Dorothy Day: Selected Writings.

The selections are just long enough to read as discrete pieces. I have kept this book on my desk and rewarded myself with a brief reading after completing the more mundane tasks that take up my day. Day, a journalist by training, had a direct and vivid prose style as her essays on her not-infrequent jailings attest. Best of all, of course, was her burning faith and her total commitment to the poor and the outcast. She was also a reader who had a fine eye for the aphorism and maxim. I found myself jotting some of them down and will share just enough of them with readers to prompt them to go back and read the work of this great American saint:

"It's expensive to be poor."

"We need to create a society where it is easy to be good" (quoting Peter Maurin).

"The land of propaganda is built on unanimity. If one person says 'No' the spell is broken..." (Ignazio Silone).

"Penances voluntarily undertaken are not as meritorious as those imposed on us by the circumstances of our lives and cheerfully borne" (Angela of Foligno).

"One could go to hell imitating the imperfections of the saints" (Mauriac).