Clare McCallan
10 min read ⭑
“I feel the Holy Spirit in a very specific kind of breeze. It’s something about the way the air hits my neck and the coolness of it ... I know that he’s there.”
Virtue. Adventure. Those two words sum up the various work Clare McCallan does as an author, journalist and TV personality. Her TV show, “The Renaissance Room,” and upcoming book, “Courage to Create,” help creatives find inspiration and step into their birthright as artists made in the image of the Creator. She’s also a nationally renowned spoken word poet and creative director of St. Joseph’s Home for Artisans in Boston. Let Clare’s honesty inspire you today as we discuss her secret passion for women who have found joy in suffering, her tendency to self-isolate and the delights of her new bohemian home.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
I live in a Catholic artist community in Boston. We were given use of an old, broken-down convent in 2021 by our incredible pastor, Fr. Michael Della Penna. We spent months haphazardly (but good-heartedly) working on the space, and in the end, we were rewarded with our own humble little slice of bohemia. But how modest our home is! It has one showstopping feature: our huge roof, which looks over the ocean on one side and the city skyline on the other.
My favorite dinners are usually on fasting days, like Ash Wednesday or Good Friday when our community comes together (often joined by our dear friend Father Michael, who made this all possible) for lentil soup and bread. Good Friday dinner is probably my favorite because it often takes place at the very beginning of the warmer weather, so it’s the first time we’re able to have dinner on the roof after a long winter.
Our home is better for its simplicity, and so are our rooftop meals.
Wikimedia Commons
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activity (or activities) do you love engaging in, which also help you find essential spiritual renewal?
I have a secret passion for (and perhaps fear of) what I like to refer to as the unhappy women who bring me joy. On my walls hang black-and-white photographs that I printed of Joan Didion, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dolly Parton, Maeve Binchy, Andrea Dworkin and Isabella Stewart Gardner. Each of these women experienced profound loss, poverty and even the denial of what they had hoped for most out of life. And from those hardships, they created the art, writing, museums and music that serve as both compass and consolation for me in my own journey. These are the women I hope to become like someday but also ... how much will I have to suffer in order to do so?
A few years ago, my aunts and uncles and I were going through old letters and found one in which my grandfather comforted his daughter, assuring her that the women in this family suffer well. I felt deeply moved and a little bit disturbed by this, mostly because I think he was right.
So a quiet passion of mine is to read and watch everything that has ever been made by or about Joan, Edna, Dolly, Maeve, Andrea and Isabella. This year, I hope to finish every full book Joan Didion ever wrote and every poetry collection that Edna wrote. I’m about halfway through now. I’m currently reading a 500-page volume of Isabella’s letters with her art collector and trying to muddle through some of Andrea’s (pretty upsetting but poignant) works. I can whip out Dolly Parton trivia in a way that’s more suspicious than impressive. Did you know that she wrote “9 to 5” on her acrylic nails as if she were playing the washboard? She’d write new verses for the song every day while filming the “9 to 5” movie and the rest of the cast would gather at the end of each day to hear what she had written. She wrote over 100 verses to that song ... on her nails.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you hide it?
My weakness is probably my tendency to self-isolate and then explain it away as just being an introvert. In that isolation, resentment grows and relationships are damaged. I know that if I just communicated about it at the moment, maybe I could stay social a little longer and not let the resentment rot my relationships.
I’ll go write a song about it on my acrylic nails, I guess. (Sometimes, I use humor to deflect, too!)
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
My new book, “Courage to Create,” comes out on April 19. It’s all about our artisan community here in Boston and serves as a guidebook for young creatives of faith as they seek to grow in the image of the ultimate Artist himself.
Besides that, my television show, “The Renaissance Room,” premiered on CatholicTV in January. On the show, I speak about truth, beauty and goodness and then platform the work of a young Christian artist while featuring a performance of theirs or images of their work.
St. Joseph’s Home for Artisans continues to grow here in Boston. We’ll be bringing in a cohort of videographers this summer to make original Christian television in community while serving the video content needs of our parish, St. Leonard’s.
Every few months, I head down to El Paso, where I volunteer with the incredible ministry of my dear friends, Karina Breceda and Destiny Herndon Dela Rosa: shelters for pregnant women and children on both sides of the border.
I’m incredibly grateful for my vocation and this work, but above all these days, I’m enjoying resting in the fruits of our labor here at St. Joe’s and training to run my first triathlon with my dad this summer!
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
I feel the Holy Spirit in a very specific kind of breeze. It’s something about the way the air hits my neck and the coolness of it ... I know that he’s there. His presence doesn’t always come with some great inspiration or an answer to a question I’ve been struggling with. More than anything, it’s like having a hand laid on my back to remind me of his presence.
When I write, both my work and I benefit from fasting — from food, noise, entertainment, socialization and alcohol. Stripping my life of these indulgences allows me to enter more easily into what the Irish call “thin spaces,” places where the distance between the earth and heaven seems to shorten. I find that I have the most access to God in those moments, but it’s probably just that I’ve quieted the noise and can actually finally hear him.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you right now?
My spiritual life has recently come alive in a way that it never has before. Not only have I added good practices, but bad habits that I’ve spent decades burdened by have finally rolled off my back like water.
The change began in El Paso around Thanksgiving of last year. I was staying in the shelter with the women and children about 150 feet from the border itself. Every night, I was overcome with anxiety that would keep me from sleeping. I quickly realized how present the devil was in chaos and how borders are magnets for chaos. I had always known that Jesus was the Prince of Peace, but I guess I had never considered what that meant as far as Satan being the agent of chaos. It became so clear to me how the devil thrives in the bedlam and babel of borders. I was also just completely overwhelmed by the emotional weight of the work.
So, for the first time in my life, I began to pray my rosary every night to combat my anxiety. It helped tremendously.
Soon after, I returned to Boston and started reading the Bible every night, which only deepened my sense of peace and served as the ultimate weapon against the anxiety that has controlled my sleep schedule for the last decade.
The other great catalyst for this improvement in my spiritual life has been deleting social media. I feel incredibly free, happy and even-keeled without it.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed the game and changed your heart? What radically altered your life? What changed your reality?
The first thing that I’ll suggest is antidotes for women who feel that they’ve lost touch with their femininity and sense of romance or are experiencing compassion fatigue — all of which I think are increasingly common these days. I recommend “A Few Figs From the Thistles” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion and “Quentins” by Maeve Binchy.
Next, I’ll suggest the Academy Award-winning film “Women Talking,” which discusses abuse within church spaces with such incredible tenderness and faith that it’s almost impossible to believe that it wasn’t created by believers themselves. I was incredibly suspicious of this film when I first heard about it, but now, I recommend it to everyone.
Finally, my best spiritual tip is to let yourself get rained on. You can go for a run in the rain (jumping in a lake or ocean while it rains is even better), but simply not using an umbrella on your walk home from the bar works, too. There’s something baptismal about getting rained on, and it also helps us all loosen up on our control issues.
And man, does it feel good or what?
We all have things we cling to to survive (or even thrive) in tough times — times like these! Name one resource you’re savoring and/or finding indispensable in this current season, and tell us what it’s doing for you.
Right now, I’m doing nightly readings and reflections with Meg Hunter-Kilmer’s “A Year in the Word” and struggling through the madness of Genesis. I actually have a meeting with my priest (Fr. Michael again!) today to discuss what in the world is up with this Old Testament God and his most questionable servant, Jacob.
I’ve also been watching the new season of “Abbott Elementary” and finding incredible joy in it. It can be hard to find sweet, funny and wholesome television these days, but this one hits all those marks. I’d say it’s great for the 13+ crowd!
Finally, I’ve been writing and mailing handwritten letters. I told you that the social media exodus has been good for me!
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
Remember how I said that I’m being unburdened from those weights that I’ve been carrying for the last decade? Well, right now, God is freeing me from my ambitions — which, let me tell you, can be such a heavy weight to carry.
It’s not that I don’t care about my career anymore. I’m incredibly grateful for the wild opportunities of this past year. I got to do things I never dreamed I’d do: report from the Venice Film Festival, interview Academy Award winners, create a TV show, publish a book and meet lots of celebrities.
And God is so funny and good because he made it very clear, very quickly, that I wouldn’t find what I’m looking for on sound stages, airplanes or red carpets. He gave me a little taste of what I said I’d always wanted, and I’m not sure that I want to swallow it, let alone take another bite.
For now, I’m really excited to stay home for the foreseeable future and make art with my friends while worshipping God. You wouldn’t believe the pleasure I get from walking to the 8:15 a.m. Mass, stopping at the 7/11, where they know my name, for a $2.50 coffee, and coming home to work in my tiny little slice of peeling, lopsided, beloved bohemia.
Our culture is obsessed with happiness. We’re constantly working to avoid pain, find pleasure and seek thrills. Just flip on the TV, watch YouTube ads or scroll through social media to see for yourself.
But in our near-constant joy-seeking, are we missing out on the benefits of suffering? While God certainly designed us to experience joy and delight, the Bible also says that suffering can yield beautiful fruit … if we do it with Jesus, leaning on him and allowing him to lead us through it with grace.
James, Jesus’ brother, wrote: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4, NIV).
Pure joy? In suffering? That requires something outside of us, something supernatural we can’t muster up on our own. Something maybe those “unhappy women who bring me joy” had whom Clare mentioned earlier.
What suffering or trial — however big or small — are you facing this week? What good fruit does God perhaps want to bring out of it?
Clare McCallan is the writer, creator and host of CatholicTV’s The Renaissance Room, reaching 15 million homes via cable and 120,000 viewers online. Her upcoming book Courage to Create: Unleashing Your Artistic Gifts for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness will be released by Ave Maria Press in spring 2024. A nationally renowned spoken word poet, Clare has completed two nationwide poetry tours and is currently serving as the creative director of St. Joseph’s Home for Artisans, a Boston art residency that gives housing to early-career artists while encouraging them to give back to the neighborhood through their gifts.
