Lenten Thursdays with Dorothy Day

Thursdays, March 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2026
12-1 p.m. ET / 9-10 a.m. PT
Live Discussions on Zoom
Suggested payment: $50
Max enrollment: 25 participants
Led by: Renée Roden

Spend Lent encountering Servant of God Dorothy Day (1897-1980) as a prophetic spiritual writer through her diverse body of work: her journalism, books, diaries and meditations.

Day’s life was a model of discernment: a response to the signs of the times, prophetic resistance to the structural sins of the world, finding “the abundant life” through faith in action, giving her life as a woman for others, and seeing God shining clearly forth in all things, especially in the poor, the ugly and the rejected of the world where most of us are afraid to look, much less live among. Her writing captures her deep spiritual insights, her journalistic eye for the characters of church militant and triumphant and exudes the startling attractiveness of a faith that is incarnate in the world.

Come join Jesuit Media Lab for a reading group dedicated to some of Day’s greatest hits and deep cuts. The reading group will be led by Renée Roden, JML Fellow and co-editor of catholicworker.org’s Roundtable newsletter, covering the Catholic Worker movement.

All readings will be provided in PDF form.

An inability to pay should not discourage you from signing up.

Note: This is Thursday cohort of Lent with Dorothy Day; registration for the Friday cohort is here.

Course Structure

About the Facilitator

Week One: The Long Loneliness The Bookends of a Life: an introduction to Dorothy Day. Reading the prologue and epilogue of “The Long Loneliness” (1952) Week Two: “I wanted that abundant life” Day on having a baby, living, loving and the mystery of death. Selections from The New Masses, Commonweal and The Catholic Worker Week Three: Prophet of Poverty Day’s most famous writings on the beauty of poverty and the plight of the poor. From Commonweal, The Catholic Worker and “Loaves and Fishes” (1963) Week Four: “The final word is love” Day on the saints and the spiritual life. Readings from “Thérèse” (1960) and “Spiritual Writings” (2024), ed. by Robert Ellsberg

Renée Darline Roden, a JML fellow, is a journalist and playwright currently living at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Worker in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Notre Dame twice over with an undergraduate degree in theatre and theology and a graduate degree in theology. She is also a graduate of Columbia Journalism School. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Religion News Service, The Associated Press, Sojourners, America and U.S. Catholic, among others. You can learn about that reporting and more at her website reneedarlineroden.com. You can also visit her literary test kitchen at Sweet Unrest on Substack.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the “Lenten Thursdays with Dorothy Day” reading group, email Mike Jordan Laskey at jccucommunications@jesuits.org.

Register for this Event

The "Lenten Thursdays with Dorothy Day" reading group is full; to join a waiting list, email medialab@jesuits.org

Contributed by:

Renée Darline Roden

Renée Darline Roden is a graduate of Notre Dame twice over and has taught theatre for nearly two decades, to preschool thespians, high school students, college students and seminarians. She is a playwright, and she has directed productions at the University of Notre Dame, and off-off-off-off Broadway in New York City.