For me Christ was not to be bought for thirty pieces of silver but with my heart's blood. We buy not cheap in this market.
I offered up a special prayer, a prayer which came with tears and anguish, that some way would open up for me to use what talents I possessed for my fellow workers, for the poor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a deep yearning to utilize one's talents for the benefit of others, particularly those in need.
In this quote, Dorothy Day conveys a heartfelt desire to contribute positively to the lives of her fellow workers and the impoverished. She describes a moment of sincere prayer filled with emotion, indicating that her talents should not merely serve her own interests but rather be directed towards helping those who are less fortunate. This reflects a profound philosophy of altruism and the importance of using one’s gifts to uplift others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a charity event, one might say this quote to inspire volunteers to contribute their abilities for the greater good.
More from Dorothy Day
All quotes →The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.
As we come to know the seriousness of the situation, the war, the racism, the poverty in our world, we come to realize that things will not be changed simply by words or demonstrations. Rather, it's a question of living one's life in a drastically different way.
I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor.... Here, within this great city of nine million people, we must, in this neighborhood, on this street, in this parish, regain a sense of community which is the basis for peace in the world.
The biggest mistake sometimes is to play things very safe in this life and end up being moral failures.
We're living in an age of genocide. ...And we do believe that there is not only the genocide of war, and the genocide that took place with the extermination of the Jews, but the whole program....of birth control and abortion is another form of genocide.... [T]hey claim the poor are bringing forth tremendous numbers of children and so the solution is to kill them off.
Similar quotes
No human beings more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief: the great persecutors are recruited from the martyrs not quite beheaded. Far from diminishing the appetite for power, suffering exasperates it.
We have so committed ourselves in different ways that we have hardly any time for self-reflection, to observe, to study.
There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?" "Are you a young lady?" "I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated.
God is far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved.
Ladylike is the beastliest word there is, I think. If a girl isn't a lady, it isn't worth while to be only like one, she'd better let it alone and be a free and happy bounder.
At the very time that philosophers of the most enterprising benevolence were founding in Greece those institutions which have rendered it the wonder and luminary of the world, am I required to believe that the weak and wicked king of an obscure and barbarous nation, a murderer, a traitor and a tyrant, was the man after God's own heart?