The Conversion of Dorothy Day

This brief account of the Servant of God Dorothy Day’s conversion to Christ in the Catholic Church was published in my monthly column in Magnificat way back in October 2017. After many decades of prayer and service to the poor, Dorothy Day died on November 29, 1980.

Dorothy Day tells her own conversion story in the first part of her beautiful, soul-searching memoir, The Long Loneliness. She was born in 1897 in Brooklyn, and she grew up in different cities in the United States as the family followed the fortunes of her father who was a newspaper reporter. Though there was no religion at home, Dorothy was exposed to Christianity at a very early age by her neighbors. She was an avid reader who studied the Bible and was baptized Episcopalian, and she believed in Christianity as a youth. She also read the literature of her time, often dealing with the plight of the poor, whom she saw all around her in the urban environment of those days. The twofold attraction to Jesus and to the poor was present in her life almost from the beginning.

In college, however, Dorothy became disillusioned with Christianity because so many Christians seemed to ignore the poor. She joined socialist and anarchist circles, becoming a reporter for their journals in New York. While Dorothy writes with admiration of the sacrifices and generosity of her non-believing friends, she admits that she herself lived a self-centered life and indulged her own desires. She had several love affairs, and in 1918 became pregnant and had an illegal abortion. Dorothy wanted to be a radical, but she wondered whether for her it was anything more than a justification for dissolute living. Meanwhile she was still drawn by God, and sometimes visited Catholic churches in New York where she found a sense of peace and also – at every Mass or devotion or anytime during the day – the poor on their knees before God, the poor she wanted to love (so many of whom, at that time, were immigrants from southern and eastern Europe).

Writing brought Dorothy some modest financial success. She bought a beach house in Staten Island and entered into a stable though irregular union with an anarchist named Forster Batterham. For several years she lived a quiet life surrounded by natural beauty, but she found that the measure of human happiness she experienced did not take away her desire to know God. Instead it heightened her desire to show gratitude to the Creator of all good things. When she became pregnant in 1925, she knew that she had to raise her child as a Christian. She turned to the place where she had always seen Christianity in a concrete form, shaping the lives of poor people every day, the Catholic Church.

Dorothy met a gruff but kind retired Sister of Charity (Sister Aloysia) who taught her the Catechism (and eventually became her godmother). She had her baby daughter baptized, but hesitated herself for another year because of Forster’s objections to organized religion. She realized they would have to be separated if she became Catholic, but she eventually chose to follow God and entered the Church. She was also following God’s poor, even though many Catholics—like other Christians—did not seem to care much about them. Dorothy, however, had seen them in the churches and known them in the slums. She knew that it was the will of Christ to serve Him in the poor and defend their dignity. This became the source of her immensely fruitful vocation to found the Catholic Worker movement.

Transfigured By the Presence of God

“In our world immersed in the sadness of wars and multiple crises, let us announce the joy of the Gospel through our lives transfigured by the presence of God” (Pope Francis).

This quotation is very profound and significant. It challenges not only nations and political leaders, but every one of us. 

The crucial necessity in “announc[ing] the joy of the Gospel” is our own ongoing experience of a life-changing encounter with Jesus. People will be drawn to Christ by our living in a new way. The grace of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us is also working mysteriously in the heart of every person we meet. 

Everyone searches for “meaning.” The meaning, significance, and purpose that every human being seeks has become a man, Jesus Christ. We are best able to communicate this “good news”—this wondrous event of the Word coming to dwell with human beings and remaining with us—by asking God to empower us to live the Gospel in every encounter with the human person. 

The Lord—Pope Francis reminds us—wants to make us sharers in His eternal life, which we already begin to live by grace here and now in the present age. We are being transformed in Christ even as we journey with Him on the roads of this world. Jesus calls us to bear witness to His Gospel by the way we live our lives, by the freedom and joy we find in doing His loving and merciful will; we must evangelize “through our lives transfigured by the presence of God.”

Here are some creative illuminations of the Pope’s words:

Late Autumn Maples Leaves in Dappled Sunlight

Our Autumn season might not be as brilliant and vivid as in the Northeastern United States, but it makes up for it by being long in duration. Our deciduous trees and plants have different seasonal rhythms. Many of them turn colors and their leaves begin to fall and carpet the ground in late October/early November. Still, they are not “in a hurry,” and mostly-bare trees still wear some of their remaining leaves throughout the month of November. Meanwhile, other species (like the large maple tree in my front yard) wait until the first round of Fall colors wain, and then their leaves finally begin to let go of a summer’s worth of stubborn green. The large Maple trees flame out in bright yellow and orange leaves that remain impressive through the early days of December. 

This was a lovely, mild day. As the nearly setting sun reached through the hills to adorn our Maple tree branches with dappled brightness, I took this picture with my phone camera. I decided that there was no need for my [digital] art to work further on this image. Nature is the artist in these circumstances, and one wishes as much as possible that the fine details of Nature’s own work might be seen with minimal human interference.

This blog has watched many Autumn seasons come and go over the years, and will continue to do so—God willing—for many years into the future.

Cultivating attention to this kind of beauty requires focus and patience. It whispers the inexhaustible goodness that surrounds us everywhere.

Jesus Christ the King

We have reached the last Sunday of the liturgical year, wherein we honor the Kingship of Jesus Crucified, Risen, and Glorified.

Pope Francis shared these words with us.

Saint Cecilia and the “Gladness” of Music

"The Lord is our savior; we shall sing to stringed instruments in the house of the Lord all the days of our life" (Isaiah 38:10).

Yesterday was Saint Cecilia's Day, and I am sending out thoughts and prayers especially to all my musician friends. In many cultures this day is celebrated as “Music Day.” 

Saint Cecilia—who was another heroic young woman who loved Jesus and gave everything for Him—is the third century Roman martyr who “praised the Lord in song.” In iconography (such as we have here) Cecilia is often depicted carrying a musical instrument, in this case a miniature pipe organ. Her connection to music stems from an experience given to her by God, but she is something more than an abstract symbol. As the patroness of music, Saint Cecilia is, in the presence of God, the friend and helper of all musicians and singers. The music that the Lord gave her in the depths of her soul—which she alone could hear—resounds in the ancient chants and later musical compositions that enrich the liturgical prayer of the Church. It also echoes within all the music written by composers or recorded by music ensembles that raises us beyond ourselves and reminds us of the wonderful and inescapable longing of our hearts. Even in distant and/or obscure performances, music “tries to remind us” that we are made for God.

I would have liked to have written something more specific about music, but I don’t have the energy right now. It’s a topic that means so much to me that I would have to give it more thorough attention, and I don’t feel capable of doing this kind of work right now. Perhaps I will write something before Christmas or during the Christmas season, so “stay tuned.”

The Collect Prayer for this feast reflects that it “gladden[s] us,” and these words articulate the special joy of this day. It’s a feast day that brings us the gladness that music engenders within our hearts, and so much more. Music can be a beautiful instrument of God’s grace, and it also can express all the urgency of the human search for the Mystery that gives meaning to everything.

O God, who gladden us each year

with the feast day of your handmaid Saint Cecilia,

grant, we pray,

that what has been devoutly handed down concerning her

may offer us examples to imitate

and proclaim the wonders worked in his servants by Christ your Son.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen. Saint Cecilia, pray for us!

Ukraine: A Thousand Days of Suffering… and Love

In this week’s General Audience, Pope Francis commemorated the 1000th day of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine (which was Tuesday, November 19) by sharing with the whole Church and the world an extraordinary testimony that was sent to him by a young person in Ukraine. It refers specifically to the Pope’s frequent references to the terrible suffering inflicted on the Ukrainian people in these past 1000 days of war. The writer wanted Francis to emphasize that the suffering of Ukrainians is not simply a passive affliction. Through their faith in Jesus Christ, suffering Ukrainians are learning to love in more profound ways: to love God, one another, their country, and even—perhaps—to love their enemies and persecutors.

This student’s experience indicates the grace of God that is being poured out on Ukraine at this time, a grace that is sustaining the faith of many Ukrainians and shaping their mentality (even if only a few might speak as this student does). Perhaps we may hope that Ukraine might emerge from this terrible ordeal with a new kind of patriotism, a new way of understanding and experiencing their national identity as a form of love and solidarity that reflects the light of the Gospel, as a special commitment to a more human way of living born of the transformative reality of faith—a way of living that is a blessing for the whole world.

Here is the text of Pope Francis reading this great and moving letter:

I received a letter from a young Ukrainian university student. It reads: "Father, when, on Wednesday, you remember my country and are able to speak to the whole world on the thousandth day of this terrible war, I ask you not to speak only of our suffering but also of our faith. Although it is imperfect, that does not diminish its value, because it paints, with painful strokes, a portrait of the Resurrected Christ. There have been too many deaths in my life recently. It is difficult to live in a city where a missile kills and wounds dozens of civilians, and you are witness to so many tears. I would have liked to flee, would have liked to go back to being a child in my mother's arms, would have liked to remain in silence and in love, but I thank God because, through this pain, I am learning greater love. Pain is not only a road to anger, and despair, if based on faith, it is a good teacher of love. Father, if pain makes you suffer, it means that you love. And so, when you speak of our pain, when you remember our thousand days of suffering, speak of our thousand days of love, too, because only love, faith, and hope give a real meaning to our wounds."

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai and the End of the Free Press

The Orwellian nightmare of Hong Kong’s implosion continues…

What does the imposition of dictatorship on a free society “look like”? Hong Kong shows us, among other things, that legitimate actions are retroactively criminalized and nonviolent reasonable opposition figures are subjected to mass arrests and imprisonment. 

We have just seen the “miscarriage of justice” against the “Hong Kong 45.” Today, Jimmy Lai took the stand in his own defense in the other ongoing Hong Kong “Show Trial.” His “crime”? Publishing an independent newspaper, the Apple Daily, that was the trustworthy news source for millions of Hong Kong people during the pro-democracy movement (between 2014 and 2020). 

The newspaper was shut down by the Chinese Communist Party’s imposition of its “National Security Law.” As the head of an independent media organization (i.e. a “free press” as guaranteed by Hong Kong’s Basic Law), Jimmy Lai spoke with foreign leaders, including the USA Vice President and Secretary of State. Now he is accused of “colluding with foreign forces to subvert Hong Kong’s government.” 

The 76-year-old—who came to Hong Kong as a young man fleeing the madness of Chairman Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” (who came as a “refugee”)—built up his lucrative business from many years of hard work, during which time he also encountered Christ and converted to the Catholic faith. If convicted (or, rather, WHEN convicted), he faces life imprisonment. He once commented that he hoped prison would give him the time to read many books that he’s always wanted to read.

Pray for Jimmy Lai. Pray for Hong Kong. Pray for China—where 1/6th of the human race lives and suffers oppression, where the dignity of the human person is violated every day by the Fascist-Leninist PartyState.

November’s “Autumn Impressions”

“More Autumn Impressions” (mid-November 2024). 

I have been sharing the inspirations of Fall on social media since 2014, via photos, videos, and various explorations in digital art. I’ll never get tired of it!😉

Hong Kong: The “Politics of Suffering”

The “trial” has finally been brought to a conclusion, and the “HONG KONG 45” have all received jail sentences. What this ruling means is that legitimate, nonviolent efforts by the pro-democracy movement to participate in the political process in Hong Kong are now regarded as a “threat to national security.” It would seem that all hope is lost for a “self-governing” Hong Kong free from the harsh and heavy hand of the Chinese Communist PartyState. 

But suffering injustice with patience is the hidden strength of nonviolent resistance to dictatorship. I remember in 1983 when Communist Poland declared martial law and put the leaders of the “Solidarity” movement in jail. None of us could have imagined the changes that were soon to come. 

Let’s pray for people like Benny Tai and Joshua Wong (pictured above); let’s continue to stand with them, remember them, “co-suffer” with them (in whatever small ways we can). May justice and the dignity of the human person prevail in Hong Kong, Ukraine, Sudan, the Middle East, Russia, China, and in our own nations—through the wisdom and goodness and merciful love of God.

Open this LINK to learn more by reading the BBC article cited in the picture.

“My Words Will Not Pass Away”

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, we contemplate eschatology and the ultimate kingship of Jesus Christ who is Lord of history and Savior of the human race, who has poured Himself out in love and mercy so that we might find freedom from sin and its illusions, and fulfillment in sharing His eternal life with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Pope Francis spoke beautifully at the Angelus of November 17 about the words of Jesus in the Sunday Gospel. Death and the end of all things can appear traumatic and terrifying, but Jesus has promised that He will remain with us. If we hold fast to Him, He will lead us through every trial to the fulfillment of the Kingdom where God will be all, in all. In His wisdom and goodness we will find—renewed and transformed—the meaning of everything in this present life that is shaped by His mercy and His companionship, all the mysterious ways by which He draws us to Himself.

Here are some of Francis’s words from the Angelus:

In the Gospel of today’s liturgy, Jesus describes a great tribulation: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light” (Mk 13:24). Faced with this suffering, many might think of the end of the world, but the Lord seizes the opportunity to offer a different interpretation, saying: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mk 13:31).

We can take a closer look at this expression: what will pass and what will remain.

First of all, what will pass. In some circumstances in our life, when we are going through a crisis or experience some failure, as well as when we see around us the pain caused by wars, violence, natural disasters, we have the feeling that everything is coming to an end, and we feel that even the most beautiful things pass away. Crises and failures, however, though painful, are important, because they teach us to accord everything its due weight, not to attach our hearts to the realities of this world, because they will pass: they are destined to fade away.

At the same time, Jesus talks about what will remain. Everything passes away, but His words will not pass away: Jesus’ words will remain for eternity. He thus invites us to trust in the Gospel, which contains a promise of salvation and eternity, and not to live under the anguish of death. For while everything passes away, Christ remains. In Him, in Christ, we shall one day find again the things and people who have passed away and who have accompanied us in our earthly existence. In the light of this promise of resurrection, every reality takes on a new meaning: everything dies and we too will one day die, but we will lose nothing of what we have built and loved, because death will be the beginning of a new life.

Brothers and sisters, even in tribulations, in crises, in failures, the Gospel invites us to look at life and history without fear of losing what ends, but with joy for what will remain. Let us not forget that God is preparing for us a future of life and joy.

“Do Not Go Off, Do Not Run In Pursuit…”

Jesus said, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Then he said to his disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’ Do not go off, do not run in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:20-25).

Mother Cabrini: An "American Immigrant"

Francesca Cabrini (1815-1917) was the first "naturalized" U.S.A. citizen to be canonized (she was born in Italy). Immigrants of those days loved "Mother Cabrini," who took care of them and showed them the face of Jesus.

"Prayer is powerful! It fills the earth with mercy, it makes the Divine clemency pass from generation to generation; right along the course of the centuries wonderful works have been achieved through prayer" (Saint Francesca ["Frances"] Cabrini, feast November 13).

God our Father, who called Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini from Italy to serve the immigrants of America, by her example, teach us to have concern for the stranger, the sick, and all those in need, and by her prayers help us to see Christ in all the men and women we meet.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

--Collect, November 13

Saint Josaphat: Sign of Hope For Ukraine

Today marks an important feast day especially for Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics, who are not only suffering along with all Ukrainians the ongoing brutal attacks of Russian aggression, but also face even now religious repression in every part of Ukraine that Russia illegally occupies. Saint Josaphat Kuncevic was the first modern Ukrainian Catholic martyr, but by no means the last.

Josaphat followed the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kiev and a group of Ukrainian and Belorussian bishops who entered into full communion with Rome in 1598. The “Union of Brest” preserved the Byzantine liturgy and the spirituality and practices of the Byzantine tradition while also recognizing the juridical primacy of the Bishop of Rome for the Universal Church. From this reunion were born what are today known as the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church and the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church.

At the beginning of the Seventeenth Century, the reunion was an occasion of great controversy among the population and clergy. Josaphat himself became a Byzantine Catholic Bishop and worked tirelessly not only in defense of the Papacy, but also to reform the clergy according to the great heritage of the Eastern Church and to catechize the common people and serve them. Many were drawn by his preaching as well as his humility and holiness, but others opposed him vehemently, preferring the benefits of patronage that local nobility gave to the orthodox churches.

Saint Josaphat sought Church unity with great fervor, but also great charity. He knew that his enemies were plotting his death, yet he remained among his people to guide them and, as much as possible, resolve disputes and overcome the violence of his enemies with the nonviolence of Christian love.

On November 12, 1623, he was put to death by a lynch mob of his enemies.

“You people want to kill me. You wait in ambush for me in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, in the marketplace, everywhere. Here I am; I came to you as a Shepherd. You know I would be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for union of the Church under Saint Peter and his successor, the Pope” (Saint Josaphat).

Saint Josaphat, pray for us. Pray for the unity of all Christians. Pray for the reunion of Christians East and West. Pray for a just and lasting peace for the people of Ukraine, and a renewal of their fidelity to Jesus Christ and commitment to human dignity.

Communion and Solidarity for All of “America”

The popular elections for the President of the United States of America are over. I have carried out my very small task on behalf of the candidate of the American Solidarity Party, a political movement that represents ideals that need to grow—in my opinion—if the United States is to survive as a nation. For all its colossal wealth, power, and influence, the United States is only one of the nations on this great hemispheric continent (north, central, and south) that constitutes the proper reference point for the term “America.” In my opinion, the tumultuous and in many ways transitional times in which we live constitute a challenge for all the nations of “America” to recognize the bonds they share and to live in greater solidarity. Through such a solidarity and communion, “America”—from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego—might one day become “great” in its contribution to the long history of humanity.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of history, and His Mother Mary has taken up a unique kind of “presence” at the geographical center of this “America,” through her astonishing and scientifically inexplicable image on the hill of Tepeyac at the edge of Mexico City: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In January 1999, I traveled to Mexico for the closing of the “Synod on America,” where Pope Saint John Paul II presented the fruit of the dialogue carried out by bishops from all over the hemispheric continent. He proposed that American solidarity had not only an evangelical significance, but also a temporal significance in its increasing interdependence and in the responsibilities of the rich nations to help their poorer neighbors. I think this event of 25 years ago was a prophetic moment. It is a light for judging the larger context of our particular circumstances, and a great encouragement for prayer. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of America—of all of America—pray for us.

Some words from Saint John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America (1999):

“I asked that the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops reflect on America as a single entity, by reason of all that is common to the peoples of the continent, including their shared Christian identity and their genuine attempt to strengthen the bonds of solidarity and communion between the different forms of the continent's rich cultural heritage. The decision to speak of ‘America’ in the singular was an attempt to express not only the unity which in some way already exists, but also to point to that closer bond which the peoples of the continent seek and which the Church wishes to foster as part of her own mission, as she works to promote the communion of all in the Lord...

“The Church is the place where men and women, by encountering Jesus, can come to know the love of the Father, for whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (cf. John 14:9). After his Ascension into heaven, Jesus acts through the powerful agency of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete (cf. John 16:17), who transforms believers by giving them new life. Thus they become capable of loving with God's own love, which ‘has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us’ (Romans 5:5). God's grace also enables Christians to work for the transformation of the world, in order to bring about a new civilization, … ‘the civilization of love’”

“I Shall See the Bounty of the Lord”

Jesus came to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God, and to initiate it Himself by atoning for sin and overcoming the limitations of this earthly life through His death and resurrection. Insofar as we love God’s wisdom and goodness, we will not feel entirely “at home” in this present life. 

We are called to follow Jesus, and when we work for goodness, justice, and peace in this world, we do so as instruments of His love and mercy. We are called to show forth the glory of Christ in the midst of whatever circumstances we live in—however difficult and confusing they may be—confident in the Holy Spirit that God will bring to fruition all that He has promised.

Summer in November!

Meanwhile, in "news" that has nothing to do with the U.S.A. elections, IT'S EIGHTY DEGREES today... in November... in the Northern Hemisphere!😳

To make that comprehensible to the rest of the world, we're talking about 26.7 degrees Celsius.

“Our Citizenship is in Heaven”

Four years ago, I posted this New Testament text, in which Saint Paul reminds the early Christians of Philippi that the common mentality in the society in which they live is not the source and measure of their identity. But Paul doesn’t propose merely replacing the human social mores of first century Asia Minor (which were in some ways analogous to the attitudes of the dominant culture in the USA today) with a “better” mentality—an attitude that might be less shameless and more “respectable,” but still founded on a preoccupation with “earthly things.”

Saint Paul reminds the Philippians that their identity as Christians already establishes them as citizens of the New Creation, because they are incorporated into the Risen Christ and live in the hope of His glory. Here and now they participate in the “first fruits” of the Kingdom of God by the grace of the Holy Spirit and in the “hastening” of His final coming by living and sharing the Gospel they have received. What they have received—what we Christians have received—is a gift of grace that is the truth of the destiny of every person and of the whole of creation. Our identity and the purpose of our lives every day, is to cooperate with the Lord by allowing His presence, His glory, and His mercy to shine through our whole humanity, so that He might draw others to Himself.

That is who we are. We belong to Christ on election day and on every other day. Let us not be distracted by earthly power, or drawn into forgetfulness by its idolatrous pretences. Let us not be discouraged by the inevitable disappointments and failures of earthly things, earthly societies, earthly powers.

“Our citizenship is in heaven” with Jesus Christ our Savior.

"Many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their 'shame.' Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved" (Philippians 3:18 - 4:1).

Autumn Evenings Cut Short (But Colors Remain)

“Goodbye Evening Sunshine” (November 2, 2024). 

See you in… February, maybe? This is the weekend to set back the clocks one hour (or, in most cases, allow your digital devices to do it for you automatically). 

This means that #WinterDarkTimeBegins … and cuts off those evening hours when I like to walk. I’ll have to pay attention to the time during the day, otherwise—BOOM!—it’s dark before 5:30 P.M. The clock set-back also signals that time of year when the suns dips rapidly into shorter days leading up to the Winter Solstice. That's okay when Christmas is drawing near, but the sudden "shortening" of days in November is always a challenge to people whose moods are sensitive to the seasons (like mine).

Of course, we do have a few more weeks of colorful leaves coming up. Which reminds me that I should “dump” some other examples of Autumn vistas and impressions—in photography and/or digital art—that JJStudios has created this Fall (including the image featured above). Here are some more examples from last month, in no particular order:

The Saints and “Holy Souls” of November

Happy All Saints Day! Welcome to November 2024...

...the month in which we remember also in prayer— with confidence in the redeeming power of the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ—all our beloved dead who live in Him while yet enduring the final purification of His mercy that will prepare them for the fulfillment of beatific communion with God.

“Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”

“I Vote, Therefore I Am?” Not Exactly, But…

Yes, I already voted some weeks ago. In fact, this past summer I made a formal commitment to stand as one of a slate of thirteen “electors” in the State of Virginia for the certified write-in candidacy of the American Solidarity Party: Peter Sonski for President and Lauren Onak for Vice-President. The picture shows how to write-in Sonski and Onak on an election ballot in most States (including Virginia), where they are not listed among the printed options. Color in the dot next to “Write-In Candidate” and write in their names in the manner shown. My vote this year was an interesting and peculiar civic exercise: if you look carefully at your ballot, you will see that you are not voting directly for the President / Vice-President candidates; rather, you are voting for the slate of “electors for” the candidates. Each ticket (including write-in candidates, if they want their votes to be attributed distinctly to them) must put forth a slate of electors who are pledged to cast “electoral votes” for the ticket if it wins the most popular vote in that State. So, in Virginia, each ticket that wants to be officially tabulated has a group of 13 people who are committed to represent officially its candidates for President and Vice-President if these candidates win the most votes in the State. The “official election” of the President takes place on a day in December when electors for the popular-vote-winners in each State gather (usually at their State capitols) and cast these votes as members of the Electoral College. Thus, I realized that I was actually “running” in this election—running, that is, for membership in the Electoral College. As one of the 13 electors officially pledged to the American Solidarity Party ticket, I understood that in writing-in our candidates on my own ballot I was actually voting for myself (along with 12 other people) in the 2024 Presidential election.

That was not a position I ever imagined I would find myself in. Needless to say, I don’t expect to be making a trip to Richmond in December, nor do I have any other illusions regarding the significance of my vote for the results of this present election. Since 2016, however, I have been a member of the American Solidarity Party (ASP), and have voted for its presidential candidates and participated (virtually) in some of its events. Voting for President of the United States is a way of participating in a vast political process. However, as the practicalities of this process (and the “choices” it offers) become more superficial, unseemly, and remote from our own experiences and opinions and (most importantly) the convictions of our consciences, I think the time has come to be more “creative” in the way we participate.

The ASP is far from perfect, and at present it is very, very small. But it is a party in which the “platform” represents in detail a politics that aspires to put the dignity of every human person at the center of its concerns. It is a party that aspires to uphold the rights of persons and relationships as they are given in this wonderful mysterious reality that is our existence in this world: whether the person or persons are the poor on the margins of society who require our special concern, or desperate migrants and refugees who seek mercy from the world’s richest nation, or persons who exist as frozen embryos in a laboratory, or a mother and her unborn child (who both deserve protection and care that also continues after birth), or families which are the organic (“given”) foundation for maturing in the experience of interpersonal communion, or workers who collaborate in what is always a human enterprise, or persons who make up communities and build the institutions of civil society, or the sick and the elderly who need care and affirmation that their lives have meaning, or even criminals who need punishment and correction but also respect for their fundamental human dignity from a merciful society that doesn’t put them to death or subject them to cruelty. Then there are the issues involving war and peace, our responsibility for the environment entrusted to us, an economy on a human scale, and a wisdom regarding “progress” that serves the enrichment of whole human persons who have a transcendent destiny.

The ASP at least tries to be a personalist and communitarian political organization (perhaps this is a better word than “party”). In my opinion the United States of America will either develop toward a personalist and communitarian democracy or it will cease to exist as a nation.

I realize that there are many concerns involving this election, and that most people who vote believe it is necessary to choose one of the two “major” candidates that have been imposed upon us by a corrupt and increasingly dysfunctional political system. These voters focus on concrete issues that, in their opinion, will be better served—or at least less imperiled—by electing or preventing one of these candidates from becoming President. I understand and respect people who make this judgment regarding their own vote.

But I do believe that some of us have to begin now the preparation, organization, and procedural requirements for a new kind of politics in this country. Perhaps it’s quixotic to help build the foundations of a “new party,” but we will never know—and we will never even have a chance—unless some of us try to make a beginning. The reasonable way to make this effort is to enter the political process.

If there is to be any hope for moving in the direction of a politics that respects the dignity of every human person, a politics of solidarity, a politics of mercy, then some of us must begin to move in distinctive ways. We must try new approaches, cast votes and commit ourselves to political processes that—for now—are admittedly “symbolic.” Symbols are pedagogical for ourselves and for others, and they can suddenly become very practical in times of rapid change and instability. In my opinion, the ASP is making an effort to begin traveling this path, and I believe that I am called (in my own necessarily limited and very small capacity) to walk with them. For me, it’s worth the “risk” of my “one vote.”

This is an important point: even if we can’t do much, we can do a little. We can take a step. We can detach ourselves a little from the pervasive delusion that we live in a basically “healthy country,” or that our endemic problems can be “fixed” by a few changes in a legal system that has become unmoored from a dependable foundation in human personal dignity and the “common good.” Those whose efforts attempt to ameliorate the dangers of the present system should not place all their hopes in work that is important, but tenuous and all-too-easily uprooted by the inevitable shifts of power politics.

All of this accounts for why I have decided, with much prayer and deliberation, to stand as one of the Virginia “electors” for the Presidential candidacy of Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party, and to vote for him as a write-in candidate in the general election of 2024. I have a conviction that a movement in this direction is necessary for our nation. For me this is a way to be faithful to that conviction, and to the fundamental human needs that inspire it.