Born in England into a family of successful Catholic writers, Ward's dedication to the Church ignited when, as a young woman, she joined the Catholic Evidence Guild. A group of street corner preachers, the Guild members gave witness to their Catholic faith in the parks of London. Ward met her future husband, Australian law student Frank Sheed, during her days with the Guild.

Together, Maisie and Frank founded the publishing company of Sheed & Ward, which made a significant contribution to Catholicism through the publication of original works by Catholic writers and translations of noted Catholic European theologians.

Throughout her life, Ward wrote, lectured, and raised money for her causes. Her books included biographies of Chesterton, Newman, Houselander, and Robert Browning, as well as books about the saints, the early church fathers, and scripture. To promote Sheed & Ward's books, she traveled the lecture circuit in America. She gave numerous talks at Catholic colleges, Newman clubs, and parish suppers, getting to know American Catholics.

During her last decades she devoted herself to "harboring the harborless," founding the Catholic Housing Aid Society. Maisie Ward believed that "God mattered," and that faith unlived was no faith at all. Through her writing, social commitments, and lecturing, she inspired an entire generation of pre-Vatican II believers to hope that aggiornamento might be possible.