Transcript of the Video Above

Daily reflections for Lenten Easter, written by Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI.

I once saw an interview with Catherine Dehuyuk Doherty, a Russian baroness and the founder of the Madonna House Apostolate. She was already more than 80 years old and, reflecting on the struggles of her spiritual journey, said something to this effect.

It’s like there are, three persons inside me.

There’s someone I call the Baroness.
The Baroness is spiritual and given over to asceticism and prayer.
She’s the one who founded the religious community, wrote the spiritual books, and who tries to give her life to the poor.

But inside of me, too, there’s another person whom I call Catherine.
Catherine likes idleness, long baths, fine clothes, putting on makeup, good meals, good wine, and, as a married woman, enjoyed a healthy sex life. But she doesn’t want renunciation or poverty.
She’s not religious like the Baroness. Indeed, she hates the Baroness and has a strained relationship with her.

Then, finally, inside of me, too, there’s someone else. A little girl, a child, lying on a hillside in Finland, watching the clouds and daydreaming.

And as I get older, I feel more like the Baroness. I long more for Catherine. But I think maybe the little girl daydreaming on a hillside in Finland might be who I really am.

These words come from a spiritual giant, someone who attained both wholeness and sanctity after a long search and difficult struggle.

Like Catherine Doherty, all of us have a number of different persons inside us.
Wholeness means somehow making a whole, a harmony out of all these different persons.