Spirituality is about relationships. Every man, woman, and child bears to us the presence of God. — Fr. Daniel Homan, Radical Hospitality I heard this Reba McEntire song on the radio this morning, “Somebody”. It is about this piece of advice this guy gets about looking for someone to fall in love with. At a […]
Some things to think about on this day, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary— From Fr. Ken: Mary, the mother of Jesus, enjoyed all the joys of being a mother. Mary, the mother of Jesus, suffered all the sorrows of being a mother. She accepted them both because of Jesus. She […]
The ending of this story has been haunting me for the past two weeks: Mark Twain’s wife, a prim and proper lady, tried to shock him one time out of his use of vulgar language. She greeted him at the door, cursed him up one side and down the other with all of the words […]
The spiritual life is a reaching out to our innermost self, to our fellow human and to our God. — Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out Something I read yesterday reminded me of a teachers’ inservice I attended last Fall. The guest speaker was Michael Carotta and he briefly described three dimensions of spirituality: Vertical — the […]
Faith is daring of the soul to go farther than it can see. — William Newton Clarke See Part 1. To no fault of our own, humans are largely stuck with the idea that time is a linear sequence of events. Things happen one after the other. Yesterday was, today is, and tomorrow will be. […]
I stumbled upon this weblog called Scattered Words (via mute Troubadour). The author is named Ben, and he is a 22-year old struggling with his sexual identity and his relationship with God (a double load to carry). Someone wrote him an email asking several questions about his struggle to turn toward God. His answer to […]
Time and Space are not the ultimate reality. Let’s set the stage with a simple story. In a marvelous little book by Edwin Abbott called Flatland, the main character is a geometric figure called A. Square. He is a mathematician and inhabits a place called Flatland, a two-dimensional plane or flat surface not unlike the […]
We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. — C.S. Lewis
Our duty as Christians lies in making ventures for eternal life without the absolute certainty of success… This, indeed, is the very meaning of the word ‘venture’; for that is a strange venture which has nothing in it of fear, risk, danger, anxiety, uncertainty. Yes, so it certainly is; and in this consists the excellence […]
I desire mercy, not sacrifice. — Jesus (Matthew 9:13)
You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. — St. Augustine In the book, The Holy Longing, Ronald Rolheiser describes a Jewish legend about what happens to the soul just before it enters a body: …just before God puts a soul into the body, that soul […]
Several of the Beatitudes talk about receiving blessings (happiness) from suffering. To me, this seems like a paradox, or better a mystery. How does all of this suppose to work? I trust in the Lord that it does, but I do not necessarily understand how. Henri Nouwen and others have described suffering as a cup […]
The honeymoon is over, definitely. It has been over for awhile. It just took for some time to past before I realized it, before I could label it. Now I can move beyond it.
Someone once wrote that the Beatitudes are to Jesus as the Ten Commandments are to Moses. This is a good analogy because each seems to sum up the ministry of both men. Except,…
In the last scene of the season’s final episode of Joan of Arcadia, Joan’s parents are quietly talking in Joan’s hospital room. Helen had talked to a priest earlier in the day… Helen: He said that we go through times on consolation and desolation. Consolation is when things are flowing, and everything makes sense, and […]
The other morning, this thought entered my stream of consciousness quite abruptly. It was not like most thoughts that seem to float down my river of consciousness, where I can gingerly shift focus of attention from one thought to the next, as if hopping from one boat to another. No, this thought appeared suddenly, as […]
Here we are living in time you and I. Yesterday is gone. We are waiting for tomorrow. And the present moment eludes us even as we try to grasp it. God lives in eternity, where there is no yesterday. There is no tomorrow. God is not waiting for the sunset or the dawn. God lives […]
I know Jesus, and I talk to God, And I remember this from when I was young: Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us, And the greatest is love. — Alan Jackson, from That September Day I was channel surfing a couple of weeks ago and caught two theologians on EWTN […]
In the same conversion with a friend, I mentioned that I trusted God completely, or, at least I am trying to do my best. I have not been tested with anything big yet, like on the scale of Job, but I hope I am ready if and when it ever comes. I just pray that […]
A leaf that falls into a stream (or a leaf we intentionally drop into a stream) just where the water disappears into the ground…will come out again at the next opening, because the underground stream has faithfully carried it there, though during this journey it has been beyond the reach of any outside interference. In […]
Only a while ago you still knelt at the empty grave, a sea of tears. And all you knew was that the Lord was dead, that the life of quiet joy you shared was dead. You only stare into the void of the cave. A cold and chilly wind is exhaled from your soul, where […]
This quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s book, The Cross and the Beatitudes: Lessons on Love and Forgiveness, seems fitting for today on Good Friday: There is a personal equation between that Cross and us. Life with its rebellions, its injustices, its sins, all played a role in the Cruxifixion. We can no more wash our […]
Henri Nouwen, in his book With Burning Hearts, meditates on many lessons from the story of the two travelers on the road to Emmaus. This paragraph practically shouted at me: “Foolish people,” [Jesus] said. “So slow to believe.” These words go straight to the hearts of the two men. “Foolish” is a harsh word, a […]
Rumor has it You love me Rumor has it the world spins upside down Rumor has it my only hope is in You And the rumors are true I turn everything over The above lines from a Switchfoot song keeps running through my mind in light of a recent conversation I had with an atheist […]
This post is partially a reply to Gil Milbauer’s comments on Christianity. He is an atheist who has some serious questions and misinformed opinions of Christianity. I am not a very good apologist, but here is my attempt to explain some of Christianity. Christianity is not a philosophy; it is a way of living. First […]