A Leaf from The Great Tree of God:
In Memoriam
Ritmary Bradley, SFCC 1916 –2000
A Tribute
by Margot H. King
May 2000
This short biography is a tribute to the memory of Sister Ritamary Bradley who died on 20 March 2000. It was originally published as the introduction to a Festschrift on the occasion of her retirement in 19941 and its title, A Leaf from the Great Tree of God, was borrowed from an anecdote which Sister Ritamary recounted in the last issue of Sister Formation Bulletin:
Since the work of renewal will be through a return to the Gospels, it might be fitting to close this survey and schema [of the work ahead] with a peasant woman’s version of a homily preached on the parable of the grain of mustard seed. She said "Ever since Father Leonid explained so well the great tree of God which is ever growing and the small branches which are sprouting with the small leaves, I also want to be one of these small leaves." This is surely the legacy of the decade past and the schema for the decade ahead – our helping one another to want very much, and really to be, "one of these small leaves."2
The image of a small leaf in this little story reveals much about Sister Ritamary’s resilience and courage, for it has been as a leaf on the great tree of God -- one might even say a branch -- sums up what she has been for almost eight decades. She was born in Stuart, Iowa in 1916 and, in 1933, inspired by the example of a beloved aunt, entered the Sisters of the Humility of Mary of Ottumwa (Iowa), originally a diocesan congregation which taught in the local schools. While she was still in the novitiate, the congregation, previously independent, came under the control of the Vatican, a decision which, she says, changed the character of the community.
Sr. Ritamary was educated at Ottumwa Heights Junior College and at Marygrove College in Detroit where she completed her undergraduate degree in 1938 with a major in English and a minor in Speech. Over the summers, she worked as a housekeeper for Bishop Rohlman in Davenport, a congenial and kindly man who allowed his housekeepers to avail themselves of his very good library. On one occasion, the Bishop called ahead from Chicago to alert her to the impending visit of Cardinal Pacelli. The best demi-tasses were brought out and the coffee was at the ready when a telephone call came from Dubuque to say that the Cardinal’s itinerary had been changed and that Sister Ritamary, the potential subversive in the kitchen, would not, after all, be waiting on the future Pope Pius XII. The ways of providence are mysterious indeed.
After teaching for two years in Marshalltown IA, Sister Ritamary was assigned to teach English at Marycrest, a new four-year college established in Davenport. Over the next fourteen summers – with only one full year of study in 1952–1953 – she worked towards her advanced degrees, receiving her M.A. from St. Ambrose College in 1942 and a PhD at St. Louis University in 1954. The choice of Chaucer as her area of specialisation, she says, was determined by the fact that women were barred from studying theology and it was only through back doors like mediæval literature or general courses like Christian Wisdom that one could obtain a background in theology and philosophy. On one occasion, however, she was able to beat the system. When the Dean of Graduate Studies countered her request to be admitted into Vernon Burke’s Latin course in Augustine’s Confessions by saying that the course was "just for Jesuits," she replied, "Look Father! I’ve been baptised and confirmed and can read and write...." Recognising the ineluctable force of his opponent, the Dean bowed to the inevitable and gave his permission.
When the Sister Formation Conference was founded in 1954, Sister Ritamary was chosen as editor of its Bulletin. She was such a successful editor that by the time the Conference was suppressed in 1964 by a frightened ecclesiastical bureaucracy, it had a circulation of 11,000 and was praised by Time Magazine for its breadth of vision,3 a vision which Ritamary outlined in the final issue:
to stimulate leadership by assuring that the clarified notions of "liberty of conscience" and "religious liberty" be used without admixture of unworthy ends and without cowardice – in a word, to channel them into moral and spiritual leadership as opposed to lifeless legalism . . . [and] to aid and encourage, in the context of religious formation, literature in which the emerging philosophical, cultural, and theological ideas will find expression – that literature, for example, of "commitment" and authenticity" which is directly related to human experience and which therefore does not fit into abstract presentation and does not lend itself to artifical remote-from-the-world formulations.4
Sister Ritamary’s reaction to the betrayal of these ideals by her brothers and sisters in religious life is proof of the authenticity of her commitment. When I once asked her how on earth she could have remained in a structure which had left her, dispossessed, to roam the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota with only two suitcases to her name, she quietly reminded me of its Founder to whom she has remained ever faithful. In 1964, shortly before the Bulletin was suppressed, she sent a mimeographed leaflet to the Curia-controlled executive committe of the Conference of Major Superiors of Women’s Institutes which goes far to explain both her fidelity and her courage:
If we give up any required expression of that freedom for some individual or selfish good, we have failed Christ and all men. If we strive to safeguard that freedom, which the Holy Spirit and the sacramental life perfect, and we see that our striving fails, we shall still love Christ and all men while entering into his dark passion.5
Jobless and pennilesss, Sister Ritamary moved back to Davenport with her close friend Sister Annette Walters, SSJ, executive secretary of the Sister Formation Conference from 1960 to 1964, and there resumed her former career at St. Ambrose College (now St. Ambrose University). I have often wondered if the persons responsible for the banishment – forever anonymous in true bureaucratic fashion – thought that these two disobedient daughters of the Church would be silenced once and for all and quietly disappear into the cornfields of Iowa. Neither option could have been possible for two women whose formation was so solidly rooted in the Spirit and for whom action and contemplation were so inextricably mixed. In 1972, they transferred to the Sisters for Christian Community, a non-canonical international order of religious women. Loosely organised and non-hierarchical, the sfcc is a group of women who share with Sister Ritamary a vision of the dignity of human freedom. In 1975, she once again appeared in the public arena, now as a spiritual guide to a whole new generation of North Americans who knew nothing of the mystical riches of the Christian tradition.
In 1994, she had sent out a mailing to over 500 people asking for their views on a proposed newsletter on the fourteenth-century mystics. At the same time, she contacted a fellow mediævalist, Dr. Valerie Lagorio, a professor of English at the University of Iowa who lived a scant thirty miles from Davenport. A more unlikely pair to join forces it would be difficult to imagine: a soft-spoken nun and a former chorus girl turned academic who still can do a mean bump and grind. In the life of the spirit, however, like finds like and both had been gripped by the powerful message of the English mystics. When over 300 replies to the first mailing came pouring into Ritamary’s office, they decided to take the plunge and in January 1975 the first issue of the 14th Century English Mystics Newsletter (now, Mystics Quarterly) was published, hand-typed by Valerie, as mean a typist as she is a hula dancer.
What might, at first glance, seem to have been a new direction for Sister Ritamary was, in fact, simply a continuation of the goals she had pursued in her Sister Formation years. In spite of its manifest sinfulness, the institutional Church has been sustained for the past two millenia only by the hidden workings of the Spirit. Sister Ritamary’s unwavering loyalty to the true Church and to the Mystical Body of Christ is firmly rooted in this hidden tradition. Her radical commitment has ever been to the freedom which comes from the Spirit, a freedom against which the forces of oppression can never prevail and which cannot, in the long run, be silenced by ecclesiastical bureaucracy.
While the immediate audience of the fledgling newsletter was the academic community, its editors felt that the sudden popular upsurge of interest in mysticism was lacking a firm grounding in the cultural and spiritual roots of the Western tradition. This foundation they proposed to establish by encouraging solid scholarship and the publication of good critical editions and adequate textbooks In the summer of 1975, Ritamary and Annette visited Japan to interview theologians and contemplative Sisters and to ask their views on the new venture, while Valerie went to the United Kingdom to sound out English scholars. In September of that year, they published letters from Finland, Australia, Japan, Germany, England, the United States and Canada. The publication was on its way and Ritamary had found another channel for her vision.
This, of course, was only a part of it. The appearance of Ritamary and Annette as part of a public demonstration against the Vietnam War in Chicago towards the end of August 1968 – where they were not only photographed but maced as well – was a sign of her increasing involvement in public issues. In 1975, as chairman of the Davenport Civil Rights Commission, she opposed a plan to use a large part of a $976,000 hud grant to build tennis courts for the rich, and when her appointment was not renewed, she led a two-year battle for greater accountancy for the disbursement of such funds. The decision which ended the battle is considered by many civil rights experts to be an important legal precedent for the United States.6 Despite her unhappy experiences with ecclesiastical politicians, she remains an active – if not always submissive! – daughter of the Church and has served twice on the Davenport Diocesan Synod to which she was appointed by Bishop Gerald O’Keefe. She is a member of the Religious Education Association of the United States and Canada where she has served as a Board member and, for two terms, as Vice-President. Ever a feminist, she is a Board member of the National Coalition of American Nuns, as well as a member of the ecumenical Institute of Women Today. Her commitment to helping the oppressed from all walks of life has found an expression in her current apostolate. As chaplain at the Scott County Jail in Davenport, she has enriched the lives of countless women whose only encounter with the "mystical continuum" has surely been this quiet and unassuming woman who listens and never preaches. In 1990, she received the Volunteer Service Award for her work in this area.
At an age when most people are content to sink into a senescent retirement, Ritamary Bradley has never stopped. An enthusiastic convert to electronic mail and Internet, she is used as an example to computer novices at St. Ambrose who are urged to persevere by being told, "If Sister Ritamary can do it . . ." With Peggy Thompson, she began a new electronic discussion group focusing on the history and contemporary concerns of women religious (featured, no less, in the New York Times Magazine and ). And as if all this were not enough, within the past two years she has published two books on Julian of Norwich to rave reviews.
Sister Ritamary Bradley’s public life has been built on the principles enunciated by Vatican II. Plunging into the world, she has generously shared with it the wisdom she acquired during her own "dark passion" and from her personal encounter with the Divine. "The mystical life," she has said,
is a growth process of transformation. At its fullness it embodies not only unity with a Trinitarian Godhead encountered in the soul’s centre, but also includes an active, effective, compassionate awareness that the Trinity animates the created universe, that the divine is the gound of being, that the whole Christ is one with his members. To put this in the direct words of a woman mystic, Julian of Norwich, God is the maker, the keeper, the lover, active in all that is good turning evil into good, working in us so that our contemplation of Christ overflows into abundant love for one’s even-Christians.7
Efficient, energetic and enthusiastic, Ritamary holds no truck with clerical or bureaucratic humbug or with lifeless and dehumanising abstractions. A less brave woman would have cracked under the weight of ecclesiastical hostility and a less prayerful one would have lost faith. Sister Ritamary, however, had been prepared for such assaults by a bedrock grounding in a fidelity to the divine reality which lives in her and shines through everything she does. Hers is a commitment to the very real integration of the spiritual and the human, of the spiritual and the intellectual. I am sure that neither her colleagues at Saint Ambrose University nor her neighbours have any idea that this unassuming woman has received two honourary degrees – Honourary Doctor of Laws from Marquette University and Honourary Doctor of Human Letters from Fordham University – nor what an important role she is played, and is still playing, for the liberation of women in the Church and in society. Through her writings and her presence, her influence has been incalculable on everyone she meets, from fellow academics to inmates at the Scott County Jail. In a paper published by Speculum, the prestigious journal of the Medieval Institute of America, 8she quoted the eighteenth-century author William Cowper on the purpose of mirror literature: "to show the world what it is and . . .to point out what it should be."9 Seeing all things in their degree10 and ever seeking after wisdom,11 she has been mentor, teacher, friend and confidante to all who ask her help.
For the past twenty-eight years, Sister Ritamary has lived a modest life in Davenport on a quiet street filled with children and dogs. One can easily think of her as a modern-day beguine or a Julian of Norwich whose life echoes the ancient Benedictine mandate of prayer, work and study. But a recluse she is not. As with Julian, love binds her to her even-Christians and, with its stream of visitors, her house occasionally resembles Grand Central Station. While I was staying with her in the spring of 1992, she welcomed two more house guests and accepted with gracious equanimity an unexpected visit by her pastor and eleven parish members to bless the house she and Sister Annette had bought in 1964. As they were leaving, her clerical friend turned to me and murmured, "So much for the hermit life!"
Mary Sings12
My soul is a glass: gaze and see
how great is Mother God.
And my spirit sings out in joy,
for Mercy has come to save.
For the One who is Mighty has taken flesh in me.
Holy is Wisdom.
Holy is that Wisdom that shall be born
and called Emmanuel.
Yes, my soul is a glass:
gaze and see how great is our Mother God.
My spirit sings out in joy
for the Mercy who comes to save.
Because I mirror the motherhood
of the one who gives me birth.
Yes. From this day forward
all who are born of woman may call me full of joy.
For the Mighty One has done great things to me.
And holy is that Wisdom
which is before all things,
That Mercy reaching for age to age
to all who reverence her.
Power is in the arm that shelters and embraces me.
routed shall be the proud of heart.
Down from their thrones shall princes fall,
while the lowly learn that the least are greatest.
Mother God will give her breast to those who hunger,
and the rich shall go away with parched tongues.
Darkness will blot out the pageantry of power.
Light will fall on the path of those
who escape from the snare.
Ritamary died died peacefully on 20 March 2000 at the age of 84. May she rest in peace, surrounded in heaven, as she was on earth, with her friends, living and dead, human and canine.
Notes
1. A Leaf from the Great Tree of God: Essays in Honour of Ritamary Bradley, SFCC, edited by Margot H. King (Toronto: Peregrina Publishing Co., 1994)
2. Sister Formation Bulletin 10/4 (Summer 1964) 216, quoting from Paul Milleux, S.J., Exarch Leonid Feodorov: Bridgebuilder between Rome and Moscow (New York: P.J. Kenedy, 1954) 126.
3. Time Magazine (July 17, 1964), p. 43.
4. Mimeographed letter, quoted by Sister Annette Walters, ssj, "Religious Life, Yesterday and Today" New Catholic World 215 (March–April 1972) 75.
5. See p. 10 for photograph of Sr. Ritmary and Sr. Annette in Chicago demonstrating against the Vietnam war; reproduced from Mark Lane, Chicago Eyewitness (New York: Astor-Honor, 1968) 92.
6. Jane Priwer, "Theology’s Feminine Mystique" Universitas: A Quarterly Publication for Graduates and Friends of Saint Louis University 3/3 (Winter 1978) 4 .
7. Ritamary Bradley, In the Jaws of the Bear: Mystical Transformations by Women Mystics, Peregrina Papers series (Toronto: Peregrina Publishing Co., 1991) 5.
8. "Background of the Title Speculum in Medieval Literature" Speculum 29 (1954) 100–115.
9. The Mirror, Saturday, 30 January 1779 in The British Essayists, ed. A. Chalmers 18 (Boston MA, 1856) 26, quoted by Ritamary Bradley, "Backgrounds of the Title Speculum," 100.
10. George Gascoigne, "The Steel Glas" The Complete Works of George Gascoigne, ed. John W. Cunliffe (Cambridge, Eng., 1910) 2, 148–140, quoted by Bradley, "Backgrounds of the Title Speculum," 101.
11. Ibid., 105.
12. "Mary Sings" in The Jaws of the Bear, 3.
Ritamary Bradley, SFCC:
A Bibliography
1938–1953
1954:
-"Background of the Title Speculum in Mediaeval Literature" Speculum 29 (1954) 100–115.
-"Naming God in St. Augustine’s Confessions" The Thomist 17 (1954) 186–196. [Summary in Revue des études augustiennes 113 (1955) 35.
-"Mirror of Truth According to St. Thomas" Modern Schoolman 31 (1954) 301–317.
-Sister Formation Bulletin (1954–1964). Founder, editor, and contributor.
1955:
-Editor, The Mind of the Church in the Formation of Sisters (New York: Fordham University Press, 1955).
-"The Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Mirror Tradition" Journal of English and Germanic Philology 55 (1956) 624–630.
-Review of The Eternal Woman, by Gertrud von le Fort Commonweal (February 25, 1955) 561–563.
1956:
-Editor, Spiritual and Intellectual Elements in the Formation of Sisters (New York: Fordham University Press, 1956).
1957:
-Editor and contributor, Planning for the Formation of Sisters (New York: Fordham University Press, 1957).
-Review of Education selon le Christ, reprint from Parents et maîtres The Catholic Educator 28 (November 1957) 228–229.
-Review of The Sacred Heart in the Life of the Church, by Margaret Williams The Catholic World 186 (November 1957):159.
-"Curriculum Construction for Catholic Teacher-Education Institutions" School and Society 85 (January 5, 1957) 10–12.
1958:
-"Activité et activisme" La Vie Spirituelle, Supplement 45 (1958) 215–230; translated from Sister Formation Bulletin 4 (Winter, 1957–58) 3–6.
-Review of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, by Franic Trochu The Catholic Messenger (February 6, 1958) 13.
1959:
-Editor, The Juniorate in Sister Formation (New York: Fordham University Press, 1959).
-Review of The Hidden Face: A Study of St Thérèse of Lisieux, by Ida Friederike Görres The Catholic Messenger (February 19, 1959) 11.
-"Teaching the Psalms to Beginners" Sponsa Regis 29 (January 1958) 118–124.
-Review of Joy out of Sorrow, by Mother Marie des Douleur The Catholic World 189 (May 1959) 173–174.
-"Sisters as Practitioners in the Teaching of Religion" Religious Education 54 (July–August, 1959) 323–30.
-Reprint volume, Sister Formation Bulletin, vols.: 1–4 (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1959).
-Review of I Remember: Sketch for an Autobiography, by Boris Pasternak The Catholic Messenger (June 4, 1959) 11.
1960:
-"Lavigerie and the Education of Sisters" Thought 35 (Winter, 1959–1960) 607–615.
1963:
-Reprint volume, Sister Formation Bulletin, vols 5–8 (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1963).
1964:
-"Contributions of Philosophy to the Sister Formation Program" Philosophy in a Technological Society, ed. Rev. George F. McLean. Proceedings of the Workshop on Philosophy in a Technological Culture, June 13–June 14, 1963 (Washington DC: Catholic University of America) 344–363.
-Reprint volume Sister Formation Bulletin, vols. 9–10 (St. Paul: North Central Publishing Company, 1965).
1965:
-Review of The One Bride, by Sister Mary Jane Klimisch, OSB Sisters Today 37 (September 1965) 27–29.
-"The Challenge of Renewal for Sisters Today" National Catholic Reporter (June 2, June 30, 1965).
-Review of Lucinie M.L., by Pascal–Dasque The Catholic Messenger (October 15, 1959) 11.
1966:
-"The Council: Renewal of Education" National Catholic Educational Association Bulletin 63/1 (August, 1966).
-The Challenge of Renewal to Sisters Today (Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 1966); reprint from National Catholic Reporter.
1967:
-Review of Human Love, Existential and Mystical, by Ralph Harper Sisters Today 39 (September 1967) 32–33.
1970:
-Review of Discerning the Spirit: Foundations and Futures of Religious Life, by Donald L. Gelpi Sisters Today 42 (November 1970) 179–80.
1971:
-With Sister Annette Walters, "Motivation and Religious Behavior" Review of Research in Religious Development (Hawthorn, 1971) 599–651.
-"Crisis in Religious Life" Cross Currents 21 (Winter 1971) 113–117.
1972:
-Review of Thomas Merton Social Critic, by James T. Baker Religious Education 69 (May–June, 1972) 239–240.
1974:
-Co-editor with Valerie Lagorio. 14th Century English Mystics Newsletter, later Mystics Quarterly (1974–1991).
-Review of The Religion of Dostoevsky, by A. Boyce Gibson Religious Education 69 (November–December 1974) 758–759.
-Review of Alienation: Plight of Modern Man? ed. William C. Bier, S.J. Religious Education 69 (March–April, 1974):284.
1975:
-"Present-Day Themes in the Fourteenth-Century English Mystics" Spiritual Life 20 (Winter 1974) 260–267.
-Review of Franz Kafka: Literature as Corrective Punishment, by Franz Kuna The Review of Books and Religion (Mid-June, 1975) 5.
1976:
-Review of A Study in Metaphor and Theology, by Sallie Teselle Religious Education 71 (January–February 1976) 106–108.
-"The Council’s Renewal of Education" Proceedings of the National Catholic Educational Association (August, 1976) Closing address of National Catholic Educational Association convention, McCormack Place, April, 1976.
-Review of The Early English Lyric and Franciscan Spirituality, by David L. Jeffrey Christian Scholar’s Review 6 (1976) 71–72.
1977:
-"All Manner of Things Shall Be Well" The Catholic Messenger (October 27, 1977).
-Review of Biblical Images in Literature, ed. R. Bartel with J. Ackerman and T. Warshawn Religious Education 72 (January–February 1977) 101–102.
1978:
-"The English Mystics: A Progress Report on Scholarship and Teaching" Religious Education 73 (May–June 1978) 335–345.
-"Patristic Background of the Motherhood Similitude in Julian of Norwich" Christian Scholar’s Review 8 (1978) 101–113.
-"Julian: The Metaphor of Mother" [Review of Julian of Norwich’s Showings, trans. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh] National Catholic Reporter (July 28, 1978).
1979:
-"Kiss Boy Babies Only" (poem) Newsletter of Christian Feminists 2 (October, 1979); German translation in Mir Fraue Schweizer Frauenblatt, Munich (December 1979).
1980:
-Review of Western Spirituality: Historical Roots, Ecumentical Routes, by Matthew Fox Religious Education 75 (May–June, 1980) 378–79.
1981:
-With Valerie Lagorio, The 14th Century English Mystics: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography (New York: Garland, 1981).
-"Perception as Symbol in ‘The Teachings of Sylvanus’" Vision et perception fondamentales (Lyon, France: I.R.I.S. Association Internationale, June, 1981), pp. 62–65.
-"Julian of Norwich: Theologian of the Earth" Body and Soul (July, 1981) 5–6.
-"Julian’s ‘Doubtful Drede’" Month 8 (February, 1981) 53–57.
1982:
-"Christ the Teacher in Julian’s Showings" The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England, vol. 2, ed. Marion Glasscoe. (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1982), pp. 127–142.
1984:
-"Julian of Norwich on Prayer" Spätmittelalteriche geistliche Literatur in der Nationalsprache, ed. James Hogg. Band I. (Salzburg, Austria: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1983) 136–154.
-"Back When the Country Was Strong" Federation Reports (Washington, DC: Federation of State Humanities Councils, 1984) 1–6; originally published in Muses, publication of the Iowa Humanities Board.
-"The Speculum Image in Medieval Mystical Writers" Medieval Mystical Tradition in England, ed. Marion Glasscoe. Vol. 3 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1984) 9–27.
-Review of Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages, by Carolyn Bynum Philological Quarterly 63 (1984) 141–143.
-Review of The Luminous Vision: Six Medieval Mystics and Their Teachings, by Anne Bancroft Speculum 59 (1984) 715.
-Review of Love Was His Meaning: The Theology and Mysticism of Julian of Norwich, by Brant Pelphrey Speculum 59 (1984) 682–684.
-Review of Literature of Mysticism in the Western Tradition, by Patrick Grant Speculum 59 (1984) 976–977.
-Review of Scattering and Oneing: A Study of Conflict in the Works of the Author of the Cloud of Unknowing, by Robert W. Englert Speculum 50 (1984) 972–73.
-Review of The Christian Tragic Hero in French and English Literature, by G.R. Ridge and C. Njoku Christian Scholar’s Review 13 (1984) 396–397.
1985:
-"Julian on Prayer" in Julian, Woman of Our Day, ed. Robert Llewelyn (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1985), pp. 65–74.
-"Mysticism in the Motherhood Similitude of Julian of Norwich" Studia Mystica 8 (1985) 4–14.
-Review of The Negative Theology of the Dionysian School of Mystical Theology, by Ann Lees Speculum 60 (1985) 965–997.
-"The Truth Shall Make You Free" in Midwives of the Future American Sisters Tell Their Story, ed. Ann Patrick Ware (Kansas City, Mo.: Sheed and Ward, 1985).
1986:
-"Perception of Self in Julian of Norwich’s Showings" Downside Review 104 (1986) 227–239.
-"Metaphors of Cloth and Clothing in the Showings of Julian of Norwich" Mediaevalia 9 (1986) 269–281.
1987:
-"Julian on Prayer" in Peaceweavers, Medieval Religious Women vol. 2 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987) pp. 291–304.
1988:
-Review of William of Nassington: Canon, Mystic and Poet of the Speculum vitae, by Ingrid Petersen Speculum 63 (1988) 974–975.
1989:
-"Julian on Mary" Anima 15 (Spring, 1989) 108–112.
1990:
-"Religious Life in the Future: Historical Precedents for Emerging Paradigms" The Future of Religious Life. Proceedings of the Carondlelet Conference (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990), pp. 73–87.
-Review of God Within: The Mystical Tradition of Northern Europe, by Oliver Davies Speculum 65 (1990) 648–650.
-"The Goodness of God: A Julian Study" in Langland, the Mystics and the Medieval English Mystical Tradition: Essays in Honour of S.S. Hussey, ed. Helen Phillips (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), pp. 85–96.
-"Religious Orders" Harper’s Encyclopedia of Religious Education, eds. Iris V. and Kendig B. Cully (San Francisco: Harper and Row: 1990) 547–549.
-"Romanticism" Harper’s Encyclopedia of Religious Education, eds. Iris V. and Kendig B. Cully (San Francisco: Harper and Row: 1990) 556–557.
1991:
-"In the Jaws of the Bear: Journeys of Transformation by Women Mystics" Vox Benedictina 8/1 (Summer 1991) 556–557; reissued, with preface, "Mary Sings," as Peregrina Papers Series 3 (Toronto: Peregrina Publishing Col., 1991).
-Review of The Revelations of Margery Kempe: Paramystical Practices in Late Medieval England, by John C. Hirsh Speculum 66 (1991) 889–891.
1992:
-Julians’ Way: A Practical Commentary on Julian of Norwich (London: HarperCollins Religious; San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992).
-Review essay of The Ways of the Spirit, by Evelyn Underhill, ed. Grace A. Brame; Modern Guide to the Ancient Quest for the Holy, by Evelyn Underhill, ed. Dana Greene; Evelyn Underhill: Artist of the Infinite Life, ed. Dana Greene in Religion and Literature 24 (Autumn, 1992) 79–84.
1993:
-Not for the Wise: The Prayer Texts from Julian of Norwich (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1994).
-"Ripped off or re-clothed? . . . Ministry in a Jail" Entree 10 (March, 1993) 8.
-Review of Religion in the Poetry and Drama of the Late Middle Ages in England, eds. Pieri Boitani and Anna Torti Studies in the Age of Chaucer 15 (1993).
-"Parting with Peggy" Vox Benedictina 10/1 (1993) 115–121. Available on www.peregrina.com.
1995:
-Praying with Julian of Norwich: Selections from A Revelation of Love, with Commentary. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1995.
-"Love and Knowledge in Seven Manners of Loving." In Hidden Springs, Medieval Religious Women 3, ed. Lillian Thomas Shank and John A. Nichols (Kalamazoo MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995) 361–376.
-"Beatrice of Nazareth (c1200–1268): A Search for her True Spirituality." In Vox Mystica: Essays on Medieval Mysticism in Honor of Professor Valerie M. Lagorio, ed. Anne Clark Bartlett [et al.], 57–74. Cambridge; Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 1995.
1997:
-"Julian of Norwich: Everyone’s Mystic" in Mysticism and Spirituality in Medieval England, ed. William F. Pollard and Robert Boenig. Woodbridge UK; Rochester NY: D.S. Brewer, 1997.
1998:
-"Julian of Norwich" and "The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Works" in Medieval England: An Encyclopedia, ed. Paul E. Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina and Joel T. Rosenthal. New York: Garland, 1998.
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