Day 6, Peacemaking

December 5, 2022

The witness of Dorothy Day was in truth a light shining in the darkness to counteract the unthinking nationalism and militarism to which the U.S. Church all too often acquiesced. Dorothy’s nonviolent and pacifist positions were gospel-based and also drew on neglected  Church teaching.


“As Pope John [XXIII] told the pilgrimage of women, Mothers for Peace, the seventy-five of us who went over to Rome to thank him for his encyclical Pacem in Terris, just the month before his death, ‘the beginnings of peace are in your own hearts, in your own families, schoolrooms, offices, parishes, and neighborhoods.’ It is working from the ground up, from the poverty of the stable, in work as at Nazareth, and also in going from town to town, as in the public life of Jesus two thousand years ago. And since a thousand years are as one day, and Christianity is but two days old, let us take heart and start now.” –Dorothy Day, “On Pilgrimage,” The Catholic Worker, December 1968.

Servant of God Dorothy Day, intercede for us; pray that we grow in courage and faith to follow our own path to holiness.


As we pray for peace and peacemakers, let us take to heart the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Let us pray that we, like Dorothy Day, recognize in our calling as Christians the call to be peacemakers in our most basic interactions with others and in our national and international relations.

Share this post

Peace, Art, and Philosophy of Work: September with the Dorothy Day Guild

By Casey Mullaney • September 19, 2025
Dear members of the Dorothy Day Guild, Hello! We hope that as always, this missive finds each of you well in these final days of summer. After a slightly slower-paced August, the Guild is now gearing up for an exciting autumn season as we approach the 45th anniversary of Dorothy’s death this November 29th, the day that we hope will very soon be celebrated as her feast day.

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.
More Posts