Cecilia von Bertrab wasn’t looking for another graduate degree when she first came to Oblate School of Theology in 2005.
She had been trained in spiritual direction and studied St. John of the Cross for three summers in Spain, but was unable to return for a fourth.
“A spiritual director, said, ‘Take it at OST,’ so I did. I didn’t want to get into a program; they didn’t have continuing education, and you couldn’t just come to a class if you wanted to, but Sister Elaine Brothers, then academic dean, made sure I was at the level where I could do it,” Cecilia said.
“I was always doing it for credit, but not necessarily for a program. Finally, Fr. Ron Rolheiser said, ‘Cecilia, just do the master’s degree.’ I wondered why I needed another master’s degree and didn’t think I needed another paper, but he kept on saying, ‘This will open up doors for you. You might not need the paper, but go through it.’”
She thoroughly enjoyed the program, despite a struggle. “I felt the spirituality needed to be brought from the academics and put into practice—how do I live this out?” she said.
Cecilia was one of the first students in OST’s Spirituality program. She stuck with it, but still wasn’t sure she needed the degree. Sally Gomez- Jung told her, “It’s not for you; you have to finish this for all the Hispanic women who will come after you.” Cecilia concluded that she needed to finish what she had started. “God gave me the grace to finish my thesis in three months. Its title was ‘How to Guide a Soul Through the Dark Night According to St. John of the Cross,’” she said. She earned a Master of Arts in Spirituality in 2011.
Cecilia has worked hard in the Archdiocese of San Antonio’s formation program at St. Peter Upon the Water in Ingram for about 12 years and is co-director of the program under Bishop Mike Boulette. The center staff is helping the Diocese of San Angelo start a similar program.
For six years, she and other spiritual directors presented silent women’s retreats at the Oblate Renewal Center in English and Spanish. “We had a wonderful turnout of people who were doing ministry on weekends but needed something during the week. It brought people together who otherwise wouldn’t have met each other.”
She co-taught in the Tepeyac West Side program on San Antonio’s West Side. “We taught about St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in English and in Spanish. The classes were very well received,” she recalled.
Von Bertrab also has been a consultant and faculty member for The Forest Dwelling program, a two- year program of Spirituality for the Wisdom Years, or how to become spiritually deeper in one’s elder years. She currently is in charge of its elder circles and supervises the elder circlel eaders.