“Not to Be Surprised at the Treachery of Creatures” (Dorothy Day)

My current spiritual practice includes, among other things, the excruciatingly slow reading of the Bible and other wisdom texts. I typically read a paragraph, or a few verses, per day; that’s plenty to sit with in silent prayer and ponder the depths that the passage may hold.

This year I began reading The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day in this way. (If you don’t know Dorothy Day, you can start here to get acquainted with her—a writer, journalist, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, tireless advocate for pacifism and against poverty, etc.) Today, quite by accident, what came up was her entry for the first Friday in Lent 1935. Very short and yet, my goodness, it could have been written yesterday:

Lent is teaching me a great deal through the lessons at hand—teaching me not to be surprised at the foolishness, even the treachery of creatures. [This lesson] really has nothing to do with them—…it is for my good.

Is there anywhere in our public square that’s not rife with this kind of foolishness? Does it rile you up as it does me? I would love, instead, to learn what Dorothy learned: to take it all in stride, not excusing the treachery but approaching it with a clear mind.
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For those of you who practice Lent, may you have a blessed one.