In the early 2000s, Colleen Carroll Campbell<\/a> was a young American journalist who moved to Washington to join President George W. Bush's staff as the only woman on the speechwriting staff of what is known as the most powerful man in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following her intuitions and trusting in divine Providence, Colleen left her job at the White House to return to her hometown, marry her then fianc\u00e9 and, at the same time, accompany her father during a hard fight against Alzheimer's disease. In her book \"My sisters the saints<\/a><\/em>\"This book is a collection of his spiritual biography of some very particular years. In addition to this work, he has also published, in English, \"The Heart of Perfection<\/a><\/em>\" (2019) y \"The New Faithful<\/a><\/em>\" (2002).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colleen currently works as a journalist and author, which she combines with homeschooling her children. In this interview with Omnes, she talks about her relationship with God, the temptation to perfectionism and her life as a woman of the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay faithful to daily prayer prayer<\/a> and the sacraments, including weekday Mass when possible and regular Confession; cultivate hiddenness and humility by taking a supernatural approach to your work and trusting God\u2019s designs more than your own career strategies; frequently invoke the Holy Spirit through your workday; spend your \u201coff-duty\u201d hours with people who share your faith and keep you grounded. And as the desert fathers would say, \u201cRemember your death.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re in this position of influence for a short time; eternity is forever. Make your career moves with an eye toward your eternal destiny and what you\u2019ll wish you had done on your deathbed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been blessed by a wonderful husband and our marriage<\/a> has been a great gift\u2014a beautiful model of the intimacy Jesus wants to have with each of us. I can\u2019t imagine walking this journey of life and faith without my husband John.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Supernatural motherhood<\/a> has been particularly instructive. I\u2019ve realized in an entirely new way how much God loves me, how gently He looks upon my weakness and failures, how willing He is to give me a million second chances. I\u2019ve also come to see that what sometimes what looks like a disaster providence<\/a> that the Lord is allowing is actually His loving providence in action\u2014my heavenly Father letting me suffer a bit so I can grow stronger and freer in the end. Romans 8:28 has always been a favorite verse, but I think I understand it more now that I\u2019m a parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spiritual perfectionism is the toxic belief that we can, and must, earn God\u2019s love. It\u2019s an often unconscious attitude of shame and revulsion toward our flaws rooted in the mistaken notion that God, too, is scandalized and repelled by our weakness, and that we must hide that weakness from Him lest we be rejected, abandoned, or unloved. It drives an invisible wedge between us and God and has the potential to infect every part of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can see traces of spiritual perfectionism manifesting in everything from discouragement over stubborn faults and crippling guilt over past mistakes and small sins to compulsive comparing of our lives with others\u2019 and even a tendency toward overcommitment that goads us to wear ourselves out doing good works. Spiritual perfectionism can make us hypersensitive to criticism. It can make us hypercritical of others. Or it can make us simply shut down spiritually, out of frustration that we\u2019re too flawed to live this faith whose ideals always seem beyond our reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a very subtle spiritual temptation\u2014most of us don\u2019t want to admit to harboring such a dim view of God and His mercy\u2014which is precisely why it\u2019s so pervasive and dangerous. I wroteThe Heart of Perfection<\/em>to expose it because I believe it\u2019s one of the key obstacles to growth in holiness for committed Christians today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could point to a million factors, but perhaps the most overlooked in secular discussions of perfectionism is our loss of a sense of God\u2019s presence and action in our world today. Our secular culture has dethroned God and told us that we can be our own gods, but something deep within us knows we\u2019re not up to the task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So our idolatry\u2014our modern cult of success and the self\u2014leads inexorably to anxiety and compulsive striving. We scurry about trying to find meaning and security in achievement, status, money, even flawless looks or perfect children. We try to escape the truth of our human condition, to believe all the modern gurus who tell us we are \u201cenough\u201d in ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pope Gospel<\/a> -The Good News of Jesus and his Church - says that we\u2019re not enough, and that\u2019s OK. Jesus came to save us because we cannot save ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to help others is to begin with ourselves. I hear frequently from readers who say they boughtThe Heart of Perfection<\/em>for a friend or relative, then started reading and realized they were the ones who needed its message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s very easy to see this condition in someone else but harder to spot it in ourselves. So we can help others by seeking freedom and healing for ourselves from spiritual perfectionism\u2014through prayer, the sacraments, Scripture<\/a> Scripture and spiritual reading, finding fellowship and spiritual guidance from others on this journey to freedom, and learning the lessons of the recovering perfectionist saints, many of whom I profiled inThe Heart of Perfection<\/em>then live that new freedom in our homes, workplaces, parishes, and communities. freedom<\/a> begets freedom. Once we break the chains of spiritual perfectionism, our example gives others permission to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, I\u2019m always meeting new saints\u2014since moving to California, St. Junipero Serra has become a favorite\u2014and my faithful old friends, like Therese of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila, never fail me. What a glorious reunion we will have someday in heaven, God willing, when we can meet these great souls and holy friends face to face!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A inicios de los 2000, Colleen Carroll Campbell era una joven periodista estadounidense que se traslad\u00f3 a Washington para incorporarse al equipo del presidente George W. Bush, siendo la \u00fanica mujer en el grupo de redactores de los discursos del que se conoce como el hombre m\u00e1s poderoso del mundo. Siguiendo sus intuiciones y confiando […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1436,"featured_media":27838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[549,548],"tags":[233,599],"class_list":["post-27817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelizacion","category-foco","tag-entrevistas","tag-familia"],"yoast_head":"\nYou\u2019ve worked in different environments, from newspapers to the White House. Those are usually quite difficult places to live up to our faith and the Lord\u2019s commandments. What tips could you give people that want to walk by faith in those situations?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You're a wife and a mother. Have those experiences changed your relationship with God and the way you look at Him?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You talk about perfectionism in your new book, what is spiritual perfectionism? How does it affect us on a daily basis?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is it about contemporary culture that breeds striving, perfectionism, and workaholism?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How can we teach our friends and children to have a different point of view on all that?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do you still have a close relationship with your sisters the saints?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n