Over the past thirty years, while offering retreats, spiritual direction, and preached missions, the author was privileged to accompany many on their spiritual journey. She highlights here their common desires for peace, purpose, and meaning in life, ways to deal with suffering and death, among other life experiences. The author recounts how each experienced a "breakthrough" moment in their relationship with God.
Reading these stories, one can easily recognize that transforming moment when each person experienced God's compassion and as a result, everything changed in his or her life. These stories capture various dynamic aspects of our spiritual journey with God and others. Ultimately, at the heart of our spiritual journey is God's never-ending desire to draw us into a loving relationship. We too can rediscover that God has been searching for us, while we have been searching for God. Through the reading of these stories, scripture, and insights, we can reclaim our own desires and continue to deepen in loving union with our compassionate God, and be "carriers" of compassion for others.
Virginia A. Blass maintains a ministry of spiritual direction, parish missions, retreats, and conferences. She is a lay member of the Passionist Preaching Mission of the St. Paul of the Cross Province and a longtime collaborator in ministry with the Northeast Province of Jesuits. She resides in New Hampshire.
Beginning in 1985, the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana, has hosted the annual Madeleva Lecture. This book is a one-volume anthology of essential selections from this world-class program.
Delivered annually, these lectures feature leading women theologians and scholars of religion from across an array of theological disciplines. The editors have organized the selections under a number of chapters: "Prayer and Spirituality," "The Church," "Holy Women," "Gender and Sexuality," and "Culture and Dialogue." The collection features contributions from world-renowned authors such as Elizabeth Johnson, Sandra Schneiders, M. Shawn Copeland, Joan Chittister, Kathleen Norris, Ilia Delio, and others.
The volume concludes with the text of the Madeleva Manifesto and a complete list of all the lectures.
Jessica Coblentz, PhD, is associate professor of religious studies and theology at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Daniel P. Horan, PhD, is professor of philosophy, religious studies, and theology and director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana.
In the 2025 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality, Kathleen Sprows Cummings marked the lecture's 40th anniversary by speaking about the complex and overlapping ways U.S. Catholic sisters "made history" throughout its founding era. As actors and archivists, as scholars and subjects, and as seekers and tellers of the truth, these "holy women" dared to tell new stories about themselves, their communities, and their church. Today, these rewritten narratives not only help us better understand the past, but also inspire us to imagine a new future.
Kathleen Sprows Cummings, PhD, is Rev. John A. O'Brien Collegiate Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.
In this, the 2024 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality given at St. Mary's College, South Bend, Indiana, Natalia Imperatori-Lee asks, "Is there something about women doing theology that is inherently incredible or unbelievable?" Why are the stories of some more readily believed than those of others—namely those of women and especially women of color. This dynamic has been present in the church since Mary Magdalene brought news of the resurrection to the apostles on Easter morning, and they didn't believe her. It continues to this day.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee is professor of religious studies at Manhattan University in Reverdale, Bronx, New York.
