About Rietta
Rietta fell in love with performing and storytelling from a very young age and grew up singing, dancing, acting, and reading at every opportunity. She didn't start creatively writing until college when an intro to creative writing class was one of her elective options for her English education degree. She realized how much creative writing would have benefited her as a child if it were incorporated into her primary and secondary education which is why as an English teacher she has always been a big advocate for giving children ample opportunity to discover their writer's voice creatively. She entered her master's degree in English with a focus on fiction writing only to take a poetry workshop her first semester and beautifully rediscover a genre she had written off as "boring" for many years. She now sings, dances, acts, reads, and writes in any free time she finds between teaching, editing, and spending time with her family and friends.
On Being a Catholic Creative
Rietta's reflection on being at home in the Church from The Catholic Woman's "Portrait of a Catholic Woman" social media campaign:
To me, a Catholic chapel, where Jesus is truly present in the tabernacle, gives us a physical space to ponder on John 14:3, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." As beautiful and sacred as Catholic churches, cathedrals, and basilicas are, a chapel is special in the sense that it asks for that intimacy, that closeness with Christ. Especially during adoration hours, there is no longer a barrier between you and Christ, everything He is, is exposed in front of you, bearing witness to His gift of self, His love and sacrifice.
Growing up, whenever I sang, I felt like I entered a metaphysical space, a room God created just for me. I'm sure I'm not alone in that feeling, whatever it is with which God has gifted you, I'm sure you've felt His quiet encouragement, His affirmation that you are doing what you were put on this earth to do.
Finding home in the Catholic Church to me is adoring Christ exposed in the monstrance within a small chapel and knowing that I am spending time with someone who truly knows me better than I know myself, whose calling is irrevocable (reference to Romans 11:29, my favorite verse.) I've found that praying through my favorite creative outlets, singing and writing, feels more tangibly like a conversation with Christ. I love taking a journal to the nearest chapel and writing to Christ, letting his responses to my heart guide my hand. I encourage everyone not to underestimate the specific power of a chapel. Go to Jesus. Sit with Him, let Him lower every barrier between you and Himself, let Him strip away every earthly distraction and show you a glimpse of the place He's made for you in Heaven.
"All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lives between the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardour of the creative moment: what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for a moment before the eyes of their spirit."
— Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists
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Articles, Poetry, and Fiction
"For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." - Romans 11:29