Daniel A. Lord

Daniel Aloysius Lord, SJ (23 April 1888 – 15 January 1955) was an American

Life

Born in

In April 1924 Lord addressed 400 delegates of the second annual convention of the St. Louis Archdiocese Council of Catholic Women, where he spoke of the Church as an agency for breaking down provincialism.[2] That same year he gave the Baccalaureate sermon at Webster University in St. Louis.^[3] He professed as a member of the Society of Jesus in 1925.

Lord became national director of the Sodality of Our Lady in 1926, also serving as editor of its magazine, The Queen's Work.^[4] A loose network of student-based charitable and devotional groups often headquartered at Jesuit educational institutions, it was labeled a dying organization before his involvement, but expanded quickly under Lord's leadership. At the peak in the late 1940s there were 13,000 Sodalities in the United States and Canada at Catholic grade schools, high schools and colleges. Many parishes had both a Women's Sodality and a Men's Sodality. Lord drafted the Sodality theme song, For Christ the King, known to many mid-century American parochial school children. He also wrote, in 1941, the school song for Ursuline College in Louisville, Kentucky.^[5]

Lord stepped down from editorship in 1948, but continued to write for the magazine for the remainder of his life, producing more than 90 books, over 300 pamphlets, and countless articles, plays, and songs.^[4] "For a 30-year period in the last century, Rev. Daniel Lord, S.J. preached his down-to-earth spirituality by distributing dozens of pamphlets on family life, children, and marriage directly to the people in parish churches."^[6]

Lord also staged musical pageants, among which was the "City of Freedom", held in Detroit in July 1951. He also produced a syndicated weekly column, Along the Way, as well as a regular youth feature for Our Sunday Visitor.

Hollywood

In 1927, Lord served as one of six technical consultants, of various denominations, to Cecil B. DeMille for his silent film King of Kings.^[4] Lord alone was listed as Technical Advisor in the film credits. He described his time on the set with DeMille in his autobiography Played by Ear. He observed, "just how far vice may be presented in order to make virtue triumphant is one of the most delicate problems in artistic art."^[8]

In 1929, he began work on the

In 1954 Lord was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer. He died at Saint John's Hospital, St. Louis on 15 January 1955.^[11]

Works (partial)

• Father Finn, S.J., the story of his life told by himself for his friends young and old (1929)^[12]

Books by Lord (Listed chronologically)

• A Complete List of Daniel Lord Books
• Armchair Philosophy. New York: America Press, 1918. (An interesting look at Catholic philosophical thought as taught to Jesuit priests at the time.)
• Our Nuns: Their Varied and Vital Service for God and County. New York: Benziger, 1924. (A fascinating look at institutions run by Catholic sisters in Chicago and St. Louis.)
• Religion and Leadership. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1933. (This popular textbook for Catholic college theology courses was used into the 1950s.)
• My Mother, The Study of an Uneventful Life St. Louis: Queen's Work, 1934. (The famous movie producer John W. Considine Jr. (e.g. Boys Town) considered making a movie of this book.)
• Questions I'm Asked About Marriage St. Louis: Queen's Work, 1938. (Based on questions raised at Lord's frequent lectures, talks, and retreats.)
• Played by Ear, Chicago, Loyola Univ. Press, 1956.

Pamphlets

• A Complete List of Daniel Lord Pamphlets
• I can read ANYTHING!? All right! - then read THIS!, 1932)^[13]
• Confession is a Joy? (1933)^[14]
• Fashionable Sin - A Modern Discussion of an Unpopular Subject (1934)^[15]
• Pardon My Manners, The Queen's Work / Sodality Movement (1935)

Other pamphlets include: "You can't live that way",^[16] The Call to Catholic Action, ^[17] and Our Part in the Mystical Body.

Novels

• Red Arrows in the Night (1943)

Notes