Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
New book explores spiritual sisterhood with saints

New book explores spiritual sisterhood with saints

Last updated on: December 15, 2012 at 1:04 pm by CNA Daily News

New book explores spiritual sisterhood with saints 2012-12-15T13:04:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Washington D.C., Dec 15, 2012 / 06:04 am (CNA).- A new book recounting the true story of one woman's faith voyage encourages women to turn to the saints as they strive to embrace their dignity amid the struggles of the modern world.

“The saints are amazing guides for us on our journey,” said Colleen Carroll Campbell, journalist and author of a new spiritual memoir, “My Sisters the Saints.”

Published in October by Image/Random House, the book details Campbell’s journey, discovering that her struggles and decisions were reflected in the lives of the saints and coming to embrace the Church’s teaching “as powerful and relevant and true.”

Campbell told CNA that she was struck not merely by the academic writings of the saints, but by their personal stories. As she learned about their lives, she found a deep connection with them, leading her to ask for their intercession and eventually see their subtle activity in her life.

“My Sisters the Saints” begins during Campbell’s junior year at Marquette University, where she played the dual role of campus partier and overachieving resume-builder. Although she had been raised in a Catholic family, her faith got compartmentalized in college, and she found herself “checking the box on Sunday” without being truly engaged.

Feeling empty, she sought answers in a feminist philosophy class, where she agreed with the early ideas of equal dignity and rights but found herself increasingly “stifled” by the more radical ideas presented as the movement progressed.

The longing for a “transcendent horizon” eventually drove her to her knees, where she asked God to show her who he was and help her find answers in her life.

A breakthrough came when Campbell's parents gave her a biography of Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Ávila over Christmas break, and she found it to be a “compelling” account of an accomplished woman with a “zest for life.”

“In her, I really saw for the first time a woman saint to whom I could relate,” she said, pointing to the saint’s experience of being pulled in different directions on the search to embrace God.

She explained that St. Teresa offered a mix of “femininity, freedom and faith” that she could aspire to, while making holiness feel like an adventure.

Campbell’s spiritual journey continued when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease during her senior year of college. The news caught her off-guard, and she quickly found herself filled with emptiness and dread, which led to impatience and frustration.

She found solace, however, in St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the young French nun known for her “Little Way,” whose father suffered from dementia in his later years, an experience that the saint described as an epitome of suffering in her own life.

“She had a very strong view of redemptive suffering,” Campbell reflected. “She saw meaning in his trial.”

“That really changed my perspective,” she continued, explaining that she found hope that she could relate to in the midst of a culture that rarely sees dignity in suffering.

Like St. Thérèse, who saw her father gradually conformed to Christ on the cross, Campbell watched as her father – a devout and hopeful Catholic – grew in his own faith. While it was still difficult to watch a loved one suffer, the friendship of St. Thérèse provided a “lens through which to view it,” she explained.

Later, Campbell turned to St. Faustina, a simple and illiterate Polish nun, in struggling with the balance of family and career while she worked as a speech writer for the White House as her fiancé was in medical school in St. Louis.

She discovered the connection between humility and trust and realized that marriage is not a dead end to freedom, as the culture surrounding her would have her believe, but “an avenue to a deeper freedom” that the world does not recognize.

Struggles with unexplained infertility led Campbell to seek the wisdom of the saints once again. Caught between a secular world that failed to understand the depth of her pain and the judgment of some Catholics who scorned her for failing to have children, she found herself ashamed and “near tears” on multiple occasions.

She grappled with the feeling that there was something wrong with her womanhood or her marriage and that God somehow viewed her as having less worth as a woman.

Wrestling with the question of why God would give her desires for motherhood without fulfilling them, Campbell discovered the writings of St. Edith Stein, a German philosopher and nun who converted from Judaism to Catholicism and died in a concentration camp. Before entering the convent, the saint gave talks in Europe on the dignity of women.

“She saw the beauty in recognizing your feminine dignity and embracing it,” Campbell said, explaining that the saint saw motherhood as a gift imprinted in every woman’s soul but expressed in various ways, including spiritual as well as physical manifestations.

Campbell realized that there were ways that she could be a mother in her present state, bringing her maternal gifts to her work and caring for ailing father.

Reading both St. Edith Stein and Bl. Pope John Paul II’s writings on the dignity of women “answered some fundamental questions about my value in the eyes of God,” she said.

Campbell hopes that her book will inspire readers to learn more about the saints.

She explained that contemporary readers may think that saints who lived hundreds of years ago are “inaccessible.” She hopes to dispel this idea by blending the stories of saints with her own modern-day story, so that readers may be able to see parallels in their own lives.

Women today are looking for heroines and role models, she said, adding that her own journey has shown her that her questions about life are universal, and saints are the ones that “have run the race and come out with satisfying answers.”

Previous Post

December 15, 2012

Achieving peace requires respect for all human life, Pope states

Next Post

December 15, 2012 Church leaders express prayers, condolences over Sandy Hook shooting

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was King Zedekiah, and what did he do to anger God and ensure Jerusalem's fall?

Select your answer to see how you score.

He killed Jeremiah He burned the scroll He built an idol He rebelled against Babylon