In Delphi, in ancient Greece, at a famous pagan temple these words were carved above the entrance: γνῶθι σεαυτόν (Gnothi Seauton), which in English means “Know Yourself.” It’s a universal spiritual…
Category: Spirituality
The Mystical Body
How do we embody the contemplative life? And how does the contemplative life make a difference in our bodies (both as individuals and collectively)? Fran and I had dinner the…
Joyful Sanctity
What is the relationship between holiness and joy? A reader named Gordon writes, in response to my concerns about how “experience” can be misunderstood in a spiritual context: I agree…
The Place of Joy in Christian Spirituality
What is the relationship between prayer and joy? If we enjoy our prayer, does that mean we are avoiding the hard work of spirituality (which, at least in Christian terms,…
Contemplation and Peace
A Facebook friend shared with me that she has been “thinking about contemplative prayer as a resource for peacemaking or for community building.” Especially given the horrors in Orlando this past…
Remembering the Monks of Tibhirine
May 31, 2016 marks a grim anniversary in the history of the Cistercian Order. It’s been twenty years since the assassination of seven Trappist monks of Notre Dame de Atlas Abbey in…
Mystagogy: the Heart of Spiritual Formation
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — the Catholic process by which adults enter the Church — suggests that there are four stages or steps in the process of Christian…
“We have been given the Holy Spirit”
Jesus returned to Nazareth, the town where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, he went to the synagogue, as was his custom. On this particular day,…
Do Contemplatives Need the Church?
A post on this blog received the following comment yesterday: Having been with the Catholic Church and seminary trained for all my 71 years of life. I am naturally contemplative…
Three Approaches to Prayer When the Dry Times Come
A friend of mine posed the following question recently on Facebook: You may have written about this before but how about dry times in prayer? What to do? Does it…
Is There a “Contemplative” Personality Type?
I once heard Richard Rohr tell a charming story of giving a retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton lived. Rohr was surprised to find that not all…
Seven Blessings of Silent Prayer
Silent prayer — contemplative prayer, what the Catholic Catechism calls “wordless prayer in which mind and heart focus on God’s greatness and goodness in affective, loving adoration” — is an…