“We do the minute things that come to hand,
we pray our prayers, and
beg also for an increase of faith—
and God will do the rest.”
--St Therese of Lisieux
Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Maurin,
wrote this in her autobiography.
She was a devout Catholic and activist in the early part of the 20 th century. She
protested against nuclear weapons, was a conscientious objector during World
War II, founded many houses of hospitality were she welcomed refugees who had
no U.S. citizen status, and found herself in jail many times because of her actions
of civil disobedience. She was opposed to war period. She wanted to live like
Jesus of Nazareth.
In spite of her protestations, very little has changed in our world today, even
though she worked hard for the poor and those treated unjustly during the
depression and the pursuing militarization of U.S. cities. We still have many wars
today—not only the big ones in Gaza and the Ukraine, but many others in Africa
and South America.
She never gave up her work for justice and human freedom. Her prayer life and
her dedication to truth and justice and her faith in God sustained her. As she
once said,
“Certainly when [I] lie in jail thinking of these things, thinking of war and
peace, and the problems of human freedom…and the apathy of great
masses of people who believe that nothing can be done, I am all the more
confirmed in my faith in the little way of St Therese. We do the minute
things that come to hand, we pray our prayers, and beg also for an
increase of faith—and God will do the rest.”
In the turmoil of our world today, that is what the Yoga Tradition calls us to
do—“embrac[e] an attitude of friendliness to the happy, compassion to the
miserable, happiness toward the virtuous, and non-judgment toward the non-
virtuous.” (Yoga Sutra 1.33).
The Yoga Tradition also calls us to live non-violently in all aspects of life so that
we don’t unwittingly encourage “animosity, cruelty, jealousy and self-
righteousness,” remembering that we, as the Buddha would say, are just guests
on this earth and are here to live without harming ourselves, others, sensient
beings, and the Earth that sustains is all. We do not own anything. We came into
the physical world naked and we will leave it with nothing physical, not even our
bodies.
And yet, we are to live as though we are responsible for our salvation and the
salvation of the planet and human freedom even though all of that, and Muslims
believe, is up to God.
That is a challenging way of life, yet Yoga and Christianity call all of us to that
workload and that faith in the Divine, because we are spiritual beings.
I bow to the divinity within you!
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