Dorothy Day & Catholic Worker

For almost fifty years, through her tireless service to the poor and her courageous witness for peace, Dorothy Day offered an example of the gospel in action. Now the publication of her diaries, previously sealed for twenty-five years after her death, offers a uniquely intimate portrait of her struggles and concerns.
 
Beginning in 1934 and ending in 1980, these diaries reflect her response to the vast changes in America, the Church, and the wider world. Day experienced most of the great social movements of her time but, as these diaries reveal, even while she labored for a transformed world, she simultaneously remained grounded in everyday human life: the demands of her extended Catholic worker family; her struggles to be more patient and charitable; the discipline of prayer and worship that structured her days; her efforts to find God in all the tasks and encounters of daily life.
 
A story of faithful striving for holiness and the radical transformation of the world, Day’s life challenges readers to imagine what it would be like to live as if the gospels were true.

Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, has been called the most significant, interesting, and influential person in the history of American Catholicism. For almost fifty years, through her tireless service of the poor and her courageous witness for peace, she offered an extraordinary example of the gospel in action.
Now the publication of her diaries, previously sealed for twenty-five years after her death, offers a uniquely intimate portrait of her daily struggles and concerns.

Dorothy Day wanted Catholic Worker communities to be free to shape their identities around the local needs and distinct vocations of their members. Open to single people and families, in urban and rural areas, the Catholic Worker and its core mission have proven to be both resilient and flexible. The Catholic Worker after Dorothy explores the reality of Catholic Worker communities today.

This book is essential reading for understanding the legacy behind the Catholic Worker Movement.

The founders of the movement, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin met during the Great Depression in 1932. Their collaboration sparked something in the Church that has been both an inspiration and a reproach to American Catholicism.

Dorothy Day is already a cultural icon. Once maligned, she is now being considered for sainthood. From a bohemian circle that included Eugene O’Neil to her controversial labor politics to the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement, she lived out a civil rights pacifism with a spirituality that took radical message of the Gospel to heart.

Peter Maurin has been less celebrated but was equally important to the movement that embraced and uplifted the poor among us. Dorothy Day said he was, "a genius, a saint, an agitator, a writer, a lecturer, a poor man and a shabby tramp."

Mark and Louise Zwick’s thorough research into the Catholic Worker Movement reveals who influenced Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day and how the influence materialized into much more than good ideas. Dostoevsky, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Francis of Assisi, Therese of Lisieux, Jacques and Raissa Maritain and many others contributed to fire in the minds of two people that sought to "blow the dynamite of the Church" in 20th-century America.

This fascinating and detailed work will be meaningful to readers interested in American history, social justice, religion and public life. It will also appeal to Catholics wishing to live the Gospel with lives of action, contemplation, and prayer.