.
I found this today while reading "The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage", a book about 20th Century Catholic writers ; Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. This quote, from Day's partner Peter Maurin, with it's simple unfiltered Christian truth, overwhelmed me with joy and purpose.
"The world would be better off if people tried to become better.
And people would become better
if they stopped trying to become better off.
For when everybody tries to become better off
nobody is better off.
But when everybody tries to become better,
everybody is better off.
Everybody would be rich if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be what he ought to be
if everybody tried to be
what he wants the other fellow to be."
if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul?"
Mark 8:36
.
2 comments:
D'art, you're going to become a neo-Distributist with Aramis and myself! Peter Maurin is my main man. Of French peasant stock, he was Dorothy Day's troubadour, mentor, and friend in starting the Catholic Worker movement. If you liked his lesson in your post, find, if you can, a used copy of his Easy Essays (very hard to find). Relevant as today:
Uncle Sam does not believe
in the unemployed dole,
but Uncle Sam does believe
in the money lenders' dole.
Uncle Sam doles out every year
more than a billion dollars
to the money lenders.
And it is the money lenders' dole
that put Uncle Sam
into a hole.
The money lenders are first citizens
on Uncle Sam's payroll.
There were no money lenders
on the payroll
in Palestine and Ireland
because the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
forbid lending money at interest.
But Uncle Sam does not listen
to the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
Yes, "Essay" in it's complete form is not to be found, but snipets are here and there online. Wondering what will happen when Ayn Rand's Libertarianism meets with Maurin's views in my hopefully Holy Spirit guided noggin (O:
Post a Comment