Martha Hennessy Addresses 10th National Eucharistic Congress
Martha Hennessy, one of the grandchildren of Dorothy Day, addressed the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Friday, July 19, before a crowd of approximately 5,000 people at the Indiana Convention Center. Here is a video of the speech, along with a transcript and the prepared text.
Transcript
The following transcript was auto-generated from a recording of her talk and reviewed by a human editor for accuracy. For the prepared text from which Martha gave her talk, see below.
Emcee: Would you please welcome to the stage Martha Hennessy.
(applause)
Martha Hennessy: Thank you.
Oh Jesus, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Dorothy Day, Servant of God, lived from 1897 to 1980. She was a journalist and a Catholic convert following the birth of her only child, Tamar. She co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Marvin, beginning with a newspaper in 1933. The Catholic Worker Movement took the Sermon on the Mount and Catholic social teaching literally by practicing the works of mercy, feeding and housing the homeless of New York City and opposing war as a theft from the poor. Dorothy’s cause for canonization is currently being considered in Rome.
As a three-year-old sitting in lap of Dorothy, my granny, I received my first awareness of the presence of God held in her voice and her heartbeat while my ear was pressed to her chest. Her devotion to the Eucharist stays with us as we continue to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as Jesus gave of himself to us. Upon receiving the Eucharist daily, Dorothy held silence for twenty minutes to allow herself to absorb the presence of God within her before returning to her work.
I will share some of Dorothy’s quotes with you. Some of them are hard sayings.
This is from August 6, 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She spoke at the 41st International Eucharistic Congress. Her talk was called “Bread for the Hungry.“
I think we all share in Sister Angelita’s expressed wish that by what we say in this session, all of us here will grow in their faith in, love for, and commitment to Jesus in the Eucharist according to the purposes of this Congress.
My love and gratitude to the Church have grown through the years. She was my mother and nourished me and taught me.
She taught me the crowning love of the life of the Spirit, but she also taught me that before we bring our gifts of service, of gratitude, to the altar, if our brother has anything against us, we must hesitate to approach the altar to receive the Eucharist. Unless you do penance, you shall all perish. Penance comes before the Eucharist. Otherwise, we partake of the sacrament unworthily.
And here we are on August 6, the day of the first atomic bomb being dropped, which ended the Second World War. There had been holocausts before, massacres after the First World War, of the Armenians, all but forgotten now, and the holocaust of the Jews, God’s chosen people. When he came to earth as man, he chose them, and he told us all men are brothers, and that it was his will that all men be saved: Japanese, Jew, Armenian.
It is a fearful thought that unless we do penance, we will perish.
Our Creator gave us life and the Eucharist to sustain our life, but we have the world instruments of death of unconceivable magnitude. Today we are celebrating (how strange to use such a word) a Mass for the military, the armed forces. No one in charge of the Eucharistic Congress had remembered what August 6 means in the minds of all who are dedicated to the work of peace.
Women who were born to nourish, to bring forth life, not to destroy it, must do more than thank God that we survived it. I plead in this short paper that we will regard that military Mass and all our Masses today as an act of penance, begging God to forgive us. I am gratified for the opportunity given me at this Congress to express myself in this way.
I thank God for the freedom of Holy Mother Church.
The next quote is from “On Pilgrimage,” her monthly column, June 1972.
Scripture on the one hand and the Eucharist, the Word made flesh, on the other, have in them that strength which no power on earth can withstand.
“On Pilgrimage,” January 1962:
My joy is constantly renewed as I receive our Lord at Mass.
From “The Council and the Mass,” Catholic Worker paper, September 1962 (she attended Vatican II Council):
Our need to worship, to praise, to give thanksgiving makes us return to the Mass daily. The Mass begins our day. It is our food and drink, our delight, our refreshment, our courage, our light.
From “The Duty of Delight,” her diaries, June 1969:
Without prayer, we could not continue. As breath is to the body, prayer is to the soul. When we take to heart literally the humanity of Jesus, as well as his divinity, and remember how he died for us, laid down his life for us, took upon himself our sins, then we should simply obey his command. He took upon himself our humanity, that we might share his divinity. We are nourished by his flesh, that we may grow to be other Christs.
I believe this literally, just as I believe the child is nourished by the milk from his mother’s breast.
This is regarding her understanding of the Mystical Body of Christ:
Christ is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth today. He made heaven hinge on the way we act toward him in his disguise of commonplace, frail, ordinary humanity.
And last of all, from “The Long Loneliness,” her autobiography published in 1951:
We cannot love God unless we love each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet, and life is a crust where there is companionship.
We will offer some dinner at Babe Denny Park at 5 p.m. and roundtable discussion if anyone would like to join us. Thank you.
(applause)
Emcee: Praise the Lord. We are being blessed, triple blessed, double blessed. It’s just expanding. The Lord is doing something here in this space. Can you hear the words of a past Eucharistic Congress coming to life again for us today? The Lord is speaking, and he’s speaking clearly. I don’t know if you caught that. We were called back to bread for the hungry.
Martha’s prepared text
Dorothy Day’s Radical Devotion to the Eucharist
July 19th, 2024
National Eucharistic Congress
BIO- Dorothy Day, Servant of God, lived from 1897 to 1980. She was a journalist and a Catholic convert following the birth of her only child Tamar. She co-founded the Catholic Worker movement with Peter Maurin beginning with a newspaper in 1933. The Catholic Worker Movement took the Sermon on the Mount and Catholic Social Teaching literally by practicing the works of mercy, feeding and housing the homeless of New York City and opposing war as a theft from the poor. Dorothy’s cause for canonization is currently being considered in Rome.
As a 3-year-old sitting in the lap of Dorothy, my Granny, I received my first awareness of the presence of God held in her voice and heartbeat while my ear was pressed to her chest. Her devotion to the Eucharist stays with us as we continue to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as Jesus gave of Himself to us. Upon receiving the Eucharist daily, Dorothy held silence for 20 minutes to allow herself to absorb the presence of God within her before returning to her work.
Dorothy Day Quotes:
August 6th, 1976, Philadelphia PA. 41st International Eucharistic Congress
“Bread for the Hungry”
I think we all share in Sister Angelita’s expressed wish that, by what we say in this session, all of us here will grow in “their faith in, love for, and commitment to Jesus in the Eucharist, according to the purposes of this Congress…. My love and gratitude to the Church have grown through the years. She was my mother and nourished me and taught me. She taught me the crowning love of the life of the Spirit. But she also taught me that “before we bring our gifts of service, of gratitude, to the altar, — if our brother has anything against us, we must hesitate to approach the altar to receive the Eucharist.”
“Unless you do penance, you shall all perish.” Penance comes before the Eucharist. Otherwise we partake of the Sacrament unworthily.
And here we are on August 6th, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped, which ended the Second World War. There had been holocausts before — massacres, after the First World War, of the Armenians, all but forgotten now, and the holocaust of the Jews, God’s chosen people. When He came to earth as Man, He chose them. And He told us “All men are brothers,” and that it was His will that all men be saved. Japanese, Jew, Armenian.
It is a fearful thought, that unless we do penance, we will perish.
Our Creator gave us life, and the Eucharist to sustain our life.
But we have the world instruments of death of inconceivable magnitude.
Today, we are celebrating — how strange to use such a word — a Mass for the military, the “armed forces.” No one in charge of the Eucharistic Congress had remembered what August 6th means in the minds of all who are dedicated to the work of peace…. Women, who were born to nourish, to bring forth life, not to destroy it, must do more than thank God we survived it.
I plead, in this short paper, that we will regard that military Mass, and all our Masses today, as an act of penance, begging God to forgive us. I am gratified for the opportunity given me at this Congress to express myself in this way. I thank God for the freedom of Holy Mother Church.
* On Pilgrimage, monthly column, June 1972: “…Scripture on the one hand and the Eucharist, the Word made Flesh, on the other, have in them that strength which no power on earth can withstand.”
*On Pilgrimage,” January 1962: [My] “joy is constantly renewed as I receive Our Lord at Mass.”
* From “The Council and the Mass, ” Catholic Worker, September 1962: Vatican II “Our need to worship, to praise, to give thanksgiving, makes us return to the Mass daily…[T]he Mass begins our day, it is our food and drink, our delight, our refreshment, our courage, our light.”
* From The Duty of Delight her Diaries, June, 1969: “Without prayer we could not continue. As breath is to the body, prayer is to the soul. …When we take to heart literally the humanity of Jesus, as well as his divinity, and remember how he died for us, laid down his life for us, took upon himself our sins, then we should simply obey his commands. He took upon himself our humanity that we might share his divinity. We are nourished by his flesh that we may grow to be other Christs. I believe this literally, just as I believe the child is nourished by the milk from his mother’s breast.”
*Mystical Body of Christ- “Christ is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth [today]. He made heaven hinge on the way we act toward Him in His disguise of commonplace, frail, ordinary humanity.”
* From The Long Loneliness: 1951 autobiography “We cannot love God unless we love each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.”
Catholic Worker Booth/Roundtable Discussion
4 PM Friday and Saturday
