An Interview with Colleen Carroll Campbell
for the Catholic Young Woman Book Club, Fall 2014
for the Catholic Young Woman Book Club, Fall 2014
Colleen: These are tough questions, ones with which I still struggle at times. The best I can do is to point you to the advice we read in Scripture, and hear echoed by the saints: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thes 5:16 – 18). I think that sums it up well. We need to maintain our joy, even when we feel outgunned in a culture hostile to our values. We need to put prayer first, since that’s where the Lord speaks to our hearts and tells us how to navigate the trickier circumstances of our lives. And we need to maintain a spirit of gratitude – for our faith, for the blessings in our lives, for the chance to be part of Christ’s redemptive work on earth, despite the suffering entailed. I don’t always do these things terribly well, but this is the ideal. And it’s worth striving for, even if we find ourselves falling short of it some (or most) of the time.
L: Can you share about your daily prayer life? What disciplines do you recommend? What helps you connect with God each day?
C: My prayer life has changed quite a bit since I had children. My favorite, most restorative time of prayer remains my Eucharistic holy hour, but what was once a daily habit is now more of a weekly one (though I often manage shorter chapel visits during the week). The same goes for my daily Mass attendance, which is now more like Sunday plus one other day per week. My husband and I continue to say our nightly rosary, a real blessing for us personally, for our family, and for our marriage. But much of life as a parent of little ones is a sprint – near-nonstop motion from the moment you wake up until the last little one goes to bed, and even after that, as you hurry to finish all the things neglected during the whirlwind of the day before your own exhaustion sets in. I find that brief snatches of prayer – morning offerings, the Angelus (when I remember) and simple, in-the-moment pleas to the Holy Spirit for guidance – are crucial to my spiritual life these days. I’m asking for God’s grace throughout the day, and with four children ages five and under at home, I need it! I think we all need it, of course. A house full of little ones can just make that more apparent.
L: A question from one of our readers, Elise: What practical advice do you have for us on how to grow in friendship with the saints?
C: Read their works. That’s the way I started my journey, and I think that’s the best entry point for most of us. As you read their life stories, told in their own voices, you realize how alike we all are, how our struggles as women and as daughters of God really are universal. Of course, I’d also advise prayer. Ask the women saints you admire to intercede to Jesus for you and your intentions, then keep your eyes open and you’ll see their responses. And ask the Holy Spirit which saints He wants you to get to know. Time and again, even since I wrote the book, I’ve found certain saints put in my path and I know it’s the Lord trying to tell me to get to know them and learn from them.
L: It was such a joy to read about the six saints in your book and see them come alive and be such timeless examples for women. Since writing My Sisters The Saints, have you developed any new friendships with saints?
C: Yes. My husband and I have been in something of a Franciscan phase for several years now (since well before the election of Pope Francis, actually). We named our third child Clara when she was born nearly three years ago, in honor of St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi. Our fourth child, Joseph Francis, got his middle name from St. Francis of Assisi. I’m very attracted to the joy, simplicity and radical Gospel witness of these two figures. A great antidote to so much of what ails our world today.
God has also been putting a lot of pointers toward Catherine of Siena in my path lately. She’s a Doctor of the Church, a brilliant woman whose deep prayer life overflowed to make a tangible mark on the Church and the culture of her time. She exemplifies the Dominican ideal: “to contemplate and to give to others the fruits of contemplation.” That’s what I aspire to do in my own life and work. So I’ve been wanting to get to know her more, and learn from her wisdom and example.
L: I speak for all of us when I say we have been so blessed by your book. Through it, we've gone deeper into relationship with our Lord Jesus, His Mother, and the saints who have gone before us. God has certainly used you to speak to our hearts. How can we best pray for you in return? What are your prayer intentions we can lift up?
C: Please keep my family in your prayers, that each of us may do the work God has for us and, ultimately, become saints. I know that sounds a bit audacious (and anyone who knows me knows I have a long way to go!). But the universal call to holiness is exactly that: universal. It’s not just for priests and nuns or some elite caste of professional Catholics. Each of us is called to become a saint, and we can each play a part in transforming the world for Christ. As Catherine of Siena put it, “If you are who you are supposed to be, you will set the world on fire.” I think our world could use more souls on fire for Christ. I’d like to be one of them.
