Summary: Considers the difficult task of reflecting on her life and recounting her path to conversion. Some markers along her way included praying the Psalms, reading Dostoyvsky's and Mauriac's novels, and seeing the love of the poor found among those who don't consciously accept Christ. Links her suffering with others to Christ's within His Mystical Body.
Summary: Convalescing after a mild heart attack, she meditates on the beauty of nature and the joy of singing. Says she needs to work at being less irritable. Recommends an article on death someone sent her.
Summary: An anniversary recollection in honor of Peter Maurin. Notes writers who influenced Peter and highlights some of his key ideas. Also reflects on adversity, beauty, martyrs, and joy.
Summary: Still awaiting Tamar's baby, she mentions neighborly visits and reflects on her family history, and criticizes poorly written books about Mary and the saints. Writes of "feasting and fasting" as Lent begins, enumerating the many mentions of food in the Bible and quoting Dostoevsky's character Father Zossima on the importance of fasting.
Summary: On speaking trips to California, Florida, and Alabama, she notes the many places she spoke to labor groups, the projects of many lay people, priests, and sisters, and a visit with the anti-union president of a steel mill. Describes the death and funeral of a seaman who lived at the Catholic Worker. Reiterates the principles of their work: smallness, giving shelter to the homeless, indoctrination, personal responsibility, teaching cooperation and mutual aid, and relying on God--"Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Recommends several books.
Summary: Fighting melancholy and overwork she wavers between justifying and blaming herself. Includes a mock dialogue with a "Critical Inquirer," examples of their arguments and conflicts, and sustaining quotes from spiritual writers. Sets a rule of life for herself and affirms that "those circumstances which surround us are the very ones God wills for us."
Summary: In the face of a world in turmoil--atom bomb tests, food shortages, impending strikes, destitution--an exhortation to "love as Christ loved, to the extent of laying down our lives for our brothers." Tells of a priest whose work made him "a perfect fool for Christ." Says "we confess to being fools and wish we were more so."
Summary: Explains the C.W.'s perpetual necessity to help the poor. Objects when states responsibility impedes personal responsibility. Calls her readers to have a Christ room in their homes, hospices in poor parishes and coffee lines for the transients, in order to exercise personal responsibility.
