Dispatches

Admin • September 29, 2023

Hello! The air has shifted and the leaves are starting to change, and it’s definitely autumn in New York. The Guild is in the midst of a season of transitions and reorganization right now, and we’re looking forward to continuing to share updates with you over the coming weeks, so stay tuned! Speaking of reorganization, however, our co-chair Dr. Kevin Ahern has been working with our friends at the New York Catholic Worker, the Dorothy Day Center at Manhattan College, and members of Dorothy’s family to organize and inventory Dorothy’s bedroom at Maryhouse. This work has revealed a number of tiny, intimate glimpses of what Kevin calls “a saint next door.” Some of these objects will eventually become part of a permanent educational exhibit at Manhattan College, which will be open to spiritual seekers, school groups, researchers, and members of the public.

Dorothy’s lifelong love of reading and writing meant that she was constantly exchanging books, cards, and letters with friends. One of our favorite finds so far is a note tucked between pages of Dorothy’s bible, from St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata. The text reads, “Dear Dorothy, My love, prayer, and sacrifice is close to you. If you go to Jesus first, tell Him I love Him. If I go, I will tell Him you love Him. God bless you.” Wow! Dorothy understood herself to be surrounded at all times by the love and support of the communion of saints; sometimes that was through prayer, and sometimes that meant the saints sat and visited in the Maryhouse living room. Many thanks for the hospitality of the Maryhouse community in allowing us to encounter these objects from Dorothy’s life up close. We look forward to welcoming you all to Manhattan College for the exhibit soon!

The Guild has been busy planning a full slate of fall events in collaboration with the Dorothy Day Center and the New York Catholic Worker community, and we are excited to offer you a sneak peak at some upcoming opportunities. Artist Kristi Pfister’s installation, "Radical Action: Tracing Dorothy Day” is now on display at the Manhattan College O’Malley Library Gallery. Kevin Ahern and Martha Hennessy, Dorothy’s granddaughter, had a chance to check it out together last week, and it is truly stunning. We hope you will be able to join us on Thursday October 26th from 5-7pm for a reception and artist talk. Pfister will deliver some brief remarks right at five, and then we’ll enjoy the exhibit and some refreshments together. If you’re not able to attend in October, “Radical Action” will remain on display until December 16th.

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Our online October book club and discussion group begins on Wednesday, October 4th! In the month of All Saints, we’re excited to begin reading and discussing Dorothy’s biography of one of her favorite saints, Thérèse. We’ll meet over Zoom on four Wednesdays, October 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th, from 8-9pm Eastern/7-8pm Central. We still have a few spots available, and you can sign up by using this form to receive the Zoom link. The book is available here, from Ave Maria Press .

As a supplement to our reading group, we’ve also created a twelve-part mini-lecture series on our YouTube channel. We’ve posted the first couple of videos already with more planned for the coming days, so keep an eye out for new uploads! We’re excited to offer more free educational resources about Dorothy on this channel, and we hope you are able to enjoy them with your classes, families, spiritual formation groups, and anyone you know who is interested in learning more about Dorothy’s life and legacy.

We’re also in the process of finalizing our map and tour route for our Saturday, October 21st walking pilgrimage in Manhattan. We’ll meet in Union Square at 1:00 pm and work our way southward, visiting the places where Dorothy prayed, protested, and offered the works of mercy for nearly 50 years. Our pilgrimage concludes with a vigil mass in the chapel at Maryhouse, Dorothy Day’s final home. To register and receive a map, please fill out this form.

Finally, we look forward to welcoming Dr. Lincoln Rice to Manhattan College for the annual Dorothy Day Lecture. Lincoln received his doctorate in moral theology from Marquette University in 2013 and has been a member of Milwaukee’s Casa Maria Catholic Worker community since 1998. He is the author of Healing the Divide: A Catholic Racial Justice Framework Inspired by Dr. Arthur Falls, and editor of The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin: Easy Essays From The Catholic Worker. Lincoln will speak to us this year on Peter Maurin’s philosophy, his significance for the Catholic Worker movement, and what we can learn from Peter today. This year’s lecture will take place on Thursday, November 2nd at 6:30 pm in the Alumni Room at Manhattan College’s O’Malley library.

Once again, we thank you for your support in promoting Dorothy’s legacy and cause for canonization! We hope to see you at some of our autumn events online and in-person and look forward to connecting with you soon.

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Monica Cornell, 1942-2025: A Worker for the Lay Apostolate and Friend of Dorothy Day

By Casey Mullaney • August 16, 2025

Dear Friends, All of us at the Guild were saddened to learn of the death of Monica Ribar Cornell , founding member of and advisor to the Dorothy Day Guild, on Friday, August 8th.

Summer News and Updates from the Guild!

By Casey Mullaney • August 5, 2025

Dear members and friends of the Dorothy Day Guild, We hope this missive finds you well! The heat has finally broken in South Bend, and all of us at the Worker are grateful for the relief as we’ve passed the mid-point of the summer season. For many of us in the Midwest and the Northeast, this time of year is marked by transitions and heightened activity as we begin to bring in stone fruit and tomatoes from our gardens or look towards the start of a new school year. With that in mind, we have a lot of great things to share with you this month, including new resources, song lyrics, events, and two peace and justice action items! Dorothy on the Small Screen: Friday, August 1st marked the third anniversary of the death of Tom Cornell , former editor of the The Catholic Worker, founding member of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and close personal friend of Dorothy. Tom met his wife Monica (pictured here at their wedding, where Dorothy was among the guests!) at the Worker in New York in the 1950s; the Cornells passed on their vocation of hospitality and Gospel nonviolence to their children, Tommy and Deirdre, and to the hundreds of others they welcomed into their homes and lives over the course of nearly sixty years of marriage.

"The Best Revolutionary Technique:" Dorothy on the Works of Mercy, the Mystical Body of Christ, and more

By Casey Mullaney • July 8, 2025

Dear members and friends of the Dorothy Day Guild, Greetings on what for many of us in North America is already shaping up to be another hot, sticky summer day! We hope that those of you in hot climates are staying cool and are finding creative ways to support those in your towns and cities who are unsheltered from the elements. Emma, a member of our Catholic Worker community in South Bend, washes out empty milk jugs, fills them halfway with clean water, and freezes them overnight. In the morning, she fills them the rest of the way and hands them out to guests at our drop-in center to help them stay cool and hydrated throughout the afternoon. If you regularly walk or drive past homeless community members on your commute, we encourage you to pack an extra sealed bottle of water to give away on days like this. Here in the United States, we just celebrated the Fourth of July, a holiday which admittedly doesn’t mean very much to many of those who admire Dorothy and seek to follow Christ as she did. Dorothy practiced a very different kind of revolution than the kind which is celebrated by military parades and fireworks displays. In 1940, she wrote , “we consider the spiritual and corporal Works of Mercy and the following of Christ to be the best revolutionary technique and a means of changing the social order rather than perpetuating it. Did not the thousands of monasteries, with their hospitality change the entire social pattern of their day?” To all those who undertake the responsibility of sheltering the homeless, giving drink to the thirsty, and all works of mercy in the heat, thank you for these revolutionary acts! Summer events: Our Guild’s online and in-person summer programming is in full swing as of this week! As a reminder, we are running TWO book clubs this summer, one in English and one in Spanish. Our English-language club is reading The Long Loneliness and has already had two meetings, but it’s not too late to sign up!