Dorothy Day
(Marquette Univ. Archives)
Dear Friends,
As we rejoice in the completion of the diocesan phase of the Cause for Canonization of Servant of God Dorothy Day, we are reaching out to Catholic Worker communities throughout the United States to join us in promoting the advancement of the canonization cause as it continues. Your lives as contemporary Catholic Workers bear witness to both the way Dorothy Day’s holiness continues to infuse our world and to the endurance of her vision
Completion of Phase I of the Inquiry required an overwhelming concentration of effort by volunteers from across the world and the Dorothy Day Guild in New York. While all documentation is now at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at The Vatican to be examined, we are asking for your help primarily in the form of prayer! Building a “prayer campaign” to support the Cause for Canonization is our primary emphasis and our necessary work during this second phase.
We are asking you to pray to Dorothy Day for your own needs and for the needs of those you love, to ask her intercession in areas in need of healing in your lives, whether they be physical or emotional, chronic or recent. We also encourage you to pray for the favors and graces that will bring you closer to God. You might address her in prayer in your own words or in the words of the “Prayer for Canonization” printed below. We ask that you inform us if you feel your life has been affected in any way by the intercession of Dorothy Day, particularly if you think you might have experienced something miraculous. Please email any relevant information to us at gracesandfavors@gmail.com. We are also hoping to create a prayer group online, to enable us to pray to and for Dorothy Day as a community on a regular basis. We hope you will consider praying with us in that manner as well.
While your prayers are our greatest need at this time, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, we encourage you to consider joining the Dorothy Day Guild, which provides some financial support for our continuing efforts and a wealth of information related to both Dorothy Day and the Cause for Canonization. Please write to http://dorothydayguild.org to access the Guild’s website.
Let us also pray for each other, that we might continue to make Christ’s presence palpable in the work we do and the words we speak, and that we continue to honor Servant of God Dorothy Day in humble service to the neediest among us and build peace.
In Christ’s peace,
George B. Horton
Director, Dept. of Social and Community Development
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York
PRAYER FOR THE CANONIZATION of SERVANT OF GOD DOROTHY DAY
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.
