Dear Friends,
We hope that you are safe and well.
Today's Meditation remembers Sr. Thea Bowman on her feastday.
We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Ron and Jean
MEDITATION 632: Remembering Sr. Thea Bowman
https://youtu.be/d6pBrBOawII
Servant of God Thea Bowman is a saint desperately needed in our times. While I plan on writing more on her in these pages, I wanted to offer these short reflections for her feast day.
She taught us all, but especially Black Catholics, how to “live until [we] die.” Significantly, she was a voice crying in the wilderness of American moral life: prophetically proclaiming that the Church can only fulfill its mission and be true to herself when Black people can be fully Black and fully Catholic.
Recently, priests and commentators have openly challenged the existence of a Black cultural identity. To the extent they concede that there is a Black identity, it is only to place it in opposition to Catholic or “good” culture.
When specifically challenged on these racist ideas—when told that we are called to be fully Black and Catholic—one of these commentators said that this was a mistaken teaching of Sr Thea, and that her teaching and devotion should be suppressed.
The main reason? Its “humanist” roots.
But it is precisely Sister Thea’s commitment to humanity that makes her such an important saint for our times and all time. She famously was first drawn to the Church through its charity and humanity, expressed by providing education to her and other children in her neighborhood.
She further spent her academic career exploring the humanity of Sir Thomas More through his writings on death and suffering. More is considered one of the founders of the humanist movement and is a Catholic saint.
During her life as a teacher and preacher, she continued to draw into the Church and highlight the examples of some of the best humanity has to offer—especially in the Black community, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
This approach to celebrating the best in the Black community as examples for all humanity is something encouraged and done by several popes. Pope St John Paul II famously stated:
“Dear brothers and sisters: your black cultural heritage enriches the Church and makes her witness of universality more complete.”
And, most recently, Pope Francis explicitly cited the work of MLK as an inspiration for his anti-racist encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. He further put those teaching in action by visiting Iraq and meeting with Muslims and others to celebrate our shared humanity—the image of God reflected in our nature.
When speaking to the 1987 National Congress of the Religious Formation Conference, Sr Thea was asked to speak on the theme of “cosmic spirituality.” As she explained,
“We’re talking about cosmic spirituality. We’re talking about the independence and interdependence of all the world’s people.”
This, of course, requires loving all people and seeing God in them as they are. It requires everyone to love Black people and their culture. She challenged the audience:
“When you come into my community, my town, my world, will you see God’s glory revealed?”
Here we see Catholic spirituality that motivates Catholic participation and adoption of Black Lives Matter. It is the affirmation of that cosmic spirituality that Black lives are lives that reveal God’s glory. Anything that does not treat them this way must be rejected.
I have no problem understanding Sr Thea to be a humanist, just as I have no problem accepting the humanism of St Thomas More. Indeed, their humanism and love of humanity are really to their credit. It points to the Catholic, or “universal”, nature of our Church, and its universal call to holiness.
I’d like to end this reflection on a personal note. Today also marks the death day of my abuelo, who died last year. He was poor, hardworking Indio, born out of wedlock in a harsh and judgmental Venezuelan society. He fell in love with and married my abuela—a beautiful, Black Venezuelan woman whose life was scarred by the scourge of racial hatred and violence.
Both were the spiritual heart of our family. My abuela died many years ago from cancer, but she always felt close to us with my abuelo here. When he died last year, I wondered how we would go on, in our faith—especially in light of the US Church amplifying so much racism this past year.
But it was shortly after he died that I ran across this video of a Black woman, sickly but full of joy, with a voice, cadence, and face like my abuela’s. She was singing and crying out to the bishops for her people. It was the consolation I thought I’d never find in the Church!
St Josemaría Escrivá is famous for viewing “coincidences” in the spiritual life ironically. There are no real random coincidences in the spiritual life. I know that my abuelos and Sr Thea sent that video to me when I needed it most. And I hope to one day see them all, along with a beautiful and diverse gathering of all peoples, in heaven.
Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, pray for us!
Gunnar Gundersen is an attorney in Newport Beach, CA. He serves in his parish council and choir, is a published essayist, and regularly lectures on natural law and the American Founding. He is also the first Ordinariate member of the Knights of Peter Claver and is starting their first council in Orange County. Follow him on Twitter at @GBGundersen.
By Nate Tinner-Williams - March 26, 2022Sister Thea Bowman Week kicks off Sunday, ahead of dedication for new center at Viterbo University
LA CROSSE, Wis. — The inaugural Sr Thea Bowman Celebration Week will begin tomorrow in Wisconsin, with a slate of events scheduled at Viterbo University—Bowman’s alma mater and former teaching post—in anticipation of her March 30th feast day and the opening of a new center on campus dedicated to her legacy.
“The Sr Thea Bowman Center celebrates the life and legacy of Thea Bowman, FSPA, as a hub for inclusivity and equity teachings,” the university website reads.
“A pioneer for justice and equality, Sr. Thea dedicated her life to advocacy for human rights for all people. This center highlights all the gifts she treasured, including education, spirituality, equal rights, music, literature, and art.”
The event series kicks off on Sunday morning with a Mass at the university’s San Damiano Chapel, featuring music composed by Bowman, who played an integral role in the introduction of Black patrimony to the Catholic Church.
She died in 1990 from cancer at the age of 52, but not before becoming a household name in Catholic circles and elsewhere, at one point appearing on “60 Minutes” with Mike Wallace.
The Mississippi native and Catholic convert joined the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in the 1960s at the age of 15, becoming the congregation’s first Black member, and later a noted activist, speaker, liturgist, and evangelist.
Her cause for canonization was opened in 2018, gaining her the title “Servant of God” and making her perhaps the only venerated Catholic whose voice and music can be heard on CDs and streaming platforms.
Following Sunday’s Mass, a concert will follow at 2pm CT, featuring local choirs as well as Aaron Mathews, a Black composer whose “Mass for Sister Thea Bowman” was released last year.
Simultaneously, the DC chapter of the Bowman guild will host a virtual celebration of her life and legacy with her sainthood cause’s vice postulator Fr Maurice Nutt, CSsR. (Registration is required.)
Monday will bring a panel of artists, including Mathews and painter Br Mickey McGrath, who will discuss the impact of Bowman’s art. Tuesday will feature a number of events for the Viterbo community before a 7pm panel from individuals who knew Bowman personally.
These include Laura Nettles and Mary Ann Gschwind, Bowman’s fellow FSPA sisters; Viterbo alum Dr. Greg Lind; and Daniel Johnson-Wilmot, a professor in the school’s music department.
The dedication of the Sr Thea Bowman Center will occur on her Wednesday feast day at 4pm—followed by a reception and a livestreamed ceremony featuring Black Catholic keynote speaker Nola Jo Starling-Ratliff, musical performances, and a student awards ceremony for the Diocese of La Crosse.
The website for the week’s events also lists a Thursday event on the Catholic heroes of the Holocaust, and an environmental justice event on Friday at noon.
Also part of the celebration is a staging on April 5th of “Sr. Thea Bowman: I Will Live Until I Die”, a one-woman play featuring internationally-known Black Catholic speaker and recording artist ValLimar Jansen. That event is scheduled for 7pm, also in the university chapel.
For more information on the week’s events, interested parties can contact Nettles at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 608-796-3706.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger, a seminarian with the Josephites, and a ThM student with the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA).