Just a Pebble in a Pond

St. Thérèse taught the value of the “Little Way”—a path to holiness that lay in performing all our daily tasks and duties in a spirit of love and in the presence of God. Dorothy embraced this teaching. She believed that each act of love, each work of mercy might increase the balance of love in the world. And she extended this principle to the social sphere. Each act of protest or witness for peace—though apparently foolish and ineffective, no more than a pebble in a pond—might send forth ripples that could transform the world. —Robert Ellsberg in his introduction to The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day

These four sentences could, and should, be the basis of many more.

First, there’s Saint Thérèse, a woman who comes across as either the perfect role model for a Christian easily overwhelmed by the thought of trying to do the will of God or as a Pollyanna who is simply too good to be true. Thanks to one of Father Modlin’s homilies, my thoughts now skew to the latter take whenever I come across the Little Flower, but I don’t want to think of her that way. I prefer my original take: seeing her as a role model for prayer, patience, and perspective.

It seems to me that all three are important in life, especially when raising a house full of kids. In my own life, I’ve had times in which I was good at one but not another; bad at all three; and once in a while, able to hold my own in each of those departments. What Dorothy Day managed to accomplish, though—I don’t know that I could do it. She put up with A LOT.

“She believed that each act of love, each work of mercy might increase the balance of love in the world”: that’s the key, isn’t it? Most of us can’t do big things, generally because we don’t have big stages, but that’s okay. In fact, it’s good. I’m lucky if I can keep my bathrooms clean; don’t trust me to save the world. I can love my neighbor, though, even if that amounts to little more than striking up a cheerful conversation with the grocery store cashier who has obviously been having a rather unpleasant day. I still see people out in the world wearing masks, but I now mind my own business. While the tantrums at the front end of the supermarket or on the steps of the church can feel freeing in the moment, they likely don’t have positive effects. Maybe the next time I’m tempted, I’ll run the phrase “prayer, patience, and perspective” through my head. Either that, or the very timely reminder I recently received from a long-distance friend: “Our thoughts manifest reality. The Great Awakening … keep the faith always.”