Category Archives: Vocation

Deo Gratias: A Novena of Gratitude for Dorothy Day

The Dorothy Day Guild is beginning a novena to Dorothy Day today; it ends on December 7th, the day before the documentation for her cause for canonization is being sent to the Vatican. Incidentally, there will be a Mass celebrating this on December 8th which will be live-streamed.

The Guild’s Facebook Page contains the text of the Novena, but I will share the first day here. You can go to their page for the remaining days. (I do not think that you have to be a Facebook member to be able to view it.) On second thought, perhaps I will post the daily prayers here. But look into their Page, just in case.

Deo Gratias: A Novena of Gratitude Giving thanks for the Valiant Life and Witness of Servant of God Dorothy Day

Day 1, Christian Vocation

“Every Catholic faced with a great need starts a novena.”
–Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

The Dorothy Day Guild invites members and others to gather for a novena of thanks for the witness of Servant of God Dorothy Day, and to celebrate the advancement of the cause for her canonization.

Today, we pray in gratitude for Dorothy’s wholehearted response to living out the demands of the gospel. Although she grew up in a nominally religious family and later espoused a bohemian lifestyle, Dorothy searched for God from an early age. While she joined with leftists to support workers’ struggles, her heart was called to a deeper solidarity, in the Mystical Body of Christ. After first baptizing her daughter, Tamar, she too became a Catholic – joining the Church of the immigrant poor.

During his address to the United States Congress in 2015, Pope Francis said, “I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.”

Dorothy wrote, “The lives of the saints… are too often written as though they were not in this world. We have seldom been given the saints as they really were, as they affected the lives of their times … too little has been stressed the idea that all are called.” She also wrote, “Holiness is not a state of perfection but a faithful striving that lasts a lifetime.” – The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day

Servant of God Dorothy Day, intercede for us; pray that we grow in courage and faith to follow our own path to holiness.
As we give thanks for Dorothy Day’s life – and pray for the Church’s recognition of her
holiness — let us ask her to join us on our own pilgrimages. May her example of “faithful striving” inspire perseverance in all people of faith; may we take heart from her generous and courageous response to God’s call.

Let us pray…Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be OR the Holy Rosary

Prayer for the Canonization of Servant of God Dorothy Day (1897 – 1980)

God our Father,
Your servant Dorothy Day exemplified
the Catholic faith by her life
of prayer, voluntary poverty,
works of mercy, and
witness to the justice and peace
of the Gospel of Jesus.
May her life inspire your people
to turn to Christ as their Savior,
to see His face in the world’s poor, and
to raise their voices for the justice
of God’s kingdom.
I pray that her holiness may be recognized by your Church
And that you grant the following favor that I humbly ask through her intercession:
(here mention your request)
I ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

 

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Willing to be ridiculous to obtain the miraculous, so please help

I tried posting this on LinkedIn either as a stand alone post or a profile description, but it exceeds the maximum length for either. Then I remembered that I have two blogs and so I decided to make use of them for this personal matter. The post title is an allusion to a famous quote of Mother Angelica, the Foundress of EWTN. She said, “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous. When you have God, you don’t have to know everything about it; you just do it.” This kind of post sounds ridiculous, and proper people with proper concerns about proper appearances probably wouldn’t bother, but I am looking for the miraculous, and so be it. (However, I know quite a bunch about what I’m looking for, so there’s that…)

In this time of pandemic, with the relevant health concerns, (or scares, depending upon your POV) I am considering a career change. I hinted at my day job on a prior LinkedIn profile description (now edited out in favor of the current transitional one) but I would now like something different. What have I done for a living? Nice that you should ask: I am currently laid-off (due to the pandemic) from a thrift store chain where I received used goods at an outdoor remote donation center. What was a temporary job “until something better came along” has endured for over six years now. So, loyalty and perseverance are expressed character traits! I found that I actually enjoyed the work, hard as it was at times given the need to work in all types of weather and dealing with all types of individuals. I found the diversity of people and their offerings interesting, especially when they talked and told stories about themselves or their goods. I’d often wonder about the history of unusual or odd donations. Also, during periods in between receiving and sorting/stocking duties I found plenty of time to read and think, which assisted my enduring for 6 years. I even got a great idea for a novel which I have been puttering with.

My company is considering reopening next week (June 1st) in an upcoming “Phase.” Although I do welcome the opportunity to return, I have also enjoyed staying safe at home these past few months. I have health concerns which render me susceptible to COVID-19, although my health care professionals think I’ll survive. But given the impermanence of unemployment insurance, generous though it is, work is a need for personal dignity, economic sustainability and independence. I find myself wanting something that can make better use of my past professional, academic and general life-skills. And thus I am pursuing a career-change. I am seeking a remote (telework, “work-at-home”) position in what might variously be called “content creation,” or “freelance copywriting” or “copyediting,” in other words, you have a site or product that needs words, well, I got loads of ’em and I know how to use them, too! Another position that I would be interested in is chat-based customer service. After completing training on your company’s products and services and assimilating appropriate knowledge, I can serve customers who have issues and problems in a chat interface. (I prefer the written word to the spoken.) I use a Mac, hopefully this is not an impediment to any proprietary software.

If you’re interested, or have job leads, or even advice and prayers, please email me at the addresses found here: MY CONTACT INFO. You can also reach me through LinkedIn; my profile is Paul Sofranko on LinkedIn. The “About Me” page on my busier blog tells much. I am diligent, loyal, and possess a great work ethic. Salary is negotiable, I’d prefer flexible hours, or if fixed hours, then afternoons through evenings (i.e. “second shift.”) I am looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for considering me, I do appreciate any interest.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, August 14, 1941

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe was executed in the Nazi German concentration camp at Auschwitz seventy-five years ago today for being a Catholic priest.

He was a Conventual Franciscan friar and Guardian (leader, administrator) of Niepokalanow, then the world’s largest friary and a major Catholic media center. It is located some distance west of Warsaw, Poland.

He was canonized a saint by the Church in October 1982.

In late July 1941 a prisoner escaped and as was Nazi policy, ten men from that cell block were randomly selected to be sentenced to a starvation bunker until the escapee was found (dead or alive.) In reality, the ten condemned wouldn’t be released at all, regardless of the escapee’s status.

Death by starvation and dehydration is a very slow and very painful way to die. The ten were stripped naked and placed in a cell that measured three meters by three meters (that about 9 feet on a side.)

One of the ten was a Polish Army sergeant by the name of Franciszek Gajowniczek, who, upon being selected, wailed that he was a husband and father and bemoaned the fate of his family. Upon hearing this, Fr. Kolbe stepped out of line, went forward to the commander and offered to take the sergeant’s place.

The Nazi officer was duly astounded. Perhaps taken aback and confused by this act of selfless sacrifice, he accepted Kolbe’s offer and the Gajowniczek was excused. He survived the war.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the ten died, one-by-one. Every day an attendant would go into the cell to retrieve the dead.

Prison guards and camp survivors reported that while there would typically be sounds or rage and anger, of wailing and crying and begging, during the two weeks that Fr. Kolbe was imprisoned in the cell with the others, the sounds were quite different. Hymns were sung. Rosaries said. It was as if Fr. Kolbe had turned the bunker into a chapel. On August 14th, seeing that he was still alive, the Nazis got impatient that he wasn’t dying fast enough and had him injected with carbolic acid.

When he volunteered to take the sergeant’s place, the Nazi asked Fr. Kolbe who he was. His answer?

“I am a Catholic priest.”

This was his identity, it was who he was. He died for being a priest; he died being a priest, ministering to his fellow condemned.

Week48IAmACatholicPriest

(Image via MI Canada)

Being a priest was enough to have him targeted by the Nazis; however there was more to him than that. For nearly twenty years he published “Knight of the Immaculata,” a monthly magazine dedicated to being the voice of the Militia of the Immaculata movement he founded in 1917 (more on that, later.) This publishing venture, begun in 1922, gradually expanded over the 1920s and ‘30s to include other periodicals and a daily newspaper. Circulation was amongst the largest in pre-WW2 Poland (and significant amongst global circulations, too.) Fr. Kolbe had already launched a shortwave radio station, although it was limited at first to just being on the Amateur bands. He also had plans for a TV station. Expansion of the radio station to non-amateur broadcasting and the TV enterprise were halted by the Nazi and Soviet invasion of September 1939. Fr. Kolbe also had plans for a motion picture studio.

He was “New Evangelization” before anyone else thought of it. If you wish to get the gist of what he did and also what he planned, what Mother Angelica did in Alabama 50 years later is essentially that.

Here are some links:

Militia of the Immaculata in the USA
The global Militia
“Niepokalanow”
another official Niepokalanow site

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

A guiding light, to…where?

Tried to write a haiku that was Epiphany-inspired.

Nothing was happening.

🙁

A guiding light, leading people across endless lands… to show up in some backwater burgh to find a King to worship, only to see Him in a less-than-kingly estate.

Metaphors abound in that. The idea of a way, a passage, traveling from one place to another for a goal… resonates with me in a major fashion. (Just see my recent posts on Sober Catholic about a movie: “The Way” and Camino playlist.)

The destination being the Messiah… in humble surroundings that were base even in that era; speaks to us who prefer comfort and convenience. Do we have the endurance and desire to “go the distance” to achieve whatever is at our “destiny?”

Would we be willing to traverse the “desert?”

And what will we find there? Our preconceptions fulfilled, or a surprise?

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)