Life is a banquet
Thanksgiving Day, Chicago Catholic Worker. Ruth is sitting on top step, far right.
I climbed the steps of the steps of the St. Francis Catholic Worker in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood because a friend invited me to dinner. It was my first visit. He wanted to introduce me to the Catholic Worker Movement.
(Kathleen and Lester, left)
A few minutes after I arrived, I found myself in the kitchen where I met Ruth. Ruth was wearing an apron and waving a spoon as she was cooking dinner. She greeted me warmly and I felt right at home.
When I met Ruth, the Catholic Worker was her home. Ruth along with other Workers offered hospitality, food and shelter to guests. Catholic Workers like to explain they are not offering a service but inviting guests into their homes.
When the dinner was ready and the table set Workers, guests, friends and strangers, a group of about 25, gathered around the crowded dining room table to share a meal. Everyone was welcome to dinner. The food was plentiful and the conversation lively. I felt nourished and wanted to learn more about this place.
It’s hard to adequately describe the impact this visit had on me. I had been thinking about leaving Chicago, but instead I kept going back for dinner at the Worker. Then I started reading about Dorothy Day the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. I stayed in Chicago and moved to the Uptown neighborhood. Ruth became a very good friend.
What inspired me most about Dorothy Day was her belief that the Divine is present in each person we meet. Each person gives us a glimpse of the Divine. If someone challenges us, we just dig deeper for that glimpse
Dorothy was right. I kept going back for dinner at the Catholic Worker night after night. Stories, laughs, sorrows and feelings were shared and relationships were built around the dining room table. We got to know each other and found compassion. Indeed, I had been invited to a banquet and I was dining with the Divine.
“Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.”
Dorothy Day
Jimmy
Rosalie
This collection of black and white photographs were taken between the mid 80’s and the mid 90’s at the St. Francis Catholic Worker in Uptown.
Nick and Justina
“The only answer in this life,
to the loneliness
we are all bound to feel,
is community.”
Dorothy Day
(Russell on the left)
Take it or leave it suggestion #8
Read Dorothy Day’s autobiography “The Long Loneliness” again