Brother Michael O'Neill McGrath, an Oblate of St. Francis deSales, is an artist, writer, and popular speaker. In this wonderful book, he weaves together paintings, quotations from spirituals, anecdotes, and prayers for a tribute to the life and ministry of Thea Bowman (1937 - 1990), an African-American nun whom he calls his muse, spiritual friend, and inspiration.
Born and raised in the Deep South, Sister Thea left home at the age of 16 and became a Franciscan sister in Wisconsin. She returned to Canton, Mississippi, in 1961 to teach. In order to help raise money for the school, she made a record with her children's choir entitled "The Voice of Negro America"; it was a collection of spirituals, the music of her slave ancestors. Sister Thea went on to pursue graduate and doctoral studies, receiving a Masters degree in English and a PhD in English Language, Literature, and Linguistics. In between, she taught the first-ever class on black literature at Catholic University. Sister Thea also taught at Viterbo College and spent a long time at Xavier University in New Orleans where she founded the Black Catholic Studies Institute.
Sister Thea relished spirituals as her wisdom literature and the main source of her prayer and meditation. She also saw them in another light:
"Like any artist of faith, Thea believed that beauty could save the world, that all people, especially God's poorest and most neglected, would be profoundly touched by the beauty of poetry and song. It is what troubadours do. It is what the church has done since its earliest days when paintings were scrawled on catacomb walls. So, when Thea got the crowds on their feet, moving, swaying, leading them in song, she wasn't merely entertaining them, she was transforming them, moving their hearts and filling their tired, restless spirits with the love of God. She gave them new ways of locating beauty in the world, deeper and broader than the images of beauty offered by society. Thea led them from the surface of the familiar to locate beauty deep within."
At the age of 47, Sister Thea was diagnosed with breast cancer and she fought this pernicious disease for the rest of her short life. "I grew up with people who believed you could serve the Lord from a sickbed or a deathbed," she said. So she continued to teach and preach the Gospel message of hope, faith, and love. Sister Thea died at the age of 52. McGrath shares her words as a fitting summing up of her life and ministry:
"I know that God is using me beyond my comprehension. God has given me the grace to see some of the seeds I've sown bear good fruit, and I am so grateful."
