In this new collection of essays, Jeff Dietrich looks back over more than forty years as a member of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community serving the poor on L.A.’s Skid Row. By exploring the theme of what it means to be “A Good Samaritan” he asks: “Who is my Neighbor?” “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and finally, “What does it mean spend a lifetime as a Catholic Worker?”

Acknowledgments/Dedication

The Good Samaritan by Vincent van Gogh by Theresia de Vroom

Who is my Neighbor? by Jeff Dietrich

Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker by Thomas P. Rausch, SJ

THE ESSAYS

1. The Reluctant Saint (2003)
2. Wheelchair Bob (2012)
3. On Trial (1976)
4. A Pacifist’s Fight to Keep the Courage of His Convictions (1980)
5. Wrestling and Reconciling (1999)
6. On L.A.’s Skid Row, the Challenge of the Resurrection (2014)
7. Harming the National Defense (2013)
8. Jail Makes War Protest Significant (1991)
9. Exorcizing Jesus (2008)
10. The Miracle of Birth in a Skid Row Manger (1982)
11. Their Story Seemed Like Nonsense: Women in the Gospel of Luke (2005)
12. Sheba, Queen of Skid Row (2012)
13. Death is the Most Natural Thing in the World (1996)
14. The Story of Jacob and the Homeless with a Stone for a Pillow (2006)
15. Jesus Wept (2004)
16. 100 Years of Homeless Veterans, 1914–2014 (2014)
17. Getting Your Day in Court to be Among the Criminals (1991)
18. Waiting, Not Fasting, Can be the Hardest Part (1995)
19. Recipe for a Miracle (1985)
20. Notes on Consumerism (1993)
21. With Pope Francis: The Times are Changing (2013)
22. It’s a Wonderful Life (2014)
23. The Los Angeles Catholic Worker       

Clearly, the need to bring compassion, peacemaking, and social justice into the fray has never been greater, but when faced with such a reality, who can be blamed for turning away in despair or self-preservation? This brilliant book by Jeff Dietrich is the modern day and prophetic reminder that we all are called to be a "Good Samaritan."—Martin Sheen, Actor and Activist

Jeff Dietrich’s new collection of essays will bring great hope to many people. At a time when domestic violence, street violence, and war seem to be a constant in our lives, the Gospel-based values lived by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement propose wholly new possibilities for justice and peace.—Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

Jeff holds his life in tension as contemplative, activist, scholar, defender, and servant of those most in need in Los Angeles’ Skid Row...Jeff never sleeps before he writes—it is for him a form of prayer, a way of sorting out the impact of the ever-present culture, a way of comprehending how to act against its worst aspects.—Elizabeth McAlister, Spiritual Mentor to the Catholic Resistance Movement; co-founder of Jonah House

I read every issue of The Catholic Agitator and you, Jeff Dietrich, are a great writer.—Jean Vanier, Founder of  L’Arche

Jeff Dietrich is a rarity, a light in the darkness. He is the “Good Samaritan” who retells the quintessential parable everyday through his relentless pursuit of justice  and the stories he tells about it.—Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate

Jeff Dietrich was born in Newport News, Virginia. When he was nine years old his parents moved to Southern California where he was raised and educated. After college and in order to avoid the draft, he spent six months traveling in Europe and North Africa. For the last forty years, he has lived in community at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker in solidarity with the poor. Jeff Dietrich is an activist, whose numerous actions of civil disobedience have landed him in jail more than forty times. He is a cook and a kitchen worker, whose efforts have helped provide more than three million meals to the homeless on Los Angeles’ Skid Row; and he is a writer, whose eye-witness accounts of the suffering and deprivation of the poor are imbedded in his relentless and vehement exposure of the political and social system that helps to maintain their poverty.