The cause for Dorothy Day’s beatification and canonization moved into a new phase on April 19, 2016, as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, opened the canonical inquiry on the life of the Catholic Worker movement founder, gathering evidence to determine if Day lived a life of “heroic virtue” in the eyes of the Church.
The Archdiocese, which is sponsoring her cause, will gather the evidence and present it to the Pope Francis and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Saints to determine if she will be elevated from “Servant of God” to “Venerable” and become eligible for beatification.
Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Maurin in 1933 in New York City, following her conversion to Catholicism in 1927. Day remained active in the Catholic Worker movement until her death in New York at the age of 83 in 1980.
A few years after her death, the Claretian fathers began collecting materials for a canonization effort. In 2000, at the request of Cardinal John O’Connor, the Vatican provided its nihil obstat, naming Day “Servant of God” and opening the canonization process. Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo was named “postulator” or chief advocate for the Cause of Canonization. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provided its formal endorsement in 2012.
About 50 eyewitnesses—people who had first-hand experience of Day—will be interviewed. Dolan also will appoint a historical commission that will place Day’s life in historical context and review her unpublished writings, which also will be reviewed by theological experts.
In the fall of 2015, Ave Maria Press published a series of reflections Day wrote during Advent. Ave will rerelease Day's biography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, called Thérèse, in the fall of 2016.
Find out more by reading the release on the Archdiocese of New York website.
BALTIMORE, MD — The Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) is pleased to announce the finalists for the Excellence in Publishing Awards. The goal of these awards is to recognize the best in Catholic publishing.
Awards will be given for books falling into eight categories: Biography, Children’s Books, General Interest, Inspirational, Prayer and Spirituality, Resources for Ministry, Scripture, and Theology. A “Book of the Year” will be named from among the first-place finishers of the eight categories.
“Music and mercy have found their way to the top of the lists this year, followed by an assortment of ancient and contemporary models of discipleship,” noted Therese Brown, ACP’s executive director. “Like last year, Pope Francis’ presence is visible across multiple categories, inspiring titles on mercy and those for specific audiences like children.”
Almost a quarter of the publisher members are represented by these titles. Liturgical Press and Paulist Press have six finalists each in four and five different categories, respectively.
Each category was judged by a three-person panel, which reviewed and evaluated the entries down to up to eight titles, all of which will move on to the final round of judging. First, second, and third place winners will be announced in June.
The finalists by category are:
Biography
A Still and Quiet Conscience (Orbis Books); Elizabeth Ann Seton (Pauline Books and Media); Flannery O'Connor (Liturgical Press); Fly While You Still Have Wings (Ave Maria Press); Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith (Orbis Books); Oscar Romero: Prophet of Hope (Pauline Books and Media); Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax (Fordham University Press)
Children’s Books
Before I Sleep: I Say Thank You (Pauline Books and Media); Catholic Corner Volume 5: Prayers and Practices (World Library Publications); Drop By Drop (Loyola Press); Everybody Has a Body (Pauline Books and Media); Francis, the Pope for Kids (Liguori Publications); Green Street Park (Loyola Press); Michael the Archangel: Protector of God's People (Liguori Publications); Our Father Is . . . (Paulist Press)
General Interest
Catholic Economics (Liturgical Press); Habits of Resilience: A Grief Workbook with Practices and Reflections for Healing and Growth (Twenty-Third Publications); Morning Homilies: Pope Francis (Orbis Books); Pope Francis' Revolution of Tenderness and Love (Paulist Press); Stripped: At the Intersection of Cancer, Culture, and Christ (Loyola Press); The Gaze of Mercy (Word Among Us); Vatican II (Paulist Press)
Inspirational
Dear Young People: Inspiration from Pope Francis for Everyone (World Library Publications); Family, the Church, and the Real World (Liguori Publications); Monastic Practices (Liturgical Press); My Badass Book of Saints (Ave Maria Press); Our Lady, Undoer of Knots (Ave Maria Press); Saint Peter: Flawed, Forgiven, and Faithful (Loyola Press); The Beatitudes (Paulist Press); The Catholic Drinkie's Guide to Homebrewed Evangelism (Liguori Publications); When the Saints Came Marching In (Liturgical Press)
Prayer & Spirituality
Crossing the Threshhold of Mercy (Paulist Press); Just Prayer (Liturgical Press); Living in the Sacred (RENEW International); Sanctuary: Creating a Space for Grace in Your Life (Loyola Press); The Between Time: Savoring the Sacred Moments of Everyday Life (Twenty-Third Publications); Walk With Christ: Celebrating the Way of the Nativity, the Cross and the Resurrection (Clear Faith Publishing); Welcome, Faithful Presence: A Week of Praying the Hours with Henri Nouwen (Clear Faith Publishing)
Resources for Ministry
Living Your Discipleship: A Practical Guide to Following Christ in Daily Life (Twenty-Third Publications); Mystagogy of the Eucharist (Liturgical Press); Proclaim the Gospel in Song: More Warm-Ups for the Musicians's Spirit (World Library Publications); Reimagining the Ignatian Examen: Fresh Ways to Pray from Your Day (Loyola Press); The Spirituality of the Psalms: Prayers for All Times (Twenty-Third Publications); To Be One in Christ (Liturgical Press); When We Sing: Simple Techniques for Conducting Children's Choirs (World Library Publications)
Scripture
Divine Mercy (part of the Threshold Bible Study series) (Twenty-Third Publications); Luke: My Spirit Rejoices (RENEW International); Sagas, Scholars & Searchers: Why the Bible Is the Atheist's Best Friend (Clear Faith Publishing); The Holy Year of Mercy (Word Among Us)
Theology
A Holy Yet Sinful Church (Liturgical Press); Abounding in Kindness (Orbis Books); Jesus and Salvation (Liturgical Press); The Sacraments (Paulist Press)
A brief explanation of each category follows. Books in the “Biography” category must be about Catholics whose work has made a valuable contribution to the Church and the world on a local level or a universal level. “Children’s Books” are for ages up 18. These titles may provide instruction on specific aspects or general information about the Catholic faith, the Church, or Catholicism.
Books in the “General Interest” category include Church history, collections of essays by theologians or important Catholic thinkers. The “Inspirational” book category focuses on devotional, spiritual, and meditation books and books on saints, holy people, and stories related to people living their faith. “Prayer and Spirituality” are books centered on prayer or spiritual reflection, and include any theme for organizing and presenting such content.
“Resources for Ministry” includes any book that serves as a faith formation tool in parish ministry for sacrament preparation, catechesis (other than basal programs), adult faith formation, and for use in enrichment programs.
The category of “Scripture” includes books about Scripture, whether scholarly treatments of particular books or collections of books of the Bible. Bibles are excluded from this category. “Theology” includes books on the topic of Catholic theology, whether scholarly monographs or more popular treatments of theological aspects of Catholic teaching on, for example, the sacraments, the nature of the Church.
The Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) is a membership organization of Catholic publishers, those who provide services to Catholic publishers, and individuals who work with Catholic publishers. The ACP provides opportunities for members to further the Catholic publishing industry, promote Catholic publishing and reading, and engage those they interact with, including retailers, pastoral leaders, individual customers, and staff.
To schedule interviews, contact Therese Brown at 410-988-2926 or at tbrown@catholicpublishers.org.
Fr. Edward Hays, beloved author of more than thirty books, gifted storyteller, and imaginative artist died on April 3 at St. Luke's Hospice Care in Kansas City, Missouri. Hays and Thomas Turkle founded Forest of Peace Publishing in 1979, a publishing effort that grew out of and supported the work of the Shantivanam House of Prayer in Easton, Kansas. (Shantivanam is a Sanskrit word that can be translated as “forest of peace.”) With Fr. Hays as its principle author, the company established a national reputation for its innovative books on prayer and spirituality.
During the 1980s and ’90s Hays was very popular with Spiritual Book Associates members and his books were often chosen as main selections of the club. When Hays and Turkle decided to leave the publishing business, they approached Ave Maria Press because of the good working relationship between the two companies. In 2003, with the acquisition of Forest of Peace, Ave reissued many of Hays’s books, including bestsellers such as Prayers for the Domestic Church (first published in 1979) and Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim (first published in 1989). Ave continued to publish Fr. Hays’s work under this imprint with books such as Chasing Joy and The Passionate Troubadour (a life of St. Francis of Assisi). His final work, A Book of Wonders, was a collection of daily meditations published in 2009. Here is the reflection for April 3, the day of his entrance into eternal life. It speaks well of the quality of his life as a “one-person divine visitation.”
A Mirabilary
We are wonderstruck when we’re caught off guard by some amazing or surprising thing or person. Unlike being lightning-struck—which is lethal—being wonderstruck is life-giving and spirit-arousing. If God is the Wonder of Wonders, then to witness any wonder is to have a divine visitation. These are more common than is believed. Admiration is to wonder, to be awed when people act heroically, selflessly, or generously. Normally, we have low expectations of our fellow humans. The unexpectedness of such behaviors are visitations of wonder. We capture this by calling them a “bolt out of the blue,” linking them to lightning. Become a bolt out of the blue yourself by being a mirabilary, an uncommon synonym for wonderworker. Today, surreptitiously plot to be a mirabilary by being a one-person divine visitation. In unexpected places and times, act in a surprisingly unselfish, noble, or heroic way.
We at Ave Maria Press who had the joy of working with Fr. Ed will always be grateful for the incomparable ways that he touched us with a spirit of holiness and joy.
