Christian contemplation thrown into the muddy highways of the world : encouragement : experiences : resources
In this fifth week of Lent, quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) followed up on the last quote of the previous week. The focus is the work that the dark night, contemplation, and our relationship with God in general accomplish: making us the one God created us to be, nothing less, nothing different, …
Continue reading “To Become the One God Made You to Be (Quotes Vol. 33)”
Yesterday, Vatican News announced that Libreria Editrice Vaticana would publish a new book on Pope Saint Paul VI and that Pope Francis has written the preface for it. That preface is available on the Vatican News site in full. And it’s a doozy. The Holy Father begins with some thoughts which don’t directly touch on …
Continue reading “Contemplation and Shared Influence in Pope Francis’ Preface to a Book on Paul VI”
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”
As I concluded my last post by noting, Pope Francis encountered Charles de Foucauld in the late ’60s. In the Holy Father’s own words: “when I was studying theology,” the spirituality of Saint Charles “came to me through Fr [Arturo] Paoli and through the books of [René] Voillaume which I read constantly.” It is a …
Continue reading “Pope Francis’ Charles de Foucauld Bookshelf: René Voillaume”
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”
Saint Joseph is the model for those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies… He is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need for great things; it is enough to have the common, simple, and human virtues, but they need to be …
Contemplation is the highest, the most perfect act of the spirit, the act which even today can and must be at the apex of all human activity. Blessed Pope Paul VI at the close of the Second Vatican Council (50 years ago today)
Today is the first memorial day of Blessed Pope Paul VI, beatified less than a year ago by Pope Francis. Since before my reception into the Catholic Church (from a Protestant background), Pope Paul has been my favourite pope – or at least my favourite pope after the age of the Church Fathers. He walked …
We must live faithfully by the Gospel, make our lives really conform to it. We may have thought we had already learnt to live by it; we have have thought we had already put it into practice, incorporated it into our lives as human beings. But, now, contact with the world around us, with harsh …
Continue reading “The Gospel is a Source which Never Dries Up”
In much of the Latin Church, today is the Feast of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the physical part of the humanity of Jesus, who was incarnate, God, a worker, a friend, someone knowing sorrow and joy. This is the physical body. It is really present in Heaven and in the …
Continue reading “The Mystical Body and the Physical Body of Christ”
Contemplative in the Mud 