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advocacy for justice could be draining, and carried temptations to self-righteousness
and the sense of being irreplaceable. Times of retreat offered space for
renewal in God’s Spirit, so that Catholic Workers could remember that grace—
God’s loving and saving presence in our lives—is what makes the work possible.
To keep a generous spirit one needs to be refreshed in God’s generosity. To welcome
others, one needs to experience God’s welcome.
For the Open Door Community, retreat has often served as a time of renewal
in God’s generosity and welcome. It was the recognition of an ongoing
need for retreat that brought the community the gift of Dayspring Farm, its
most commonly used place of retreat. Community members have found
Dayspring a place of respite, both in individual and community retreats. It has,
by community members’ accounts, been a place to which they can withdraw for
needed rest from the demanding work of hospitality. Elizabeth Dede, in
“Dayspring: A Message from My Childhood,” gives voice to how this place of
retreat serves the community. She recalls the lyrics of the Advent hymn “Oh
Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel,” in which “blest Dayspring” is to
. . . come and cheer
Our spirits by your advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Afterword ˜ 349
Elizabeth finds through the retreat offered at Dayspring refreshment in the powerful
presence of God, who makes the life of the Open Door possible.
As we rest and recreate and meditate and communicate with
God, as we worship together, share the Lord’s Supper, and
wash each other’s feet, we remember and experience and are
conscious of Christ, the bright Dayspring, shining on us and
sharing both the joy and the bitter sadness of our hearts. Truly
God has come to the Open Door and set it free. Through
God’s tender mercy—in the gift of Dayspring Farm, in each
other, and in the greatest gift, Jesus—the Dayspring from on
high has visited.
Elizabeth’s words not only point to the power of retreat, they also provide
an apt summary of how faith in Jesus Christ permeates the Open Door and
draws together its shared life and varied works. Much like the Catholic Worker,
from which the community has drawn, the Open Door continues to see its life
together as part of God’s faithful, gracious action to bring human life to salvation,
to a true human dignity and fulfillment in loving union with God. In this
life, the Open Door joins with the Catholic Worker tradition in seeking first the
Kingdom of God.