Christian contemplation thrown into the muddy highways of the world : encouragement : experiences : resources
Introduction To close Earth Month, there is a 50-year-old essay that I want to reproduce in its entirety. The reason for this is that I think the text is a precursor to many of the contemplative and eco-spirituality themes of Pope Francis, and it is found in one of the authors he has remarked to …
Continue reading “Aestheticism vs. Contemplation of Beauty: Arturo Paoli and Pope Francis”
You’d think that, if human beings were reasonable, the way we manage our home would correspond to the account we make of how the home functions. But when it comes to our common home, this isn’t the case. Etymologically, “ecology” means words about or an account of the oikos, the home. “Economics” means the laws …
Continue reading “Our Family Tree, Our Common Home, Our House Rules”
Blessed John Soreth was a Carmelite of the fifteenth century who wrote an important commentary on the rule of that order. In it, he gives what I think is a good synthesis of a lot of pre-modern thought on Christian contemplation. I owe my knowledge of this summary to Saint Titus Brandsma: This treatment of …
Continue reading “John Soreth’s Three Loci of Contemplation in Perspective Today”
This past week, all the quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) all spoke of the Christian eco-spirituality for Earth Month, starting with a quote about the Annunciation (celebrated on Monday past) and continuing on to the connection between virtue and social justice with contemplation, as well as the virtues of moderation and contemplative …
Continue reading “Contemplation and Action in Earth Month (Quotes Vol. 36)”
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)”
Randy Woodley, Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days Reconnecting with Sacred Earth (Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2022). As I announced at the beginning of Lent, I have taken on the project of reading one short two-page chapter (or reflection) from Indigenous Christian Randy Woodley’s book Becoming Rooted, first as part of a Laudato Si’ Lent but …
This is a post that I had planned to have up yesterday, but I reconsidered. It’s not the kind of thing that you put up on April 1st and expect to be taken as seriously as you intend it. As I was sitting in the Easter Vigil on Saturday night, I heard for only the …
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)”
All the quotes posted to Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) this past week, rounding out the end of the Season of Creation and moving into “ordinary time”: Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible. — Saint Teresa of Avila Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable …
The new apostolic exhortation On the Climate Crisis Laudate Deum is not a document about Christian contemplation. Yet one way to read it is as a consolidation of exactly that. All the themes of Pope Francis’ vision of Christian contemplation, in all its main forms, are represented here, and indeed they serve as the summative …
Continue reading “Christian Contemplation Consolidated: A Contemplative Reading of Laudate Deum”
Contemplative in the Mud 