Dorothy Day as a Template for Christian Prophecy

Fr. Ron Rolheiser is a specialist in the field of spirituality and is the current president of the Oblate School of Theology. An author of prizewinning books like The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality, and a weekly column that appears in nearly 100 Catholic publications, he is a great champion of Dorothy Day, and has written extensively about her life and legacy.

The following is a transcript of Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s presentation to the National Catholic Worker gathering at the San Antonio Catholic Worker in early October 2025. It was auto-generated from the recording and reviewed by a human editor, who made minor edits for clarity. Cover photo: Fr. Ron Rolheiser and Chris Plauche.

Fr. Ron Rolheiser:

I actually want to begin by saying a word about Chris Plauche. Chris was one of the first three graduates of our spirituality program, and we’re very proud of what she has done. Thank you, Chris. I think we are sitting in this place largely because of her.

Usually I begin with a joke, but this morning I want to start with a story from the Sufi mystical tradition.

A man in Iraq wakes up one morning and goes to the market square. From a distance he sees the Angel of Death and gets a very bad feeling—“The Angel of Death is after me.” He rushes home and tells his friend, “I saw the Angel of Death. I’m getting on a train tonight and going to Baghdad—eight hours from here.” So he leaves on the train. That afternoon, his friend goes out to the market square and meets the Angel of Death. He says, “You gave my friend a terrible scare this morning.”
The Angel of Death replies, “I was surprised to see him here. I have an appointment with him tonight in Baghdad.”

Take that story however you want.

Dorothy as a Paradigm for Christian Prophecy

I want to talk about Dorothy Day as a paradigm for Christian prophecy. What is Christian prophecy? Dorothy Day not only articulated it—she lived it and incarnated it.

In today’s world we often name people prophets too easily. Recently, when Charlie Kirk was shot, many proclaimed him a “great Christian prophet.” Was he? I’m not going to answer that. I want to give you principles. You decide who is a prophet and who isn’t.

Dorothy Day was a prophet—a true Christian prophet. Daniel Berrigan, a close friend of hers, once wrote a fine book on prophecy called Ten Commandments for the Long Haul. He asked:

“When is resistance a mature response to systems and powers that claim our lives, and when has it become a pestilent form of egoism?”

That’s a good question.

So here are some principles of Christian prophecy as Dorothy Day articulated and lived them.

1. A Prophet Makes a Vow of Love, Not of Alienation

Dorothy said:

“A prophet makes a vow of love, not of alienation.”

She also said:

“The question is how to love one’s enemy while one’s life stands in opposition to him.”

Let me illustrate.

We had a priest back in Canada who had been removed from ministry by every bishop. He always insisted, “I’m a prophet.” But really, he was simply a trouble-maker. Prophecy is not just being “in someone’s face.”

Contrast that with Larry Rosebaugh, a Vietnam veteran–priest who went to prison multiple times with the Berrigans. Larry explained how Daniel Berrigan prepared them: they prayed long hours, celebrated Mass, and walked to their action making sure no one was hurt. Berrigan insisted:

“If you can’t love the people you’re standing against, don’t do it.”

Dorothy Day lived that better than almost anyone. She often quoted Dostoevsky:

“The world will be saved by beauty.”

Not by shouting in people’s faces—by beauty.

She said:

“We must blow away the fumes of fear we all breathe. Otherwise the terror of each other will kill us.”

And:

“Ultimately our struggle is with principalities and powers—not with the Church or the State.”

So the first principle: a prophet vows love, not alienation.

2. A Prophet Draws Strength from the Gospel, Not from Ideology

A prophet comes out of Jesus—not out of ideology. That line is easy to cross.

I once heard an Episcopal priest on NPR who traveled the country speaking on Mother Earth and ecology. The interviewer asked, “Coming from liberal San Francisco, what happens when you preach in places like Arkansas?”

She said:

“I’ve learned that if I come out of Jesus, sincere people hear me. If I come out of ideology, they turn me off like a water tap.”

There’s much truth in feminism, in environmentalism, and in other movements—but ultimately those are ideologies. People can dismiss them as “woke,” “political correctness,” or whatever the term of the moment is. But you can’t easily dismiss the Gospel.

Let me give you an example from my home diocese of Saskatoon. We had a conservative but very good bishop, James Mahoney. Women complained that they were being paid less than men. The priests said, “We can’t afford to fix that.” A month later the bishop returned: “We’re going to do it. We’ll find the money.” A priest said, “Jim, you’re doing this because it’s politically correct.” The bishop replied:

“No, we’re doing it because it’s correct.”

You see the distinction.

3. A Prophet Is Committed to Nonviolence

Dorothy Day embodied nonviolence.

If you haven’t seen Of Gods and Men, watch it. It’s about the Trappist monks martyred in Algeria in 1996. When armed extremists first threatened them, the abbot, Christian de Chergé, said:

“We must completely disarm.”

Not buy weapons. Disarm.

Scripture says Jesus had “power,” but the Greek uses the word exousia—not physical strength, not charisma. Exousia is the power of the utterly vulnerable. A baby has exousia: the most powerless person in the room is often the most powerful.

Jesus’ power was the power of radical nonviolence.

Daniel Berrigan said:

“Be powerless criminals in a time of criminal power.”

4. A Prophet Speaks God’s Voice for the Poor

Prophets don’t predict the future; they name the present—especially in light of God’s love for the poor.

Jim Wallis once said:

“Any preaching that isn’t good news for the poor is not the Gospel of Jesus.”

Jesus’ first public words:

“I have come to bring good news to the poor.”

In the Old Testament the prophets insisted that the quality of your faith is judged by the quality of justice in the land—and justice is judged by how the most vulnerable fare: widows, orphans, and strangers.

Today we might say: immigrants, the incarcerated, the unhoused, the excluded. Gustavo Gutiérrez says:

“The poor are those who do not have the right to have rights.”

Dorothy Day lived with and for the poor. Breadlines and hospices weren’t enough—she pushed for communities of work, solidarity, and justice. She once said:

“Those who retain superfluous wealth possess the goods of others.”

5. A Prophet Does Not Expect Immediate Results

Dorothy said:

“We may never see results, but they will be there.”

A.J. Muste wrote:

“I don’t protest to change the world. I protest to keep the world from changing me.”

Daniel Berrigan said:

“Do prophetic acts not because the outcome is assured, but because of the integrity of the act itself.”

Dorothy also insisted that our protests are always incomplete. The most complete protest may be to go to jail peacefully and accept it.

6. A Prophet Speaks from the Horizon of Hope

Hope is not wishful thinking (“I hope I win the lottery”).
Hope is not optimism (“I always see the bright side”).
You can be an optimist without hope, and a pessimist with deep hope. Hope is rooted in a meta-narrative, a big story.

Teilhard de Chardin once presented his great vision of cosmic fulfillment in Christ. Someone said, “What if we blow up the world with an atomic bomb?” He answered:

“That would be a two-million-year setback. What I say will still happen—not because I wish it, but because God promised it. The resurrection shows God keeps promises.”

Desmond Tutu used to greet armed soldiers sent to intimidate him by saying:

“Welcome to Church. Your mothers will be glad you came. And welcome to the winning side. We’ve already won—not apartheid, but the resurrection.”

Our hope is anchored in the resurrection. If you lose that anchor, you lose hope.

7. A Prophet’s Heart Is Never a Ghetto

Kazantzakis wrote:

“The bosom of God is not a ghetto, but the heart of man often is.”

Jesus said:

“In my Father’s house there are many rooms.”

Dorothy Day embodied a wide heart. Today we are tempted by Christian nationalism—making God a tribal deity. But God is not the God of one nation, party, or ideology. In God’s house there are Buddhist rooms, Hindu rooms, Muslim rooms, MAGA rooms, woke rooms—many rooms.

A prophet refuses to shrink God.

8. A Prophet Doesn’t Just Speak—A Prophet Acts

Academics can write studies about the last tree being cut down—but prophets try to stop the cutting.

Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, Oscar Romero, Stan Rother, Dorothy Stang—they acted. And they paid for it: jail, exile, even death.

I’ll be honest: I speak a lot about prophecy, but I’ve never gone to jail for it. Dorothy Day did.

9. A Prophet Discerns When to Protest and When to Take Up the Basin and Towel

Sometimes you pick up the placard.
Sometimes you put it down and pick up the basin and towel.

In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper has bread and wine. John replaces that scene with the washing of feet.

Jesus takes off his outer robe, washes the disciples’ feet, puts the robe back on, and says, “Do this.”

The outer robe is our identity markers: I’m a man. I’m a priest. I’m Canadian. I’m pro-life. I’m progressive. I’m conservative. With that robe on, there are many people whose feet we can’t wash.

But John says Jesus could wash anyone’s feet because:

“He knew he had come from God and was going back to God.”

When you stand in that identity alone—child of God, returning to God—everything becomes possible.

If John were alive today, I think he’d say:

Let pro-life advocates wash the feet of pro-choice advocates. Let pro-choice advocates wash the feet of pro-life advocates. Let Hillary Clinton wash Donald Trump’s feet, and Trump wash Nancy Pelosi’s. Let Christians wash Muslims’ feet, and Muslims wash Christians’.

Only then, John says, can we celebrate the Eucharist authentically.

That’s the prophetic reach.

In Sum…

These are the principles of Christian prophecy. Dorothy Day lived them better than almost anyone in our time. Not perfectly—no one does—but remarkably well. That’s why her legacy endures, and why she is on the path to sainthood.

You are her disciples. Study her as a prophet. Her protests were strong—never wishy-washy. Yet she loved her enemies.

That combination is Christian prophecy.

Okay—that’s my spiel. Questions, comments, or rock-throwing?

Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s latest book is Insane for the Light: A Spirituality for Our Wisdom Years, it marks the conclusion of Fr. Rolheiser’s trilogy of modern spiritual classics, following The Holy Longing and Sacred Fire.