Just as physical hunger is an indication of a living, healthy organism, so spiritual hunger is a sign of a robust spirit, one that is active and continually developing. The soul which feels no hunger for God, no need to seek Him and to find Him, and which does not vibrate or suffer with anxiety […]
Do you still get homesick? Do you dare let yourself feel that ache, That deep emptiness of longing, a hole of nothingness? Or do you cover it up, With half promises, with misdirected hopes, with distractions? Do you still long for wholeness, Completeness, oneness, with another? Do you still hunger? Do you still long for […]
When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your womb tonight. […]
There’s a time I can recall Four years old and three feet tall Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar And both were out of reach And later on in my high school It seemed to me a little cruel How the right words to say always seemed to stay Just out of […]
Saw the movie, Henry Poole Is Here. Very, very good movie. Many levels of symbolism. Hope to write more about it later. Here are the haunting lyrics to the song played at the climax of the movie, “On An Ocean” by Lisa Gerrard and Jeff Rona. (Hear the song at Jeff Rona’s myspace page.) On […]
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. […]
It doesn’t interest me if there is one God or many gods. I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned. If you know despair or can see it in others. I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world […]
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 […]
It feels like I’m in Advent, waiting. (I never seem to be in sync with the current liturgical season.) I feel like an old dog trying to find a comfortable spot to lay down—he circles and circles around the same spot, but no angle quite looks comfortable enough to settle on. I am uncomfortable 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 […]
From Br. Joseph — We are called to help each other to heaven. The last paragraph to C.S. Lewis’ sermon, “The Weight of Glory”, is extraordinary writing. Lewis, contrary to the times, is not afraid to talk about heaven. He reminds us, whether we acknowledge it aloud to ourselves or not, that heaven is our […]
My God, why does it have to be so hard to love You? My God, why do I always try so hard to be where You are? See You’re the God of every person You’re the one who reigns in me You are all that I could ask for You’re my world, my everything And […]
In my heart and my soul Lord I give You control Consume me from the inside out Lord let justice and praise Become my embrace To love You from the inside out Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame And the cry of my heart […]
My deepest desire and most longing want is to see the face of Jesus Christ. Based on one of the Beatitudes, my daily prayer is for God to purify my heart so that I may see Him, see Him in others, and for others to see Him in me. I often think or imagine or […]
Affliction is a marvel of divine technique. It is a simple and ingenious device which introduces into the soul of a finite creature the immensity of force, blind, brutal, and cold. The infinite distance separating God from the creature is entirely concentrated into one point to pierce the soul in its center. The man to […]
The felt the big emptiness this morning. It actually started yesterday afternoon, but I did not notice or label it as such until this morning. It is not depression. I know depression. It’s close, but not the same. There is no despair, no deep sadness or lowness that comes with depression. It is just an […]
I’m bad about shopping for books. I cannot stop in a bookstore without rummaging through the religion/faith section. If a book looks good, I’ll purchase it in hopes of reading it some day. Sometimes, I’ll start the new book the same evening, pushing other books back in the queue, and finish the book. Sometimes, I’ll […]
The Lord God then called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) This is, in my opinion, the saddest line in the whole of Scripture. It hints of God’s heart ache for us. It is a response to a choice Adam and Eve made that formed a great chasm between God and […]
An haiku of hope: Made is the promise: all lost things are someday found, if they want to be.
We all are virgins of the heart. We seek, often desperately, intimacy with another person. But even in the midst of close intimacy, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or intellectual, it is not perfect. Something is always missing. It remains unsatisfactory on some deep level, whether we are immediately aware of it or not. It […]
Just heard a beautiful but somewhat sad Christmas song by Gloria Estefan . The refrain is the best line of the song. I want this for next Christmas. I wanna see Christmas through Your eyes.