The Final Battle and the Feminine Heart (EWTN Pt. 1)
Behind the scenes of my appearance on “At Home with Jim and Joy”
Last month, I was invited to appear on “At Home with Jim and Joy” to discuss my two newest books. I was significantly less nervous this time around, having had such a wonderful experience this past October.
I also felt a deep sense of peace in the Spirit-ordained timing of these tapings. In October, we taped on the 13th—the anniversary of the day the sun danced at Fatima. In May, the taping was also on the 13th, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Sr. Lucia, one of the Fatima visionaries, said that, “the final battle will be over marriage and the family.” I do not know whether we are in the end times—no one does. But I do believe that mothers are the heart of the home. Whether it plays out in dehumanizing biotechnologies or the quiet temptations of our hearts, the spiritual battle for our souls and for our children is real.
While I’m not someone who focuses a lot of time or attention on spiritual warfare, I think the adage is true: “The best defense is a good offense.” The battle is as simple as allowing God’s sanctifying grace to transform us from what we are into what we were made to be.
That’s what I set out to do in The Bellbind Letters: to create a literary examination of conscience that frees the reader to respond more fully to that sanctifying grace. That’s what we discussed in the first episode, which you can view here:
Below, you’ll find the written responses I prepared in advance. While much of it made it into the show, there are several tidbits you’ll find only here.
I will be sending out the link and expanded responses for Part 2 here on Substack later this summer.
AMDG,
Samantha
The Spiritual Battle of Motherhood
Discussing my book The Bellbind Letters
1. Why revisit The Screwtape Letters for our time? How is your book different?
The Screwtape Letters is timeless. There’s a reason why, nearly 100 years later, it still tops the spiritual classics charts at #1. My husband and I try to revisit it every year during Lent. It is such a brilliant examination of conscience in literary form.
While it remains timeless and has become, in some ways, even more relevant now than when Lewis originally penned it, the main character—the “patient”—is a man and a newly converted Christian. The particularity of this character lends itself to the exploration of temptations specific to this context.
The usefulness of Lewis’s literary device extends to the whole of the spiritual life. My husband and I sometimes use the phrase, “I think that’s Screwtape talking,” as a shorthand to lovingly challenge one another.
I wrote my first copycat Screwtape letter for our local Catholic Women’s Conference. They asked for a testimony, but what kept circling in my mind were all the reasons that get in our way. A “case of the ‘too’s,” we call it. So, that’s what I wrote. (It is still on their website in its original form, and an edited version appears in the book as Letter 4).
In any case, it unleashed something in me. I began keeping notes when I faced my own temptations, or when I heard something in women’s groups that others were struggling with. I wanted to unmask the intricacies of these clever lies, to trace the way in which these temptations deceive us. When we trace a lie to its source, it becomes that much easier to resist.
Where Lewis’s book deals primarily with cultural temptations with a hint of the relational, mine reverses that in a way that I think is appropriate for the feminine heart. The Bellbind Letters details the intimacy of relational temptations with a side of the cultural.
2. Why has this epistolary format been so impactful? Why revisit it now?
Lewis’s format is so enduring because fiction is a disarming mirror. Fiction teaches us empathy and ignites our imagination, allowing us to more fully and emotively embrace and embody truths beyond mere intellectual assent. It helps us travel the long distance from head to heart.
While the examination of conscience is an indispensable tool, it can sometimes be difficult to look at a list of sins or vices and translate that into what’s playing out in our lives. When we read a book like Screwtape or Bellbind, we are allowing the grace of the Holy Spirit to pour into this whole new dimension of our personhood. When that sanctifying grace baptizes our imagination, it penetrates in a new way, perhaps bypassing some of the defensive walls we’ve erected.
As for the timing, I believe there is more to be said specifically for a woman’s heart as well as on motherhood and the family—especially post Sexual Revolution.
3. Can you tell us about the symbolism behind the character names?
Bellbind is the name of a pernicious weed that I have battled in my garden season after season. It has these deceptively lovely white flowers that you see on the cover of the book. What it does is creep through your garden and wind its tendrils around your crops so that you can’t pull it out by its roots without harming them. It chokes out the good plants, stealing nutrients and reducing crop yields by up to 50%. It also lurks. (As an aside, my computer has crashed 3 times while typing this section. Hmm… Sts. Isadore, Claire, and Carlo, pray for us!) With most weeds, the goal is to remove the entire root, but when you break bellbind roots, it doesn’t get weaker. It multiplies. It grows more heads, like the mythical Hydra. It creeps and spreads its rhizome up to ten feet below the surface, and can be dormant for years before reappearing to decimate your garden once more. So wicked!
When I learned about the boomslang snake, I fell in love with the symbolism. Boomslang is an African tree snake that is so venomous, antivenom alone cannot save you. The only way to survive its bite is with a full blood transfusion. In order to survive this snake, someone has to sacrifice their blood for you.
4. C.S. Lewis described the process of taking on this demonic persona as spiritually draining and costly. Did you have a similar experience?
I’m not sure what it says about me, but no, I did not. I suspect part of the reason why must be because Lewis didn’t have the benefit of receiving The Screwtape Letters as a reader. I knew going into the drafting process how powerfully edifying these letters could be because I had benefitted so much spiritually from what Lewis has given us. Being able to see these temptations playing out makes them so much easier to resist, and seeing the force of opposition against good and holy things—against motherhood, the Rosary, Our Lady, Mass, Scripture—precisely because they are so good and holy throws such a stark spotlight on how powerful the graces are that come from these gifts that Christ has given. Seeing this was a powerful reminder to choose those things when it gets hard.
5. What do you hope readers gain from The Bellbind Letters?
I hope that the readers come to a deeper awareness of the spiritual movements in their lives, but also to see themselves and their own temptations with a greater sense of compassion. Often, we give so much grace to others but harbor such shame when it comes to our own human failings. The trouble with that is that it is a form of pride. we need to have patience with our own littleness and, like St. Therese, lift our arms to Jesus and ask him to pick us up when we fall. The most successful Christian isn’t one who never falls. We all fall. The most successful Christian is the one who never tires of resting in Jesus for the grace that we all need and that he dispenses so freely.
