Here in italics is “Letter to a Young Activist” as published in The Catholic Worker interspersed with my own commentary:

Do not depend on the hope of results.

What a challenge that is . Any action one embarks on is undertaken with the hope of positive, tangible results. One must have hope that what you do will have an impact. But to the extent you... See more

A friend recently reminded me of the Letter to a Young Activist that Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote in 1966, and suggested that some of the same issues are again in play now. That letter was originally a personal response to Jim Forest, who was then a young activist and a founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, who felt deep discouragement... See more

Keep your eyes clean and your ears quiet and your mind serene. Breathe God’s air. Work, if you can, under His sky.

But if you have to live in a city and work among machines and ride in the subways and eat in a place where the radio makes you deaf with spurious news and where the food destroys your life and the sentiments of those around you poison

... See more