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Mystic Moment: Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman
December 29, 1937 - March 30, 1990
Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman, Ph.D., Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration
OPENING PRAYER OF PETITION
(adapted from the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, Website for the Cause for Canonization of Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman)
Holy One, your infinite goodness inflamed the heart of your servant and religious, Sister Thea Bowman, with an ardent love for you and the People of God. Her love was expressed through her indomitable spirit, deep and abiding faith, zealous teaching, exuberant singing, and unwavering witnessing of the joy of the Gospel.
We give thanks for her prophetic witness which continues to inspire us to share the Good News with those whom we encounter; especially the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. May Sister Thea’s life and legacy compel us to walk together, to pray together, and to remain together as missionary disciples ushering in the new evangelization for the Church we love.
Loving God, imbue us with the grace and perseverance that you gave your servant, Sister Thea. In turbulent times of racial injustice, she sought equity, peace, and reconciliation. In times of intolerance and ignorance, she brought wisdom, awareness, unity, and charity. In times of pain, sickness, and suffering, she taught us how to live fully until called home to the land of promise. If it be your Will, O God, glorify our beloved Sister Thea, by granting the favor we now request through her intercession (silently mention your request), so that all may know of her goodness and holiness and may imitate her love for You and all people who love the Holy one. We humbly ask this through our Loving Brother, Jesus. Amen.
VIDEO 1 A Minute with the Saints: Sr. Thea Bowman Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYwGaoEeuls
SONG 1 Sr. Thea Teaches Through Songful Prayer Deep River
https://www.youtube.com/embed/nGHoxI_yKG0
READING 1 CONNECTING WITH THE MYSTICS: WHY WE STUDY
French philosopher Louis Claude de St. Martin said: "All mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country."
When speaking of mystics, St. Teresa of Avila, Thich Nhat Hanh, St. Julian of Norwich, St. Hildegarde of Bingen come to mind. To further expand our understanding the universality of mysticism, bringing it home to our neighborhood, blossoming to the glorious diversity in our world, we ask the Great Mystery for light to embrace this diversity in our lives. We are aware our world is fraught with uncertainty, suffering, and a fundamental hatred that affects us like poisoned air. By studying mysticism, we are able, for a few minutes, to tap into the lives of folks who have walked this earth where the same mechanisms of despair were as bad or worse than today. It is a way to connect with answers to our questions “why” and “how” to reach beyond the racial and cultural hatreds that persist. Mystics, with widely diverse racial and cultural heritage, have experienced existential and phenomenological experiences, were able to visualize, to vision, the transcendent realities that we dream of. Mystics are teachers given to us to learn from; some embodying easily identifiable likenesses to us, others the precious, remarkable differences across the human race. How brilliant and ineffable of our Creator to gift us with mystical brothers and sisters to shine like a star to guide us.
Today we recognize the mysticism, the holiness, the sacred spirituality of Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman, who along with other African-American mystics and spiritual giants have left legacies of how to pray. Through song, literature, teaching, preaching, and leadership of their communities they expanded internationally messages for us to unravel: Sojourner Truth; Harriet Tubman; Fannie Lou Hamer; Barbara Jordan; Rebecca Cox Jackson, on and on.
Sr. Thea taught and inspired with dazzling wit, exuberance, and jubilation. Her joyfulness of spirit could rattle the hearts of the most hardened, while the windows rattled with her glorious soprano voice, – melting us with her depth of understanding of human nature. She used song and humor to disarm the loftiest egos, getting behind the masked faces of hierarchy to tweak their humanity and cause their original purpose for faithful service to peek out. Although 30 years gone from our presence, her spirit bursts with exuberance as her story is shared worldwide.
Fr. Richard Rohr said it this way: “Racism is a heart disease. And it’s curable. It requires a transplant, a surgical intervention of mindfulness and heartfulness. To heal the heart, we must understand the mind.”
How? We cure the mind by sharing the Love message of the Gospel, the message Sr. Thea tirelessly, joyfully shared. From earliest years she held forth with her eloquent sermons and teaching, with precision explanations of how to excise hateful ideas. She challenged leaders to fulfill their responsibilities to bring about equality. According to her teaching: “That’s the only way we’re going to have peace, is by sharing and teaching peaceful and loving ways to everyone who crosses our path during our short life.” Of her many gifts, we will focus on these unique ways of teaching spirituality:
- • Inspiring us by sharing her cultural heritage in spiritual songs
- • Exhorting Catholic leadership to deeper and more effective living the Gospel (USCCB)
- • Modeling her rare gift of showing us how to endure suffering and prepare to die
PRAYER 2 Prayer for Racial Justice
Loving God, we pray for a world filled with racial justice
As we recognize the pain and consequences
Of the sin of structural racism in our world today.
Holy One, give us the courage
To use our voices to challenge systems, structures, and thinking
That perpetuate white privilege and racial injustice,
To live out our universal call to holiness,
And to listen to and learn from each other’s stories
As we strive to live out a love that requires Justice.
Finally, we recognize the necessity of personal transformation
In the movement toward a world of racial justice.
We pray to bring to life
The words of Sister Thea Bowman
In our interpersonal relationships
By telling “one another in our homes,
In our church, and even in our world,
I really, really love you.”
Amen. Education for Justice; Loyola University Campus Ministry
Song: Let My People Go – Sr. Thea Bowman
https://www.youtube.com/embed/HqmqdVB7Th8
READING 2
Bertha Elizabeth Bowman, whose grandparents had been enslaved, was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1937, and raised in nearby Canton, MS. The only child of middle-aged parents, she was deeply loved and cherished. Bertha’s mom was an elementary school teacher; her father, the town physician. Her scholarly, accomplished parents formed a bridge to the older generations who had suffered slavery, so that Sr. Thea learned at the feet of the “old folks,” and translated that understanding to the students she taught at all education levels. Her parents provided opportunities for their precocious daughter to learn music, art, dance, languages, stories, songs, traditions, food, customs, and the poise and courage to speak out to the community. She described herself as from “old folks and slave ancestors shaped by the culture and spirituals” of the African-American South, as the music and songs of Gospel melodies filled her childhood world. Methodist by religion, her parents recognized young Bertha’s need for enhanced educational opportunities, and sent her to Canton’s Holy Child Jesus Catholic Missionary School, staffed by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration from La Crosse, WI. Under their spiritual guidance and tutelage, she was inspired by the priests and sisters loving kindness and intellectual prowess, and at age 9, she requested to be Baptized a Catholic.
In Junior High School, Bertha Bowman observed the dedication of the sisters and priests carefully, and felt the tug of Jesus, knocking on the door of her heart. She prepared herself to follow the call to educate the children, give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and spiritual nurturance to all those hungry for the love and words of our Beloved. Her heart’s overriding drive was to spread the Gospel using her depth of gifts: a brilliant mind, an angel’s voice, and an immense understanding of her multi-faceted culture to all she could touch.
To fulfill her call to an ecumenical life of giving, Bertha Bowman journeyed out of the Southern States in 1953, North to LaCross, Wisconsin, and at age 15, entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. At her clothing, she chose her father’s name, Theon, as her name in Religion: Sr. Mary Thea, meaning “of God”. In Wisconsin, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Speech, and Drama from Viterbo College. The Community then sent her to Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. for graduate studies, earning her Master’s in English in 1969, and her Ph.D. in English Language, Literature, and Linguistics in 1972. Her dissertation was on St. Thomas More’s “A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation,” written in the London Tower while he was awaiting execution. Looking back, we can suggest that Sr. Thea bonded with St. Thomas More in his use of expressing deepest emotions to “stir will’s with using sympathetic emotions to promote action.” That seems to explain exactly what she did, with song and rhetoric, stir people’s emotions to a deeper understanding of racial hatred, and how to use love, prayer, and joy to spur us on to action.
Sr. Thea’s Statement to Mike Wallace on CBS’s 60 Minutes in 1987
PRAYER 3 Prayer of Petition, Sr. Thea Bowman Center, Viterbo University
Gracious God, imbue us with the grace and perseverance that you gave your servant, Sr. Thea. For in turbulent times of racial injustice, she sought equity, peace, and reconciliation. In times of intolerance and ignorance, she brought wisdom, awareness, unity, and charity. In times of pain, sickness, and suffering, she taught us how to live fully until called home to the land of promise. If it be your Will, O God, glorify our beloved Sr. Thea, by granting the favor I now request through her intercession (mention your request), so that all may know of her goodness and holiness and may imitate her love for You and Your Church. We ask this through our Brother, Jesus. Amen.
SONG 3: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child Sr. Thea Bowman https://www.youtube.com/embed/TT5Yv97zF-Q
READING 3 Expansion of Sr. Thea’s Apostolate: From Classroom Teacher to International Evangelizer
For 16 years Sr. Thea taught elementary, high school, and university classes mostly in the South, always using song, music, art, literature, dancing, and cultural sharing with all ages to break down the barriers of racial inequity. She knew that education was key in raising intercultural awareness. Bringing people together to experience and communicate would impact them to change hateful attitudes and soften hardened minds and hearts. She was a charismatic speaker; with her dazzling soprano, she channeled her charisma to radiate the Gospel Beatitudes she so loved.
After years of teaching, Bishop Joseph Bernard Brunini appointed Sr. Thea to direct the Office of Intercultural Affairs for the Diocese of Jackson. She was a founding faculty member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans. This role exploded the potential audience priviledged to experience Sr. Thea. As Consultant, Sister Thea travelled the country actively preaching, singing, evangelizing, and teaching in churches, cathedrals, colleges and universities, hospitals, and community gatherings, all during great racial unrest in our country. In her presentations Sr. Thea was a poignant speaker, combining singing, gospel preaching, prayer and storytelling aimed at breaking down racial and cultural barriers. She educated multi-racial audiences about African-American culture, racial injustice, and how to apply our faith to the horrors going on in the world to make small improvements day by day. She encouraged, cajoled, teased, nurtured, and cultivated improved communications. Her magnetic way of communicating was magic, as she became known and beloved across the country. In this way, Sr. Thea touched the lives of tens of thousands of people in a broad stroke of sharing her genius and blessedness with many. It was her way of sharing the Sermon on the Mount in her own life, teaching the Beatitudes she so loved in a myriad of ways. Sr. Thea was a prophet among the people, not always accepted, but calling for everyone to live their faith by making changes in themselves first, and continue efforts toward changing the culture of racism and hatred. People were disarmed by her charming personality, as she nimbly stepped through touchy subjects. Even the congregation of U.S. Bishops fell into her spell of loving chiding for multiple and continuing failures related to supporting and nurturing African-American priests and parishioners. Then, in spite of suffering from cancer, Sr. Thea’s encounter as featured speaker at the Annual United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) became legendary, a highlight of her prophetic life.
VIDEO 2: What Does it Mean to be Black and Catholic? Part of Sr. Thea’s Presentation to the USCCB in 1989 (one minute overlap with video 1) https://www.youtube.com/embed/d6pBrBOawII
"Rise Up Shepherds" A Mural by Bro. Mickey McGrath, OSFS
READING 4 AT HOME WITH LIVING AND DYING
In 1984 Sr. Thea was diagnosed with breast cancer. She said she accepted medication and treatment so she could “live until I die,” continuing to follow a rigorous schedule of speaking engagements. She lost both of her parents in that same year, but her example of courage continued witnessing and sharing her boundless love of Jesus and teaching the Beatitudes. In her short life of 52 years, Sr. Thea Bowman touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and gifted us with many examples of “how to die with dignity.” Her holiness is described in her Cause for Canonization: “Her life epitomized the words of Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium: “Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others.”
From Pope Francis’ Gaudete Et Exultate, the Holy Father writes: “Holiness is boldness, an impulse to evangelize and to leave your mark in this world. …Your identification with Christ and his will involves a commitment to build with him that kingdom of love, justice and universal peace.” In her own words: (see below)
VIDEO 3: “I’m going home like a shooting star…”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5rksLm54Xfc
CLOSING THOUGHTS OF SR. THEA BOWMAN
As we enter Holy Week, we have inspirational messages from Sr. Thea Bowman. Two weeks before she passed into the arms of Jesus, Sr. Thea was interviewed by the U.S. Catholic Magazine.
How do you make sense out of the pain and suffering that you’re experiencing?
Sr. Thea: I don’t make sense of it. I try to make sense of life. I try to keep myself open to people and to laughter and to love and to have faith. I try each day to see God’s will. I pray, “Oh Jesus, I surrender.” I pray, “Father, take this cross away. Not my will, but thy will be done.” I console myself with the old Negro spiritual: “Sooner will be done the troubles of this world. I’m going home to live with God.” In the meantime, I take pain medication because I don’t want my energies to be absorbed by pain. I want to be able to do what I can do the best that I can.
Why do people have to suffer? What possible good can come from it?
Sr. Thea: I don’t know. Why is there war? Why is there hunger? Why is there pain? Perhaps it’s an incentive for struggling human beings to reach out to one another, to help one another, to love one another, to be blessed and strengthened and humanized in the process. Perhaps it’s an incentive to see Christ in our world and to view the work of Christ and to feel the suffering of Christ. I know that suffering gives us new perspective and helps us to clarify our real value. I know that suffering has helped me to clarify my relationship—my relationship to God, how I really feel about myself, what I really want for myself, and my relationship to others. Perhaps suffering stops us in our tracks and forces us to confront what is real within ourselves and within our environment.
REFERENCES
This page of references was provided by Dr. Phillis Isabella Sheperd, ARCWP.
Battle, M. (2021). Desmond Tutu: a spiritual biography of South Africa’s confessor. Westminster. John Knox Press.
Bostic, J. R. (2011). Teaching African American Mysticism. Oxford University Press EBooks, 138–153. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751198.003.0009
Bostic, J. R. (2013). African American female mysticism: nineteenth-century religious activism. Palgrave Macmillan.
Holmes, B. A. (2017). Joy Unspeakable Contemplative Practices of the Black Church (2nd edition). Fortress Press.
Jackson, R. (1981). Gifts of Power.
Koontz, C. (1991). Thea Bowman, handing on her legacy. Sheed & Ward.
Lee, J. (2023). Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee. Illustrated. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing.
Manuel, Zenju Earthlyn. (2012). Be Love: An Exploration of our Deepest Desire.
Manuel, Z. E. (2015). The Way of Tenderness: Awakening through race, sexuality, and gender. Simon and Schuster.
Manuel, Z. E. (2018). Sanctuary: A meditation on home, homelessness, and belonging. Simon and Schuster.
Manuel, Z. E. (2020). The deepest peace: Contemplations from a season of stillness. Parallax Press.
Manuel, Z. E. (2023). Opening to darkness. Sounds True.
Sojourner Truth. (2006). The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Digireads.com Publishing.
Thurman, H. (1979). Mysticism and the experience of Love. Pendle Hill, 2015.
Thurman, H. (2022). Jesus and the disinherited. Beacon Press.
Who will be the first Black Catholic saint in the United States? (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aYKuR19kuA
REFERENCES AND RESOURCES FOR MYSTIC MOMENT: SR. THEA BOWMAN
Sister Thea Bowman Cause for Canonization | 237 E. Amite Street, Jackson, MS 39201 | mary.woodward@jacksondiocese.org
Bowman, Sr. T (1987). The gift of African American sacred song. Readings in African American church music and worship, 209-216.
Bowman, T. (2021). We Are Beloved. Ave Maria Press.
Bowman, T., & Cepress, C. (1999). Sister Thea Bowman, shooting star: selected writings and speeches. Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
Burnim, M. V., & Maultsby, P. K. (2014). African American Music. Routledge.
Harris, K. R. (2017). Sister Thea Bowman: Liturgical Justice Through Black Sacred Song. U.S. Catholic Historian, 35(1), 99–124. https://doi.org/10.1353/cht.2017.0005
Iozzio, M. J. (2013). Liturgical Anthropology of a Soulful Sister: Thea Bowman, FSPA. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 17(3), 317–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228967.2013.809887
Michael O'Neill McGrath. (2014). This little light: lessons in living. Orbis Books.
Nutt, M. J. (2018). Hour with Thea Bowman. Liguori Publications Publication Date October 1, 2018.
Nutt, M. J. (2019). Thea Bowman. Liturgical Press.
Nutt, M.J. Thea Bowman: faithful and free. Liturgical Press. 2019. Winner Association of Catholic Publishers Award Biography June 2020.
Parachin, V.M. (2012) Eleven modern mystics and the secrets of a happy, holy life. Hope Publishing House, 04/11
SBN: 9781123066173
Pembleton, D. (2016). Global leadership, cultural competence and the gospel music legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman. Pembleton, D. (2016). Global Leadership, Cultural Competence and the Gospel Music Legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman.
Richardson, R. (2019). “Free to Be Me”: Reformulating Blackness in Absalom, Absalom!, Remembering the Legacy of Sr. Thea Bowman in Faulkner Studies. The Faulkner Journal, 33(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1353/fau.2019.0027
Sklar, P. A. (2020). Sister Thea Bowman. Paulist Press.
Smith, C., & Feister, J. (2012). Thea’s Song. Orbis Books. 2009. Winner Christopher Award Biography March 2010. Winner Catholic Press Association Award Biography June 2010
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Songs of My People: Album of 25 songs sung by Sr. Thea Bowman, available on Amazon.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/HqmqdVB7Th8 Let my people go 2min..27sec.
https://youtu.be/nGHoxI_yKG0 Deep River by Sr. Thea Bowman
https://youtu.be/VYwGaoEeuls Sr. Thea Bowman 4.19 min
https://youtu.be/rDmgMElJEAY Sr. Thea Bowman The Sheen Center
https://youtu.be/_dQA5MkmLbQ Short Chronicles of Sr. Thea Bowman 1.10min
https://youtu.be/bhu-IujT_GA This trailer provides a look at "Almost Home: Living with Suffering and Dying." Copyright: www.liguori.org. 3.15
https://youtu.be/4IbQYdp_7qo Sr. Thea Bowman, Pray for Us!
https://youtu.be/uvPrLAB57b4 Sr. Thea: Her Own Story 2.41
Sr. Thea Bowman's Address to the US Bishop's Conference
T Bowman - Subcommittee on African American Affairs, 1989: https://youtu.be/oyBio-7ib2I
Sr. Thea Speaking to US Bishops 4.35 November 14, 2018
https://youtu.be/SWGOKdTtYnI?si=eCTkxWrtHGQcNUrZ&t=398
https://youtu.be/SBrNlQ6fJkM Sr. Thea Bowman featured on 60 Minutes CBS
https://youtu.be/q-Yi20rlZMo Accepting the Roses from the US Bishops .54
https://youtu.be/PvvDQ8wXRTA Sr. Thea Bowman Interview w. Fr. Maurice Nutt
https://youtu.be/oyBio-7ib2I What does it mean to be black and Catholic 4.34
https://youtu.be/uM9og6-kpkE Go Where I Send Thee 4.0
https://www.fspa.org/content/about/sister-thea-bowman Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration website photos of Sr. Thea
https://www.vatican.va/siti_va/index_va_en.htm Dicasteries of the Vatican website
https://www.youtube.com/embed/C9HdQ7X5_cE Old Time Religion
https://www.youtube.com/embed/4n7szDM9HxY De Blin Man Stood on de Road an Cried 3.16 solo w piano
Almost Home: Living with Suffering and Dying (Thea Bowman) 3.14
"Sister Thea Bowman's Story," Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, https://www.fspa.org/content/about/sister-thea-bowman .
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202009/sister-thea-bowman-on-dying-with-dignity/
Pope Francis, "Pope at Audience: The Universal Call to Holiness," Vatican Radio, November 19, 2014, http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2014/11/19/pope_at_audience_the_universal_call_to_holiness/en-1111603 .
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