Dorothy Day said, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”
That is setting the bar way too high.
In 1967, Dorothy Day opened St. Joseph’s House in New York’s East Village, a storefront graffiti-plastered soup kitchen and homeless shelter. Day lived in the shelters she opened, side by side with the homeless. She ate the same soup she served them and wore the same discarded clothes she offered them. She wanted a space where the boundaries between worker and guest were indistinguishable.
Brett Younger
St. Joseph’s House has no official ties to the Catholic Church. They practice “precarious poverty.” All their funding comes from volunteers. They do not save excess money but give it away, keeping only enough for rent and food for four months. They operate on a consensus model of decision-making. It is surprising that a community dedicated to living in poverty, without defined leadership or a dedicated stream of income, could survive in Manhattan, but there it is.
Carol and I recently volunteered at St. Joseph’s. They tell us the volunteers have changed: “We used to attract college dropouts and revolutionaries. Now we get mostly old people.”
Before we opened the door, Carmine prayed we would show Christ to the guests and that we would see Christ in the guests.
At first, I thought there were too many volunteers, but then we got busy. The dining room has 30 chairs. We ended up serving 80 people, so we had to clean up and set up quickly, like a busy diner.
“The soup did not look great, but the bowls were big.”
The soup did not look great, but the bowls were big. The Hare Krishnas brought a sheet cake that went fast. One guest I talked to at length believes in just about every conspiracy theory — body doubles for Melania Trump, the government manipulating the weather, and Taylor Swift, Elon Musk and birds being used for espionage.
Cliff told me I wanted to be the guy with the coffee pot that has the cream and sugar already in the coffee, because that is the popular one. Cliff knew where to find lemon, tea bags and hot chocolate packets. He knows everyone by name and enjoys lighting up conversations. Cliff said he worked for years as a teacher and then a hospital chaplain before retiring. He and his partner have been together 33 years. They married the first day it was legal.
We talked enough that I felt comfortable asking: “You’ve been a loyal Catholic all your life, even though your church’s official stance is that your orientation is unacceptable. Have you thought about leaving? You’d make a fine Congregationalist.”
Dorothy Day
He said, “The older I get the less I worry about institutional stuff and the more I want to love God’s children. That’s where I find joy.”
When it was time to go, Cliff said, “I hope we’ll see you again.”
I hope so, too, but I live in a wealthy neighborhood now. I am a tourist visiting the poor, a dabbler in the down and out. I could do better. My faith does not have to be so dry.
Martin Luther King Jr. preached, “Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of human beings and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social condition that cripples them is a dry-as-dust religion.”
After church, a group of friends goes to lunch. The conversation is light-hearted — who they would like to see on Dancing with the Stars, why Bruce Springsteen should have sung in the Springsteen movie, and how people should feel about the Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Turkey Cake.
But then someone says something unexpected: “I’m overwhelmed by these school shootings, how often it happens, how many die. I heard a news report that 207 students have been shot at school in 2025, but that was a couple of days ago so it’s more now. We have to do something.”
“Service is not an option, but a privilege and a gift.”
After a long pause, “I’ve been reading about how much more damage we’re doing to the environment than just a few years ago. Rolling back air quality standards has already led to higher rates of cancer. Why aren’t people angry?”
“I listened to a podcast on how many more children are starving because of our government’s new priorities. One estimate is that over 300,000 have died from the cuts to USAID. Those numbers are so overwhelming that I don’t want to believe it’s true, because if it’s true I have to do something.”
Service is not an option, but a privilege and a gift. Christians need to serve, because the world needs us, and because we need to serve.
Stephen Colbert writes: “In my experience, you will truly serve only what you love because service is love made visible. If you love your friends, you will serve your friends. If you love your community, you will serve your community. If you love money, you will serve your money. And if you love only yourself you will serve only yourself and you will have only yourself. So, no winning; instead try to love others and serve others and hopefully find those who will love and serve you in return.”
When we have a heart to help others, it unlocks something wonderful. We worry less about institutional stuff and find joy loving God’s children. When we join with the amazing people who care for the poor, strangers and children, God does amazing things.
Brett Younger serves as senior minister at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.