Professor Emerita Mary Jo Weaver of Indiana University offered an in depth account of Catholic spirituality throughout the ages on Tuesday.

Members of the Saint Marys community gathered in Stapleton Lounge for her lecture on the Evolutionary Adventure of Catholic Spirituality, the last in a series of the 2013 Endowed Spring Lectures sponsored by the colleges Center for Spirituality.

The former professor and daughter of a Saint Marys alumna of 1937 received her doctorate degree in theology in 1973 from Notre Dame. Since then, she has written several pieces on the politics of Christianity and womens roles in the Catholic Church.

Sixty years ago I would have never been invited to give a talk like this, Weaver said.

There was a time when Catholicism confined humans spiritual freedom to heaven and hell, she said.

You had to choose between the transitory, earthly pleasures and the immortality offered in the afterlife, Weaver said. Spiritual life was fearful and cautious.

This sort of ethos is known as trial spirituality, she said. Catholic clergy members took vows meant to withdraw them from everyday life. Weaver said she believes the vocations the Church offered were meant to attract a few brave souls.

The excessive time spent in solitude was an attempt to achieve perfection and embody Jesus to the greatest extent possible, she said. The second Vatican Council adjusted the religions attitude in 1964.

It opened up new possibilities to the dogmatic constitution of the Church and held a universal call to holiness, Weaver said.

Along with initiating interreligious dialogue and mandating liturgical change, she said it defined revelation as dynamic, alive and personal.

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Speaker reviews spirituality