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).
ByCatholicWorker.org
Summary: Reports on the planting and variety of produce on the farm at Newburgh, NY, and the repair of two serviceable cars. Describes the plans for turning the barn into a dormitory for mothers and children who are on retreat. In the city, an unexpected death of a neighbor and bouts of measles and chickenpox among the children. (The Catholic Worker, June 1948, 1, 2, 7. DDLW #263).
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).
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).
