From Br. Joseph — This is the fourth 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 […]
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. • • […]
Near the end of the film Into Great Silence (technically it is a film, but it is something more), there is an interview with an old, blind monk. The years of solitude do not wear heavy on him. He is truly happy, and peace envelopes him, coming to you even through the camera lens. His […]
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 […]
God refuses to be known except by love. — St. John of the Cross
What a feeling in my soul Love burns brighter than sunshine It’s brighter than sunshine Let the rain fall, I don’t care I’m yours and suddenly you’re mine Suddenly you’re mine And it’s brighter than sunshine — Aqualung
We cannot know whether or not we love God, although there are strong indications for recognizing that we do love Him; but we can know whether we love our neighbor. And be certain that the more advanced you see you are in love for your neighbor, the more advanced you will be in the love […]
Freedom is about choice, and there are two kinds of freedom. There is a freedom to choose to do whatever you want, and another kind of freedom to choose to live for others. One freedom leads in, the other out. One freedom is living with responsibility, the other with disregard except for self. One freedom […]
When I was younger, late high school and especially in college, I identified with Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.” It was the motto for the Age of Rationalism. It is still often used in today’s postmodernism. After finding faith, or rather faith found me, I believe that Descartes had it backwards—I am, therefore I […]
My past, O Lord, to your mercy; my future, to your providence; my present, to your love! — St. Padre Pio
Only in love can I find You, my God. In love, the gates of my soul spring open, allowing me to breath a new air of freedom and forget my own petty self. In love, my whole being streams forth out of the rigid confines of narrowness and anxious self-assertion, which make me a prisoner […]
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 […]
Another parabox—joy and suffering, both come from love. A friend shared this meditative reflection with me recently. I asked permission to post it. I feel waves of suffering coming from within my being. It’s as if they are at regularly determined intervals and I am just riding them; allowing each one to bounce me up […]
Listening to the song “Epiphany” by Staind on the iPod. The music is loud enough to drown out the background noise. At this line, I drift off… But I know I’ll do the right thing If the right thing is revealed The right thing—what is that? Has it been revealed? Yes, of course, in Jesus! […]
I ran across some Latin phrases the other day. This one struck me most applicable to living a spiritual life. In silvam ne ligna feras. (Don’t carry logs into the forest.) — Horace In other words, God will provide. The energy you need to love others and God will be given when you need it. […]
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 […]
A poem from awhile ago reflects this line from Romano Guardini in The Lord: Love is a stream that flows from God to me, from me to my neighbor (and not to one only, but to all), from my neighbor back to God. “Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like […]
Romano Guardini, in his book The Lord, describes how it was supposed to be: God has shaped human life mysteriously indeed. Man’s essence is meant to leap up to its God and return with the life it has [received] from him. Man should live in a downward-sweeping movement that begins in heaven, not from earth […]
“Repentance seeks to know the truth.” I am guilty before You. I admit it. You are the Judge. I come before You, against myself. I desire You. I want to be with You. I want Your will to be done, for You are holy. You are right against me. I love You. I judge myself […]
“To sin, it is not necessary to break the rules,” the sage said. “just keep them to the letter.” It is more than possible to make rules for our existence, the measure of our souls. But when rule-keeping takes precedence over the very essence of spirituality—justice, compassion, and union with God—rules become the very thing […]
LIVE love, ACT truth, HONOR life. And it will be God within you whom you live, act, and honor.
It is easy to write words about the consolations of love. Just look at all the love songs and poems. But how does one describe the love for another for love’s sake, for who they are, what they are, for themselves and not what they give? The word “love” is too short to describe what […]
From James Finley’s Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, Finley quotes Thomas Merton: It is…a blindness to prayer that exposes us to the pitfalls of becoming ourselves like those, …for whom a tree has no reality until they think of cutting it down, for whom an animal has no value until it enters a slaughterhouse, men who […]
I find myself asking God to have mercy on those who died in some long ago battle or tragedy described in the pages of history. Am I a fool? Does love and prayer reach far back into time? What about the future, for people who will die to tomorrow or next year or ten years […]
Father, I just want to be with you. I’m tired of words. I want the clutter of thoughts in my mind to stop for awhile so that I can just pray, just exist with you. No asking for anything. No talking about things. No conversation. Just being. I love you Father. I just want to […]