Reflections From the Long Loneliness

Essay by shaniaheHigh School, 10th gradeA, October 2013

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Reflections From the Long Loneliness

When Dorothy Day was young, her family did not practice religion. Early in her life, she attended churches with her neighbors and she loved the feeling of communal worship. Yet, she was unsure what she believed and still searching. Her friends never regarded her as a catholic and never knew that she would feel necessity to worship God in an organized Church. When she was working in Chicago, Dorothy Day lived in an apartment with a catholic household. The household's daughter--Bee, prayed every night and morning when she thought Dorothy Day had fallen asleep. She opined, "I too have difficulties, heartaches, questionings … feeling very much alone in the world, lost, set apart, without help from the living or the dead … I had nothing" (106). She claimed that Catholicism was marvelous and extraordinary. However, she was not an insider at that time. Chicago is the place where she rooted her religion, where she put her faith in God.

At the time, her consciousness of religion was gradually awaken. When she noticed that Bee was praying for herself, praying for her sorrow and sadness to God, Dorothy Day realized she has no one to share her woes, to answer her uncertain. This is the beginning of her Catholicism. She also intended to show her reader the significance of having faith, belief and religion. Searching for what one wants might be unenviable and struggling, but eventually it would be worthy. Your heart and soul would not be empty and blank anymore.

Dorothy Day had a law marriage with a man, whom she loved deeply. While she was pregnant, she decided to have her daughter baptized so that Tamar would not have to search her faith and spiritual support in the darkness. She began her real catholic...