Wendy M. Wright is a professor of theology at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and holds the John C. Keneflick Faculty Chair of the Humanities. As a professor of graduate studies in ministry for Creighton's Christian Spirituality master's program and the Academy for Spiritual Formation, Wright specializes in the history of spirituality, spiritual direction, family spirituality, and women's spirituality. The author is profiled as one of S&P's Living Spiritual Teachers.
Wright defines spirituality as "the inbuilt capacity for life integration and self-transcendence toward that which is ultimate." Catholic spirituality is rooted and grounded in Scripture, tradition, common Eucharistic prayer, the liturgical year, saints as models and intercessors, and imagination tempered by the Spirit.
In a section titled "Walking the Way," Wright celebrates not only vocal and mental prayer but the more adventuresome forms of prayer in music, writing, and study. The real richness of Catholicism comes out of its practices of discernment, practices of presence, and embodied practices (fasting, pilgrimage, labyrinth walking, novenas, and sacramental.) Thank God for the prophetic strain still alive in this tradition which takes seriously the importance of addressing justice, human rights, peace, and ecological sustainability.
