscientious pray-ers, and ecologically beyond reproach. but they would never have any fun.” ― At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us

It was a happy day when I discovered that in the English of Chaucer’s day – which was also the time of the Black Death – the word “silly” meant “blessed.” I am not sure when we strayed away from its original meaning, when blessedness took on a churchy aura and silliness became the realm of Monty Python and fourth-grade scatological humor. As hard-working adults we too often lose the gift for letting go, for delight in simply being. We persuade ourselves that every moment must be lived productively; like the busy little bee, we feel a holy obligation to improve each shining hour. We would do well to take very small children or big silly dogs as our teachers. I have learned much about holy uselessness from Perry, the dog.” — At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us

More

Margaret Guenther on waiting  [link]

SDI learns from Rev. Margaret Guenther :

Rod is a fan [link]

What do we do with this?

Guenther talks like a mother, a very wise and educated mother. She talks like a person who has spent a lot of time in the woods, and a lot of time in New York City. She talks like a woman who has the scars of leadership and like a person who doesn’t disrespect their scars. Their is room at her spiritual table and she is at the table with Jesus. Sit with her a while.

How does someone find a spiritual director? This little article might help [link]. Some are Evangelicals [link]. Some are Anabaptists [link].

Thomas Merton — December 10

North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible connection

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. — Psalm 139:1-6

All about Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Thomas Merton, known to the other monks as Father Louis, was born in the south of France to a American mom (a Quaker) and Kiwi dad (a painter).  He was baptized as an Anglican. When Thomas was six years old, his mother died of stomach cancer. He was sent to live in the U.S. with his grandparents while his father, an artist, often travelled. As an early teen, he was reunited with his dad and educated in Europe until his father died when he was 16. After finishing school, Thomas was agnostic. In 1933, while in Italy, he experienced a sense of spiritual emptiness, anxiety, and a hope it would all lead to a dramatic conversion.

In 1938, while finishing up an M.A. in English (focused on William Blake), Merton joined the Roman Catholic church after experimenting with other forms of Christianity. He was rejected by the Franciscans and did not feel drawn to become a priest. In 1942, he was accepted as a novice monk at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky.

His abbot directed Merton to write his autobiography, which became The Seven Storey Mountain. The book became an unlikely best-seller and is considered today to be one of the spiritual classics of the modern age.

Merton would go on to write poems, articles, essays, and more than 60 books, among them New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sign of Jonas, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, and No Man Is An Island.

In the latter decades of his life he became increasingly interested in Asian religions, particularly Buddhism.  His leadership helped spark Christian-Buddhist dialogue that continues to this day. Merton is an example of a devoted Christian who had dialogue with others respectfully and as a learner. He was particularly interested in Eastern ways of thinking and understanding of self. His conversations about these issues were largely with other monks, Christian and Buddhist, as well as his superiors.

His abbey still receives revenues from his work. His work telling the stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers has been inspirational and influential to many in our circles. His writings have been translated into over 30 languages.

Merton died on this day in 1968 of an accidental electrocution while attending an interfaith conference of contemplative monks in Thailand at age 53.

Quotes:

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” — Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them” ― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” ― Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

More

The Thomas Merton Center [link]

Director’s page for “Soul Searching,” a documentary about his life [link]

The Thomas Merton Society replayed an argument that Merton was murdered, probably by the CIA, instead of killed in an accident. The book The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton, an Investigation by Hugh Turley and David Martin (2018), may be an addition to the era full of conspiracy theories or it may be a window into overlooked or suppressed evidence [link].

Cistercian Order homepage.  The term “Cistercian” comes from the Latin word Cistercium, which is the name of the village of Cîteaux in France. In 1098, a group of Benedictine monks from the Molesme monastery founded Cîteaux Abbey in Cîteaux, with the goal of living more in accordance with the Rule of Saint Benedict.  The Cistercian Order is stricter than the Benedictine Order. Cistercians follow the Benedictine Rule, but they have a more defined structure and wear white cowls instead of black ones like Benedictine monks.here are two religious orders that share the heritage of Cîteaux: the Cistercian Order and the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, also known as the Trappists.

Merton teaches with great inclusion and acceptance. He offers a path to the deep places of God, starting from where you are right now. Feel the freedom of that, and also a bit of the terror of that trust. Enjoy your solitude.

John and Betty Stam — December 8

Asia, North America, The Modern Era (1227-1936),

Bible connection

Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and my sufferings, the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.– 2 Timothy 3:10-15

All about John and Betty Stam (d. 1934)

One of the most well-known martyrdoms in the history of Christianity in China occurred in December 1934, when a young American missionary couple, John and Betty Stam, were beheaded in Anhui Province along with a Chinese Christian named Zhang Shuisheng, who had pleaded for the Stams’ release.

John Stam felt burdened for China from an early age. People remember how he often reminded them: “a million a month pass into Christless graves” in China. He became an adult in the early 1930s when the whole world was in turmoil. In the U.S. it was the Great Depression. In China it was the rise of the Communists.

The Red Army grew in size and strength every day. Many missionary bases were evacuated. Stam considered these events as mere distractions to God’s work, and not matters which could force him to alter his commitment to Christ and to China. When he was asked to speak to the Moody Bible Institute Class of 1932, Stam gave this challenge:

Shall we beat a retreat, and turn back from our high calling in Christ Jesus, or dare we advance at God’s command in the face of the impossible? …. Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by clauses calling for advance only if funds were plentiful and no hardship or self-denial was involved. On the contrary, we are told to expect tribulation and even persecution, but with it victory in Christ.

His future wife, Betty Alden Scott was the daughter of missionary parents in China, brought up with the Chinese language and culture. While she was attending school in the U.S., everyone expected her to return to China to start her own career as a missionary. Before she was appointed for service, Betty wrote,

I want something really worth while to live for. Like most young people, I want to invest this one life of mine as wisely as possible, in the place that yields richest profits to the world and to me…. I want it to be God’s choice for me and not my own. There must be no self-interest at all, or I do not believe God can reveal His will clearly…. I know very well that I can never realize the richest, most satisfying, life Christ meant for me, if I am not giving my own life unselfishly for others. Christ said: ‘He that would find his life shall lose it,’ and proved the truth of this divine paradox at Calvary. I want Him to lead, and His Spirit to fill me. And then, only then, will I feel that my life is justifying its existence and realizing the maturity in Him that Christ meant for all men, in all parts of the world.

John and Betty first met at the China Inland Mission prayer meetings at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Betty was a year ahead of John. After graduating she made her way to  Shanghai. John arrived after graduating. A year later they received permission from the CIM to marry.

The Stams were assigned to Jingde in southern Anhui Province, about 225 difficult miles  and weeks of difficult boat and overland travel away from Shanghai. Communist activity in  Anhui had lessened in the previous years, and both the Stams and their mission leaders felt the risk of an insurgency in Jingde was low. The Jingde city magistrate welcomed the Stams and gave a personal assurance that they would be safe.

In 1934 their daughter, Helen Priscilla Stam, was born. Shortly after her birth, Communists seized the “safe” town in which the Stams were working. The Communists would not listen to the pleas of the Stams’ Chinese associates, threatening them with immediate death. They had John write a ransom note, but it reached mission authorities too late to help.

December 6th, 1934.

China Inland Mission, Shanghai.

Dear Brethren,

My wife, baby and myself are to-day in the hands of the Communists in the city of Jingde. Their demand is $20,000 for our release.

All our possessions and stores are in their hands, but we praise God [we have] peace in our hearts and [we had] a meal to-night. God grant you wisdom in what you do, and us fortitude, courage and peace of heart. He is able—and a wonderful friend in such a time.

Things happened so quickly this A.M. They were in the city just a few hours after the ever-persistent rumours really became alarming, so that we could not prepare to leave in time. We were just too late.

The Lord bless you and guide you—and as for us—may God be glorified whether by life or death.

In Him,

JOHN C. STAM

According to one account, the baby cried, and the Communists discussed aloud whether to kill her. An old farmer pleaded for the child’s life. “It’s your life for hers, then,” said the Communists, and killed him on the spot.

The revolutionaries marched the “foreign devils” through the streets of neighboring Miaosheo. A merchant, Chang Hsiu-sheng, fell to his knees and pleaded for their lives. After they found a Bible and Christian literature in his house, the Communists seized him, too, and marched him to the hill where the missionaries were to be executed. John pleaded for Chang’s life. But a soldier cut his pleas short by slashing his throat. At that, Betty fell to her knees, shuddering once before the blade severed her neck. The Red Army executed Chang the next day.

A Chinese evangelist named Lo arrived in Miaoshou the day following the martyrdom. He lovingly sewed their heads back onto their necks so that those seeing them would not be too upset and prepared them for burial. The people of Miaoshou came out in large numbers to watch the funeral. The bold evangelist addressed the crowd:

You have seen these wounded bodies, and you pity our friends for their suffering and death. But you should know that they are children of God. Their spirits are unharmed, and are at this moment in the presence of their Heavenly Father. They came to China and to Miaoshou, not for themselves but for you, to tell you about the great love of God, that you might believe in the Lord Jesus and be eternally saved. You have heard their message. Remember, it is true. Their death proves it so. Do not forget what they told you—repent, and believe the Gospel.

Evangelist Lo could not discover what had happened to little Helen Stam. Nobody was sure if she had also been killed, or if the Red Army had carried her off to their next destination. Finally, an old woman pointed to an abandoned house and whispered, “The foreign baby is still alive.” Helen had been left alone for more than 24 hours, but appeared none the worse for the experience. Later, Lo found a $10 bill hidden inside the baby’s clothing, no doubt secretly placed there by her loving parents so that milk could be bought for her. Mr. and Mrs. Lo carried Priscilla many miles and delivered her safely into the hands of other missionaries.

More

Biography from Asia Harvest [link]

Wheaton College includes interesting pictures in their recollection of the Stams [link]

2022 devotional biography with drone shots of China:

The same day news of the Stams’ death reached the U.S., John’s father, Rev. Peter Stam, received a letter from his son posted from China many weeks before. In his letter he told about the Communist threat, but reiterated his faith and commitment to serve God in China regardless of the cost. John Stam repeated the poem “Afraid? Of What?” written by E. H. Hamilton to commemorate the martyrdom of Jack Vinson in 1931.

In 1949 a U.S. Navy crewman, J. Patrick Jordan, visited a missionary family at Qingdao where he met another guest of the family, Helen Priscilla Stam, who had taken the name of the relatives who raised her lest she always be “the miracle baby.” Jordan remembered in 2005:

I was astounded listening to her story. Then I asked this sweet, cute 14-year-old a question: “After all your parents and you went through, and after their being beheaded and you suddenly made an orphan, what are your feelings toward the Chinese now? Do you hate them?” She immediately responded, “Oh, I think they are just wonderful. I love them.” And then she said to me, “Just think, I am alive today because a Chinese man took my place and died for me.”

What do we do with this?

Honor the young, who are always at the forefront of transformation.

Marvel at the conviction some Jesus followers are given to express. Their radicality nudges the “great middle,” where most faith lives, toward deeper experience and greater impact.

 

Mother Jones — November 30

North America, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Read Jeremiah 22

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
    his upper rooms by injustice,
making his own people work for nothing,
    not paying them for their labor.
He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace
    with spacious upper rooms.’
So he makes large windows in it,
    panels it with cedar
    and decorates it in red.

“Does it make you a king
    to have more and more cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
    He did what was right and just,
    so all went well with him.
He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
    and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?”
    declares the Lord.
“But your eyes and your heart
    are set only on dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood
    and on oppression and extortion.”

All about Mother Jones (1837-1930)

As a social reformer, Mary “Mother” Jones exposed disturbing truths about child and adult factory workers and miners and about perpetual poverty in the United States through numerous marches, demonstrations, strikes, and speeches.

The influence of Christianity was evident throughout her life. She received a Catholic education as a girl and became a teacher in a convent as a young adult. Letters and speeches by her, and those about her, were filled with the imagery of Christian beliefs.

Jones worked as a teacher and dressmaker, but after her husband and four children all died of yellow fever in 1867, and her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she began working as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union. In 1903, upset about the lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, she organized a Children’s March from Kensington, in Philadelphia, to the home of then president Theodore Roosevelt in New York.

Mother Jones surrounded by striking child mill workers. Source: Library of Congress

She wailed about the unjust experiences of the poor like an Old Testament prophet, often dressed in old‐fashioned black dresses that seemed similar to the black habits worn by the Catholic sisters that taught and mentored her during her early years. She was described by others as the “incarnation of labor’s struggles” decrying injustice and calling to account its perpetrators.

Hall of Honor Inductee: Mary Harris "Mother" Jones | U.S. Department of Labor
Hall of Honor Inductee: Mary Harris “Mother” Jones | U.S. Department of Labor

She was even introduced by the author Upton Sinclair one day as “Mother Mary” — an allusion to the New Testament Mary who gave birth to Jesus and intercedes for the poor. Sinclair, author of the exposé of the meat packing industry, The Jungle, used her as a character in one of his books and described her as “wrinkled and old, dressed in black, looking like somebody’s grandmother; she was, in truth, the grandmother of hundreds of thousands of miners. Hearing her speak, you discovered the secret of her influence over these polyglot hordes. She had force, she had wit, above all she had the fire of indignation—she was the walking wrath of God.” Attorney Clarence Darrow said of his old friend, “Her deep convictions and fearless soul always drew her to the spot where the fight was hottest and the danger greatest.”​

Her use of the word “hell” is notable. Once she was introduced as a humanitarian and quickly bellowed “I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell‐raiser.”  Two noteworthy quotes that peppered her speeches on behalf of factory workers and miners were “fight like hell until you go to heaven” and “pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” In 1902, a West Virginia district attorney named Reese Blizzard called her “the most dangerous woman in America” at her trial for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners. The title stuck.

As a passionate public speaker, some people thought she was “unchristian‐like,” mainly because she used name‐calling, profanity, and dramatic stunts for effect, such as parading children who lost body limbs as a result of accidents in factories and mines. She was compared to John Brown, the abolitionist who believed armed rebellion was the only way to defeat the institution of slavery in the United States. Whether she actually believed like Brown is doubtful, but the association made her seem disreputable. When confronted with the issue of violence in the labor movement she encouraged it at times as a necessary evil. She believed that martyrs died to overcome injustices and the causes she fought for were no exception.

Just a few months after her death, the singing cowboy Gene Autry recorded the song “The Death of Mother Jones.” The writer of the lyrics is unknown.

The world today’s in mourning
For death of Mother Jones
Gloom and sorrow hover
Around the miners’ homes

This grand old champion of labor
Was known in every land
She fought for right and justice
She took a noble stand

Through the hills and over the valleys
In every mining town
Mother Jones was ready to help them
She never turned them down

On front with the striking miners
She always could be found
And received a hearty welcome
In every mining town

She was fearless of every danger
She hated that which was wrong
And she never gave up fighting
Until her breath was gone

This noble leader of labor
Has gone to a better land
While the hard working miners
They miss a guiding hand

May the miners all work together
And carry out her plan
And bring back better conditions
For every laboring man.

More

AFL-CIO bio [link]

“Wail of the Children” speech, July 28, 1903 — Coney Island, New York City

Mother Jones Magazine bio [link]

What do we do with this?

Jesus was probably considered the most dangerous man in Palestine by the leaders who eventually killed him. Jeremiah was decidedly unpopular with the kings he exposed for their greed and oppression. If we, as Jesus followers, are not at odds with the powers-that-be, or even a threat to the corrupt ones, we might not be too serious about being seeds of redemption planted in the soil of a fallen world. Consider who God wants you to stand with and stand up for.

Dorothy Day — November 29

North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible Connection

Read Psalm 42:1-4

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

All about Dorothy Day (1897-1980)

Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn Heights to stable, middle class, and marginally Christian parents. After her family experienced several major relocations, Day was raised mostly in San Francisco and Chicago. After two years of college, she dropped out of school in Illinois and moved back to New York City. During these younger years, Day’s interest in adventure grew to include alternative social organizations, particularly socialist anarchism. She began working with several socialist publications around 1916.

Although she had been baptized in the Episcopal Church as a child, at this point she identified as agnostic. The next few years were full of adventure and rocky relationships including heartbreak, abortion, a short marriage, and then an unexpected pregnancy and birth of her daughter, Tamar in 1926. She wished to baptize her child, which caused more tension in her relationship with Tamar’s father. A year later, Tamar was baptized and so was Dorothy, now part of the Catholic church.

In 1932 she met French immigrant Peter Maurin with whom a year later she would found the Catholic Worker movement. The publication of The Catholic Worker (almost named the Catholic Radical) began in 1933 and continues to be published. It’s goals were to promote Catholic social teaching in the depths of the Great Depression and to stake out a neutral, pacifist position in the war-torn 1930s.  The vision grew to include “establishing houses of hospitality to care for the destitute, establishing rural farming communities to teach city dwellers agrarianism and encourage a movement back to the land, and setting up roundtable discussions in community centers in order to clarify thought and initiate action.”

She became famous for saying

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.”

By 1941 over 30 independent yet affiliated Catholic Worker communities had formed in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. While the Catholic leaders told her to change the name of the publication because it did not represent the Church, they refused. By the 1960’s, Day became popular with Catholics, organizers, and counterculture leaders. While maintaining radical social ideas and practice, she opposed the sexual revolution of the decade, describing the ill effects she had suffered years before. She continued to be critical of transnational companies like United Fruit and violent governmental policies, and praised aspects of Communist movements in Russia, China, and Cuba.

Dorothy-Day-Lamont-UFW-1973.jpg
Dorothy Day before her last arrest at a farm workers picket line in Lamont, California, in 1973. Credit: http://rosemarieberger.com. All rights reserved.

Day was a prolific writer and joined movements for justice. At 75, she spent a week in jail helping Cesar Chavez working for justice for farm workers in California. Dorothy Day died on this day in 1980, three weeks after her 83rd birthday.

More

The Catholic Worker Movement homepage [link]

Writings  [link]

Day teaching on TV [link]

Nice, brief biography from Maryland Public TV 

Dorothy Day: A Rebel In Paradise [nice biography and teaching from community members]

NCEA webinar: Revolution of the Heart.

Lecture on The Long Loneliness and why it matters:

What do we do with this?

Dorothy Day’s radical views and uncompromising attitude caused her grief and trouble. But her long loneliness, as she called it, made her faith deep and her influence wide. What is it that you must do?