Sister Joan Chittister: Presence and Perpetual Goodnes...
What does enlightenment look like in Christian tradition? How do we cultivate the kind of presence that transforms ordinary moments into sacred encounters?
This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon shares a rebroadcast of one of her most cherished interviews—a conversation recorded at Mount St. Benedict’s Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania with Sister Joan Chittister, just before her 83rd birthday. Sister Joan is an American Benedictine nun, theologian, and author of more than 50 books who has spent over 40 years advocating for peace, human rights, women’s issues, and church renewal.
Join Tami and Sister Joan to explore:
- The Christian path from contemplation to unity and “seeing the world through God’s eyes”
- Sister Joan’s mystical experience of light as a teenager and how it shaped her entire spiritual life
- The sacrament of the present moment and what true presence actually requires
- Why opening your heart sometimes means closing it to certain things
- How spiritual traditions are evolving and what religion offers in an increasingly secular age
- The prayer Sister Joan repeats before every talk: accepting “whatsoever deaths thou shall choose to send me”
- Why consciousness—not mindfulness techniques—is the foundation of contemplative living
This is a conversation about what a lifetime of monastic practice reveals, the electricity of divine presence, and how struggle itself becomes the crucible for transformation.
Want to go deeper? Listen to the complete seven-hour conversation in the audio series Catching Fire at soundstrue.com
