ByDorothy Day
Summary: Still awaiting Tamar’s baby, she mentions neighborly visits and reflects on her family history, and criticizes poorly written books about Mary and the saints. Writes of “feasting and fasting” as Lent begins, enumerating the many mentions of food in the Bible and quoting Dostoevsky’s character Father Zossima on the importance of fasting. (DDLW #477).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: States the objectives of the C.W. and defends it against the accusations of other Catholics and secular thought. Writes on such themes as marriage, sex, 10VQ’ human condition, poverty, economics and a variety of Church doctrines. All of these topics are treated from an orthodox Catholic point of view. The book is adapted from the diary she kept in 1948, when she spent the first four months with Tamar (daughter) and the rest of the year at Mott Street and the retreat farm in Newburgh. She noted that the book could be called a woman’s book, since parts of it are directed solely to women. As usual, much of the book dwells on the day-to-day happenings in her life. (DDLW #5).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Eulogizes Gandhi as a pacifist martyr and a clear example of “divinized humanity.” Sees his death as added to the sacrifice of Christ, sharing in the folly of the cross. Calls his way of non-violence “the full way, because he adhered to an Absolute.” (The Catholic Worker, February 1948, 1. DDLW #463).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Writing from her daughter’s farm in West Viriginia, comments on the cold and kid’s play. Reports on her travels through the Southwest, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Minnesota extolling the need for supporting the family and a return to the land. Distinguishes types of anarchism and the need for study. Wants more priests to have a vision of a new social order. (The Catholic Worker, February 1948, 1, 2, 6. DDLW #464).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Eulogizes Gandhi as a pacifist martyr and a clear example of “divinized humanity.” Sees his death as added to the sacrifice of Christ, sharing in the folly of the cross. Calls his way of non-violence “the full way, because he adhered to an Absolute.” (DDLW #463). The Catholic Worker, February 1948, 1T
ByDorothy Day
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
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
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
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).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Journeying through Florida, Alabama, and Texas she arrives in California working on a book about Peter Maurin. Along the way comments on factory-farming in Florida and a generous woman’s care of the downtrodden, racial violence in Alabama, and the need for lay apostles everywhere. Urges graduates to work in understaffed hospitals and institutions. (The Catholic Worker, December 1947, 1, 2, 7. DDLW #487).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Defines Christian personalism as “the realization of the dignity of the other fellow, of our obligation to him, the willingness to work with him, on those elements of truth he has seized hold of, accepting his cooperation as far as he will give it, and the refusal to admit disappointment when he doesn’t go as far as we think he might.” Argues that the Marshall Plan has denied this definition and is an extension of industrial capitalism and abrogates our personal responsibility. (The Catholic Worker, December 1947, 1. DDLW #156).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: An apologia for their work in response to a letter questioning their efficacy. She emphasizes strong faith, withholding judgment of the poor, country living, removing fears and the value of indoctrination. Says, “God is love, and perfect love casts out fear.” (The Catholic Worker, November 1947, 1, 2, 6. DDLW #460).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Reflection on Peter Maurin’s ideas of groups of farming families on the land. Notes the work Fall brings at the farm and describes the community life of Doukhobors, Shakers, and the extinct Ephrata Community. Dismisses the efficiency offered by advertising. (The Catholic Worker, October 1847, 1, 2, 8. DDLW #459).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Highlights the successful summer at the Newburgh farm–crops, retreats, hospitality. Reflects on encouragement in the work and the folly of the cross. Derides flippancy. Describes the environs of her annual retreat and says she is always at home among the poor. (The Catholic Worker, September 1947, 1, 2, 8. DDLW #455).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: An unusual midsummer appeal for help. Notes the destitution around them and hopes the “importunity” of their request will be heard. (The Catholic Worker, July-August 1947, 2. DDLW #457).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Mentions the many parish churches in the neighborhood, the lengthening food line, a grand Italian wedding, and the books she is reading. (The Catholic Worker, July-August 1947, 1, 2. DDLW #458).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: A self-critical appraisal of the Catholic Worker movement’s first fifteen years. Readily accepts criticism of their ideals of voluntary poverty and pacifism, failure to implement Peter Maurin’s vision, of rigorous and demanding retreats, of internal dissent, and of their approach to helping the poor. Says they have not been good servants nor recognized the failure of the cross and the need to die to self. Says they are in a time of transition with only ten houses remaining. (DDLW #456). The Catholic Worker, July-August 1947, 1, 4, 6, 8.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: An unusual midsummer appeal for help. Notes the destitution around them and hopes the “importunity” of their request will be heard. (DDLW #457) The Catholic Worker, July-August 1947, 2.
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Travels by train to the Grail in Ohio, then to the Midwest praising a variety of works of mercy on the land. “A pilgrimage indeed, and a most encouraging one, visiting readers of the paper, families and cells which are growing up everywhere, grappling all of them with the spiritual weapons of hard work, poverty, and prayer.” (The Catholic Worker, June 1947, 2, 8. DDLW #454).
ByDorothy Day
Summary: Outlines P. Maurin’s program for social action as the instituting of Houses of Hospitality, Clarification of Thought and Farming Communes, and explains where the C.W. has gone with each program. Reveals Maurin’s sources of thought and the need to find lay apostolates. Traces personal sacrifices to Jesus’ command in the gospels and asserts that the state cannot take over this duty. (DDLW #155). The Catholic Worker, May 1947, 1-3.
