Dorothy Day connected radical faith with doing radical deeds. Beginning from her discovery of God in the Word when she was eight years old, Michael Boover shares Dorothy's reflections about her pilgrimage to the daily discipline of readiness and openness to God in her life, especially to God in her neighbor. He shares her words on why and how she prays, on her preference for frequent confession, on her intentional choice of suffering and poverty, and on her desire to imitate the saints and to make sanctity the norm of everyone's life.
In these 15 days, we see how Dorothy's discipline gave her true freedom. In particular, it allowed her to give priority to Love - to take the most direct route to God by loving her neighbor. She recognized "the paucity of her own best spiritual efforts and took refuge in the fact that God would do for believers what they could not fully do for themselves." Boover's practical exercises emulate Day's own temperament. They push you to live with more integrity and deeper love, and they show a deep compassion for the difficulty of the challenge.
REVIEWS "Some books give us the wise and prayerful words of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker. Some books are about her, providing details of her life and influence. Michael Boover gives us both. His nuanced and thoughtful analysis of personally chosen selections from her writing can help readers not only to learn about this saintly woman but to grow in their own spirituality by using these selections as springboards to prayer and reflection."
Rosalie Riegle,
author of
Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her "But what about training manuals in holiness, guides to aid us in our life-long run with and to God? Michael Boover gives us one in 15 Days of Prayer with Dorothy Day, a quietly compelling book that presents Day as a vital guide for the journey of loving God and others. This book, one in a series featuring the religious wisdom of various holy souls, is simply organized. A brief but finely written biography and introduction precede fifteen sections or "days," each one focusing on a turning point in Dorothy's spiritual life, which Michael discusses. A congenial forward gives advice on how to pray with the text. Six questions for reflection conclude each chapter. Tender in tone, this slim manual on holiness does not downplay the rigors of the spiritual life. Should we quake at the demands of the way of holiness, this book reminds us to seek the spiritual friendship of Dorothy. The path she charts inevitably takes us through earthly love to Eternal Love."
Claire Schaeffer-Duffy The Catholic Radical
