loaves & fishes by dorothy day is what i’m reading right now. & i’m so tired, but i can’t sleep because this book, especially the included “easy essays” by peter maurin, is making my heart flutter!

“The world would be better off
if people tried
to become better,
And people would
become better
if they stopped trying
to be better off.

For when everyone tries
to become better off
nobody is better off.
But when everyone tries
to become better
everyone is better off.

Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried
to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried
to be the poorest

And everybody would be
what he ought to be
if everybody tried to be
what he wants
the other fellow to be. “

“And because the poor
were fed, clothed, and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans used to say
about the Christians
“See how they love each other.”
In our own day
the poor are no longer
fed, clothed, and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice
but at the expense
of the taxpayers.
And because the poor
are no longer
fed, clothed and sheltered
the pagans say about the Christians
“See how they pass the buck.”


“The Catholic unemployed
should not be sent to the “Muni.”
The Catholic unemployed
should be given hospitality
in Catholic Houses of Hospitality.
Catholic Houses of Hospitality
are known in Europe
under the name of hospices.
There have been hospices in Europe
since the time of Constantine.
Hospices are free guest houses;
hotels are paying guest houses.
And paying guest houses or hotels
are as plentiful
as free guest houses or hospices
are scarce.
So hospitality, like everything else,
has been commercialized.
So hospitality, like everything else,
must now be idealized.”

“To give and not to take
that is what makes man human.
To serve and not to rule
that is what makes man human.
To help and not to crush
that is what makes man human.
To nourish and not to devour
that is what makes man human.
And if need be
to die and not to live
that is what makes man human.
Ideals and not deals
that is what makes man human.
Creed and not greed
that is what makes man human.”