The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
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This is a pretty terrible book written by and about a woman who seems to deserve better. I first read it in my more politically radical college days, and I remember that I didn't like it much but pretended I did to build some Christian social action street cred. I started re-reading it a few weeks ago, and this time I gave up at page 200. Day is just a colossal failure as a writer. She presents the reader with essentially a stream-of-consciousness piece, like a more somber Jack Kerouac who travels a bit from the philosophic world of political radicalism to a Catholicism with a focus on loving the poor, but there isn't much of a change. Day switches from one circle of friends to another, and she goes into a bit of detail about the religious ceremonies she enjoys, but a reader choosing one page at random from anywhere in the book will be unable to determine if she has experienced a conversion yet or not. Instead, the reader finds name after name dropped, along with passionless observations of uninteresting daily life details, and about the only thing the story has going for it is that at least it's mostly chronological.
At one point, a priest tells Day that her writing contains much of self and almost nothing of Christ. Another tells her that her writing has no style whatsoever. I rejoiced, pulled a pen out of my pocket, and wrote my heartfelt affirmations in the margin. I'm sure a competent writer could produce a compelling biography of Day, but she simply lacks the skill to tell her own story in a way that compels at all. I do not recommend this book to anyone.
...and it is still going on.
Of all the books ever given to me as a gift, this is still my favorite. Granted, the first third of the book, for me, was a bit slow...not boring, just slow. But I knew it would be worth it to trudge on, and I was right. By the end of the book I felt as if I had read one of the most important autobiographies I would ever read. Dorothy Day lived a life worth emulating. It was a life radically reconfigured by her ability to take Jesus simply at his word when he said to visit those in prison, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. This is the kind of life you get when you follow, literally, those oh-so difficult words as found in the sermon on the mount. This is a book worthy of your time.
"The Long Loneliness,etc.
We are reading this book in my church and only have read one chapter.The idea is to read one chapter a month.Cannot give you a review for this reason.
The Making of a Christian
This book reads like an autobiography, but is actually about the author's spiritual conversion to the Catholic church. A very significant conversion it was because it resulted in the Catholic Worker movement. Dorothy Day became so dedicated to the church that she transcended it, into the realm of true Christianity. Aware that her church was not doing all that it should in following Christ, it was inevitable that she would form a splinter group, without breaking from that church, to practice authentic Christianity. As she was the mother of a child, it would have to be a lay group. Her meeting with Peter Maurin provided the catalyst, and the rest is history. She had found her life's work, and became one of the most influential Catholics of the twentieth century.
As a child, she was not religious, except for a few formal prayers. "We did not search for God when we were children." At university, she saw religion as "an opiate of the people and not a very attractive one." But by page 132 she writes, "I was surprised that I found myself beginning to pray daily." Then, "I began to go to Mass regularly on Sunday mornings." This book is about her gradual transformation from unchurched Bohemian to candidate for sainthood, how it happened and what she thought about it.
Living the oridinary extraordinarily: Reminiscences of a Catholic convert.
The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day has long been held to be an important social document as well as a meaningful written Catholic memoir, because it delves deeply into the intimate conversion experience whereby there is a moving epiphany that changes that person so completely and totally. And The Long Loneliness illustrates that point quite clearly. Even before the Catholic Worker was ever founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, their approach to religious activism was almost on par with other lay Catholic social orgaizations, mirroring the motto of Catholic Action, founded in 1868, the best, whose battle cry is: Prayer. Action. Sacrifice. However, what makes this memoir so appealing is that it is outlined in a belief framework of pragmatic thought and a consistent work ethic, like Opus Dei. Dorothy Day, in the recounting of her conversion and the afteraffects of it, is not given to flights of supernatural fancy or prone to self-created mystical experiences or visions, which, when people do have them, are psychosomatic or psychotic, at best.
There are various reasons why people enter the Catholic Church, and for Day, she wanted her daughter-Tamar-to not flounder in a life of sexual radicalism and voracious wantonness, both of which wounded her quite grievously before she had her conversion experience. Before she became Catholic, Dorothy Day was a doer rather than a sayer; she put action behind her words, and she found comfort in the Gospel: feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. The latter was the very impetus for why The Catholic Worker was established, to make it real, living and vibrant for others. What is recounted in the Long Loneliness is not any caliber of theological scholarship or penetrating analysis of the Gospel. Rather, besides being lived, Catholicism in conjunction with pacificism, economics, helping the downtrodden and the labor movement is thoroughly explored. And yet, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity is exemplified throughout. Through her collected writings, especially her memoir, Dorothy Day illuminated that in accepting the Catholic ideal, everyone must carry their cross if they want the world to be even a slightly better place and that the Catholic faith is not one to take lightly.
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Price: $10.87
You Save: $5.12 (32%)
Description
A compelling autobiographical testament to the spiritual pilgrimage of a woman who, in her own words, dedicated herself "to bring[ing] about the kind of society where it is easier to be good.'Customer Reviews
She may have been a terrific activist, but she was a terrible authorThis is a pretty terrible book written by and about a woman who seems to deserve better. I first read it in my more politically radical college days, and I remember that I didn't like it much but pretended I did to build some Christian social action street cred. I started re-reading it a few weeks ago, and this time I gave up at page 200. Day is just a colossal failure as a writer. She presents the reader with essentially a stream-of-consciousness piece, like a more somber Jack Kerouac who travels a bit from the philosophic world of political radicalism to a Catholicism with a focus on loving the poor, but there isn't much of a change. Day switches from one circle of friends to another, and she goes into a bit of detail about the religious ceremonies she enjoys, but a reader choosing one page at random from anywhere in the book will be unable to determine if she has experienced a conversion yet or not. Instead, the reader finds name after name dropped, along with passionless observations of uninteresting daily life details, and about the only thing the story has going for it is that at least it's mostly chronological.
At one point, a priest tells Day that her writing contains much of self and almost nothing of Christ. Another tells her that her writing has no style whatsoever. I rejoiced, pulled a pen out of my pocket, and wrote my heartfelt affirmations in the margin. I'm sure a competent writer could produce a compelling biography of Day, but she simply lacks the skill to tell her own story in a way that compels at all. I do not recommend this book to anyone.
...and it is still going on.
Of all the books ever given to me as a gift, this is still my favorite. Granted, the first third of the book, for me, was a bit slow...not boring, just slow. But I knew it would be worth it to trudge on, and I was right. By the end of the book I felt as if I had read one of the most important autobiographies I would ever read. Dorothy Day lived a life worth emulating. It was a life radically reconfigured by her ability to take Jesus simply at his word when he said to visit those in prison, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. This is the kind of life you get when you follow, literally, those oh-so difficult words as found in the sermon on the mount. This is a book worthy of your time.
"The Long Loneliness,etc.
We are reading this book in my church and only have read one chapter.The idea is to read one chapter a month.Cannot give you a review for this reason.
The Making of a Christian
This book reads like an autobiography, but is actually about the author's spiritual conversion to the Catholic church. A very significant conversion it was because it resulted in the Catholic Worker movement. Dorothy Day became so dedicated to the church that she transcended it, into the realm of true Christianity. Aware that her church was not doing all that it should in following Christ, it was inevitable that she would form a splinter group, without breaking from that church, to practice authentic Christianity. As she was the mother of a child, it would have to be a lay group. Her meeting with Peter Maurin provided the catalyst, and the rest is history. She had found her life's work, and became one of the most influential Catholics of the twentieth century.
As a child, she was not religious, except for a few formal prayers. "We did not search for God when we were children." At university, she saw religion as "an opiate of the people and not a very attractive one." But by page 132 she writes, "I was surprised that I found myself beginning to pray daily." Then, "I began to go to Mass regularly on Sunday mornings." This book is about her gradual transformation from unchurched Bohemian to candidate for sainthood, how it happened and what she thought about it.
Living the oridinary extraordinarily: Reminiscences of a Catholic convert.
The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day has long been held to be an important social document as well as a meaningful written Catholic memoir, because it delves deeply into the intimate conversion experience whereby there is a moving epiphany that changes that person so completely and totally. And The Long Loneliness illustrates that point quite clearly. Even before the Catholic Worker was ever founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, their approach to religious activism was almost on par with other lay Catholic social orgaizations, mirroring the motto of Catholic Action, founded in 1868, the best, whose battle cry is: Prayer. Action. Sacrifice. However, what makes this memoir so appealing is that it is outlined in a belief framework of pragmatic thought and a consistent work ethic, like Opus Dei. Dorothy Day, in the recounting of her conversion and the afteraffects of it, is not given to flights of supernatural fancy or prone to self-created mystical experiences or visions, which, when people do have them, are psychosomatic or psychotic, at best.
There are various reasons why people enter the Catholic Church, and for Day, she wanted her daughter-Tamar-to not flounder in a life of sexual radicalism and voracious wantonness, both of which wounded her quite grievously before she had her conversion experience. Before she became Catholic, Dorothy Day was a doer rather than a sayer; she put action behind her words, and she found comfort in the Gospel: feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. The latter was the very impetus for why The Catholic Worker was established, to make it real, living and vibrant for others. What is recounted in the Long Loneliness is not any caliber of theological scholarship or penetrating analysis of the Gospel. Rather, besides being lived, Catholicism in conjunction with pacificism, economics, helping the downtrodden and the labor movement is thoroughly explored. And yet, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity is exemplified throughout. Through her collected writings, especially her memoir, Dorothy Day illuminated that in accepting the Catholic ideal, everyone must carry their cross if they want the world to be even a slightly better place and that the Catholic faith is not one to take lightly.
Times OnlineThe affair that shaped Harold Macmillan's careerAs he and Dorothy left Stockton railway station for London the following day his face was seen at the window of the carriage. It was drenched in tears. One of the Conservative survivors of the election was his friend and colleague Robert Boothby. The one wicked thing that Dorothy Macmillan did
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.comDorothy Max, 77-year-old cat rescuer, needs help with strays Dorothy Max's funds have run low. She spends six hours a day driving through neighborhoods where colonies of cats live in alleys, abandoned buildings and overgrown yards. It costs her about $75 a day just to feed them, plus the veterinary bills.
MLive.comPolice officer served attacker with PPO just hours before deadly Lt. Christopher Simpson said the officer served Wheeler after 4 pm Wednesday with a personal protection order requested by Dorothy Holliday, who wrote in the May 20 order that Wheeler had threatened to take her life. About 7:30 pm, Sgt. Michael Gleeson Man shot and killed and by police while stabbing his girlfriend Stabbing Victim Had PPO Against Attacker