What the Myth of the Coffee Cup Mass Gets Wrong—and Why It Matters

[Catholic Worker]

From: Brian Terrell 

"Dorothy Day may have been prescient when she wrote “We have seldom been given the saints as they really were, as they affected the lives of their times — unless it is in their own writings.” Stories naturally shape how we remember the heroes and saints who inspire us. Sometimes, though, stories can stray from the truth when they eclipse, distort and even challenge the very words of those heroes and saints. The so-called “Coffee Cup Mass,” a tale attributed to Dorothy Day, is one such story that in its various contradictory versions reflects more of the storyteller’s assumptions than the reality of Dorothy’s life and spirituality. By viewing this enduring myth through Dorothy’s own account of it, we are given a more profound understanding of her vision of holiness and the sacred."

The whole article can be read here:

What the Myth of the Coffee Cup Mass Gets Wrong—and Why It Matters – Catholic Worker Movement

Brian