Featured

Abuse Crisis

• Heralds of a Contemplative Spirituality for Survivors of Clerical Abuse (2023-10-13)
• Complete 10-Part Series on Marcel Văn and Clerical Abuse (2023-11-30)
  • Part 1: The Clerical Abuse Marcel Văn Survived (2023-11-06)
  • Part 2: “Changing Suffering into Joy” as Spiritual Resilience in Surviving Abuse (2023-11-09)
  • Part 3: The Grace of Resistance after and through the Grace of Resilience (2023-11-10)
  • Part 4: The Childish Environment of Marcel Văn’s Conversations and Grace after Abuse (2023-11-13)
  • Part 5: Moral Injury in the Life of Marcel Văn (2023-11-14)
  • Part 6: The Death of Marcel Văn and Moral Injury (2023-11-16)
  • Part 7: The Intercession of Marcel Văn for Priests (2023-11-20)
  • Part 8: The Intercession of Marcel Văn for Abuse Victims and Survivors (2023-11-22)
  • Part 9: The Little Way after Clerical Abuse (2023-11-27)
  • Part 10: The Future Movement Marcel Văn Prepared For (2023-11-29)
• This is the Day the Devil Lost (2023-12-02)
• How Not to Write About Toledo (2024-01-17)
• God the Most Vulnerable: Indigenous Baptist and Catholic Perspectives (2024-02-01)
• Thérèse of Lisieux Against Abuse, Before and After Death (2024-02-12)

Spirituality of Pope Francis

• Pope Francis Walking in the Ways of Charles de Foucauld (2023-08-08)
• Pope Francis’ Charles de Foucauld Bookshelf: René Voillaume (2023-08-11)
• Pope Francis’ Invitation to “Our God-Given Aesthetic and Contemplative Sense” (2023-08-15)
• Hans Urs von Balthasar at the Surface of Pope Francis’ Idea of Contemplation (2023-08-18)
• Charles de Foucauld at the Foundation of Pope Francis’ Idea of Contemplation (2023-08-22)
• The Eighth Work of Mercy (2023-09-08)
• “The Second Call”: The René Voillaume “Book” Pope Francis Gave his Priests (2023-09-26)
• Pope Francis’ Address to Little Sisters of Jesus after General Chapter (2023-10-03)
• More Catholic than the Pope, More Contemplative than a Carmelite (2023-12-07)
• Touch is the Most Religious Sense: Pope Francis (2023-12-21)
• The Magi and Contemplation, with Pope Francis and John of Avila (2024-01-07)
• Masterclass in the School of Prayer (2024-01-25)

Spirituality of Marcel Văn

• See also Abuse Crisis
• The Nazareth of Marcel Văn’s Conversations (2023-10-24)
• The Nazareth of Marcel Văn’s Notebooks (2023-10-26)
• Visiting all the Tabernacles of the World (2023-11-03)
• A Year Where Even Tears Change to Laughter (2024-01-01)
• Meanings of the Mud to be Contemplative in, with Marcel Văn (2024-01-04)
• The Connection of Beauty, Love, Knowledge, Unity, and Contemplation in Marcel Văn (2024-02-19)
• The Birth of “Our God-Given Aesthetic and Contemplative Sense” per Marcel Văn (2024-02-26)
• The Transfiguration that Captivated Marcel Văn: Smile and Gaze (2024-03-04)
• Marcel Văn and Grateful Contemplation of Creation (2024-03-11)
• Progress in the Spiritual Journey According to Little Văn (2015-01-15)
• The Church of Purgatory (2014-11-02)
• Little Văn’s Ideas on Spiritual Direction (2014-09-01)
• Little Văn Describes the Dark Night of the Spirit (2014-08-20)
• Little Văn on Friendship in Jesus (2014-08-11)
• A Few Words about Ponos in a Letter (2014-06-21)
• What is the “Joy” into which Suffering is Changed? (2014-03-29)
• Another Name for the “Dark Night of the Soul” (2014-01-19)
• Our Weakness in Long Prayer (2013-10-11)
• Who’s Helping Whom? (2013-09-133)
• The Neighbourliness of Eucharistic Thirst (2013-08-26)
• Little Văn Learns About Ponos (2013-07-28)
• Little Văn and Little Jesus Discuss Weakness (2013-07-24)
• Perfect Love Casts Our Fear (2013-04-25)
• Little Văn and Little Jesus Discuss God’s Will and Suffering (2012-12-17)
• Little Văn and Little Jesus Talk About Toys, Flowers, and Desolation (2012-11–18)
• Little Văn on Imitating the Saints (2012-10-16)
• Changing Sadness into Joy (2012-08-10)

Spirituality of Charles de Foucauld

• Meanings of the Mud to be Contemplative in, with Charles de Foucauld (2023-09-13)
• Can Anything Good Come out of Nazareth? (2023-08-24)
• Receiving, Not Only Giving (2015-10-05)
• Unknown Usefulness (2013-10-29)
• Brother Charles Discovered Contemplation Alone with God First, then God in our Neighbours (2013-01-16)
• A “Method” of Prayer for (Busy) Contemplatives (2012-09-17)
• The Grain of Wheat in the Economy of Salvation (2012-09-14)
• Putting the “Brother” in “Universal Brother” (2012-07-21)
• Like the Beehive in Beni Abbès (2012-07-17)
• The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in the Economy of Salvation (2012-06-20)
• Sheep – Goats – Jesus (2012-02-24)

Is a Contemplative Vocation Really Possible in the World?

• Is Every Christian Called to Contemplation? (2012-03-16)
• Contemplative Religious Orders Immersed in the World (2012-05-01)
• Laypeople with a Primarily Contemplative Vocation (2012-05-03)
• Guite Catez: A Layperson with a Primarily Contemplative Vocation (2012-01-13-
• Contemplation is for Everyone (2014-11-12)
• Austerity and Perfection (2016-03-15)
• Here Comes Contemplation in the Mud: From Pope John Paul II to Pope Francis (2023-08-05)

Detachment, Dryness, and “Darkness” Experienced in the World

• Ruusbroec and the Dark Night: “Suffer, and He Will Teach You Truth” (01-06-2016)
• Internal and External Humiliation and Suffering (2015-08-31)
• Mencius (Mengzi) and the Dark Night (18-06-2015)
• The Meaning Behind the Dark Night According to Saint Jane (02-02-2015)
• The Reason for Dark Nights According to Catherine of Siena (24-11-2014)
• Francis de Sales Describes the Dark Night of the Spirit (30-06-2014)
• Edith Stein Summarizing the Teaching on the Beginning of the Dark Night (09-08-2013)
• Dark Nights and Fatigue (30-06-2013)
• Are Alienation and Purification the Same? (21-03-2013)
• Active and Passive Nights (24-01-2013)
• The Necessary Logic of Dark Nights According to Saint Alphonsus (03-11-2012)
• The Dark Night’s Dryness Experienced in the World (15-09-2012)
• Dark Night of the Soul: East and West (04-09-2012)
• Giving It All Up – On the Road (25-06-2012)
• Dark Night of the Soul Lived Outside the Cloister (30-03-2012)

Others Aspects of Contemplation Experienced in the World

• Standing Delegates to Prayer (22-09-2015)
• Ordinary Time and the “Sacrament” of Nazareth (26-05-2015)
• The Sacred Alchemy of Changing Sadness into Joy (21-02-2015)
• The Gifts of Knowledge and Piety in the Contemplative Life (06-02-2015)
• Fast and Steady Spiritual Progress: Seeing Jesus in Others (23-01-2015)
• Opening Doors (21-10-2014)
• The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Active and Contemplative Life (18-10-2014)
• Weakness is a Strength (25-05-2014)
• What to Say about the Virtues? (16-05-2014)
• A Note on Wandering Minds (09-05-2014)
• You Heard it from an Engineer (09-07-2013)
• Substantial Words in Day-to-Day Life (09-10-2012)
• Brother Sun and Sister Moon (04-10-2012)
• How Much Do We Want to Spend our Heaven Doing Good On Earth? (01-10-2012)
• Living with the Church of Heaven (23-09-2012)
• Mad, Boundless Love: You Can Only Have One (12-03-2012)

The Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation

• Don’t Stop the Mind (2023-12-11)
• From Meditation to Contemplation with Paul of the Cross (04-03-2016)
• John of Ávila Teaches What to do about Meditation and Contemplation (12-11-2015)
• A Remarkable Letter About Meditation (15-12-2014)
• Baloney (“Acquired Contemplation”) (06-12-2014)
• Contemplation Trumps Meditation (28-04-2014)
• What is the Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation? (In the Easter Vigil) (19-04-2014)
• What is the Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation? (Fourth View) (06-12-2013)
• What is the Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation? (Round Three) (03-11-2013)
• Saint Teresa on the Simplifying of our Prayer (28-02-2013)
• A Video about the Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation (17-10-2012)
• What is the Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation? (Revisited) (11-07-2012)
• What is the Difference Between Meditation and Contemplation? (10-05-2012)

Action and Contemplation

• To See Jesus in Others and to Act (15-02-2015)
• The Traditional Catholic Doctrine about Action and Contemplation (12-12-2014)
• Before All Else: Being (29-09-2014)
• Where Does Contemplation Go When Our Head is Busy? (Fifth Answer) (16-06-2014)
• Dark Night: In Action or Prayer, We See Our Limits and Become Dependent (25-01-2014)
• Where Does Contemplation Go When Our Head is Busy? (Another Try) (30-08-2013)
• Two Apostolic Hermits (11-07-2013)
• Love of God and Love of Neighbour (23-05-2013)
• Two Poles, Two Poles, Two Poles (19-08-2012)
• Where Does Contemplation Go When Our Head Is Busy? (Revisited) (23-07-2012)
• One Danger of Holy Week (03-04-2012)
• The Situation of the Contemplative vis-à-vis “Social Issues” (23-03-2012)
• Where Does Contemplation Go When Our Head Is Busy? (20-03-2012)

Christian Contemplation in Itself

• On Reading John of the Cross (2023-12-14)
• The Gifts of the Holy Spirit in Different Christian Contemplative Experiences (2023-09-28)
• Responding to Criticism: The Radical Newness of the Gospel and “Meditation Techniques” (26-09-2016)
• Not False, But Not What We’re After (11-08-2016)
• Another Humanity or Another Member? (23-06-2016)
• Few Desire the Cross (14-12-2015)
• A Quick History Lesson on Indwelling (08-12-2015)
• The Freedom of the Children of God (27-10-2015)
• Everything Has Already Been Given (05-09-2015)
• The Efficacity of Contemplation (01-08-2015)
• Blinding Light (22-06-2015)
• Blessed Solitude (2015-06-10)
• Accidental and Essential (09-12-2014)
• More “Practical” (27-11-2014)
• Buddhist Iconography, Christian Iconography: Buddhist Spirituality, Christian Spirituality (19-09-2014)
• The Goal of Everything (08-09-2014)
• Why Such a High Value on Obedience? (10-03-2014)
• Obedience When There’s No Director (08-03-2014)
• Height or Depth? (03-01-2014)
• Which Comes First? (23-09-2013)
• My Trip to Fátima: Francisco the Little Contemplative (03-09-2013)
• Dogma and Contemplation (28-04-2013)
• Learning from Thai: “Secrets Nuns” (18-02-2013)
• Why Does it Take a Sense of Humour to Love God? (31-08-2012)
• Prayers for this World and Prayers for the Next (A Brief Reflection) (15-08-2012)
• Theology in the Contemplative Life (Notes on an ITC Study) (13-07-2012)
• The Buddha and Mindfulness (09-07-2012)
• Baptism, the Sacraments, and Contemplation (25-05-2012)
• Jesus and Children (15-05-2012)
• A Quarrel of Words with Two Saints (06-03-2012)
• The Desert (04-03-2012)

Transfiguration in Christ

• The Transfigured Eyes of Little Sister Magdeleine (2023-09-21)
• Titus Brandsma and Transfiguration in Dachau (2024-02-06)
• Stephen Transfigured (26-12-2015)
• Radiating Warmth (2015-08-20)
• A Well Ordered Exterior (04-08-2015)
• A Gentle Transfiguration (19-01-2015)
• Contagious Imprints (17-11-2014)
• “Someone the Light Shines Through” (07-08-2014)
• “He Has Only to Look at People…” (06-07-2013)
• A Light Unaware (11-06-2013)
• The Transfiguration of Saints in Death (29-05-2013)
• Guite Catez: A Transfigured Layperson (14-01-2013)
• Moses and Transfiguration (14-11-2012)
• The Trace of Transfiguration from Francis de Sales to Alphonsus Liguori (07-11-2012)
• Saint Augustine and Saint John of the Cross: Memory (14-10-2012)
• Smoke (03-10-2012)
• Saint Thomas – Not So Fast! (14-07-2012)

Theological Questions from a Contemplative Perspective

• Something I Take for Granted (2024-01-28)
• Why Write Poems? (2023-12-19)
• A Little Public Service Announcement on Docility (2023-08-29)
• Don’t Make Yourself Into Anyone Other Than the One He Intended (13-06-2015)
• The Mystical Body and the Physical Body of Christ (07-06-2015)
• Keep the Positive and the Constructive in the Foreground (2015-05-13)
• My Father Alphonsus, I’m Not Sure of Your Logic (04-02-2014)
• The Body is in the Soul (Not Vice Versa) (06-05-2014)
• What Can Limit Our Hope? (21-08-2013)
• What about the “Christian Meditation” and “Centering Prayer” Movements? (11-08-2013)
• How Far Along the Spiritual Journey Can Non-Christians Go? (15-05-2013)
• Is the Church Holy Like Mary or Like Joseph? (07-10-2012)
• In What Sense are our Neighbours “Potentially” Members of Christ? (06-08-2012)