There is a growing number of articles on the internet highlighting the bashing of Christian values and predict a deepening persecution of Christians. From some of these articles, the authors are a little surprised that this kind of persecution of Christians could happen in American. They need to remember that America is not the true […]
This is what God says to us from The Cross… Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference? — The Doctor, Doctor Who, episode “Dark Water” (Season 8)
Why should we consider this power to be transcendent (that is—transcending the universe as a whole)? Because if the universe was nothing prior to its beginning, then the reality which causes it to exist must be completely beyond it (independent of it). This transcendent reality which causes the universe as a whole to exist is […]
“Theology” is not an end in itself. It is always but a way. Theology, and even the “dogmas,” present no more than an “intellectual contour” of the revealed truth, and a “noetic” testimony to it. Only in the act of faith is this “contour” filled with content. Christological formulas are fully meaningful only for those […]
I was asked by my principal to do the prayer for the first of our teacher meetings this week. She requested that it be connected to the theme for the school year, which happens to be an emphasis on the school’s mission statement. Fortunately we have a very good mission statement. In fact, the mission […]
Because I once was an agnostic who thought he was a realist, this caught my attention (emphasis added): It is not miracles that bring a realist to faith. A true realist, if he is not a believer, will always find in himself the strength and ability not to believe in miracles as well, and if […]
I want to record an email conversation that occurred between a friend and I back in late February. My spiritual director reminds me to listen—or rather take my own advice—to what I say to other people. This seems particularly germane to my current sense of lostness. From David: Epistemology is something I think about from […]
Today marks the ten anniversary of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, spawning 66 tornadoes killing 48 people and injuring many others. The “big one” blew up along I-44 from Chickasha, through open country, smashing the community of Bridge Creek, through some more open country, over a river, and then entered the Oklahoma City Metro area cutting a […]
The following poem/prayer is by Fr. J. Michael Sparough, S.J. It originally appeared in the journal Presence, Vol. 1, Number 1, January, 1995. My spiritual director read it to me about two months ago from the book, A Retreat with Our Lady, Dominic and Ignatius. This poem/prayer hits the very center of everything for me. […]
So if I stand let me stand on the promise That you will pull me through And if I can’t, let me fall on the grace That first brought me to You And if I sing let me sing for the joy That has born in me these songs […]
From Br. Joseph — There are two sides to faith, just as there are two sides to a coin. One side of the “coin of faith” looks externally, that is, it looks outside of our selves to others for examples and models of living faith. They are witnesses, and it is in accepting their experiences, […]
From Br. Joseph — This is the second reflection on seven signposts for the season of Lent (and for all seasons). Signposts give us direction. They point to some place. They involve action, movement. Many signposts call us to remember something important, some thing that is already there but is often covered up by the […]
From Br. Joseph —
Signposts point to where we want to go. Follow, or don’t follow. There are seven signposts listed below because seven is the number of completeness. No claim of originality is made for the signs, excerpt maybe for their grouping. Keep hope alive. Dare to trust. Surrender to grace. • • • Reflect love. • • […]
I discovered an essay titled “Hope” almost a month ago. I do not normally write in response to other people’s writing, and I am reluctant to even post this now, but the tone of the essay bothered me because it seemed to pit hope and faith against each. I agree with many of the statements […]
Leaves fall and trees wait, Naked they stand through winter, Testaments of faith.
In The Shattered Lantern, Ronald Rolheiser quotes Dag Hammarskjöld: I don’t know Who—or what—put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in […]
From Br. Joseph — Hope keeps faith alive, and faith rekindles hope when all seems lost. At one point in Hannah Hurnard’s allegorical book of the spiritual journey, “Hind’s Feet on High Places”, the protagonist is having a particularly tough time. The Shepherd, an obvious symbol for Christ, says to her: Don’t you know by […]
The thought that the affairs of the world, like those of the stars, are in God’s hands—and therefore in good hands—apart from being actually true, is something that should give great satisfaction to anyone who looks to the future with hope. It should be the source of faith, joyful hope, and, above all, of deep […]
Some quotations from Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love by Thomas Keating that have been lanterns of hope along the path through the valley… The absence of the felt presence of The Lord is his normal means of increasing our faith and of getting us to the point of believing in the power of his […]
Breath is as essential attribute of one’s person, whose existence we may only infer through other media: the sight of our chest rising and falling, the sound of air rushing into our sinuses, the disturbance of the atmosphere near our skin. We mentally connect this evidence-of-breath into a coherent whole, and then label it “my […]
On the thin border between faith and doubt walks Christ, calling all to trust.
No one sin is too much for God to forgive. Sometimes that is hard to believe. Or maybe it’s too much to trust? If you think your sin is too bad, then it’s pride that is helping you to hold on to it instead of letting it go. Maybe you have become so attached to […]
It’s Spring Break, and I’ve stepped out of the iHermitage to look around a little. In “It’s Not About Belief” by Jon Zuck, I found this intriguing little tidbit that adds another way to look at something: The Greek word pisteo is almost always translated “belief” or “faith” in the New Testament. However, it also […]
I have had several people at different times tell me in counsel to “live my faith.” I was usually struggling through something at the time, a bit lost and confused about certain things, and my initial response every time was, “How? What does it mean to live out your faith?” They did their best to […]