Claire Dwyer

Mom, Wife, Interior Life — that’s it in a nutshell. Claire’s been devouring books and pouring the words back out again longer than she can remember. It’s where her love of God and the Catholic faith finds its fullest expression. Claire has a certification in Spiritual Theology from the Avila Institute and is currently in the graduate program at St. Vincent Seminary’s Institute of Ministry Formation for Spiritual Direction. She has an undergraduate degree in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she serves on the Advisory Board of the Leadership Institute. Her roles as writer, editor, spiritual director, and lifelong student of the interior life all came together in her first book, “This Present Paradise: A Spiritual Journey with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity.” which quickly became a best-seller, due in part to having the honor of being chosen by the Abiding Together Podcast for its 2021 Lenten Book Study. She is also a contributor to Blessed is She’s Lenten devotional, New Wine, which released in January 2023. She is under contract for another book and between that, working full-time for the Avila Foundation as editor of spiritualdirection.com, coaching, teaching, and raising a handful of growing kids, she still manages to find time for a few slowly-savored pages of reading almost every (tired) night. She has a passion for helping women in particular see the beauty and possibility in their own interior lives and their unrepeatable place in the Church and for Catholic writers to be encouraged and formed in their writing journey. She is co-founder and content director of Write These Words and the PraiseWritersCatholic Writing Membership Community. Most importantly, she has been married for 25 years to her husband Delaney and they have six children and one grandchild. Connect and keep in touch with her at ClaireDwyer.com.

Articles By Claire Dwyer

The Necessary Luxury of Slow

“Humbled, I recommitted to what I knew to be true: the spiritual life is better as a sit-down dinner than a drive-through.  And in both eating and praying, I needed to allow myself the necessary luxury of slow.” – Claire Dwyer 

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Advent: A Sacred Ache

“It seemed like centuries of ache coursing through me. It blew through caverns in me I didn’t know were there. I gave in to it.  I gave it space to wail itself out.” – Claire Dwyer

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“Courage, Dear Heart”: Discern and then Do

“We want to make the best decisions possible, decisions for good—for the best—outcomes.  The glory and terrifying responsibility of being made in God’s image and likeness is that we have the freedom to choose.” – Claire Dwyer 

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What if it’s Wonderful? Preparing our Hearts for Pentecost

“With the Spirit, light is more luminous.  Colors are brighter.  Joy is sweeter.  Life is richer.  From the first moments after Pentecost, Christians have known what is it is to suddenly be awakened to the breathtaking presence of God even in the ordinariness of things.” – Claire Dwyer 

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The Slow Years: Productive vs. Fruitful

“When others are crushing goals and breaking ceilings, we will find solace in the fact that our ‘becoming’ years are making it possible for us to bear fruit that will last.” – Claire Dwyer

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Parenting is a Purgative Way

“My eyes were opened to how precise and beautiful God’s plan is—that the living out of our vocation purposefully, intentionally, of giving in and giving way and saying yes to every cry and every sticky summons and sleepless night—and saying no to what my wounded nature wanted so badly—was a radical kind of inner house cleaning.” – Claire Dwyer

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