The "Works of Mercy"

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.

Summary: Reaffirms doing the works of mercy--"It is our program, our rule of life."--and voluntary poverty. Asks us to "consider our daily occupation in the light of a work of mercy." Recommends The Snake Pit, a book about conditions in mental hospitals. Extols gardening.

Summary: An appeal for financial help and a restatement of the Catholic Worker belief in personal responsibility for the poor over State responsibility.

Summary: Encourages the "personal" application of Christian principles. Gives practical approaches to this task and advocates "the little way."

Summary: Reflects on the ways they have failed Peter Maurin's vision and concludes " About all the above failures, I must say that I am not much concerned. I think that such failures are inseparable to a work of this kind, and necessary for our growth in holiness." Stresses trying to put ideas into action, more clarification of thought, continuing this "tiny work."

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 primarcy 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.

Summary: Restates the central vision of the Catholic Worker Movement as working for "a new heaven and a new earth, wherein justice dwelleth." This vision recognizes the "primacy of the spritual" and the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ. The Catholic Worker is "a new way of life" involving Houses of Hospitality for the daily practice of the Works of Mercy and Farming Communes where each person can take responsibility of doing their part.

Summary: Restatement of core Catholic Worker ideals regarding private property, class war, interracial relations, atheism, Marxism, fascism, Communism, materialism, and the role of the state.

Summary: Another appeal has gone out entrusting their needs to St. Joseph. Notes how busy everyone is at the office, on the breadline, and on the farm. (Someone had noted the hordes of young men around the CW and wondered what they do.) Mentions that public works such as bridge building can be considered works of mercy.

Summary: Recounts her first meeting with Peter Maurin in 1932, his teaching style, his personal example, and his platform for the Catholic Worker: "Roundtable Discussions, Houses of Hospitality and Farming Communes--those were the three planks in Peter Maurin's platform."

Summary: Reviews several books on voluntary poverty, especially Poverty by Fr. Regamey. Elaborates on the joy of, objections to, and purpose of voluntary poverty. Rejects capitalist and communist solutions to real poverty, pointing to decentralization and distributism as the answer.

Summary: Explains CW finances and why the CW refuses to apply for tax exempt status. Cites Ammon Hennacy and Karl Meyer's tax resistance as nonviolent protest against war. Upholds the principle that governments should never do what small bodies can accomplish.

Summary: Celebrates the 25th anniversary of the C.W. Perceives freedom as the greatest gift to man from God, and advocates a four hour work day, child labor, private property as personal property and manual labor. Personalism works from the bottom up and reminds her readers that Jesus told people, not states, to perform works of mercy.

Summary: Outlines P. Maurin's program for social reordering. Calls for a Green Revolution, a return to the villages. Finds his whole message embodied in personalism, which begins with oneself. Blames the C.W.'s problems in its lack of ability to limit itself.

Summary: Summarizes Peter Maurin's worldview and discusses his new social order and how his life embodied his ideas. Reveals the sources of his thought such as Proudhon, Kropotkin, Guardini and Karl Adam.

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.

Summary: After attending Ammon Hennacy's funeral in Utah she travels to Florida and Georgia visiting friends, the Koinonia community, and a trappist monastery. Prays for courage in the face of vast poverty and violence. Encouraged by Catholic Pentecostal movement and return to prayer.

Summary: Describes their Thanksgiving feast. Despite the fact that donations were sparse, all enjoy a filling, yet sober, celebration. Notes the beginning of Advent and thoughts of feasting turn to fasting. Describes her speaking tour of New England, meditates on the virtues of manual labor, and reminds her readers that the truckmen of Burlington are suffering real privation during their strike.

Summary: Calls for every parish to have a Works of Mercy Center and for courage in doing the little immediate jobs of feeding the hungry and giving out literature. (Notes St. Therese's "little way.") Encourages discussion groups and round table discussions for the clarification of thought.

Summary: Expresses her anguish over the works of war in Vietnam, which are the opposite of the works of mercy. She is upset with churchmen calling for "total victory," and notes that the Church is our Mother even though "she is a harlot at times." Calls on each person to work on changing their hearts and attitude.

Summary: Discusses freedom of conscience and obedience to Church and State in the context of Vatican Council II's condemnation of nuclear war. Lauds the "little way" of St. Therese as the foundation of world peace and a means of social change.

Summary: Retells the indignity and jailing that an interracial group endured in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Summary: Affirms that all men are brothers--a view shared by Communists and Christians alike. Disavows violent means of change and cites Peter Maurin's pacifism. Love requires suffering and the Cross is the path to joy and life.

Summary: Elaborates on the vision of voluntary poverty and what it implies for the kind of work we do, what we eat and drink, how we entertain ourselves. Recommends decentralized living and numerous books. Says "We need saints. God, give us saints."

Summary: Elaborates on the Catholic Worker relationship with Church authorities over many years and the "conflict of freedom and authority." Reaffirms the laity's freedom of conscience and leadership role in action against injustice. Reproaches "our shepherds" who fail to preach voluntary poverty and "preach the gospel in season, out of season, and that gospel is 'all men are brothers.'"

Summary: Argues from the principle of subsidiarity that to replace personal responsibility with the state's is a grave injustice. Criticizes the state's inefficiency in alleviating suffering; in its guest to regulate justice it causes more injustice. Associates a close bond between poverty and love and blames industrialism for the increasing practice of carting the aged off to institutions.

Summary: Contends that bigness, such as government, cities, institutions, etc., escapes personal responsibilities. One becomes lost in its array and thus is not responsible for his actions. Toys with the idea of incorporating the C.W., but prefers a decentralized organization. Comments on the power of the novena.

Summary: Traces the program difficulties of Catholic Action to the belief that there is no need for it. Encourages both Communists and Catholics to study the capitalistic system and to compare the similarities and differences in order to raise questions. Sees the need for liturgy and sociology to be linked. Encourages individual responsibility for doing the works of mercy.

Summary: Various articles by Dorothy Day on war, pacifism, and the Catholic Worker positions on making peace.

Summary: Ponders the relationship between freedom and authority, faith and obedience. Uses her conversion and starting of the Catholic Worker as examples of conscience and the great freedom of the laity. Cites various authorities and the example of Pope John XXIII on freedom and obedience. Ultimately, links obedience to love and her faith. Repeats the need to "search the Scriptures" and to achieve a "second conversion" to the faith.

Summary: Gives examples of false voluntary poverty and refutes the notion that real poverty doesn't exist. Challenges everyone to a personal response, not a government one, to poverty and to ask ourselves "What shall we do?" Gives examples and concludes that all can do something and that whatever work of mercy we perform we "do it for love of Jesus, in His humanity, for love of our brother, for love of our enemy." Points to the scandal of the wealth of the Church and thanks God for the sacraments and the Word in the Scriptures--our light and our food.

Summary: During the Advent of 1966 Dorothy Day wrote a four-part series for Ave Maria magazine grouped under the title "Reflections During Advent."

Summary: Excerpts from her letters while on an across country pilgrimage to Wheaton and Rock Island, Illinois, then Denver, Colorado. Reasserts the need to "go to the poor" and spread the good news by speaking and the works of mercy. Comments on a prison strike noting many are in jail for petty theft while "robber barons" get away with murder. Says "Property is theft."

Summary: Commentary on a case where a priest is silenced for his work with the poor. Expresses the tension of obedience and love of the Church with the demands of serving the poor and Church shortcomings. Affirms her acceptance of Church authority but notes the demands of conscience have caused Saints to be critical of even the Pope in the past. Reaffirms their lay mission to enlighten, arouse the conscience, and lead from the bottom up.

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.

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.

Summary: Attends the wedding of Catholic Workers in Detroit. Visits the widow of Paul St. Marie and recounts his union organizing at Ford Motor Company. Sees Fr. Pacifique Roy, suffering in the hospital, and recalls all his help to the Catholic Worker. Meets Fr. Lacourture whose retreats for priests are the basis of their retreat work.

Summary: Reports on hearing Canon Cardign speak of the Catholic Action movement which is reaching the workers with the Church's social teaching. Endorses non-violence, withdrawal, and getting at the roots in any mass movement. Eulogizes Sidney Hillman for his ground-breaking work in the garment industry. Notes that Peter Maurin received sacramental anointing and requests prayers for a labor leader who stopped practicing his faith. Quotes from Eric Gill's stations of the cross.

Summary: Explains why she is changing the name of the column to On Pilgrimage. A diary-like record of people and events around the Worker in January 1946--looting in the neighborhood, running out of coal, medical visits, butchering a hog. Comments on worthwhile work.

Summary: Some thoughts on death after the sudden passing of a co-worker. Tells of Workers returning from war, painting chores, and prayers for conversions. Speaks of wanting to finish a novel that includes themes from the retreat given at Maryfarm and which has drawn criticism.

Summary: A St. Joseph Day bequest provides an opportunity to explain why The Catholic Worker has never incorporated and the nature of its organizational philosophy favoring smallness. As he had promised, Tony Pereiro brings spindles, similar to those used by Gandhi, as souvenirs from his trip to India which are viewed as "revolutionary implements," symbols of another way of life.

Summary: Inspired by the beauty and inner-city location of Los Angeles’ St. Bibiana Cathedral, this editorial focuses on the poor--" The closer we are to the poor, the closer to Christ’s love." Because May, 1942 marked The Catholic Worker’s tenth year, reminds readers that we are called to love all men, friend and foe alike, because all are brothers--"love is shown by works of mercy, not by war."

Summary: Begins with an appeal for two worthy causes--the Bishop’s relief fund for war victims and the New York Catholic Charities. Ponders the role of citizens during wartime and our penchant for choosing men of action, like General MacArthur, as heroes rather than figures like Pope Pius XII. Envisions speaking about rayer in Wartime, the rural life movement, feeding the poor and hungry, and the use of decentralism and other means for producing social change on an upcoming West Coast trip. Denies that her strict pacifism has split the Catholic Worker movement and points out that they face more reader-resistance for their policy against denying aid to the "undeserving" poor.

Summary: Shares her enthusiasm for Raisa Maritain’s autobiography, We Have Been Friends Together. Defends their reaching out to all the poor, not just those deemed "deserving" of assistance. Reviews the positions taken on World War II by various Catholic Worker houses throughout the country, admitting that not all have their "in season, out of season" pacifism.

Summary: Expounds on the value of manual labor and the opening of new Catholic Worker houses. Argues that it is right that the Catholic Worker campaign against the underlying social injustices which cause hunger, poverty, homelessness, and war. Asks for respect when views differ.

Summary: Admires the work of Ade Bethune's "folk school" in Newport, Rhode Island, calling it "one of the most interesting cells of the Catholic Worker." Describes the work of nearby Catholic Worker farms. Gives a talk where she stresses that the evils in the world are not inevitable, are not from God but from man's misuse of free will.

Summary: Reasserts their pacifist stand and opposes the use of force in the labor movement, in class struggle, and struggles between countries. Quotes Catholic theologians and Popes. Repeats that God's Word is Love and that using only non-violent means is indeed "the Folly of the Cross." Doubts that the conditions for a "just war" can be met in these times.

Summary: Defends against the charge that they do more harm than good in providing hospitality to the undeserving. Asserts that doing the Works of Mercy is following Christ and a revolutionary technique. Points to the monastic tradition of indiscriminate hospitality. Other keywords: Communism, hospices, social order.

Summary: Lists all the people and groups she visited and spoke to in Seattle and Portland, describing their projects to help the poor and the worker.

Summary: Visiting Catholic Worker houses in Baltimore and Philadelphia, she reflects on the part everyone plays in the whole movement and feels a sense of solidarity. Notes how they suffer from the cold in New York. Tells of a visit to the headquarters of the National Maritime Union and their fine reading room.

Summary: Reports on the growth of C.W., new houses, the newspaper’s circulation, and various projects. Assesses the employment situation and the country’s willingness to mobilize for war and the making of profit. Expresses gratitude for the people who have answered their appeal and have continued to make the C.W.’s ministry possible. Amidst talk of war and peace " It would be hard to keep a cheerful spirit in the face of the calm acceptance of this preparation for mass slaughter and insanity if it were not for our faith."

Summary: Describes a mission being preached in a nearby Church. Feels love for the poor ones in attendance seeing them as brothers of Christ. Explains why she prays for those who have committed suicide. Makes an appeal for funds.

Summary: Collection of little stories: visitors, helping Tamar with homework, praying to St. Joseph for money, reading Pelle the Conqueror, and attending a CIO convention. Affirms her "faith in the tremendous spiritual capacities of man."

Summary: A series of stories about the work of Catholic Worker groups she recently visited on a speaking trip: Portsmouth and Newport, RI; Boston and Worchester, MA; Milwaukee; Chicago; Rochester, NY; Detroit; and Pittsburgh.

Summary: Describes a visit to Tom Mooney who was jailed in 1915 for labor organizing and who spends his days caring for infirm inmates in San Quentin prison. Mooney sees Christ as "a great Leader of the workers who set an example of laying down His life for the poor and dispossessed of this world."

Summary: Describes those who deny Christ in His poor as "atheists indeed." Blames well-off "professing Christians" for repelling those with no religion. Quotes from a pamphlet given to the men in the breadline about Christ being their brother and His poverty.

Summary: Urges John Brophey, the C.I.O. trade unions director, to use the technique of sit-down strikes, a nonviolent form of coercion, a means used by Gandhi and an example of pure means advocated by Maritain. "The use of force is unchristian."

Summary: An appeal for money to support the growing breadlines. Describes the lines, cost of feeding so many, the help they receive, and prayers to St. Joseph. Reminds readers that their gifts put them in Christian solidarity with the breadline and what is done for the men is done for Him.

Summary: Reflections on our being children of one Father, thanksgiving, the worth of spreading the "Christian revolution" by distributing the Catholic Worker paper, distributing clothes, and other stories of life on Mott Street.

Summary: Calls attention to the social crisis, class warfare, and numerous strikes. Notes how Communists practice the corporal works of mercy while lukewarm, comfortable, and indifferent Catholics turn their backs on strikers and their families.

Summary: An appeal for money to carry on the work of hospitality, and to buy and repair an old house. Compares the CW approach to the city and states' way. Notes that Jesus tells us to ask for what we need, and that our Heavenly Father knows what we need.

Summary: Describes her and 18 others' arrest and court appearances for civil disobedience after demonstrating and not taking shelter in an air raid drill. Speaks of the courage and suffering needed in battle and in using spiritual weapons. Going to jail is one way of visiting the prisoner.

Summary: A graphic description of how she and 29 others were treated by the police, jailers, and courts after arrest for protesting air raid drills against nuclear attack. Gives a reason for the protest and decries the inhuman aspects of their treatment--crowding, lack of food, waiting. Notes: "What a neglected work of mercy, visiting the prisoner."

Summary: Explains what anarchism and pacifism mean against the backdrop of the modern state. Reaffirms the principles of subsidiarity, freedom and personal responsibility, and the membership of all in the body of Christ.

Summary: Tells of the work and people at numerous Catholic Worker houses and farms on a journey through New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Summary: Asserts she would not register for the draft because it is the first step toward war and answers common objections to her stance. Cites the Holy Father, Thoreau, and E. I. Watkin, founder of the PAX movement in England. Keywords: pacifism, conscientious objection, taxes.

Summary: A general summary of the Catholic Worker after 10 years--list of houses and farms (open and closed), marriages, births, deaths; whereabouts of workers; her travels. Notes they making an attempt at applying a personalist, communitarian philosophy, and quotes Eric Gill's notion of "a cell of good living." Keywords: philosophy of the Catholic Worker, conscientious objection.

Summary: Decries the resettlement of Japanese Americans during World War II into concentration camps and describes their living conditions.

Summary: Expresses a joyful heart in the midst of war preparations. Visits friends, Bishops, and West Coast Houses of Hospitality in Seattle and Los Angelus.

Summary: Decries the religious attitude that neglects the needs of this world in anticipation of "a fuller life" hereafter. Views this life as a "practice ground," an opportunity to use our talents to bring about justice and peace. Cites Ammon Hennacy and Peter Maurin as men who showed personal responsibility in this life. Everyone has the choice to bring about a better world aware that we are members of one family. We will be satisfied at death in God's rich mercy.

Summary: Answers students' question: "How can you see Christ in people?" Says Christ shows himself in the hands and feet of the poor around us. What we do for the poor we do for Christ which leads to an increase in faith and belief in love.

Summary: Proposes a new attitude toward labor, which needs to be achieved through the educational system. Draws from Pius XII and Peter Maurin to articulate a mysticism of labor that promotes a wholeness of cult, culture and cultivation. This attitude advocates one to work for what one needs, not what one wants, so one can work for others in need.

Summary: Discusses the C.W.'s means to achieve a better social condition in comparison to communist means. Exhorts "the rich to become poor and the poor to become holy." Criticizes capitalism's unbalanced distribution of wealth and admits a certain compatability exists between Marx and Christianity.

Summary: Complains of the lack of help from the Church to promote unions. Forcefully explains the difference between communism and the C.W. and contends that the greatest threat to the Church is the working man's ignorance of the Church's social teaching not communism, which is "simply a consequence to the ignorance."

Summary: Discusses Truman's attempt to nationalize steel and argues that it should be permitted as a transition to smaller group ownership, or if private ownership is efficient. Mentions the lack of support for distributism, particularly among Catholics who support government intervention.

Summary: "Am I my brothers keeper?" Argues that increased state intervention limits personal freedom and responsibility. Sees the social security legislation and other state programs as taking responsibility from the community, parish, family and person. Voluntary poverty on the other hand promotes responsibility, since it comes directly from the person.

Summary: Defines personalism as the realization that one "cannot find satisfaction in this life unless he reckons that there is only God and himself." Discusses the difficulties of farming communes and the need to establish the communal aspects of Christianity.

Summary: Describes her trip to Antigonish, Nova Scotia and her stay with the community. Discusses her meeting with the United Mine Workers and how cooperative stores there have built a spiritual foundation for their material needs distribution. Comments on the community's independence and its inter-dependence on one other.

Summary: An account of the first five years of the Catholic Worker (C.W.). Describes the C.W. not simply as a newspaper but as a movement. Explicates its position on labor and unions through Peter Maurin's ideas on personalism. Much of the book, however, is taken up with the day to day experiences of the C.W., describing the soup lines, publication of the paper, picketing, farm communes, and the finances of the C.W.

Summary: A detailed account of the first houses of hospitality in New York where the works of mercy, prayer, work, and community intermingle.

Summary: An overview of the beginnings of the Catholic Worker. As a journalist covering the Communist led march on Washington in December 1932, Dorothy yearns and prays to find a way to work for the poor and oppressed. She meeets Peter Maurin who "indoctrinates" her in Catholic social teaching and his program to change the social order: starting a newspaper, houses of hospitality, roundtable discussions and farming communes. Includes several of Peter's essays and details about starting the newspaper and their first houses of hospitality.

Summary: Vignettes about a mentally ill woman disturbing the neighborhood and the good luck and hard work life of a friend. Describes their struggles with food, lack of money, heated discussions, children's play, "little miracles," selling the paper at a nearby church, and the constant interruptions. Notes two kinds of materialism.

Summary: Tales of hospitality, distributing the paper, and propaganda meetings. Affirms the primacy of performing the works of mercy over "talking and writing about the work." Quotes from Frederick Ozanam on putting faith into action. Describes homey scenes at the beach house with Theresa and their beachcomber friend Smiddy. Tells of their poverty and their joy amid their city neighbors, a busy parish Church nearby, and Peter’s efforts in Harlem.

Summary: A mixture of colorful stories of guests' travails, daily tasks, and small pleasures. Includes a Peter Maurin presentation on Socialism's faults and the need for action based on a supernatural foundation. Reflects on St. Therese's Little Way as a way to overcome discouragement.

Summary: Struggles with discouragement and turns to prayer and spiritual reading for courage. Includes quotes from various spiritual writers. Tales from the farm and trips to the Home Relief Office, swims to escape the oppressive heat, and sweet smells. Rejects the notion that all are not called to perfection and sees true security in giving ones talents in the service of the poor. Details their debt and asserts their insecurity is good.

Summary: After describing their search for a farm and the move to Mott Street, most of the chapter is a clarification of why they support organizing and striking workers. Contrasts their peaceful methods with the communist calls for violence in a class war. Asserts a spiritual foundation based on the dignity of man, a philosophy of labor, and the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ. Wants workers to become owners and lauds the cooperative and back-to-the-land movements.

Summary: Expresses deep gratitude to God for the goodness of their first summer at the Easton farm. Explains why they distribute The Catholic Worker and Catholic literature at Communist rallies. Meditates on the phrase "Our Father" as the basis for understanding that all men are brothers. A long description of their efforts to help the striking seamen in New York.

Summary: Bucolic description of the antics of Bessie the calf. Much of the chapter describes her visit to the sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, against General Motors and their tactics. Says labor in the U.S. needs a long range program of education about cooperatives, credit unions, and a philosophy of labor. Quotes from a leaflet distributed to the men on the breadline inviting them to attend a parish mission. After a talk to a women's club in Florida she observes that the rich who deny Christ in His poor "are atheists indeed."

Summary: Reflecting on the themes cover in the book, she acknowledges all that has been accomplished and distinguishes the role of the State and personal responsibility. Enumerates the many strikes they supported. Calls for a greater use of prayer and the desire to be saints. Speaks about what individual workers are doing in New York and is encouraged by houses around the country. Concludes by recalling Peter Maurin's fundamental ideas--voluntary poverty and the works of mercy. Prays that they continue on "the downward path which leads to salvation."

Summary: Presents P. Maurin three-point program: Round Table Discussions, Houses of Hospitality, and Farming Communes to further the personalist and communitarian revolution. Promotes worker ownership in order to go back to the land to establish farming communes.