cover image All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day

All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day

Jim Forest. Orbis Books, $27 (352p) ISBN 978-1-57075-921-5

There is much to be gained by studying the lives of great men and women. Human history is adorned by the lives of those able to see beyond themselves, to couple a vision of a better world with the energy and determination to make it happen. Dorothy Day was such a person. Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and tireless advocate for the poor and oppressed, Day gathered around her people of similar passion and showed that even the least individual can make a difference. Forest, secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, has done an admirable job of documenting Dorothy Day's remarkable life and career. Day's outward journey brought her to the far corners of the Earth seeking justice and peace. But it was her inner journey, which taught her "how to see Christ in every person," that ultimately defined her place in history. The struggle for dignity and equality continues. Day's life demonstrates that grace abounds in the human spirit, a grace that must define humans' ultimate destiny. (May)