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The freedom not to know
As a footnote on my previous post, I should say that Kennedy’s statement appeals to me because it connects with the Christian apophatic tradition, which is precisely a tradition of not knowing. Richard...
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The challenge
If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it. This is one of the statements that I most associate with Richard Rohr; and it is one that he must have said dozens of times. And so...
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Friendship and intimacy
I urge you … to open your heart to friendship and intimacy, remembering that your friendships are an extension of your contemplative prayer. They are indeed contemplative friendships. As mystical...
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Things are as big as you make them
Things are as big as you make them – I can fill a whole body, a whole day of life with worry on one scrap of paper; yet, the same evening, looking up, can frame my fingers to fit the sky in my cupped...
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Perfect love overcomes fear
n his concluding observations to Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier’s Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness, John Swinton notes that ‘Vanier continues to draw our attention...
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Walls of fear
Jean Vanier’s article ‘The Fragility of L’Arche and the Friendship of God’ offers some important observations on fear, compassion and transformation. Vanier notes that: Transformation has to do with...
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Silence
In Living without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence, Samuel Wells and Marcia A. Owen talk about the importance of silence, the silence of listening, the silence of being present, the...
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Those who learn stillness
And another quote from Samuel Wells and Marcia A. Owen’s Living without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence: Those who learn … stillness find that their lives become a sabbath for those who...
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Lament
Lament means ceasing to try to protect God from our anger, disillusionment and despair. Lament … searches out the deepest places in the heart and exposes them to the presence of God. It is a whole-body...
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Breathing in and breathing out – or passing out
Here’s my last quote from Samuel Wells and Marcia A. Owen, Living without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence: Receiving God’s love is like breathing in. Responding to the suffering of...
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Taking up the cross
‘Taking up the cross’ in costly discipleship means a willingness to struggle against evil, for the sake of fullness of life, for the ‘bringing back of beauty’. It does not mean the passive acceptance...
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Not So Afraid – a poem about friendship, among other things
The sparrows are spinning warmth into the winter world. Their delicate, clear chirps bring with them a crisp joy, making me not so afraid of the howling wind. So, too, the friends of my heart. Joyce...
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Faith is countercultural
Because of [faith], you freely, willingly, and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus Martin Luther in ‘An...
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Secondary realities that are to be strongly resisted
Here’s another insightful quote from John Swinton’s Raging with Compassion: Pastoral Responses to the Problem of Evil: Sin, evil, and suffering … are secondary realities, intruders into the goodness of...
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This
The challenge for all of us is: to become more and more the kind of people who are aware of the divine presence, attuned to the ruach [the spirit of God], present to the depths of each and every...
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More and more
I move more slowly than I used to because I don’t want to miss anything. I find more and more beauty and meaning in everyday, average moments that I would have missed before. I need fewer answers...
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Ubuntu
Desmond Tutu, commenting on someone who has ubuntu, says: This means they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring, and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means my humanity is caught...
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Rehabilitating desire
Desire has a disreputable reputation in religious circles. When most people hear the term, they think of two things: sexual desire or material wants, both of which are often condemned by some religious...
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Beyond your wildest dreams
The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams but you will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love. The more a soul loves, the more it longs, the more it hopes, the...
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