Know Much to Love Much

Whether or not Maurin was a genius, Dorothy thought he was...His concern with ideas--his overall synthesis of history and of ideas--was such a passion with him that he could think of nothing else...

The elements of his "grand idea" came from years of reading. He read, not to engorge facts, but for ideas--to see how things went together and where they tended. In writing of this trait of Maurin's, Dorothy quoted some lines from "Bishop Prohaszka's Meditations on the Gospels,"...:"He wished to know much, so as to be able to love much. Let us therefore read and learn, not for the purpose of killing time or loading our memory but for refreshing our spirits and kindling our hearts to divine love.'"--William D. Miller, Dorothy Day: A Biography, pg. 234.