The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day by Dorothy Day

The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day Reviews

• 
  Michael Clevenger

  My heroine, I love how radical this lady was.
  
  Some quotes that stood out.
  
  “She believed that each act of love, each work of mercy might increase the balance of love in the world. And she extended this principle to the social sphere. Each act of protest or witness for peace— though apparently foolish and ineffective, no more than a pebble in a pond— might send forth ripples that could transform the world.”
  
  Dorothy wrote: "We are our brother's keeper. Whatever we have beyond our own needs belongs to the poor….And it is sad but true that we must give far more than bread, than shelter." We must give ourselves.
  
  "Use the inconspicuous events and situations of everyday life as material for sanctification. Do it in obscurity." It is, however "just about the most difficult thing to do." "The final word is love," Dorothy wrote, and she knew that love is not child's play. "At times it has been, in the words of Father Zossima [in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov], a harsh and dreadful thing, and our very faith in love has been tried through fire." "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams."
  
  "While she was visiting the Calcutta Missionaries of Charity in 1970, Dorothy told of her refusal and the refusal of other Catholic Workers to interrupt the works of mercy even in wartime, when Jesus' command to "love the enemy" was replaced by the command of the state to kill, starve, and maim the enemy. She explained that her manifesto when the Second World War was declared was the Sermon on the Mount. The Catholic Worker movement, she went on, took Jesus at His word when He told His followers to do good in return for evil, thus overcoming evil by good not by violence."
  
  "In 1976 Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa attended the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. They were invited to speak on the topic of "Woman and the Eucharist" on August 6, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Dorothy, at seventy-nine years of age, in what would be her last public speech, chided the congress organizers for overlooking the anniversary of the atomic bombing and holding instead a Mass for the military. "Our Creator gave us life and the Eucharist to sustain life," she told the assembly, who interrupted her speech with applause. "But we have given the world instruments of death of inconceivable magnitude… Women are born to nourish, not to destroy life."
  
• 
  Kara

  Dorothy Day is currently on her way to becoming a saint and I am glad she is! Reading her diaries, you get to encounter a relatable disciple of Jesus. Her writings are filled with self-aware failings, her desire to constantly grow in virtue, her frequenting of the sacraments and retreats, and her wrestling with the issues of her day. Day is known as a “left-wing Catholic” but honestly she should just be considered Catholic since she was simply a woman on a mission, seeking to constantly glorify God.
  
  There are some things she writes that I don’t necessarily agree with but she was also witnessing revolutionary times in the America and the Church as her diaries here capture her life from the 1930s to 1980. I also suppose this book only provides snapshot opinions as it doesn’t contain the articles she wrote for the Catholic Worker. However, at the end of the day she considered herself a traditional Catholic and appeared very much aligned with Church teaching and dogma.
  
  As a Catholic focused on the messages of pacifism, seeing Jesus in the poor, and seeking to promote a society focused on the good, Day is an edifying writer who provokes critical thought and challenges those who walk with Jesus.
  
  Also she was a big dawg - casually friends with Thomas Merton, Mother Teresa, and many influential Catholics of her day. Servant of God, Dorothy Day, pray for us!
• 
  Kathyk21

  The Duty of Delight gives a deep look into the life and mind of a strong, dedicated, impassioned woman of the 20th century. Dorothy Day was committed to living a life of poverty in order to serve the poor among whom she lived. She was a gifted and talented writer who could easily have been popular and wealthy, but she chose to give all she had to help the destitute. These diaries begin in the 1930s and continue over 50 years. Dorothy was an active participant in the history of those conflicted and dramatically changing years. Reading her pacifist response to war; her refusal to support a government at war; her love for the Catholic Church; her totally immersed commitment to the poor throughout a lifetime of consistently living the values she held, was painful. Her view and care of the impoverished, out of work, drug/alcohol dependent, mentally ill, was not romantic. It was dirty, smelly, noisy, bug-infested and unappreciated. The poor she served complained, lied to, and stole from her. Church leaders questioned her activities. The US government harassed her with law suits and imprisonment. Reading her diaries left many questions about serving the poor and Dorothy's contribution. True believers of the "Occupy..." movement would be well advised to learn from Dorothy Day's commitment to making the world a place where people can be better human beings.
  This was a challenging book to read because while I am sure there has been much editing done, to the number of journal entries, much more editing is needed. There seemed to be far too many entries which added little to an understanding of Dorothy. The footnotes and editorial comments were of tremendous help in understanding people and events that were concurrent with Dorothy’s journal entries.
  If you have a great desire to look into Dorothy Day’s life and heart, I strongly recommend The Duty of Delight. She is an enigma, a sinner, a saint, a very controversial person.
  
• 
  Douglas Donaldson

  This book combines the various journals kept by Dorothy Day into one readable volume. The founder of the Catholic Worker social movement in the 1930s, the entries begin in 1932 and continue until her death. What I have read so far documents the beginning of the Hospitality Houses nation wide during the depression and the struggles to keep them in operation. Eventually, the book will take me through her work during WW II, the Vietnam war and the racial unrest of the 1960's and her last three decades. I'm loving it!
• 
  J.D.

  The subtitle to this is exactly what you're getting this book. The Diaries of Dorothy Day. Covering several centuries, although these were edited down to included only those selected for the book you truly get much of day to day life from her. Many of her diaries don't seem to cover the big events that take place throughout her life, but the normal occurrences and reactions to living in the community, being a person of influence and her interaction with faith. Unfortunately there is very little time given in the book with extra context of what was going on so I would mostly recommend this book for anyone who has a pretty good understanding of her life. This is definitely not for the casual reader. I would have appreciated this book a large amount more if the book was the same size but was split more equally between a biographical element and her letters. As it stands, there were large segments that were exceptionally mundane unless you were a direct associate of hers.
• 
  John

  It took me several months to finish this collection of entires from Dorothy Day's diaries, but it was worth it, reading a few pages every now and then.
  
  Dorothy Day is honest, revealing her joys and sorrows, lamenting her failures of impatience and judgment. But her delight in the ordinary - from the opera on the radio to a book by Dostoevsky to the pigeons on the house across the street.
  
  You get a glimpse of her love for the poor and her struggle with enduring some of them.
  
  There are references to her public life as well as to the events of the day.
  
  It's a book to be meditated over.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Stephanie

  An interesting read but I do wish there was more context of her life. A welcome accompaniment for a full bio.
• 
  David Zimmerman

  Lovely. Just lovely. I had little to no understanding of Day at the outset but she is shaping my faith and piety and leadership through her diaries.
• 
  Darleen

  This took me almost a year to read, but thankfully diaries allow for days and weeks in between reading. Overall, I deeply appreciated Dorothy Day's reflections on life experiences, current affairs, and especially the books she read. She was an avid reader. I wish the editor had made a list of all the books she mentions. Instead, I made a list of them myself until I ran out of space in the extra pages in back. It offers a rich array of books and articles. The range of fiction she read is especially impressive. If someone is looking to write a dissertation or book on Dorothy Day, a study of her reading would be interesting.
  
  In addition I found her honest acceptance and matter of fact processing of her quirks and foibles reassuring. Over and over she would notice after the fact how she had lost her temper; she would bring this to prayer; she would make amends (sometimes); and she would resolve to act differently. And finally, her reflections on the myriad of challenges in Catholic Worker reveal her perseverance in the face of trials.
  
  To satisfy my own curiosity I wish she had processed more deeply some of her beliefs. Instead she often merely states them and moves on. For example she made it clear that she is not a feminist, but doesn't really explain why. But these are her diaries. She didn't need to explain or justify. She clearly wasn't using her diaries to rehearse justifications of anything she believed.
  
  The entries in the last year or so of her life become consistently brief and she comments regularly on her forgetfulness and other factors of her old age. I found these to be important reflections in their own right on aging and coming to the end of life.
  
  I annotated my copy heavily so I can go back and reread sections. I doubt I'll reread the entire thing, but am glad I made it through once.
• 
  Stuart

  The book begins with an introduction describing how Dorothy Day kept a diary when she was younger. In doing so, she felt "recording happiness made it last longer," and "recording sorrow dramatized it and took away its bitterness." This habit she developed at an early age was maintained (probably with less frequency) in her adulthood as well. The introduction also tells us that her words "derived their meaning from the consistency, courage, and faithfulness of her life." The book then provides us a chronology from 1932 to 1980, which gives the reader context for the diary entries that are upcoming. The book is then divided into six parts by decades - 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980. Each part provides some further background information to give us additional context for the time period and what was going on in her life at the time. At 700 pages, this is a very thick book. I don't plan on reviewing this title, as I wouldn't want someone to review my personal diary (if I kept one). I will just say that the book is well-organized and provides us great insight into the mind and reality of this possibly soon-to-be saint. If you would like to know more about her than just what was written about her, then you should check out this book and its companion book All the Way to Heaven.
• 
  Wade

  These are the edited diaries of Catholic social activist Dorothy Day, released (per her wishes) 25 years after her death. The diaries trace her personal reflections on the Catholic Worker and Houses of Hospitality, their struggles financially, politically, and with the Church heirarchy. Ellsberg has helpfully and judiciously added notes to the text, supplying a first or last name when omitted by Day, explaining long gaps in the diaries or providing context for major events that are not noted explicitly by Day herself. Often, he quotes from her other writings to provide a description of a person when they are introduced to the diaries.[return][return]A question raised in other LT reviews is whether this is best read on its own, and whether a linear (straight-through) reading is useful. The timespan covered here is immense, and some of the entries seem to be repetitive or add little; however, it is the accumulation of these details that flesh out the picture of how Day's activism for the poor and for peace spring from her faith. I would agree, however, that reading her other pieces, especially biographical work, is a useful precursor to reading the diaries themselves.
• 
  Jonathan Jones

  Dorothy Day has become one of the famous lay American Catholics. In 1933, with Peter Maurin, she co-founded the Catholic Worker movement; a movement whose aim was to remake American society; socially, and economically, in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This diaries gives one a look into the mind, heart and soul of Dorothy Day, during the many decades she guided, and inspired the CW movement.
  
  It provides a intimate portrait of an activist, organizer, writer, mystic, mother and grandmother. And also allows one to encounter the very human person that was Dorothy Day.
• 
  Lee Spitzer

  I would definitely recommend this book.
  
  There are tremendous insights recorded, many quite poignant. Key journey themes such as loneliness, social action, obedience, prayer and friendship are covered.
  
  Of course, being an edited volume, I have to wonder what was left out. Nevertheless, reading Day's reflections made me appreciate and admire her greatly.
• 
  Emily

  I found the CW movement to have a LOT of logical holes--such as pacifism in everything, even in the fact of WWII--but there were some excellent things she writes about, including a rule of life and a reading list. :)
• 
  Al Owski

  The gift of Dorothy Day was not just her life, how she helped the "least of these", but that she wrote it down, for us to learn about her journey. Raw, unvarnished insight into the life of one who chose the narrow way of following Christ.
• 
  Jason

  Great book. Dorothy Day is one of my true heroes, along with MLK, Mandela, Lennon, & Lech Walesa.
• 
  Wendy

  I won this on Goodreads giveaways
• 
  Gregory Hillis

  
  
  Really needs to be read AFTER reading a biography (I recommend Jim Forest's All is Grace).
• 
  Jennie Macgoy

  L-o-n-g book, but so worth it. One of my heroes.
• 
  Debbie Hoskins

  I have been reading this periodically. It is by the couch, which means I'm more likely to read it then those books by the bed.
• 
  Kayla

  So good, I used 6 renewals at the library trying to finish it though. Read after D.L. Mayfield’s biography, “Unruly Saint.”
  
  “As Péguy said, when we face God he will say, ‘Where are the others?’”
  
  Peter Maurin: To create a society where it is easier to be good!!
  
  “The difference between a dead-weight knowledge and a living rich experience can never be enough expressed. Everyone knows too much, feels too little. […] Pray that some great thought will click. Pray to become aware, to will to live in Presence. […] To pray always, to create the propitious atmosphere. Let the men give the lecture, women create atmosphere.”
• 
  Renee Goodwin

  This is Dorothy Day as she saw herself, nothing more and nothing less. Those who believe she was a saint will be disappointed in her grumpiness; those who vilify her will be disappointed in her sanctity. Ellsberg's footnotes provide helpful context and information about the many people she mentions.
• 
  sare

  How you feel about this record of a life depends, i think, on how you feel about Dorothy Day
• 
  Steve

  Interesting and Inspirational Diary
  
  Day writes about her life and faith in ways that are relatable. The ordinary entries are full and interesting. She lived a full life.
• 
  Brian Coltin

  It had its interesting bits, but it's also a diary which tends to be hard to read. Could have been edited more tightly in my opinion. Still pretty interesting. Convinced me to read more Dostoyevsky.