Christian contemplation thrown into the muddy highways of the world : encouragement : experiences : resources
This past week, all the quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) spoke of a Christian eco-spirituality for Earth Month, including a connection noted by Benedict XVI between contemplating nature and contemplating Christianized human nature: My soul, while enjoying the beauties of nature, was also tasting the sweetness of spiritual joys. — Marcel Văn …
Continue reading “Contemplating the Beauty of Nature and Transfigured Human Nature (Quotes Vol. 37)”
This past week, all the quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) spoke of the Christian (i.e., Christic) character of contemplation, as well as transitioned into Earth Month, with a special focus on the silence of nature: There is no prayer, no contemplation, unless Christ be in the soul, and unless an imitation of …
Continue reading “Contemplation with Christ at the Start of Earth Month (Quotes Vol. 35)”
As we entered Lent this week, I shifted quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) to reflect the theme, which, around here, will include but not be limited to a Laudato Si’ Lent: Made holy by the Holy Spirit, we receive Christ as one who lives in our inmost selves, and with Christ we …
Continue reading “Walking into the Desert to Find God’s Beauty (Quotes Vol. 28)”
Nobody doubts that Marcel Văn saw himself as a spiritual little brother of Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. It’s pretty hard to miss. Thus, we find biographers speaking of a “life placed under the aegis of the ‘Little Flower’,” or “a sort of ideal double of himself” found by Văn in …
Continue reading “The Little Way after Clerical Abuse (Part 9)”
Love isn’t a mental phenomenon. It involves the whole person. That’s what most people believe. Fortunately, too, it’s what Christianity teaches, and the great advantage in credibility here is the fact that God became human, and then, to do one better, descended on other humans to knit them into a great body. The fire of …
Continue reading “The Transfigured Eyes of Little Sister Magdeleine”
These are the quotes/memes posted in the past week to Facebook, Instagram, and “that 140-character thing” (as Pope Francis called it when he was cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, though that is not quite accurate now): Contemplatives in the midst of the world, daring to say that their contemplative life can be lived to the full in the crowded …
In my last post, I promised an exploration of how Pope Francis teaches about and encourages Catholics to engage in contemplation of Christ in others. There have been 21 discussions of this topic in seven of the pope’s encyclicals and apostolic exhortations—which is to say, an awful lot. I plan to unpack this step by …
Continue reading “Pope Francis Walking in the Ways of Charles de Foucauld”
Contemplation in the mud is, as far as I have always been concerned, a mode of contemplative life that involves focusing our prayer and thought processes on what Saint Charles de Foucauld intuited: Jesus in our neighbours, Jesus in the needy, Jesus in fellow human beings travelling these roads and not yet arrived. This, to …
Continue reading “Here Comes Contemplation in the Mud: From Pope John Paul II to Pope Francis”
The missionary must be a “contemplative in action.” He finds answers to problems in the light of God’s word and in personal and community prayer. My contact with representatives of the non-Christian spiritual traditions, particularly those of Asia, has confirmed me in the view that the future of mission depends to a great extent on …
One evening, long ago, I put myself to sleep just after reading these words from Jean-Marie Lustiger: To grasp again by the memory our existence means to enter once again into possession of our life. Cardinal Lustiger adds to this the fact that Mary treasured all these things in her heart (Lk 2:19). The words …
Contemplative in the Mud 