Higher Up, Deeper In—Together.
My name is Sarah Carter. I created Recovering Catholic for people going through seasons of transition or growth in their lives of faith, who are wondering how to be faithful but still authentic though the many ups and downs that life brings, or who want a deeper encounter with Jesus and the treasures given to us by the Church in the deposit of faith regarding prayer, spirituality, morality, politics, and so on - without the tribalism or pre-packaged ideologies so prevalent today.
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After being at this for over a year, and in the meantime experiencing an unexpected and very difficult pregnancy, I have come to terms with the fact that there may be slower seasons for me on Substack. Considering this, I don’t feel comfortable pay-walling any of my writing for the time being—I would much rather give more people more access to this project.
However, there are two ways you can support my work financially if you are inclined:
You can become a paid subscriber on Substack. If you want to pay and you’re a “set it and forget it” kind of person, this option is for you.
You can “tip” at your discretion using Buy Me A Coffee. Look, sometimes I unsubscribe from things that I legitimately enjoy and want to pay for just because of the pure annoyance I feel at being automatically charged for things. Maybe that’s you, too, and you just like having the option to pay when you appreciate something I put out there on Substack … and to, well, not pay when you don’t, or during seasons where you are tightening the belt a bit. I will include a link for those who wish to tip after every post. Sidenote: BMAC also has a “make this monthly” option—incidentally, with lower fees on my end than Substack’s.
In either case, if you do choose to give financial support, thank you.
Why “Recovering Catholic?”
We all know a guy (or gal). They grew up Catholic in the seventies and got their knuckles knocked raw by a cranky nun with a ruler in Catholic school. They got the Catechism class, they got their Sacraments, they got their diploma, and then they got the hell out. Now they joke about needing a twelve-step program and probably witness protection after all of this exposure to Catholicism in their youth, for its un-killable influence on them is like a nasty problem with drugs or an ex-lover-turned-stalker. They’re “recovering Catholics.”
I kind of like the term though, and I want to take it back. To take it back for those of us who are still here, even if we sometimes wish we weren’t; who have known both the glory and the terror of being gripped by the Living God; who see the incompetence, failure, and even wickedness of human beings in the Church, but desire even so to keep our eyes trained on the Savior.
Because recovery doesn't have to mean walking away.
The name “Recovering Catholic” is also a double entendre. As I mentioned, it’s a reference to this self-applied monicker for former Catholics, but the “Recovering” is also intended to hint at the kind of work I hope to do here. In contemporary theology there has been a movement of retrieval by “returning to the sources” (“ressourcement”), of reaching back into the fountainheads of Catholic theology - Scripture, the early Church fathers, medieval scholasticism, and the witness of the saints - to discover “things both old and new” which can aid us in thinking deeply about questions facing the Church here and now. Ressourcement theologians and methods will thus feature prominently here, and I pray that readers will find in this approach and the works of its greatest champions (De Lubac, Ratzinger, Daniélou, and the like) a source of encouragement and spiritual renewal, as I have.
Three fundamental convictions will inform everything what you’ll read here:
We are all “recovering Catholics” navigating the realities of sin, evil, and death that mark our experience of faith and relationship with God and the Church.
The integration and healing our hearts are longing for cannot be found by eschewing or abandoning our faith, either in part or whole. It will be found only by going higher up and further in, recovering vital contact with the Source.
True, lifelong conversion that goes deeper than surface level requires an ongoing recovery of Scripture and Tradition for our lives and experience, here and now.
Who am I?
My name is Sarah Carter and I am a Catholic, a wife, a mother, and a writer.
I journeyed south from my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota to attend the University of St. Thomas, where I studied Economics and Catholic Studies. I did campus ministry for two years after graduation, and then returned to St. Paul, Minnesota to complete a master’s degree in theology at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. During grad school I focused my research on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ and its implications for Catholic spiritual practice, but at the same time I also got my feet wet working in the political world, where I still am today. I’ve been deeply influenced by and remain interested in the thought and writings of C.S. Lewis, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Josef Pieper, Pope John Paul II, Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Flannery O’Connor, and Caryl Houselander.
I’m humbled and grateful you’re here.
Recovering Catholics, welcome!
