Year: 1974

Summary: Advocates the small is beautiful, personalist, house of hospitality approach to the homeless, rather that the big impersonal approach of the municipal lodging houses. (The Catholic Worker, December 1974, 1-2. DDLW #180).

Summary: Announces the births of two great-grandchildren, describes a visit to Tamar’s farm in Vermont, and the harvesting of apples and vegetables. Praises Dick Bliss’ Green Hill School, and the character of “useful” versus “useless” work, quoting Dostoevsky. (The Catholic Worker, October-November 1974, 2, 8. DDLW #545).

Summary: Records the trials and financial costs of meeting city building codes on a new house for homeless women, and asks for prayers and continued financial support. (The Catholic Worker, October-November 1974, 2. DDLW #544).

Summary: Writes of beauty in nature and the strange beauty of suffering, their difficulties with city planners, Peter Maurin and Ralph Borsodi on economics, and the importance of “abiding joy” and the “primacy of the spiritual” in the face of national crisis. (The Catholic Worker, September 1974, 2, 8. DDLW #543).

Summary: Ill in bed, she tells of the immanent move to a new Maryhouse for women. Describes their farm as a “village”, remembers three workers who died, and recalls the pacifist witness of Ammon Hennacy and his gentle personality. (The Catholic Worker, July-August 1974, 2, 6. DDLW #542).

Summary: Focuses on fasting, how hard it is for her, and the call to be holy, to become whole persons–spiritually, mentally, and physically. Lists the many speaking s tops and visits with friends and workers in a trip through the Midwest. Keyword: saints (The Catholic Worker, June 1974, 2, 8. DDLW #541).

Summary: Describes the misery she sees and their efforts to open a new women’s house of hospitality. Diary-like account of visits to friends in Virginia, Georgia, and the William Miller (her biographer) family in Florida. (The Catholic Worker, March-April 1974, 2, 8. DDLW #539).

Summary: Reflects on a number of economic themes: the building of churches; problems with the IRS; why they are not tax-exempt; personalist/anarchist writers and projects; Ade Bethune’s Community Corporation in Rhode Island. Extols all forms of mutual aid. (The Catholic Worker, February 1974, 2, 8. DDLW #538).

Summary: Describes Christmas among family and friends in Vermont. Apologizes for always being behind in her mail. Reprints a letter from Ed Forand describing the tremendous inflation in the price of basic food commodities like beans. Continues the description of her trip to Ireland from the December 1973 Catholic Worker. Compares Belfast to cities like Detroit after the riots. Mentions several books about prisons. Concludes with a plea that readers remember all prisoners in their prayers. (The Catholic Worker, January 1974, 1, 2, 8. DDLW #537).