Christian contemplation thrown into the muddy highways of the world : encouragement : experiences : resources
Yesterday, Pope Francis met with members of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and superiors who were gathered together with the purpose of revising their Constitutions. The remarks that he made are worth highlighting, at least in part. The Holy Father opens with a concern to “give greater impetus to the contemplative life” lived in the cloister …
Continue reading “Pope Francis’ Remarks on Contemplation to Discalced Carmelite Nuns”
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)”
In this second week of Lent, quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) moved from a Laudato Si’ Lent, i.e., contemplation of God the Creator, to a Lent of mortification, i.e., the experience of the Cross. I am going back again to the water which pours itself out before me. It is also an …
Continue reading “From Niagara Falls to Golgotha (Quotes Vol. 30)”
On social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X) this past week I continued with some of my favourite quotes about the Nativity, focusing on joy in the new year: See the joy of Christmas and the joy of the Child Jesus. Never be moody, never let anything take away that joy. — Saint Teresa Calcutta Be joyful, my …
A lot of the time, we tend to think of faith in terms of hearing (e.g., Rom 10:17; Gal 3:2, 5) and the immediate presence of God to us in the next life in terms of sight (e.g., 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2; the term “beatific vision”). You could say we privilege these two …
Continue reading “Touch is the Most Religious Sense: Pope Francis”
I don’t think my poems are especially good, and they are by far the least-viewed posts on this blog—but I publish them here anyway. Why is that? The reason for me is very simple. I have always had a skepticism—and I think it is a healthy skepticism—of anyone who would write about contemplation this much, …
One of the challenges that Christian contemplation seems to face today is the temptation to turn contemplation into something that we can do to or for ourselves. To be sure, when Pope Francis targets forms of “neo-Gnosticism” and “neo-Pelagianism,” this is one of the manifestations of that. The former is self-salvation by the thinking mind, …
Last month, in the middle of writing my massive project on Marcel Văn and clerical abuse, I got into a brief exchange on X (formerly Twitter). Now, that is often an unwise thing to do. But in this case, I had to address that persistent slander about the Holy Father that I just can’t stand. …
Continue reading “More Catholic than the Pope, More Contemplative than a Carmelite”
December 2nd and I have a relationship. Now, I wouldn’t say it’s a great relationship. Then again, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad one. It’s just… noteworthy. This is—or might be—the day that Saint John of the Cross was abducted. According to Kieran Kavanagh, translator of the complete works, “on the night of December 2, …
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)”
Contemplative in the Mud 