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The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day, brilliant convert to Catholicism, remains one of the most influential female religious activists of the 20th Century. This, her life story, illustrates in an engaging way the struggles she undertook, especially her imprisonments, and her steadfast faith in God to overcome them.
278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1952
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About the author
Dorothy Day
70 books258 followersDorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic Christian without in any way abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known political radical in the American Catholic Church. In the 1930s, Day worked closely with fellow activist Peter Maurin to establish the Catholic Worker movement, a nonviolent, pacifist movement that continues to combine direct aid for the poor and homeless with nonviolent direct action on their behalf.
A revered figure within the U.S. Catholic community, Day's cause for canonization was recently open by the Catholic Church.
A revered figure within the U.S. Catholic community, Day's cause for canonization was recently open by the Catholic Church.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 582 reviews
May 29, 2008
In many ways this is a difficult book - Dorothy was nothing if not difficult. Her reduction of Christianity to a lived pattern of daily actions (pray, feed the hungry, clothe the naked) leaves not much room for those things most of us view as essential (no matter how much she listened to the opera on the radio, or read Dostoevsky). It's a hard knock life.
But, oh, the joy that came like an oil strike from those years of intensity!
I was in New York City the night she died, riding a cab uptown, spending money as one must to survive as a tourist. It was cold and wet, and the Christmas lights were shining brilliantly on the pavement. Something felt weirdly absent from the earth.
But, oh, the joy that came like an oil strike from those years of intensity!
I was in New York City the night she died, riding a cab uptown, spending money as one must to survive as a tourist. It was cold and wet, and the Christmas lights were shining brilliantly on the pavement. Something felt weirdly absent from the earth.
December 5, 2014
The Long Loneliness tells the life story of Catholic social activist Dorothy Day. It was required reading for our Spiritual Classics class. At the time, it seemed an unusual choice to me being too modern to yet be considered a ‘classic’. Viewed from the wider perspective, I believe Sr. Jan wanted us to see/learn the importance of active faith or faith-in-action as lived by this remarkable woman. Dorothy Day's life was a constant series of choices for God, not so much between good and evil but between ‘the good’ and ‘the better’, something not so easily or readily discernible even where and when it is recognized.
February 5, 2013
An extraordinary life of an irreplaceable woman caught up in the radical ways of Christ.
December 28, 2014
Dorothy Day spent almost half her lifetime waiting for her call, her spiritual call. But when it came it was not a religious call. It was not the act of having her daughter baptized a Catholic, though that single act cost her a common law husband. It was not the systematic instruction in Catholicism. It was not having herself baptized nor was it her first communion in the Catholic Church. In fact three years after these last of these events, she was still looking for a direction in her life.
But when it came it was not a call to ritual, it was not a call to communion, it was a call to service, and it came in the form of a visit from one Peter Maurin, a Frenchman, a revolutionary, a proselytizer, a Catholic, who was referred to her by one of her publishers. What Peter brought to her, rather what he insisted she undertake, was to put her faith into action in serving the poor.
The program he preached to her and which got implemented in stages over the next many years was a newspaper, a daily, the Catholic Worker; hospitality houses in the big cities to help the working poor; and rural farming communes.
All of these did happen but in her autobiography Dorothy Day does not claim credit for them, rather she says they just happened as various of them were sitting around and talking:
The Long Loneliness
Along the way on this journey and throughout it, though she was usually surrounded by people, Dorothy Day felt regularly The Long Loneliness, which she describes, in her view as unique to women:
Ultimately, what she discovered and shares with others who might feel the same is:
Dorothy Day's message in her autobiography, in her life, is that women in general, and her specifically, are subject to a deep and long loneliness from the repeated losses of life, and that the only resolution for this long loneliness is to be found in the sacrifice of service to others and in a community doing so. That she did in The Catholic Worker Movement.
My Evaluation
As I have said elsewhere about spiritual quest stories
Dorothy Day's is no exception. I found a good part of her autobiography tedious, sometimes simply daily listings of people and events, not so much as to offer insight as seemingly to name and document. But once she met Peter Maurin this story and her life took off. So if you begin this book hang in there through the early tedium, the latter third of the book is worth your patience.
As a mater of fact, while I was reading the book and got to her meeting with Perer Maurin, what I wrote was:
Well, finally, on page 166, with just a hundred pages to go in the book, the real story, The Catholic Worker story, begins with Dorothy Day's first meeting with Peter Maurin.
She had just returned from covering a workers' protest in Washington, DC, was tired, walked into her apartment in New York to be met by one Peter Maruin, referred to her by one of her publishers. She asserted,
Indeed!
But when it came it was not a call to ritual, it was not a call to communion, it was a call to service, and it came in the form of a visit from one Peter Maurin, a Frenchman, a revolutionary, a proselytizer, a Catholic, who was referred to her by one of her publishers. What Peter brought to her, rather what he insisted she undertake, was to put her faith into action in serving the poor.
The program he preached to her and which got implemented in stages over the next many years was a newspaper, a daily, the Catholic Worker; hospitality houses in the big cities to help the working poor; and rural farming communes.
All of these did happen but in her autobiography Dorothy Day does not claim credit for them, rather she says they just happened as various of them were sitting around and talking:
We were just sitting there talking when Peter Maurin came in.
We were just sitting there talking when lines of people began to form saying, "We need bread."....If there were six small loaves and a few fishes, we had to divide them. There was always bread.
We were just sitting there talking and people moved in on us. Let those who can take it, take it. Some moved out and that made room for more. And somehow the walls were expanded.
We were just sitting there talking and someone said, "Let's all go live on a farm."
It was as casual as all that, I often think. It just came about. It just happened.
The Long Loneliness
Along the way on this journey and throughout it, though she was usually surrounded by people, Dorothy Day felt regularly The Long Loneliness, which she describes, in her view as unique to women:
I was lonely, deadly lonely. And I was to find out then, as I found out so many times, over and over again, that women especially are social beings, who are not content with just husband and family, but must have a community, a group, an exchange with others. Young and old, even in the busiest years of our lives, we women especially are victims of the long loneliness.
It was years before I woke up without that longing for a face pressed against my breast, an arm about my shoulder. The sense of loss was there.
I never was so unhappy, never felt so great the sense of loneliness. No matter how many times I gave up mother, father, husband, brother, daughter, for His sake, I had to do it over again.
Tamar [her daughter] is partly responsible for the title of this book in that when I was beginning it she was writing me about how alone a mother of young children always is. I had also just heard from an old woman who lived a long and full life, and she too spoke of her loneliness.
Ultimately, what she discovered and shares with others who might feel the same is:
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
Dorothy Day's message in her autobiography, in her life, is that women in general, and her specifically, are subject to a deep and long loneliness from the repeated losses of life, and that the only resolution for this long loneliness is to be found in the sacrifice of service to others and in a community doing so. That she did in The Catholic Worker Movement.
My Evaluation
As I have said elsewhere about spiritual quest stories
At the risk of sounding cynical, after reading The Seven Storey Mountain and The Long Loneliness, two of the more important autobiographical spiritual quest stories of the mid-twentieth century I am left asking myself whether there is anything new to be learned about the spiritual quest after you have read Augustine?
Dorothy Day's is no exception. I found a good part of her autobiography tedious, sometimes simply daily listings of people and events, not so much as to offer insight as seemingly to name and document. But once she met Peter Maurin this story and her life took off. So if you begin this book hang in there through the early tedium, the latter third of the book is worth your patience.
As a mater of fact, while I was reading the book and got to her meeting with Perer Maurin, what I wrote was:
Well, finally, on page 166, with just a hundred pages to go in the book, the real story, The Catholic Worker story, begins with Dorothy Day's first meeting with Peter Maurin.
She had just returned from covering a workers' protest in Washington, DC, was tired, walked into her apartment in New York to be met by one Peter Maruin, referred to her by one of her publishers. She asserted,
Peter the French peasant, whose spirit and ideas will dominate the rest of this book as they will dominate the rest of my life.
Indeed!
April 3, 2025
want to have a daughter and name her Dot but Will said no
January 5, 2021
Beautiful book that wades through Day's journeys in left-wing journalism and her long transition into a Catholic radical. Told in a way that emphasizes personal experience and presents arguments more in how they jive with her intuitions and moral outlook rather than dry political debates. The most interesting part was her ruthless self-criticism, though, where she always questions her own motives and pushes herself to go further down the road of the Gospels.
March 25, 2024
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, as Dave Eggers would say 😜 But for real, Dorothy Day's story made me cry. It was riveting, watching her journey to Christ and her development away from the communism of her youth toward communal living on small farms. Her lifestyle and those associated with her were characterized by poverty, but also compassion and love. She truly showed that the heart of Christ is with the suffering and poor. I have so many quotes, it's ridiculous!
May 25, 2015
This book is autobiography, but focusses on the author's conversion to the Catholic faith. A very significant conversion it was because it led to the creation of the Catholic Worker movement. From her youth Dorothy Day felt empathy for the poor. She wanted to work for social justice when she joined the Socialists and the Wobblies, but was unsatisfied with idealogies that denied God. So she explored Christianity and in time followed the Christian gospels—and her own instincts—into the realms of pacifism, direct service to the poor, and what she called voluntary poverty. Her meeting with Peter Maurin in 1932 provided the catalyst for the creation of the Catholic Worker newspaper, which begot the movement. Readers of this book will see the pieces coming together, falling into place, that made the movement possible, maybe even inevitable. Because to this day the Catholic Worker has its roots in her interpretation of the Christian gospels.
She wrote in her diary that in this book she “tried to write only of those things which brought about my conversion to the faith.” So this is not a comprehensive biography, and it ends in 1952. "We did not search for God when we were children," she writes. At university she saw religion as "an opiate of the people and not a very attractive one." But by page 132 she writes, "I was surprised that I found myself beginning to pray daily." Then, "I began to go to Mass regularly on Sunday mornings." This book is about her gradual transformation from unchurched Bohemian to candidate for sainthood, how it happened and what she thought about it. The book is in three sections: pre-conversion, conversion, and post-conversion. Section three discusses Peter Maurin and the early history of the Catholic Worker community.
Her writing style is much like her life was, down-to-earth, simple, personal. But what food for thought! About spirituality and religion, practical philosophy, social justice, war and peace, family life and community. And history, of course, as she experienced it--and made it. Hers was a very eventful life in the front lines of the struggles for peace and social justice, which makes for a riveting read.
She wrote in her diary that in this book she “tried to write only of those things which brought about my conversion to the faith.” So this is not a comprehensive biography, and it ends in 1952. "We did not search for God when we were children," she writes. At university she saw religion as "an opiate of the people and not a very attractive one." But by page 132 she writes, "I was surprised that I found myself beginning to pray daily." Then, "I began to go to Mass regularly on Sunday mornings." This book is about her gradual transformation from unchurched Bohemian to candidate for sainthood, how it happened and what she thought about it. The book is in three sections: pre-conversion, conversion, and post-conversion. Section three discusses Peter Maurin and the early history of the Catholic Worker community.
Her writing style is much like her life was, down-to-earth, simple, personal. But what food for thought! About spirituality and religion, practical philosophy, social justice, war and peace, family life and community. And history, of course, as she experienced it--and made it. Hers was a very eventful life in the front lines of the struggles for peace and social justice, which makes for a riveting read.
May 10, 2016
I find myself relating a lot to Dorothy and appreciate her writing style. Her work she has done is inspiring and learning about her life helped contextualize her desires to help the poor and defend the rights of workers. Unfortunately she spends a lot of time "name-dropping" which disrupts the flow of the narrative. Though some parts were personal, much of it was about describing those she worked with. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I don't regret reading it.
April 30, 2025
Dorothy Day is a legend. Her "synthesis" of traditional Catholic theology and radical social engagement is the most inspiring thing about her story for me.
October 16, 2025
Likely the best depiction of Christology I have ever read- through the story of a woman who knew that Jesus would be found only among service to the poor. I want to be like her in every way I can, because she lives like Christ.
“I think, dear child, the trouble and long loneliness you hear me speak of is not far from me, which whensoever it is, happy success will follow… the pain is great, but very endurable, because He who lays on the burden also carries it” (1).
“I’d like people to say that ‘she really did love those books!’ You know, I’m always telling people to read Dickens or Tolstoy or Dostoevsky… though I’m not a great one for analyzing these novels; I want to live by them! That’s the meaning of my life— to live up to the moral vision of the Church, and of some of my favorite writers” (4).
“We felt a respect for the poor and destitute as those nearest to God, as those chosen by Christ for His compassion. Christ lived among men. The great mystery of the Incarnation, which meant that God became man that man might become God” (204).
“The Church is the Cross on which Christ was crucified, and who can separate Christ from His Cross” (218).
“The final word is love. At times it has been, in the words of Father Zossima, a harsh and dreadful thing, and our very faith in love has been tried through fire. We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread” (285).
Her story has joined many others, that accompany me in my own long lonely obedience. Praise God!
“I think, dear child, the trouble and long loneliness you hear me speak of is not far from me, which whensoever it is, happy success will follow… the pain is great, but very endurable, because He who lays on the burden also carries it” (1).
“I’d like people to say that ‘she really did love those books!’ You know, I’m always telling people to read Dickens or Tolstoy or Dostoevsky… though I’m not a great one for analyzing these novels; I want to live by them! That’s the meaning of my life— to live up to the moral vision of the Church, and of some of my favorite writers” (4).
“We felt a respect for the poor and destitute as those nearest to God, as those chosen by Christ for His compassion. Christ lived among men. The great mystery of the Incarnation, which meant that God became man that man might become God” (204).
“The Church is the Cross on which Christ was crucified, and who can separate Christ from His Cross” (218).
“The final word is love. At times it has been, in the words of Father Zossima, a harsh and dreadful thing, and our very faith in love has been tried through fire. We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread” (285).
Her story has joined many others, that accompany me in my own long lonely obedience. Praise God!
February 15, 2022
“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
Having been fascinated by Dorothy Day since I started teaching religion almost 20 years ago, I figured it would be a great time to finally read her autobiography! It really was a wonderful insight into her inner life, her feelings, and her tenacity. I don’t think she would have had much time for me though; my zeal for social justice and charity pale when compared to hers. Granted, her early adulthood in the 1920s and 1930s was the “golden age” of social justice in American Catholicism with so many different political ideologies and causes vying for attention. Dorothy Day’s commitment to “walking the walk” of poverty and humility remains unmatched and her efforts and sacrifices can be felt by every worker in America today. She remains one of my favorite heroines.
Having been fascinated by Dorothy Day since I started teaching religion almost 20 years ago, I figured it would be a great time to finally read her autobiography! It really was a wonderful insight into her inner life, her feelings, and her tenacity. I don’t think she would have had much time for me though; my zeal for social justice and charity pale when compared to hers. Granted, her early adulthood in the 1920s and 1930s was the “golden age” of social justice in American Catholicism with so many different political ideologies and causes vying for attention. Dorothy Day’s commitment to “walking the walk” of poverty and humility remains unmatched and her efforts and sacrifices can be felt by every worker in America today. She remains one of my favorite heroines.
September 4, 2007
Dorothy Day is very inspiring to me. She founded the Catholic Worker. First it was a publication talking about the issues of the time (the 30's, 40's ?) and then they created Hospitality Houses to serve and house the homeless. She took the teachings of Jesus to heart, and practiced them in a very real way, and even defied the Catholic Church from time to time in her radical criticisms of society and capitalism, and the way the Catholic Church often skirted social justice issues. Other churches gave charity, she wanted to give charity AND attack the issues that were leading to the need for charity.
March 4, 2023
“We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.”
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.”
August 18, 2021
Favorite book I have ever read. Now to read the biography of her written by her granddaughter, and then read this book a few more times to soak up the wisdom, inspiration, love, and so much more.
Read
July 23, 2013Dorothy Day's memoir is very beautiful and moving, but also challenging. Beautiful and moving because Day is such a lovable, good person, who truly tried to live the Gospel. But challenging because Day was an anarchist-distributist, committed to an egalitarian-emancipatory idea of justice, and a pacifist; while I am an authoritarian-corporatist, committed to an hierarchical-aristocratic view of justice, and an account of the transcendence of the common good that justifies war under certain conditions. What makes Dorothy Day's positions so challenging is that they are so clearly rooted in her own experience concrete experience of poverty and injustice, and of the power of the Gospel. My own thinking on political and economic matters is very abstract and based mostly on book-learning.
The notional and abstract must of course always be rooted in the real and concrete; the danger of unmooring it and creating a "system" independent of reality is grave. But on the other hand, the notional also makes more precise and distinct what is known confusedly in concretion.
Some persons think that Dorothy Day was "too radical"-- by which they seem to mean that she was too condemning of industrial capitalism-- by my difficulty with her is virtually the opposite--that she was not radical enough. I think her condemnation of the evils of capitalism was spot on, but that her conception of the alternative was too much of a piece with the whole ideological structure of modernity that helped bring capitalism about.
One of the most magnificent things about Day is deeply felt sense of solidarity. She writes of her thoughts as she lay in a prison cell long before her conversion:
"I was the mother whose child had been raped and slain. I was the mother who had born the monster who had done it. I was even that monster, feeling in my own breast every abomination." (p.70)
It was this sense of solidarity that lead her eventually into the Church:
"It was the Irish of New England, the Italians, the Hungarians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, it was the great mass of the poor, the workers who were the Catholics in this country, and this fact in itself drew me to the church."
It was this deep felt sense of solidarity that made the made Day so sympathetic to the egalitarian ideology of the left. Unfortunately this colors even her reading of scripture. She loves to say "call no man master, for ye are all brothers," but unfortunately the only way of realizing this that she can she is through liberty and equality and anarchy. My difficulty with this is that there are a great many other passages of scripture which show that solidarity is based in the participation in the great common good of peace, and this presupposes distinction of rank.
On her Catholic Worker farming communes Day tried to realize her conception of anarchical fraternity, this caused some rather predictable problems:
"William Gauchat who headed the house of hospitality, furnished an apartment for single women in need, and a married couple arriving first, were sheltered there. But when Bill wanted to put a few single women into the empty bedrooms, the couple announced that they had possession and refused to allow them entrance. Our guests know that we will not call upon the police to evict them, that we are trying to follow the dear Lord's teach- ings, “If anyone take your coat, let go your cloak also to him. . . . Give to him that asks of you and from him that would borrow, turn not away. You have heard that it has been said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the children of your father who is in heaven who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad and rains upon the just and the unjust.” When another family came to Maryfarm, we explained that we were trying to open a retreat house and that we did not have room for them. It was the family of one of our own willful leaders who “loved God and did as he pleased.” He did not wish to remain on a farm belonging to his father, where he was forced to work too hard. He and his wife refused to listen and unpacked their things to stay with us. First they took over the lower farmhouse. After a few conflicts due to their possessing themselves of retreat house goods (as common goods) they moved to the upper farm to join Victor. For the following year they continued their guerrilla tactics from the upper farm, coming down to make raids on the retreat house food and furnishings, explaining to retreatants that they were true Catholic Workers and that the retreat house was a perversion of the movement." (261-262)
It is not hard to guess what St Paul would have have to say about that. "Non est dissensionis Deus, sed pacis." It is hard to square St Paul with egalitarian anarchism:
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men... (Eph 6:5-7)
It seems to me that the problem here is that Day's thinking was too concrete: she considered merely the evil and unjust form of servitude that she found in the economic system of her time and did not consider its essence in abstraction.
The same I think can be said of her pacifism. One can apply to her what Belloc (one of her favorite authors) says of his own pacifist friends:
"[When] a man says that war is wrong, he is saying something which, as it stands, is manifestly nonesense. But if we expand the phrase it has full and definite meaning. He means "for one organised community to attempt destruction and physical pain upon the organization of another such community with the object of gain or increase of power is wrong." And so it undoubtedly is." (The Cruise of the Nona, p. 110)
The notional and abstract must of course always be rooted in the real and concrete; the danger of unmooring it and creating a "system" independent of reality is grave. But on the other hand, the notional also makes more precise and distinct what is known confusedly in concretion.
Some persons think that Dorothy Day was "too radical"-- by which they seem to mean that she was too condemning of industrial capitalism-- by my difficulty with her is virtually the opposite--that she was not radical enough. I think her condemnation of the evils of capitalism was spot on, but that her conception of the alternative was too much of a piece with the whole ideological structure of modernity that helped bring capitalism about.
One of the most magnificent things about Day is deeply felt sense of solidarity. She writes of her thoughts as she lay in a prison cell long before her conversion:
"I was the mother whose child had been raped and slain. I was the mother who had born the monster who had done it. I was even that monster, feeling in my own breast every abomination." (p.70)
It was this sense of solidarity that lead her eventually into the Church:
"It was the Irish of New England, the Italians, the Hungarians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, it was the great mass of the poor, the workers who were the Catholics in this country, and this fact in itself drew me to the church."
It was this deep felt sense of solidarity that made the made Day so sympathetic to the egalitarian ideology of the left. Unfortunately this colors even her reading of scripture. She loves to say "call no man master, for ye are all brothers," but unfortunately the only way of realizing this that she can she is through liberty and equality and anarchy. My difficulty with this is that there are a great many other passages of scripture which show that solidarity is based in the participation in the great common good of peace, and this presupposes distinction of rank.
On her Catholic Worker farming communes Day tried to realize her conception of anarchical fraternity, this caused some rather predictable problems:
"William Gauchat who headed the house of hospitality, furnished an apartment for single women in need, and a married couple arriving first, were sheltered there. But when Bill wanted to put a few single women into the empty bedrooms, the couple announced that they had possession and refused to allow them entrance. Our guests know that we will not call upon the police to evict them, that we are trying to follow the dear Lord's teach- ings, “If anyone take your coat, let go your cloak also to him. . . . Give to him that asks of you and from him that would borrow, turn not away. You have heard that it has been said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the children of your father who is in heaven who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad and rains upon the just and the unjust.” When another family came to Maryfarm, we explained that we were trying to open a retreat house and that we did not have room for them. It was the family of one of our own willful leaders who “loved God and did as he pleased.” He did not wish to remain on a farm belonging to his father, where he was forced to work too hard. He and his wife refused to listen and unpacked their things to stay with us. First they took over the lower farmhouse. After a few conflicts due to their possessing themselves of retreat house goods (as common goods) they moved to the upper farm to join Victor. For the following year they continued their guerrilla tactics from the upper farm, coming down to make raids on the retreat house food and furnishings, explaining to retreatants that they were true Catholic Workers and that the retreat house was a perversion of the movement." (261-262)
It is not hard to guess what St Paul would have have to say about that. "Non est dissensionis Deus, sed pacis." It is hard to square St Paul with egalitarian anarchism:
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men... (Eph 6:5-7)
It seems to me that the problem here is that Day's thinking was too concrete: she considered merely the evil and unjust form of servitude that she found in the economic system of her time and did not consider its essence in abstraction.
The same I think can be said of her pacifism. One can apply to her what Belloc (one of her favorite authors) says of his own pacifist friends:
"[When] a man says that war is wrong, he is saying something which, as it stands, is manifestly nonesense. But if we expand the phrase it has full and definite meaning. He means "for one organised community to attempt destruction and physical pain upon the organization of another such community with the object of gain or increase of power is wrong." And so it undoubtedly is." (The Cruise of the Nona, p. 110)
May 14, 2024
wow. Here’s to the infinite co-creative power of people, of community. Here’s to finding Christ in our neighbor, in believing even when we can’t see. Here’s to the gift of love, the duty of delight, and the banquet of life. I mean wow, Dorothy Day just gets it. 🥂🤧
April 7, 2022
A Longa solidão é a 2a autobiografia de Dorothy Day, uma mulher extraordinária e única, com um percurso de vida aberto a toda a transformação e a toda a possibilidade, até à conversão e a tudo o que construiu a partir daí. Foi tantas coisas que poderiam ser opostas e contraditórias e que, porém, foram sendo o encadeamento natural e muito consciente de uma vida em andamento que quer mais do que apenas a súmula dos dias.
Dorothy Day é uma descoberta inspiradora nestes dias em que se vive ao sabor da corrente, sem se pensar, sequer, se a corrente segue um rumo bom.
Dorothy Day é uma descoberta inspiradora nestes dias em que se vive ao sabor da corrente, sem se pensar, sequer, se a corrente segue um rumo bom.
March 30, 2012
“The Long Loneliness” was sure a “long read”. Dorothy Day is definitely a ‘modern’ day saint but her autobiography left me feeling the Lenten dryness. The parts where she does discuss her childhood, her spiritual journey, and aspects of the Catholic Worker and charity programs she founded were very insightful. Many things she said was like she was my reading my secret thoughts. However, she brings out what we all think, experience, and long for as human beings. We are definitely created to adore God and there is a long loneliness when we are separated from Him, though she describes the Long Loneliness in a different light. We are constantly longing for God and at times to ultimately Love Him means we must make sacrifices. For her it was the sacrifice of no longer having her common law husband, creature comforts, amongst other sacrifices she embraced.
The problem with her writing is the fact it rambles and is very dry. When she does start discussing her personal life and her spiritual journey, it is enlightening. Unfortunately she abruptly starts changing paths in her story and refer back in time, or fast forwards, and speaks about people she had encountered, or she goes on and on about all these philosophers and social justice radical/communism/anarchist authours she devoured since she was a youth. There are pages literally she talks about these writers. Understanding, yes she had to speak about these writers to let the audience know where her mindset and influences stem from; however, she keeps doing this repeatedly throughout the books and she says the same things over and over when referring to them.
My advice? I would not read this novel if you have no clue who is Dorothy Day. You will not make it past the third chapter and you will miss out a lot of her Dorothy Day’s beautiful story and spiritual life. Pop some popcorn and rent the movie, or browse online for overview of Dorothy Day. This book was a ‘long read’ and I had to laugh as I approach the last part of the book and her first confessor and dearest priest friend told Dorothy that her writing was dull and had no style. Dorothy was a wonderful woman and I have no doubt she is in heaven. Yet, I can tell she was a journalist not a novelist.
The problem with her writing is the fact it rambles and is very dry. When she does start discussing her personal life and her spiritual journey, it is enlightening. Unfortunately she abruptly starts changing paths in her story and refer back in time, or fast forwards, and speaks about people she had encountered, or she goes on and on about all these philosophers and social justice radical/communism/anarchist authours she devoured since she was a youth. There are pages literally she talks about these writers. Understanding, yes she had to speak about these writers to let the audience know where her mindset and influences stem from; however, she keeps doing this repeatedly throughout the books and she says the same things over and over when referring to them.
My advice? I would not read this novel if you have no clue who is Dorothy Day. You will not make it past the third chapter and you will miss out a lot of her Dorothy Day’s beautiful story and spiritual life. Pop some popcorn and rent the movie, or browse online for overview of Dorothy Day. This book was a ‘long read’ and I had to laugh as I approach the last part of the book and her first confessor and dearest priest friend told Dorothy that her writing was dull and had no style. Dorothy was a wonderful woman and I have no doubt she is in heaven. Yet, I can tell she was a journalist not a novelist.
May 28, 2018
I felt about this very much as I felt about St. Therese of Lisieux's Story of a Soul — I liked half of it a lot. In Therese's case I liked the last half, in Dorothy Day's case I liked the first half. It told a lot about her life and the conditions of the time in which she grew up, which were really interesting and put her into a lot of context. She seems to have had an inborn desire to seek God, which I relate to, which she couldn't escape no matter what her living conditions. In the last half she spent a lot of time on personalities's stories which I didn't care about which accounts for my disinterest in that section. I much prefer On Pilgrimage for a look at daily life with Dorothy Day, especially since it is a journal account going over about a year.
However, it was definitely worth reading once and I'm glad I did.
However, it was definitely worth reading once and I'm glad I did.
February 23, 2018
In some ways this book is dated but the story of Dorothy Day is important for anyone who is interested in peace and justice. The movement she started, the Catholic Worker, was extraordinary. Highly recommend.
Read
March 6, 20244 stars for enjoyment
I read this for a Lent Readalong that I don't normally participate in, in the traditional sense, as I do reflect on Jesus's ministry and His walk to the cross before Easter but don't do traditional Lent activities or celebrations as many other denominations may do.
Dorothy led a very interesting life before and even after her conversion to catholicism. I admit I'm not that familiar with many parts of catholicism as I'm a non-denominational Christian, but I liked reading about how she came to Christ and catholicism, and thought the things she accomplished were done with great heart on her part. I can't say I completely agree with everything she believed in as right, but she was definitely a lovely woman. This is definitely a life memoir and not just a salvation testimony about her conversion, if that is what anyone thinks going into this. If you are interested in the life and work of Dorothy, from her own words, then definitely check this out.
I read this for a Lent Readalong that I don't normally participate in, in the traditional sense, as I do reflect on Jesus's ministry and His walk to the cross before Easter but don't do traditional Lent activities or celebrations as many other denominations may do.
Dorothy led a very interesting life before and even after her conversion to catholicism. I admit I'm not that familiar with many parts of catholicism as I'm a non-denominational Christian, but I liked reading about how she came to Christ and catholicism, and thought the things she accomplished were done with great heart on her part. I can't say I completely agree with everything she believed in as right, but she was definitely a lovely woman. This is definitely a life memoir and not just a salvation testimony about her conversion, if that is what anyone thinks going into this. If you are interested in the life and work of Dorothy, from her own words, then definitely check this out.
October 9, 2021
I don't know much about Dorothy Day and I admit that might have colored my interaction with this memoir. My interest waned once her conversion occurred. But I still found this a powerful, interesting look at how one woman's zealous faith in childhood turned to socialism in college and eventually Catholicism in later life.
My overall biggest takeaway was that the perceived radicalism of my own college days was nothing new. The hippie movement of the 60s was nothing new. This book, originally published in the 1950s, feels so strikingly familiar at times you would almost think it written by a Millennial. But instead it tells a familiar story of longing for independence and social change.
I might not agree with all (or even most) of her takeaways, but still well-worth reading.
My overall biggest takeaway was that the perceived radicalism of my own college days was nothing new. The hippie movement of the 60s was nothing new. This book, originally published in the 1950s, feels so strikingly familiar at times you would almost think it written by a Millennial. But instead it tells a familiar story of longing for independence and social change.
I might not agree with all (or even most) of her takeaways, but still well-worth reading.
December 17, 2025
Such an incredible book and legacy to learn from. It was a bit slow in in the middle, but completely worth reading. Learning about Dorothy Day’s own sacrifices and losses (her Long Loneliness) as she served God was powerful, as were the behind the scenes pictures of the messiness and beauty of the Catholic Worker Movement. Anyone who cares about justice work would benefit from reading this.
June 30, 2023
What can be said about Dorothy Day? The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist resonated with me on so many levels. On the most fundamental level, this book is a profound testimony to the goodness of God and his world, the dignity of human beings, and the sacredness of their work. I was struck by her conversion, how the goodness of God she experienced on her walks through Staten Island led her to faith. She couldn't find the power within her to pray otherwise, but when she walked and saw God's goodness, it came naturally to her.
I found myself challenged by her faith and actions. She took her commitments to their end, striving in every capacity to live by Gospel principles. I found myself questioning my own notions of society and the role of the state. As an avowed anarchist, while DD believed in social protections for workers and the vulnerable, she also believed it was not the state's role to compel people. Rather, as Peter Maurin put it, "We need to make the kind of society where it easier for people to be good." Voluntary self-sacrifice, voluntary community, each contributing their own labor for the good of the others.
A life well-lived.
I found myself challenged by her faith and actions. She took her commitments to their end, striving in every capacity to live by Gospel principles. I found myself questioning my own notions of society and the role of the state. As an avowed anarchist, while DD believed in social protections for workers and the vulnerable, she also believed it was not the state's role to compel people. Rather, as Peter Maurin put it, "We need to make the kind of society where it easier for people to be good." Voluntary self-sacrifice, voluntary community, each contributing their own labor for the good of the others.
A life well-lived.
June 30, 2023
Excellent read! You learn so much not only about Dorthy’s own life but others in her life, about politics, religion, history, social justice, philosophy, spirituality, injustice, poverty, history, theology, church history, and Catholic social teaching.
Here are some of my favorite passages:
St. Francis de Sale scattered leaflets like any radical. St. John of God sold newspapers on the streets. ( p.g 173)
The colored take care of the white children, the white the colored, while parents parents hunt for homes and jobs. Such an extreme of destitution makes all men brothers
( p.g 215)
It has been said that it was the Catholic Worker and it’s stories on poverty and exploitation that aroused the priests to start labor schools, go out on picket lines, take sides in strikes with the worker, and that brought an emphasis on the need to study sociology in seminaries. ( p.g 221)
Body and soul constitutes human nature. The body is is no less good than the soul. In mortifying the natural we must not injure the body or the soul. We are not the destroy but transform it, as an iron is transformed in the fire. ( p.g 257)
Being a mother is a fulfillment, it is a surrender to others, it is Love and therefore of course it is suffering. He hath made ‘ a barren women dwell in a house: the joyful mother of children. ‘ ( p.g 236 )
Here are some of my favorite passages:
St. Francis de Sale scattered leaflets like any radical. St. John of God sold newspapers on the streets. ( p.g 173)
The colored take care of the white children, the white the colored, while parents parents hunt for homes and jobs. Such an extreme of destitution makes all men brothers
( p.g 215)
It has been said that it was the Catholic Worker and it’s stories on poverty and exploitation that aroused the priests to start labor schools, go out on picket lines, take sides in strikes with the worker, and that brought an emphasis on the need to study sociology in seminaries. ( p.g 221)
Body and soul constitutes human nature. The body is is no less good than the soul. In mortifying the natural we must not injure the body or the soul. We are not the destroy but transform it, as an iron is transformed in the fire. ( p.g 257)
Being a mother is a fulfillment, it is a surrender to others, it is Love and therefore of course it is suffering. He hath made ‘ a barren women dwell in a house: the joyful mother of children. ‘ ( p.g 236 )
November 1, 2017
Summary: A memoir of the life of Dorothy Day up to 1952, describing her search for God and a meaningful life, her conversion to Catholicism, her catalytic friendship with Peter Maurin, and the early years of the Catholic Worker movement.
This is the memoir of a woman who grew up in a middle class family, the daughter of a sports writer, a teen who read Upton Sinclair and Doestoevsky, spent two years at the University of Illinois, then left to pursue life as a writer on the lower east side of Manhatten, working for several Socialist publications, getting arrested for the first time in 1917 (her last was as a 75 year old!). She went through several love affairs with the likes of Eugene O’Neill and Mike Gold. Along the way, she had an abortion, and lived what one would call a very “bohemian” lifestyle. An unlikely candidate for sainthood, you might say, and yet the Archdiocese of New York has opened the cause for her canonization, allowing her to be designated “A Servant of God.”
The memoir covers her early life and all these episodes although it devotes very little time to the period she spent in Europe. What we see is a woman haunted by a longing for God, struggling with “the long loneliness” of human existence, the sense of being alienated or apart from even those closest in life. She appears to find a happy existence in a Staten Island home she bought with proceeds from selling a screen play. She is in a kind of “common law” relationship with Forster Batterham, socially conscious but a principled atheist. They seem to enjoy an idyllic life until the birth of daughter Tamar, which intensifies Dorothy’s spiritual search as she reads Catholic literature and talks with several Catholic sisters and priests. First she brings Tamar to be baptized, and then at the end of 1927, enters the Catholic Church, and leaves Batterham, who loves her but utterly opposes this decision. She speaks of the struggle she has with the decision, which literally ended up making her ill. Yet in the end, when faced with a choice between Batterham and God, she chooses God. Nevertheless, they remained good friends for the remainder of their lives.
Dorothy struggled with reconciling her concerns for the poor and social activism with her Catholic faith. It wasn’t until the searching convert and a wandering social theologian, Peter Maurin meet up that these two strains are reconciled in her life. It is a catalytic relationship for both, resulting in the launching of the Catholic Worker movement. She chronicles the birth of this movement with its paper sold for a penny (to this day), its houses of hospitality (now 216 in the U.S. according to their website), and their farming experiments. The vision was of places where laborers could find food, welcome, and thoughtful conversation and retreats that addressed the spiritual side of their existence as well as sustained advocacy for workers’ rights. Maurin helped Day integrate Catholic social teaching with her faith, and I think Day helped Maurin translate his visionary ideals into actual communities.
The book concludes with Day’s beautiful account of Maurin’s death, and their acquisition of a new house in New York City, which she attributes to Maurin’s prayers. In her postscript she comes back to the theme of “the long loneliness.”
“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.”
This memoir suggested several things to me. It reminded me that the externals of how a person is living is not a reliable indicator of their spiritual hunger or the work of God in their lives. At several points Dorothy was exposed to very “other worldly” versions of Christianity that failed to capture her imagination because they did not address life in this world. And the book exposes the power of community, and the reality that even with all our human foibles and flaws, people drawn together in Christ might indeed find the “only solution” to our long loneliness.
This is the memoir of a woman who grew up in a middle class family, the daughter of a sports writer, a teen who read Upton Sinclair and Doestoevsky, spent two years at the University of Illinois, then left to pursue life as a writer on the lower east side of Manhatten, working for several Socialist publications, getting arrested for the first time in 1917 (her last was as a 75 year old!). She went through several love affairs with the likes of Eugene O’Neill and Mike Gold. Along the way, she had an abortion, and lived what one would call a very “bohemian” lifestyle. An unlikely candidate for sainthood, you might say, and yet the Archdiocese of New York has opened the cause for her canonization, allowing her to be designated “A Servant of God.”
The memoir covers her early life and all these episodes although it devotes very little time to the period she spent in Europe. What we see is a woman haunted by a longing for God, struggling with “the long loneliness” of human existence, the sense of being alienated or apart from even those closest in life. She appears to find a happy existence in a Staten Island home she bought with proceeds from selling a screen play. She is in a kind of “common law” relationship with Forster Batterham, socially conscious but a principled atheist. They seem to enjoy an idyllic life until the birth of daughter Tamar, which intensifies Dorothy’s spiritual search as she reads Catholic literature and talks with several Catholic sisters and priests. First she brings Tamar to be baptized, and then at the end of 1927, enters the Catholic Church, and leaves Batterham, who loves her but utterly opposes this decision. She speaks of the struggle she has with the decision, which literally ended up making her ill. Yet in the end, when faced with a choice between Batterham and God, she chooses God. Nevertheless, they remained good friends for the remainder of their lives.
Dorothy struggled with reconciling her concerns for the poor and social activism with her Catholic faith. It wasn’t until the searching convert and a wandering social theologian, Peter Maurin meet up that these two strains are reconciled in her life. It is a catalytic relationship for both, resulting in the launching of the Catholic Worker movement. She chronicles the birth of this movement with its paper sold for a penny (to this day), its houses of hospitality (now 216 in the U.S. according to their website), and their farming experiments. The vision was of places where laborers could find food, welcome, and thoughtful conversation and retreats that addressed the spiritual side of their existence as well as sustained advocacy for workers’ rights. Maurin helped Day integrate Catholic social teaching with her faith, and I think Day helped Maurin translate his visionary ideals into actual communities.
The book concludes with Day’s beautiful account of Maurin’s death, and their acquisition of a new house in New York City, which she attributes to Maurin’s prayers. In her postscript she comes back to the theme of “the long loneliness.”
“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.”
This memoir suggested several things to me. It reminded me that the externals of how a person is living is not a reliable indicator of their spiritual hunger or the work of God in their lives. At several points Dorothy was exposed to very “other worldly” versions of Christianity that failed to capture her imagination because they did not address life in this world. And the book exposes the power of community, and the reality that even with all our human foibles and flaws, people drawn together in Christ might indeed find the “only solution” to our long loneliness.
September 20, 2013
The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day has long been held to be an important social document as well as a meaningful written Catholic memoir, because it delves deeply into the intimate conversion experience whereby there is a moving epiphany that changes that person so completely and totally. And The Long Loneliness illustrates that point quite clearly. Even before the Catholic Worker was ever founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, their approach to religious activism was almost on par with other lay Catholic social orgaizations, mirroring the motto of Catholic Action, founded in 1868, the best, whose battle cry is: Prayer. Action. Sacrifice. However, what makes this memoir so appealing is that it is outlined in a belief framework of pragmatic thought and a consistent work ethic, like Opus Dei. Dorothy Day, in the recounting of her conversion and the afteraffects of it, is not given to flights of supernatural fancy or prone to self-created mystical experiences or visions, which, when people do have them, are psychosomatic or psychotic, at best.
There are various reasons why people enter the Catholic Church, and for Day, she wanted her daughter-Tamar-to not flounder in a life of sexual radicalism and voracious wantonness, both of which wounded her quite grievously before she had her conversion experience. Before she became Catholic, Dorothy Day was a doer rather than a sayer; she put action behind her words, and she found comfort in the Gospel: feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. The latter was the very impetus for why The Catholic Worker was established, to make it real, living and vibrant for others. What is recounted in the Long Loneliness is not any caliber of theological scholarship or penetrating analysis of the Gospel. Rather, besides being lived, Catholicism in conjunction with pacificism, economics, helping the downtrodden and the labor movement is thoroughly explored. And yet, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity is exemplified throughout. Through her collected writings, especially her memoir, Dorothy Day illuminated that in accepting the Catholic ideal, everyone must carry their cross if they want the world to be even a slightly better place and that the Catholic faith is not one to take lightly.
There are various reasons why people enter the Catholic Church, and for Day, she wanted her daughter-Tamar-to not flounder in a life of sexual radicalism and voracious wantonness, both of which wounded her quite grievously before she had her conversion experience. Before she became Catholic, Dorothy Day was a doer rather than a sayer; she put action behind her words, and she found comfort in the Gospel: feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. The latter was the very impetus for why The Catholic Worker was established, to make it real, living and vibrant for others. What is recounted in the Long Loneliness is not any caliber of theological scholarship or penetrating analysis of the Gospel. Rather, besides being lived, Catholicism in conjunction with pacificism, economics, helping the downtrodden and the labor movement is thoroughly explored. And yet, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity is exemplified throughout. Through her collected writings, especially her memoir, Dorothy Day illuminated that in accepting the Catholic ideal, everyone must carry their cross if they want the world to be even a slightly better place and that the Catholic faith is not one to take lightly.
January 1, 2022
One day in the autumn of 2019, I was waiting for my turn at the physiotherapist's office and reading The Bible on my Kindle. Or maybe it was 2018. I had sprained my ankle that year and broken a wrist the next, so it is difficult to keep track. I didn't expect to get much out of it, I probably just wanted something to keep me occupied. I find conversion narratives a little corny, but something irrevocable happened as I read the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount, and I was amazed at a god who could say such things.
The Gospel was almost shocking to me, because it seemed so different from the staid and respectable religion I knew as Christianity. Instead, what I found here was scandal. I didn't know it then, but what made me read scripture was my own loneliness. If this is indeed the autumn of 2019 that I remember, I had read Margery Kempe for a class in university the previous semester. I had despite my agnosticism felt a strange kinship to Margery through the loneliness I found her inhabiting. I would read Simone Weil later, and find the same loneliness in her as well. The Gospel hinted at something- something that helped you transcend loneliness. But could you evade it altogether? That was doubtful.
In 2019 I would have considered myself a leftist and a feminist. Maybe I had to cool a little politically to truly appreciate Dorothy- there is much here that would offend twenty first century sensibilities. This does not take away from the radicalism of her project. What I found truly touching in The Long Loneliness is the honesty of her testimony, the grace with which she embraces the vulnerability this task opens her up to. Amidst despair, it is the more comforting- the "rosy " aspects of religion perhaps that seem the most fairtyale-like. The vision of perfect love that then be almost offensive. For Dorothy Day, this perfect love is no distant ideal. She is honest about the challenges that accompany the task of this love. It is after all work that underpins her vision of public morality. But the love that emerges as and through work is no wishy-washy, candy-in-the-sky thing. It is inseparable from the everyday life of everyday people.
The Gospel was almost shocking to me, because it seemed so different from the staid and respectable religion I knew as Christianity. Instead, what I found here was scandal. I didn't know it then, but what made me read scripture was my own loneliness. If this is indeed the autumn of 2019 that I remember, I had read Margery Kempe for a class in university the previous semester. I had despite my agnosticism felt a strange kinship to Margery through the loneliness I found her inhabiting. I would read Simone Weil later, and find the same loneliness in her as well. The Gospel hinted at something- something that helped you transcend loneliness. But could you evade it altogether? That was doubtful.
In 2019 I would have considered myself a leftist and a feminist. Maybe I had to cool a little politically to truly appreciate Dorothy- there is much here that would offend twenty first century sensibilities. This does not take away from the radicalism of her project. What I found truly touching in The Long Loneliness is the honesty of her testimony, the grace with which she embraces the vulnerability this task opens her up to. Amidst despair, it is the more comforting- the "rosy " aspects of religion perhaps that seem the most fairtyale-like. The vision of perfect love that then be almost offensive. For Dorothy Day, this perfect love is no distant ideal. She is honest about the challenges that accompany the task of this love. It is after all work that underpins her vision of public morality. But the love that emerges as and through work is no wishy-washy, candy-in-the-sky thing. It is inseparable from the everyday life of everyday people.
April 4, 2022
This woman's life is amazing! She's also an amazing writer and has a beautiful style. There is a lot on the political level that is beyond me, but she has so many interesting insights. I think that I have been tempted at times to join those in the Church who despair at changing the world and decide we should resort to just trying to save souls. At times it seems the world is going to hell in a handbasket and I want to focus just on saving souls, not society. But she shows how important it is, and for all I can tell she does it in a most Christian way. They make an effort to change laws but also do everything they can just to help those in need around them as Christ asks us to. The Church needs both!
On the other hand, sometimes I run into Catholics who are too caught up in trying to change the world, in expecting the world to be changed, and even in believing that all of society ought to become Christian. I believe we should hope that all should become Christian, but at the same time, we know "the way is narrow and there are few that follow it". While fighting to ensure just laws and a just society, is it reasonable to expect that they also be Christian laws? I think that even while the world is pagan and has a non-Christian worldview, we can work with it to ensure justice and charity for all members of society.
So we have to be able to accept being a minority and in some ways even to undergo the small "persecutions" that come wit being a Christian in a world that doesn't understand. We also have to courageously share the message of Christ, while at the same time knowing that there will always be few who follow him.
And always always always love those in need and work to help them. Dorothy says that when someone came asking for bread, they could never turn them away. There would always be some left, they would always divide it up so as to give the beggar at least something.
On the other hand, sometimes I run into Catholics who are too caught up in trying to change the world, in expecting the world to be changed, and even in believing that all of society ought to become Christian. I believe we should hope that all should become Christian, but at the same time, we know "the way is narrow and there are few that follow it". While fighting to ensure just laws and a just society, is it reasonable to expect that they also be Christian laws? I think that even while the world is pagan and has a non-Christian worldview, we can work with it to ensure justice and charity for all members of society.
So we have to be able to accept being a minority and in some ways even to undergo the small "persecutions" that come wit being a Christian in a world that doesn't understand. We also have to courageously share the message of Christ, while at the same time knowing that there will always be few who follow him.
And always always always love those in need and work to help them. Dorothy says that when someone came asking for bread, they could never turn them away. There would always be some left, they would always divide it up so as to give the beggar at least something.
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