Upcoming Guild events:

Our popular walking pilgrimage events are returning this month! For the hardiest among us, the first pilgrimage sets off from Union Square at 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 21st, with a second pilgrimage the following day, Sunday, February 22nd, also at 2:00 PM. 

We have seven pilgrimages scheduled so far this year, (other dates include Sunday afternoons on March 1st, March 15th, March 22nd, April 25th, and May 3rd), and we hope you will join us! We especially invite you to sign up with a friend or a group from your parish, for one of the Lenten Sunday pilgrimages as a particular way to invite Dorothy to accompany you during this holy season of preparation. These pilgrimages are an opportunity to literally walk in Dorothy’s footsteps, visiting the places in Lower Manhattan where she herself prayed, protested, and offered the works of mercy for more than fifty years. Please click here to view all of the available dates and register for an upcoming pilgrimage.

We are also hosting an extended series of online events this spring, starting this month with our third annual Lenten book club. For 2026, historian and long-time friend of the Dorothy Day Guild, Dr. Anne Klejment, will host our online reading group over the course of five Tuesdays in Lent. During our time together, we will read Dorothy's memoir of the first thirty years of the Catholic Worker movement, Loaves and Fishes.

Originally published in 1963, Loaves and Fishes is an excellent companion piece to Dorothy's spiritual autobiography, The Long Loneliness. In this later book, Dorothy brings her journalistic eye for detail and character sketches to the first three decades of the vibrant Catholic Worker family, focusing on the varied community members who brought their gifts and talents to the growing movement, and on the persistence of poverty in affluent post-war America. Please click here to register for our book club!

This spring, we are also excited to announce that we are hosting TWO online roundtables, each featuring an inspiring and insightful panel of speakers. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day, March 8th, is “Social Justice”-- a perfect fit for a conversation with contemporary activists whose faith and work has been shaped by Dorothy’s witness. Next month, on Sunday, March 8th at 8:00 PM Eastern, please join us for this special webinar “In the Footsteps of Dorothy Day: Catholic Women and Social Justice.”

For this roundtable, we've chosen to feature an intergenerational group of Catholic women whose activism has been inspired by Dorothy's legacy of Gospel nonviolence, voluntary poverty, and hospitality. You're invited to join Clare Grady, Michelle Sherman, Brenna Cussen Anglada, and Sister Helen Prejean for an evening of conversation on how faith and exemplars like Dorothy have shaped their work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, youth, Indigenous communities, and victims of war and violence in the United States and abroad. This conversation will be moderated by our 2025 Dorothy Day Guild Graduate Research Fellow, Magdalena Muñoz Pizzulic. Register here to receive the zoom link!

Looking further ahead, we are also hosting our third annual Easter-season webinar on Sunday, May 17th at 1:30 PM Eastern. This year, we've chosen to highlight some of the past decade's most notable books on Dorothy. Please join us for a conversation with Kate Hennessy, author of Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty: An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother, D.L. Mayfield, author of Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day's Radical Vision and Its Challenge for Our Times, and Blythe Randolph and John Loughery, co-authors of Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century. 

Events from our friends:

We would also like to draw your attention to two additional events being hosted by friends of the Guild next month. First, Renée Roden, co-editor of Roundtable and member of the Harrisburg Catholic Worker community, is leading a four-week discussion group, “Lent With Dorothy Day. Hosted by Jesuit Media Lab, this group will meet on four Fridays (March 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th) from 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern to read and discuss selections from a range of Dorothy’s writings. The group is currently full, but if you would like to join the waiting list, please send an email to Mike Jordan Laskey at medialab@jesuits.org. 

In New York, Fordham University’s Campus Ministry is sponsoring the third annual “Catholic Women Speak” Conference. This one-day event, which features Martha Hennessy as a keynote speaker will take place on March 21st, 2026, from 12:00 PM-6:30 PM on the Fordham University Rose Hill Campus, in the McShane Center Great Hall (on the third floor). 

Martha’s keynote on her grandmother’s legacy and how Dorothy inspired her own faith and activism is currently scheduled to take place at 3:25 PM. In their invitation, the event organizers wrote, 

“Catholic Women Speak is inspired by both the Global Synod’s discernment of the role of women in the Church and the desire to uplift Catholic women in our community who live a variety of vocations. In 2024, Catholic Women Speak focused on creating an intentional community to affirm, empower, and rejoice in Catholic women’s voices. 

In the context of America’s precarious socio-political climate and the release of the Synod on Synodality’s final document, Catholic Women Speak 2025 asked, “Now what?” We began discerning how the Holy Spirit is inviting today’s Catholics to move forward and respond to injustice in the world and in the Church by emphasizing storytelling and relationship-building. 

Our world today, in 2026, feels quite heavy, filled with overwhelm, division, and fear. But our story does not end here. We invite you into the practice of groundedness, joy, and community. Together, we will remember and celebrate who we are: women of strength and resistance. What can resistance look like, and how can we practice it as women of faith?

As we strive to cultivate the fruits of justice from the seeds of hope, we pray that Catholic Women Speak 2026 can participate in the vital work of community-building and action. We invite you to plant the seeds, and it would be a privilege to walk with you in the garden.”

This conference is free and open to all and includes lunch and a closing communion service, as well as an option to attend the two keynote addresses by Zoom for those who cannot be present in person. If you would like to participate, please register using this form by March 15th.

Reading and listening recommendations:

We have several new articles and podcasts featuring Dorothy to share with you this month! First, for Roundtable, Ashley McCormick shared a reflection from the Advent retreat led by Martha Hennessy and organized by the Mary’s House Catholic Worker community in Birmingham, Alabama. She writes,

“Martha reminded us that Dorothy regarded the Catholic Worker as a university to be studied with more to learn all the time. Dorothy invited those in attendance to become apprentices of the work, not merely academics absorbed in the principles. The works of mercy are just that—work to be undertaken. 

Though we understand that both work and prayer are at the heart of the Catholic Worker movement, as Martha emphasized Dorothy’s commitment to both personal and communal prayer with regular participation in church sacraments. Though steeped in traditional practice, Dorothy also had an expansive view of what prayer could be.”

Roundtable has featured a number of other recent articles that mention or invoke Dorothy this winter; we encourage you to read through their recent archive (all free!) and subscribe to this great resource for news and fresh thought from around the Catholic Worker movement.

Last month in L’Osservatore Romano, the English-language edition of the Vatican newspaper, Ritanna Armeni published an article contextualizing Pope Leo’s choice to cite Dorothy in his public catechesis on November 22nd. In “Dorothy Day, the small great American who shows the way,” Armeni writes,

“It is hard to escape the impression that by quoting her, Leo intended to indicate a direction. He recalled that in the building of the Church, the contribution of the laity is by no means secondary. Instead, it can become decisive, as was the case with Dorothy. The pope emphasized that the Gospel must not be limited to offering consolation; rather, it must enter society, build, transform, and must be embodied in concrete, everyday actions. Dorothy chose to live her life right up to the end in the Houses of Hospitality of the Catholic Workers. Her life and words show that her model, which is rooted in active hope, social engagement, and service to the poor, remains central today in the Church’s vision.”

This week actually marks the anniversary of the first time a Pope mentioned Dorothy in a public address. On February 13th, 2013, Ash Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about Dorothy’s conversion to Catholicism as evidence that "God guided her to a conscious adherence to the church, in a lifetime spent dedicated to the underprivileged." Only two years later, Pope Francis would visit the United States and name Dorothy as an American exemplar in his address to a joint session of Congress. It is incredibly exciting to realize that the three most recent Popes have all looked to Dorothy as a model of holiness and action for the Church today– she is truly a saint for our time!

The most recent issue of Interchange, a publication of the Rochester, MN Franciscan community, features an article on Kristi Pfister’s Dorothy Day mosaics. These mosaics are stunning as stand-alone pieces and also form part of a larger multimedia installation, Radical Action: Tracing Dorothy Day, which Kristi has exhibited at Manhattan University, Iona University, and other gallery spaces in the New York metro area. You can download the article, “Learning from the Witness of Others,” here, or visit the Sisters of St. Francis’ website to browse the full back catalogue of Interchange.

Robert Ellsberg also appeared last month as a guest on Fr. John Dear’s The Nonviolent Jesus podcast. Robert recently published Blessed Among Us: Volume 2, a collection of daily introductions to and reflections on holiness and discipleship through the lives of saintly figures, both canonized and not. He spoke with Fr. John on a range of topics, but at the close of their conversation, Fr. John asked if Robert could offer “a memory or two about Dorothy for me, and maybe share a word about the ongoing process of her impending canonization,” adding “She's got to become a doctor of the church. She's way beyond being a saint. It's true. She's Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena. She's St. Francis and Gandhi combined.”

Robert responded with a few comments on Dorothy’s disciplined spiritual life and how he came to recognize the attention Dorothy put into her prayer and her daily examination of conscience in greater depth when he edited her diaries twenty-five years after her death. He also spoke about Dorothy’s own critique as a young woman, when she admired saints who served the poor but wondered where in the Church’s calendar were the saints who tried to change the social order. “That's where she takes this great big leap,” Robert said. 

“What other saint ever said that? And who tried to live there, you know? And yes, she performed the works of mercy and she lived in voluntary poverty with the poor, but she was also trying to change the social order. And not just through protesting, but also by offering a kind of critique and offering a model of an alternative way of being and alternative values for our society and trying to live them in the present.”

Click here to listen to Robert and Fr. John’s full conversation and visit The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus online for a full archive of podcast episodes and see their list of upcoming Zoom programs.

Finally, Kevin Ahern appeared as a guest on Asheville, NC’s “A Better World” community radio program. In this hour-long interview with host McNair Ezzard, Kevin offers an introduction to Dorothy’s life, the publication of The Catholic Worker newspaper, and the foundation and continuing history of the Catholic Worker movement. 

In their conversation, McNair also asked Kevin about his own exposure to the Catholic Worker and to Dorothy and how he became interested in promoting her legacy of Gospel pacifism, voluntary poverty, and hospitality. Kevin talked about volunteering in the New York Catholic Worker community during the Iraq War and participating in peace activism with the community. Years later, as a professor, Kevin said, “I was seeing in the classroom, whenever I taught about Dorothy, students would perk up. They can’t put this woman in a box… She breaks barriers and stereotypes, and I think that’s really fun to teach.”

This is a great interview, in part because the show’s secular orientation speaks to the appeal Dorothy holds for non-Christian and non-religious listeners. We’re excited to share this conversation with you as a unique resource for introducing new audiences to Dorothy’s life and legacy, and we encourage you to check out some of the other fascinating guests McNair has brought onto the show.

Other canonization news:

We received some wonderful news about another (hopefully!) future saint who is dear to many of us: Sister Thea Bowman’s cause is moving forward! The diocesan phase of Sister Thea’s cause is complete and the Roman phase is about to begin. Today, February 9th, at 12:00 PM Central, Bishop Joseph Kopacz, of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving along with other bishops and clergy from the Province of Mobile (which includes dioceses from across Mississippi and Alabama). The Mass will take place in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle (123 North West Street, Jackson, MS 39201).

After the Mass, our friend Emanuele Spedicato, who is the Roman postulator for Sister Thea’s cause, will seal the official documents and findings from the diocesan phase in a similar closing ceremony to what we celebrated on December 8th, 2021 at the close of the diocesan phase of Dorothy’s cause. Both the Mass and the Closing Session are open to all, and we hope that those of you who live in the area plan to attend!

Please join all of us at the Dorothy Day Guild in congratulating all those who have worked on Sister Thea’s cause and those who have been inspired by her life and legacy. To learn more about Sister Thea and the efforts for her canonization, please visit the Diocese of Jackson’s official website, where you can access articles, film clips, photographs, and a full documentary about her incredible life of faith and activism.

We also invite you to check out the work of our friends over at The Dorothea Project, a community of Catholic Women inspired by Dorothy and Sister Thea and formed by Catholic Social Teaching. This group meets monthly (online!) for clarification of thought and ongoing formation of conscience and works to advocate for our most vulnerable neighbors.

Currently, the members of the Dorothea Project are asking our bishops to continue speaking out on behalf of immigrants and those who stand with them. Their website has a number of resources you can use for prayer, education, and action in your own community. We encourage you to pray with Sister Thea and Dorothy and ask how you might be called to participate in this work!

Prayer requests:

This month, we have several joyful updates to share with you– prayers have been answered for several of the people who have been on the Guild’s prayer list in the past year! First, we are so happy to report that Kenzie, the young mother in Indiana we had prayed for during her difficult pregnancy with her second daughter, is doing well, and her baby is finally home after a long stay in the NICU. Kenzie is still struggling with ongoing health issues, so as we give thanks to God for her daughter’s safe return home, please continue to ask Dorothy’s intercession for Kenzie’s own healing as she, her fiancé, and the girls settle into life at home as a family of four.

We have also been praying for a young woman from Illinois who had been stuck in a low-paid, dead-end job for five years. Last week, we were thrilled to hear from her that she had been hired in a new position which will offer her opportunities to gain skills and advance in her career and which pays enough to cover her expenses. For this good news, Deo gratias!



Edward from Nevada also wrote to us to share that he had been asking Dorothy’s intercession on his own behalf to resolve a medical issue which seems to have fully healed in the time he has been praying using the canonization prayer on our website. He also sent us news that he had been praying through Dorothy’s intercession for the son of a family friend who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. During the friend’s last medical appointment, the doctor noticed that the tumor had entirely disappeared– amazing news!

Our medical team is looking into this case to see whether this has the potential to be a miracle attributed to Dorothy’s intercession, but whether or not it meets the stringent criteria required for the canonization process, this healing is an incredible grace, and we are so honored to share in the joy of this family and their loved ones.

Edward has also asked us to pray for two members of his family, his mother, who suffers from macular degeneration, and his cousin, who hopes to improve his mobility so that he can return home from the nursing facility where he has been staying. Please ask Dorothy to intercede on behalf of these dear ones.

Additionally, we received a request from a woman in Colorado who has recently received a diagnosis of persistent postural-perceptual dizziness. She has asked that we pray that she receive the grace to accept life with this challenging new reality.

Finally, we were very sad to hear of the death of Bob Murray in Ireland, whose son, Fr. Seóirse Murray is a close friend of the Guild through his work with the Catholic Peace Fellowship. Through Dorothy's intercession, please pray for the repose of Bob's soul, and the comfort of his family, especially his widow, Maureen. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

On behalf of all of those who have written to us this winter, please join us in asking Dorothy to uphold their needs before a loving and faithful God.



A few words from Dorothy:

In preparation for our Lenten book club, I’ve been reading through Dorothy’s Loaves and Fishes again, and came upon this encouraging (and bracing!) passage from the chapter “A Block Off the Bowery.” Dorothy writes,

“One reason I feel sure of the rightness of the path we are traveling in our work is that we did not pick it out ourselves. In those beautiful verses in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew, Jesus tells us that we must feed the hungry, and shelter those without homes and visit the sick and the prisoner. We cannot feel too satisfied with the way we are doing our work– there is too much of it; we have more than our share, you might say. Yet we can say, ‘If that’s the way He wants it–’.

I say we did not choose this work, and that is true. So it was with each of us. John Cort thought he was coming to us to study and work with the problems of labor unions and he found himself ‘running a flophouse,’ as he said. I, being a journalist, looked to editing and publishing a paper each month, writing what I chose, and not being subject to any publisher. But because we wrote about the obligations of those who call themselves Christians and who try ‘stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds and putting on the new,’ as St. Paul said, it is as though we were each being admonished, ‘All right, if you believe as you say, do it.’”

As we look forward to Lent, Dorothy’s words remind us of the awesome obligations incumbent upon us as members of Christ’s Mystical Body. The weight of this responsibility should give us pause, but, as Dorothy reminds us, so should the freedom that it offers. So much about our world and our future is uncertain. We make plans and begin projects not knowing when they will come to fruition, but in Matthew 25, Christ offers us a clear path forward. The works of mercy are not easy, but they are simple, and Christ has promised us that they will in fact accomplish something meaningful in this world and in the next. “If that’s the way He wants it,” we can rest in the assurance that our contributions to the common good will bear fruit. In the upcoming season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let’s pray for the grace to respond generously to the needs of our neighbor, and like Dorothy, do as we say we believe.

In peace,

Dr. Casey Mullaney, on behalf of the Dorothy Day Guild