30-Day Journey with Dorothy Day

by Coleman Fannin

Enrich each day with wisdom from our greatest spiritual thinkers. Through brief daily readings and reflections, the 30-Day Journey series invites readers to be inspired and transformed. By devoting a moment to meaningful reflection and spiritual growth, readers will find deeper understanding of themselves and the world, one day at a time.

Remembered for her radical activism and dedicated life of service, Dorothy Day embodied the power of truly loving your neighbor. Whether you already admire Day or are encountering her for the first time, this journey provides the perfect way to engage the thought of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary women.

82 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 6, 2019

Reviews

[Pam Cipkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim volume starts off with a short introduction to Dorothy Day’s life and work. Each day then offers a reading, followed by some interpretive material, and a reflection on the particular passage for that day.

Day’s life was marked by a deep commitment to nonviolence and social justice, but also by a deep love for God. Some readers may view the passages here as overtly radical and political, but the interpretive material and reflections help guide the reader to see how her experiences transformed her life. We are invited not necessarily to mirror Day’s life, but to contemplate what God meant to her in the context of her own life, and how we can similarly use our own personal experiences to transform our life with God.

The book serves well as a daily devotional over a month‘s time, but it can also be picked up here and there if one desires some quick inspirational material to reflect on Day’s writing and teachings.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful format for getting a flavor of the work and philosophy of Day, in this case, and others who are subjects of the series. She was a bad-ass Catholic, communist, and activist. Before America brainwashed it's citizens to confuse autocracy and dictatorship with communism, Day saw the awful disparities between workers and owners. She wasn't afraid to call out the obscene money given over to the military, which no one seems to understand is over funded, despite what is claimed. Short essays digestible over a month give a good idea of her greater body of work.

[Larry Kloth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this is a month of daily devotions centering on the thought and spirituality of Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day. I have been reading it alongside her autobiography and a collection of her articles, and the short excerpts from her writing and reflection questions of each devotion were helpful not only in getting a better understanding of Day's perspectives, but also in considering how they might be helpful in my own spiritual growth.