As a young man growing up in the American south, I heard the phrase “God fearing” a lot. As in, “He’s a God fearing man.” I think it comes from…
Category: Spirituality
Seven Ways the Mystics Inspire Us Today
One of my favorite quotations comes from Karl Rahner: “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.” It’s a prophetic statement, from a man who died…
Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part Two)
Last week I shared six principles that guide me in my understanding of what Christian contemplative spirituality is. This week I’m sharing six more. As I said last week, it’s…
Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part One)
A couple of years ago Rob Bell wrote a book with the title What We Talk About When We Talk About God. I haven’t read the book, but I love…
The Rule, the Discipline, and Spiritual Growth
I bet if I took a poll, almost everyone who reads my blog would agree with this statement: “I want to grow spiritually.” Readers of spiritual blogs want to grow…
Better to Light a Candle (of Silence) than to Curse the Darkness (of Language)
Does language always limit the way we talk about, think about, or even pray to, God? This question has been on my mind for the past few days. This past weekend…
The Last Instructions of Christ to His Disciples
In the first chapter of The Acts of the Apostles, Jesus gives his disciples their last instructions before his ascension into heaven (Acts 1:6-12). The first chapter of Acts is…
Contemplative Leadership with Saints Benedict and Ignatius of Loyola
In recent months I have become very interested in the topic of leadership. Which might seem silly, since I do not manage people, or lead a congregation, or hold a…
Five Ways You Can Enjoy a Deeper Personal Prayer Life
We need to deepen our own personal prayer lives. — The Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, S.L.D., Archbishop of Atlanta Recently the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta published a Pastoral Plan, the result of…
A Prayer for Contemplatives
O Divine Beloved, you are the source of life and the fountain of all goodness. In the mystery of your silence we recognize who we are, for we are created in your image….
Contemplation and Grieving
A reader named Monika wrote the following comment and left it on one of my blog posts: I recently lost my husband of 49 years to a sudden brain tumor. I…
Contemplation and Conflict
I simply love this story of two desert fathers, which Thomas Merton recounts in his book The Wisdom of the Desert: There were two elders living together in a cell,…