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Synopsis
Dorothy Day (1897-1980), widely known as the founder of the worldwide Catholic Worker movement, has been described by historian David O'Brien as "the most significant, interesting, and influential person in the history of American Catholicism." On Pilgrimage gathers diary entries written by Day in 1948 that intimately reveal both her spiritual life and the personal ideals that guided her tenacious pursuit of social justice.. "When Dorothy Day sat down to record her thoughts in diary form, she wrote not only as the leader of the Catholic Worker movement but also as a mother, a grandmother, and a deeply religious woman who was passionate about everything from baking bread to prayer. But whether describing day-to-day happenings or exploring the writings of the saints, Day's reflections return to her abiding theme - the call to personal and public transformation. Her diary entries touch on numerous social and moral concerns still vital in our day: the disenfranchised poor, the benefits of meaningful work, the significance of family, the dangers of secularization, the decline of moral standards, and the importance of faith.
Expository Times
Dorothy Day, a putative twentieth-century saint of American Catholics, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, has bequeathed to posterity diary entries for 1948. Accompanied as they are by an introductory setting-of-the-scene chapter, they constitute a searing critique of facets of modern western society and culture, allied to a relentless hopeful resolve that refused to be daunted, and a love of the church triumphantly surviving clear-eyed recognition of its warts. Here is a rebuke to complacency, completely devoid of sentimentality, and a challenge to action.