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 Power of Intercessory Prayer

“It is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone.” These words of St. Edith Stein sum up the Carmelite vocation, a call which St. Elizabeth of the Trinity took to heart, and one we all join in as part of the Christian life. Claire Dwyer continues her series.

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To Be a Bride

The consecrated woman stands as a sign of contradiction:  what it seems she has given up, she has actually gained in a way far more real than the rest of us can know this side of eternity.  Claire Dwyer continues her series on St. Elizabeth of the Trinity.

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A Living Smile

A smile is a small–although not always easy–sacrament of joy. Claire Dwyer shares about this surprising “apostolate” as her series on Elizabeth of the Trinity continues.

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A Divine Darkness

Claire Dwyer explores the mystical reality of the “Dark Night” through the experience of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity.

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Faith–or Feelings?

Feelings are, in the end, just feelings.  They are a gift, but they cannot last—they must give way in order for us to grow in the holy virtue of faith.  Faith is an entirely free gift of God–but it is something to be asked for, assented to, nourished, and practiced.  Or else we can find ourselves “shipwrecked.” (I Timothy 1:19) Claire Dwyer continues her series.

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The Life of a Carmelite

“The contemplative nun rises in the morning to pray and work and obey and die a little more to herself, to offer herself for the Church with all the missionary zeal of the apostles and martyrs and in total union with them.  And not one moment or ounce of her strength is wasted or dissipated.” Claire Dwyer continues her series on St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

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The Master Has Need of You

The reading which opens the liturgy for Palm Sunday reminds us that the Lord makes himself dependant on lowly things–and that includes us, Claire Dwyer reflects as we begin Holy Week.

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