ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes the joys and struggles of dealing with small children during their family retreat at Newburgh. Notes that they raise a lot of food but still are in debt to the grocer. Asks St. Joseph–“Through you, of course.”–to take care of the bill. (The Catholic Worker, October 1948, 1, 2. DDLW #489).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Graphic account of Mary Frecons work in a black section of Harrisburg, PA,–the spirited church services, the smell of rats, the care for the dying sick. Emphasizes the unity of body and soul and the need for “blind faith” in such conditions. “How little it all is, as obscure as the life of the Blessed Mother, and as ‘little’ as the life and sufferings of the Little Flower!” (The Catholic Worker, October 1948, 6, 8. DDLW #490).
ByCatholicWorker.org
Summary: Praises the Catholic Arts Quartrly edited by Ade Bethune and says it portrays Peter Maurin’s synthesis of Cult, Culture, and Cultivation. Urges readers to buy her books. (The Catholic Worker, October 1948, 7. DDLW #491).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Calls picketing and demonstrating works of mercy–“rebuking the sinner, enlightening the ignorant, counseling the doubtful.” Reflects on the challenge of over-mechanization and urges changing over to more “living criteria” for life. Contrasts the noise of New York with the quiet of the farm, a good atmosphere for prayer and reading–“refreshment, light, and peace.” (DDLW #483).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Opposes registration for conscription and describes their picketing a sign-up site. Notes how easily pickets become violent and her loathing of the use of force. Updates on construction projects and retreat work at Maryfarm. (The Catholic Worker, September 1948, 1, 6. DDLW #469).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: An essay and meditation about love in its many forms, human and divine. Quotes scripture, saints, secular writers, and especially Soloviev on love. Concludes that the Catholic Worker is ” still trying to work out a theory of love, a study of the problem of love so that the revolution of love instead of that of hate may come about and we will have a new heaven and a new earth wherein justice dwelleth.” (The Catholic Worker, September 1948, 2, 8. DDLW #470).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Contrasts the hustle and bustle around Maryfarm–retreats and visitors–with the quiet life of her daughter Tamar’s farm in West Virginia. While peaceful and meditative, rural life often means loneliness, hard work, and poverty. (The Catholic Worker, July-August, 1948, 1,6. DDLW #264).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Relishes life on the land, saying it is a place to retreat to, find God, and to go forth from as apostles. Summarizes five retreat talks whose focus is to increase the desire for sanctity, to a more complete love of God. Gives examples of her failure to love and the struggle to renew love of God and neighbor. (DDLW #482).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Argues that distributism is the only alternative to the US economy. Distributism is an alternative to capitalism and socialism built around “the village economy” and a more just distribution of wealth. Quotes four modern Popes in its support. Summarizes its principles with the following statements: “land is the most natural form of property” “wages should enable man to purchase land” “the family is the most perfect when rooted in its own holdings” “agriculture is the first and most important of all arts.” (See also DDLW #159 and DDLW #161) (The Catholic Worker, July-August 1948, 1,2, 6. DDLW #160).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Describes the hustle and bustle around the farm–planting, building, cooking. Ruminates about conversion, calling each person to a revolution beginning with themselves–to make a start toward a new way of living based on distributism. Says distributism is neither communism nor capitalism but based on individual ownership of land, tools, workshops, and factories. Keyword: economics (DDLW #481).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: First of a series of articles on distributism (see DOC #160 & DOC #161). Against the backdrop of harsh city life, she points to life on the land as a way to find zest in life. Distributism is a third point of view, neither Communism or capitalism. “The aim of distributism is family ownership of land, workshops, stores, transport, trades, professions, and so on.” Recommends reading Belloc and Chesterson as an introduction to it. (DDLW #159) The Catholic Worker, June 1948, 1, 2, 7.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Praises God for May, the month of Mary and full of beauty. Recalls the Catholic Worker began in May sixteen years ago and summarizes their program and the many allied movements of the lay apostolate. Says their pacifism and distributism distinguishes them from other movements. Focuses on voluntary poverty as exemplified in Peter Maurin’s life, especially since he became ill. Reflects on holiness and the call to all to become saints. Includes quotations from her winter’s reading. Keywords: Gandhi, machine, philosophy of work (DDLW #480).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Asserts the importance of voluntary poverty even if it means we are fools for Christ. Then gives a loving appreciation of Peter Maurin’s holy poverty, blending light-hearted stories and a graphic description of his dementia and silent suffering. Quotes from Fr. Faber on death in anticipation of Peter’s death within a year. (DDLW #468). The Catholic Worker, May 1948, 2, 7.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: 16th anniversary recapitulation of distinctive CW positions, especially pacifism and distributism. Explains the C.W.’s philosophy of labor as serving others. Argues that the problem of unemployment originates from the machine and advocates Gandhi’s economic program. Emphasizes a philosophy of work and a philosophy of poverty. (DDLW #158) The Catholic Worker, May 1948, pp. 1, 3, 8
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Ponders the mystery of the love of God for man and man for man. Urges readers to come to their farm for a retreat to renew strength for the apostolate. Express disdain for the Kinsey report on American sexual behavior and presents a sublime vision of sexual love. Includes an extensive passage by Fr. John J. Hugo who himself quotes saints, mystics, scripture, and Church prayers to illustrate how the nuptial union is an analogy of God’s love for us. (DDLW #479).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Passionate condemnation of UMT (Universal Military Training) as un-Catholic and atheistic. Advocates Catholics become conscientious objectors. Condemns Americanism and rabid anti-Communism. (The Catholic Worker, April 1948, 2. DDLW #466).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Meditation on love–our need for love, God’s lavish and foolish love, how hard love can be, how others will disapprove of loving the poor, even Lenin and Marx. Urges readers to come to a retreat at Newburgh for renewal and refreshment. Welcomes the Spring warmth and Peter Maurin’s coming to the farm. (The Catholic Worker, April 1948, 1, 2, 11. DDLW #467).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Finally Tamar’s son Eric is born. She comments on the child’s baptism and the beginning of her own faith. Considers the role of women as nourishers and upbraids herself for being self-indulgent, quoting St. Theresa of Avila at length on penance. As signs of Spring arrive they move to a “new-old” house and she plans to return to New York. (DDLW #478).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: The birth of her third grandchild stimulates reflections on praising God, struggling to change the social order, staying hopeful and trusting in God while suffering. Quotes St. Paul and spiritual writers to bolster her spirit. (The Catholic Worker, March 1948, 1, 2. DDLW #465).
ByDorothy Day
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.” (Catholic Worker Books, New York, 1948, p. 2. DDLW #475).
