In the last years of her life, my grandmother [Dorothy Day] often woke up hearing in her mind the words from her beloved Dostoyevsky: “The world will be saved by beauty.” Of all the words she wrote, of all the quotes she loved to repeat, of all the advice and comfort she gave to countless people, in all five of her books and 50 years of her column, and in a lifetime of diary- and letter-writing, this is what has come to give me the most hope. For if, after years of struggle, weariness, and a sense of deep and abiding failure, she believed in salvation through beauty, then how can we not listen?

The words of Kate Hennessy

R: Make a joyful sound to God, all the earth.

Make a joyful sound to God,

all the earth;

Sing the glory of God’s Name;

give glorious praise!

R: Make a joyful sound to God, all the earth.

All the earth worships You;

and sings praises to You, sings praise to Your Name.

Come and see what God has done:

tremendous are God’s deeds.

R: Make a joyful sound to God, all the earth.

God turned the sea into dry land;

people passed through the river on foot.

There did we rejoice in God

who rules with might forever.

R: Make a joyful sound to God, all the earth.

Come and hear, all you who fear God,

and I will tell you what the Holy One has done for me.

Blessed by God, who has not rejected my prayer

or removed steadfast love from me!

R: Make a joyful sound to God, all the earth.