ByDorothy Day
Reading Time: 2 minutes Summary: Introduces the book as “a woman’s book, and for women,” dealing “with things of concern to us all, the family, the home, how to live, and what to live and what we live by.” (DDLW #475).
ByDorothy Day
Reading Time: 41 minutes Summary: Deep in winter at her daughter’s farm in West Virginia they await the birth of Tamar’s third child. Reflects on country life and a woman’s spirituality in the midst of small children and housework. Describes her efforts at prayer. Reflects on the handicrafts Tamar practices and the worth of a country economy, a way to be co-creators with God. Notes the duty to find joy and resist despair. Long quotes from Eric Gill on a decentralized economy. Keywords: family, poverty, personalism, distributism, capitalism, socialism, communism. (DDLW #476: Catholic Worker Books, New York, 1948, pp. 3-26.)
ByDorothy Day
Reading Time: 5 minutes Summary: Describes a happy Christmas at the Newburgh farm–snow, good food, worship, but uneven heat. Peter Maurin can’t stay warm, receives the affectionate care of children, and needs a doctor. Urges all to keep the ideal of going “villageward.” (The Catholic Worker, January 1948, 1, 8. DDLW #462).
ByDorothy Day
Reading Time: 11 minutes Summary: Describes how Catholic Worker houses are run and the struggles with living the ideal of Christian love. Reflects on reconciling freedom and order. Maintains the primacy of the spiritual. Gives her positions on cooperation, house leadership, handling money, and the relation of the Catholic Worker to the hierarchy. Concludes by emphasizing the little way and voluntary poverty. (The Catholic Worker, Jan 1948, 2,8. DDLW #183).
