In our fifth and final session of this course, we look to the spiritual writings of Catholic authors of the USA.
Most particularly, we consider the writings of the early missionaries, and then those of Dorothy Day and Fulton Sheen.
Listen online [here]!
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Catholic Literature of the USA
The Catholic Influence on American Literature
Session 5, Spiritual Writers of the USA
Don’t read good books, or else you won’t have time for the great books! (Fr Raymond Nyquist)
I. Course Outline
May 19th - Introduction, and the Importance of Great Literature
May 26th - Catholic Themes in Non-Catholic American authors: Henry James and Willa Cather
June 2nd - Popular Lapsed-Catholic American Authors: Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, and Cormac McCarthy
June 9th - Profoundly Catholic American Authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Walter Miller jr, “Michael Kent”
June 16th - Spiritual Writers of the USA: Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Walter Ciszek
II. Journals and writings of the missionaries to the Americas
St Junipero Serra (1713-1784). A zealous Franciscan missionary who devoted his life to bringing the Gospel to the native peoples of what is now California. He founded a chain of missions that became centers of evangelization, education, agriculture, and community life (including the modern cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc). Despite enduring chronic illness and the hardships of frontier travel, Junipero Serra tirelessly preached, administered the sacraments, defended indigenous people against abuses by colonial authorities, and worked to secure their legal protections. Canonized by Pope Francis in 2015, he is a model missionary whose primary aim was to lead people to Christ. He also left a number of writings, including letters, reports, diaries, and missionary correspondence, which provide valuable insight into his spirituality, pastoral concerns, missionary methods, and efforts to advocate for the native communities under his care.
Journals and Diaries of other Franciscan Missionaries: The Diary of Fr Francisco Garces (1738-1781) and the Reports of Fr Alonso de Benavides (1578-1635).
The Jesuit Relations, which are a collection of the reports and letters from the Jesuit missionaries to their superiors, spanning from 1610 to 1791.
Fr. Eusebio Kino (1645–1711), a Jesuit missionary, explorer, and scientist, is remembered as one of the great Catholic missionaries of North America. Born in present-day Italy, he traveled to New Spain and devoted more than two decades to evangelizing the indigenous peoples of the Pimería Alta, a region that today includes southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Guided by deep faith and missionary zeal, Kino founded numerous missions, taught agriculture and animal husbandry, promoted education, and worked to improve the material and spiritual well-being of the native communities he served. He was also an accomplished cartographer who demonstrated that California was a peninsula rather than an island, correcting a widespread geographical error of his time. Through his writings, maps, letters, and missionary reports—especially his book Favores Celestiales ("Heavenly Favors")—Kino left a valuable record of his missionary work, travels, and gratitude for God's providence.
Fr Pierre-Jean de Smet’s Letters and Sketches, 1841-1842
Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801–1873) was a Belgian Jesuit missionary renowned for his evangelization of Native American tribes throughout the American West. Arriving in the United States as a young Jesuit, he dedicated much of his life to serving the Indigenous peoples of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest, especially the Salish, Flathead, and other tribes who had requested Catholic missionaries. De Smet founded missions, celebrated the sacraments, promoted education, and traveled thousands of miles through difficult terrain to bring the Gospel to remote communities. Known for his respect for Native cultures and his efforts to promote peace, he also acted as a mediator between Native tribes and the U.S. government during periods of conflict. Through his extensive letters, journals, travel narratives, and missionary reports, De Smet left a rich record of frontier missionary life and the history of the American West. We remember him as a courageous missionary whose faith, perseverance, and charity helped spread Christianity across vast regions of North America - and who is most especially credited with establishing the Catholic Church in Montana.
III. Bl Fulton Sheen, 1895 to 1979
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was one of the most influential Catholic communicators of the twentieth century, renowned for his ability to explain the Catholic faith with clarity, wit, and intellectual depth. Ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria and later serving as a bishop, Sheen reached millions through his radio broadcasts, television programs, lectures, and writings, most notably the popular television series Life Is Worth Living. He won the primetime Emmy award, and was one of the most well known figures in America. A gifted preacher and apologist, he defended Christian teaching, encouraged devotion to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and inspired countless conversions and renewed commitments to the faith. Sheen was also a prolific author, leaving behind dozens of books, including The Life of Christ, Peace of Soul, and Treasure in Clay, which continue to be widely read. Declared “Venerable” by the Church in 2012 and set to be beatified in September 2026, he is remembered as a holy bishop, evangelist, and teacher whose message that “life is worth living” remains influential today.
Some of his most important writings:
Life is Worth Living, which is a collection of his television talks.
The Life of Christ, which is a book on the life of Jesus Christ, with commentary on the present day as well (especially responding to the threats of Communism).
Peace of Soul, which is a response to modern secularist and atheistic psychology, on finding spiritual peace and healing.
Treasure in Clay, which is his autobiography.
The Seven Last Words, which is a short but deeply moving book about the words of Christ from the Cross. This is one of the great spiritual classics of the modern day, and should be much more well known!
Calvary and the Mass.
IV. Dorothy Day, 1897 to 1980
Dorothy Day was a Catholic convert, journalist, social activist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, which sought to put the Gospel into practice through works of mercy, hospitality to the poor, and advocacy for justice and peace. After entering the Catholic Church in 1927, Day dedicated her life to serving those in need, establishing houses of hospitality for the homeless, feeding the hungry, and promoting the dignity of every human person. Deeply influenced by Catholic social teaching, she emphasized voluntary poverty, personal responsibility, prayer, and nonviolence as essential aspects of Christian discipleship. Through the newspaper The Catholic Worker, as well as her books The Long Loneliness and Loaves and Fishes, she left a powerful witness to faith lived in action. Today, many Catholics regard Day as a model of holiness and charity, and her cause for canonization is advancing in the Church, where she holds the title "Servant of God."
Although much of Dorothy Day’s writings and life are inspiring, she does have a leaning toward communism and socialist ideology which is somewhat conflicting with Catholic Social Teaching - especially her admiration for V.I. Lenin should make us cautious as we read her writings.
From the opening of The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day
When you go to confession on a Saturday night, you go into a warm, dimly lit vastness, with the smell of wax and incense in the air, the smell of burning candles, and if it is a hot summer night there is the sound of a great electric fan, and the noise of the streets coming in to emphasize the stillness. There is another sound too, besides that of the quiet movements of the people from pew to confessional to altar rail; there is the sliding of the shutters of the little window between you and the priest in his “box.”
Some confessionals are large and roomy—plenty of space for the knees, and breathing space in the thick darkness that seems to pulse with your own heart. In some poor churches, many of the ledges are narrow and worn, so your knees almost slip off the kneeling bench, and your feet protrude outside the curtain which shields you from where others were waiting….
Going to confession is hard—hard when you have sins to confess, hard when you haven’t, and you rack your brain for even the beginnings of sins against charity, chastity, sins of detraction, sloth or gluttony. You do not want to make too much of your constant imperfections and venial sins, but you want to drag them out to the light of day as the first step in getting rid of them. The just man falls seven times daily. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned," is the way you begin. "I made my last confession a week ago, and since then..." Properly, one should say the Confiteor, but the priest has no time for that, what with the long lines of penitents on a Saturday night, so you are supposed to say it outside the confessional as you kneel in a pew, or as you stand in line with others.
“I have sinned. These are my sins.” That is all you are supposed to tell, not the sins of others, or your own virtues, but only your ugly gray, drab, monotonous sins.
When one writes the story of his life and the work he has been engaged in, it is a confession too, in a way. When I wrote the story of my conversion twelve years ago, I left out all my sins but told of all the things which had brought me to God, all the beautiful things, all the remembrances of God that had haunted me, pursued me over the years so that when my daughter was born, in grateful joy I turned to God and became a Catholic. I could worship, adore, praise and thank Him in the company of others. It is difficult to do that without a ritual, without a body with which to love and move, love and praise. I found faith, I became a member of the mystical body of Christ. Going to confession is hard. Writing a book is hard, because you are "giving yourself away." But if you love, you want to give yourself. You write as you are impelled to write, about man and his problems, his relation to God and his fellows. You write about yourself because in the long run all man's problems are the same, his human needs of sustenance and love. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" the Psalmist asks, and he indicates man's immense dignity when he says, "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels." He is made in the image and likeness of God, he is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He is of tremendous importance. What is man, where is he going, what is his destiny? It is a mystery. We are sons of God, and "it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God." I can write only of myself, what I know of myself.
From the conclusion of The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day:
We were just sitting there talking when Peter Maurin came in.
We were just sitting there talking when lines of people began to form, saying, “We need bread.” We could not say, “Go, be thou filled.” If there were six small loaves and a few fishes, we had to divide them. There was always bread.
We were just sitting there talking and people moved in on us. Let those who can take it, take it. Some moved out and that made room for more. And somehow the walls expanded.
We were just sitting there talking and someone said, “Let’s all go live on a farm.”
It was as casual as all that, I often think. It just came about. It just happened.
I found myself, a barren woman, the joyful mother of children. It is not always easy to be joyful, to keep in mind the duty of delight.
The most significant thing about The Catholic Worker is poverty, some say.
The most significant thing is community, others say. We are not alone anymore.
But the final word is love. At times it has been, in the words of Father Zossima, a harsh and dreadful thing, and our very faith in love has been tried through fire.
We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
It all happened while we sat there talking, and it is still going on.
V. Fr Thomas Merton, 1915 to 1968
Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, spiritual writer, poet, and one of the most influential Catholic authors of the twentieth century. After a restless youth and conversion to Catholicism, Merton entered the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where he devoted himself to prayer, contemplation, and the monastic life. Through his many books and essays, he introduced countless readers to the riches of Catholic spirituality, emphasizing the importance of silence, contemplation, and a deep relationship with God. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, became a spiritual classic and inspired many religious vocations. Merton also wrote extensively on prayer, social justice, peace, and interreligious dialogue, with notable works including New Seeds of Contemplation and No Man Is an Island. Catholics continue to value Merton's writings for their profound insights into the spiritual life and their call to seek God through prayer, humility, and interior conversion.
His later writings (indeed, perhaps all his writings) must be read with some caution. He became very interested in and influenced by Eastern Spirituality before his death. He died by accidental electrocution while attending an inter-faith conference in Thailand.
VI. Fr Walter Ciszek, 1904 to 1984
Walter Ciszek was an American Jesuit priest and missionary whose life became a remarkable witness to faith, perseverance, and trust in God's providence. Desiring to bring the Gospel to Russia, Ciszek secretly entered the Soviet Union during World War II, where he was arrested by the Soviet secret police, subjected to years of harsh interrogation, and sentenced to labor camps in Siberia. Despite enduring imprisonment, isolation, and suffering for more than two decades, he continued to minister secretly to fellow prisoners, celebrate the sacraments when possible, and deepen his reliance on God's will. After his release and eventual return to the United States in 1963, Ciszek shared his spiritual journey through the acclaimed books With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me, which describe his experiences and the profound lessons he learned about surrender to God. He is recognized as a model of courage, humility, and steadfast faith, and his cause for canonization had been considered by the Church, where he holds the title "Servant of God" - however, the promotion of his cause for canonization has been formally ended by the Vatican as of April 2026. The Diocese of Allentown (responsible for his cause) said, “While this news may understandably bring disappointment to the many who have been inspired by Father Ciszek's example of heroic faith, it does not diminish the enduring spiritual value of his life, witness, and legacy.”
VII. Other popular American Catholic authors
Peter Kreeft, a very popular Catholic writer.
Fr Thomas Dubay, who is especially influential for Carmelite Spirituality.
Bishop Robert Barron, who founded “Word on Fire.”
Scott Hahn, who is most known for his biblical scholarship.
Warren Carroll: The founder of Christendom College, who is especially important for history and Catholic history.
The History of Christendom in six volumes (The Founding of, The Building of, The Glory of, The Cleaving of, The Revolution Against, The Crisis of).
Red Banners, White Mantle, about the apparitions of Fatima and Communism.
Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness.
The Guillotine and the Cross, about the Church and the French Revolution.
Thomas Howard: A Catholic convert who died in 2020.
Evangelical is Not Enough, Chance or the Dance?, Christ the Tiger, Dove Descending (on TS Eliot’s Four Quartets), Lead Kindly Light.