We Are Only Saved Together: Living the Revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement

By Colin Miller

Winner of a 2025 CMA Book Award from the Catholic Media Association: Catholic Social Teaching (First Place).

In an era where social media metrics dominate our sense of connection and happiness, Colin Miller presents a refreshing perspective in We Are Only Saved Together. Drawing from the rich traditions of the Catholic Worker movement, Miller illustrates how true fulfillment lies not in virtual validation but in authentic relationships, shared experiences, and the pursuit of the common good. This timely reminder shows us how the joy we are made for is found in the practice of the Gospel, in the company of others, and especially in friendship with the poor.

While completing his doctoral work in theology at Duke, Miller befriended a group of homeless men who were living outside their church building. As these encounters led to conversations that led to friendships, Miller realized that the Gospel was not primarily about feeding the homeless or meeting their physical needs but about being a community, and this is the antidote to the loneliness, isolation, and emptiness that plagues our world. Along the way, he discovered Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and the Catholic Worker movement. Inspired by their work, he cofounded a Catholic Worker House dedicated to common prayer, material simplicity, fellowship with the poor, good work, and everyday community.

This book is not a call to become a strange, marginal, or fringe Catholic; it is a call to become fully Catholic by embracing the essential traditions that have always been at the heart of the Church and finding Christ in the places he promised to meet us: in worship, in community, in the poor. Following the little way of St. Th r se of Lisieux (one of Dorothy Day's favorite saints), Miller shares practical ideas to consider when seeking to encounter Christ in these places, such as

exploring the power of shared meals and feasts;reframing our encounters with people in poverty through a surprising look at the Good Samaritan parable;ideas on how to live close to the land;discerning the qualities that bring dignity to our work; andsteps to embrace voluntary simplicity.

We Are Only Saved Together is not about becoming a Catholic Worker; it's about becoming a disciple who discovers friendship, adventure, and joy in the Gospel. It's about pursuing a holiness so old it looks new.

Are you ready for an adventure filled with meaningful friendships, community with the poor, and good works? It might not always be easy, but it is definitely worth it. Let's go

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 164680306X
• ISBN13: 9781646803064
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: Ave Maria Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Church doesn't "have" a politics; it is a politics!

If you're fed up with the current socio-political climate, then grab this book! Colin Miller gives practical guidance for implementing Catholic social teaching into our everyday lives. This is no easy feat, for the Church's teachings—especially of the “social” variety—can often feel daunting, abstract, or out-of-touch alongside our world of cellphones, casual friend “dating,” and algorithm-shaped news feeds. Even the title of the book flies in the face of our usual idealization of the rugged, “independent” individual. In fact, where I'm from in the Twin Cities, getting too involved in someone else's “business” is a foul against “Minnesota Nice.” Yet, we all sense that perhaps our world today isn’t always such a “nice” place to inhabit. Loneliness, depression, and cultural/political turmoil abound. “Wars and rumors of wars” are ever on the airwaves. What exactly is going on? Miller takes us back nearly a hundred years to a small band of faithful Catholics led by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Armed with the papal encyclicals of their time, they began an assault of love on the fissures and cracks in society they saw forming all around them. Droves of men and women were finding themselves out of work, out of home, and out of healthy companionship. No one seemed to have an answer. Yet by inhabiting the “little way” of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, these early Catholic Workers banded together to start building a remarkable “new society in the shell of the old.” They took Christ’s “easy yoke” of corporate prayer, common meals, and life-giving work alongside the poor to begin remaking each person into the image of God they were intended to be. They sought to rebuild society at a human scale, one in which “it was easier to be good.” Fast forward to today and large-scale dependence on technology, bureaucracy, and the money economy has exponentially expanded. Nevertheless, isolation, fragmentation, and desperation describes not only those on our streets but so many of us glued to our screens (so much for the “independent” individual, huh?). Sure, we’ve all found ways to cope. Money, success, and Netflix are great distractors. Others of us find drugs on the street or prescription drugs in our pharmacies. But all told, can we really say our society ever left its "Great Depression?" Yet by going back to these early twentieth century prophets, Miller considers our world from their vantage point, repots their wisdom in twenty-first century soil, and offers stories of "little-way" experiments in his own life. Along the way, Colin vividly illustrates an attractive Catholic social witness that surprises with playfulness and joy. But don’t let the words “experiment” or “little” give the impression that this book doesn’t have the broadest of implications in sight. For the mission of Jesus Christ has always been to announce an entirely different kind of Kingdom—a whole new social order breaking into the present from the future of Christ’s second coming. For now, we Christians are resident aliens called to join others in offering a foretaste of that Kingdom—even if in fits and starts—so that the world might imagine a salvation we could only ever have together.