The Institute of Catholic Theology

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.