Summary Of Dorothy Day's The Long Loneliness

During a time our country faced immense inequality, violence and a social uprising, Dorothy Day was able to pursue these radical causes with her objective to transform society through her spirit and faith in God. In her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, she explains her life endeavors through three different timeframes; her time of “Searching,” her time of “Natural Happiness,” and a time where she believed that “Love is the Measure.” In the first section of the reading, we discover how Dorothy finds meaning during her first twenty five years of life as she introduces us to her childhood, religious practices and her interest in writing. In the second section Dorothy explains her marriage, the birth of her child and her new found appreciation
Many volunteers and supporters helped make this succeed with their time and effort dedicated to working, while also donating money, food and clothing. Houses of hospitality soon opened afterward as a way to feed the homeless and unemployed. While being an important member of the Catholic Worker, Dorothy continued to write about the conditions of the poor and the workers. Catholic Worker houses began to form all over the country. Along with publishing the paper and offering hospitality, the Catholic Workers also supported those protesting poor working conditions and low wages. Groups of lay people, both radical and apolitical, such as A Catholic Rural Life Movement, The Association of Catholic Trade Unionists and The Catholic Youth Organization made the church’s work their own while playing their role in promoting Catholic Action (O’Toole 146). According to O’Toole, “The church was best understood not merely as a religious institution concerned with the other-worldly salvation of individual souls; it was also a this-worldly organization whose members had the responsibility to apply its teachings in the social, economic, and political spheres of life (O’Toole 146). Dorothy Day and the members of the Catholic Worker Movement were the most widely recognized group of the Catholic Action as they attempted to encourage a Catholic influence on society. As the war approached, The Catholic Worker movement faced hardships as they lost members and supporters. Some of the hospitality houses were forced to shut down because many of the men who ran them were drafted into the war. Because of Dorothy’s stance on the war, churches and schools discontinued receiving The Catholic Worker, however, this did not have an impact on Dorothy’s writing. With the country at war, this was a very important time for Dorothy to bind together her faith with the ideas that powered the