Jewish by birth and a gentle atheist by choice, Lisa Fitzgerald in 2017 relocated from the East Coast to Portland, one of the most unchurched cities in the nation. But it was here that she opened her heart’s door to prayer by just a crack — and was hit by a spiritual hurricane that hurled her into the arms of Catholicism.
Fitzgerald, a 2016 graduate of Harvard Law School, had hoped to be baptized, confirmed and receive the Eucharist during the Easter Vigil at St. Patrick Parish in Northwest Portland. The plan now is for her go through initiation at Pentecost. The coronavirus pause, she said, only allows her joyfully to explore her newfound faith more deeply.
Fitzgerald, 31, works for the public defender office in Portland, advocating for homeless youths.
The change began when a friend in Portland suggested she read the works of Simone Weil, an early 20th-century French philosopher and agnostic Jew who grew more religious after attempting prayer.
Fitzgerald found this wisdom from Weil: Pray without expectation. Don’t seek anything. Accept the void, because that is the only way there will be space for God.
One morning in late March 2019, she awoke at 4 a.m. pulsing with energy. Though she is not an athlete, she decided to go for a run at Laurelhurst Park as the sun rose. The new feeling frightened her. A thought began to repeat itself firmly and repeatedly — “Ok. Ok. I accept.”
There in the park, Fitzgerald began to weep deeply and started to cross herself repeatedly. She felt an urge to pray the rosary, but did not know how. She looked it up on her phone and began.
After the dramatic experience, she felt a desire to pray more. She popped into Catholic churches. She began to read “Introduction to Christianity,” the 1968 book written by the future Pope Benedict XVI. Now, her intellect as well as her heart was being satisfied by Catholic tradition.
Over the following months, she wrestled with some Christian ideas, found a spiritual director and entered RCIA at St. Patrick Parish in Portland. She has welcomed many answers, and when not, she has found acceptance and peace.
Full story at The Catholic Sentinel.
What a wonderful story amidst the gloomy news! Thank you for sharing it! Or should I have said, “Go ahead (and share it, and ) make my day”
Wow! A beautiful conversion story. God Bless her…and welcome to the Catholic faith!
How very fortunate she is . . .
Thank you Jesus and Mary!
This is a great story and likely needed by all of us during this time. Let us pray for all of our sisters and brothers whose entry into the Church has been delayed by the coronavirus.
An SJW segueing into faith-based organizing. Click the original and see she’s now working with a marxist Catholic Worker and soon on ‘restorative justice’ in pro-crime Portlandia. As for the non-Catholic Simone Weil, like Dorothy Day, she was a pacifist anti-free market radical. But while Dorothy would gush about every Communist revolution that came along, Weil actually took up arms with the Communists in the Spanish Civil War.
Gotta wonder the purpose and origins of the article. Then again, maybe not.
Hymie, you may want to consider the parish in which she is being brought into the Church. A parish with Adoration, daily Rosary, prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, with links to Catholics Come Home and chastity.com (and more) is certainly not a hotbed for Communism (which should be despised by all Christians). As one who has worked in the criminal justice system and with a deacon father-in-law who was a prison chaplain, I can assure you, there is nothing inherently Marxist about restorative justice. I rejoice every time the grace of our Lord moves someone to enter the Church that He founded. I rejoice for Miss Fitzgerald, Dorothy Day, you, me and all of us who’ve come to the saving waters of Baptism. Christ is risen!
I didn’t say RJ is marxist nor the parish communistic. But if, as you say, Communism should be despised by all Christians, why rejoice over Dorothy?
That’s an easy question. As I said, I rejoice every time the grace of our Lord moves someone to enter the Church that He founded. That includes Dorothy Day, the Christian persecutor Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul), former abortionist Bernard Nathanson, former abortion promoter Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey), St. John Henry Newman, Dr. Scott Hahn, Laura Ingraham, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, countless others and sinners like me and you. God is much less concerned about where we’ve been than where we’re going. And, I pray the parade of those entering the Church continues, even including those who are now our enemies. Christ is risen! Sin and death have been defeated. Let us pray that more and more come to that saving Faith.
Unlike the above converts, radical interloper Dorothy was Red to the end.
It seems the truth may more nuanced than that. In the first years of the Catholic Worker, Day provided a clear statement of how her individualism contrasted with communism:”We believe in widespread private property, the de-proletarianizing of our American people. We believe in the individual owning the means of production, the land and his tools.” “Let it be remembered that I speak as an ex-Communist.” “I could only say that I believe in the Roman Catholic Church and all she teaches. I have accepted Her authority with my whole heart… I feel my own unworthiness and can never be grateful enough to God for His gift of faith.” Day’s commitment to Church discipline is illustrated by an encounter she had with Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. while on a Catholic Worker farm in New York. Berrigan was about to celebrate Mass for the community vested only in a stole. Day insisted that he put on the proper vestments before he began. When Berrigan complained about the law regarding liturgical vesture, Day responded, “On this farm, we obey the laws of the Church.” Though I disagree with some of her political positions, calling her “Red to the end” seems neither truthful or charitable.
Wikipedia? Seriously?
Hymie, Seriously? Are you denying that she said those things?
“Day advocated and practiced a Catholic socioeconomic teaching known as distributism, which she saw as a third option between socialism and capitalism.” from Encyclopedia Britannica.
“The name The Catholic Worker (CW) was deliberately chosen to counter the Communist Party newspaper, The Daily Worker. That point was not lost on the Communists and their supporters… Subsequent issues of the paper would flesh out a program ‘seeking to build a new society within the shell of the old, a society in which it will be easier to be good, a society based upon a philosophy so old it looks like new, the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism.’ Dorothy Day, co-founder with Peter Maurin of the movement and the publisher of the paper, knew from experience how the Communists would take this. She was, as she once wrote, a Communist herself at one time.” from the American Catholic Historical Society.
I could cite other examples as well. But, will you answer the question, are you denying that she said those things I previously noted?
Read Day’s own words in her Catholic Worker column.
The most comprehensive work on Day is by Carol Byrne (also has a book on same).
Best I could do on short notice:
https://www.traditioninaction.org/Questions/D005Inter_Carol.htm
Day spent several years on the Security Index. You don’t get there for your altruism.
Hymie, Tradition in Action, seriously? Do you honestly think TIA doesn’t have an agenda too? Do they still oppose us celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday today? Here are their thoughts on the coronavirus: “The Pope closes the churches: In the short period of one month, we have seen Pope Francis and the Catholic Bishops around the world commanding the closing of the churches and the suppression of all religious ceremonies … to avoid the “dangers” of the Coronavirus… I have good reasons to believe that the ideal of Progressivism and of the Conciliar Popes is to reduce the Church to small groups; that is, to do away with the large parish institutions and move toward home Masses in small groups or communities.” Have you ever heard Saint John Paul or Pope-emeritus Benedict trying to “do away” with parish Masses and push “home Masses?” And, again, will you answer the question, are you denying that she said those things I previously noted? I intend these as real questions, not merely rhetorical. And, someday, in heaven, if you and I get there, we will find out if Dorothy Day repented. And, I don’t hold Miss Fitzgerald accountable for Day’s opinions and still rejoice whenever someone enters the Church.
The point was Dr Carol Byrne, not TIA (I’d never heard of TIA so it’s irrelevant.). I could’ve pulled a article by Byrne from anywhere. As for Day, she’s the subject at hand so her plea is not evidence. Her writings and record are. Read Dorothy and you’ll understand, easy-peasy.
The question to ask is why Day was hanging with Berrigan at all. He and brother Phil, radical infiltrator priests, wrote many articles for Catholic Worker. She was quite the fan.
As for Fitzgerald, the original article was replete with red flags, among them the Catholic Worker Movement (Day’s creation) in which she is active.
Pacifist Dorothy scarcely met a Communist she didn’t defend or admire – Castro, Che, Ho, Mao, Lenin, Marx, Angela Davis, Weather Underground, etc. – nor a communist revolution she didn’t support. Hoover called her erratic and irresponsible. I conclude charitably that she was a screwball of the first order.