So, Here's What I Think...

Stability Stability is a virtue that is at odds with our culture.  We want it all and we want it “yesterday.”  With microwaves, high-speed Internet, email and instant everything, we have lost the ability to be patient and wait.   In my own life, this impatience often manifests itself in expecting a same-day response to an email sent in the morning. (Update: This impatience also manifests itself in expecting an immediate response to a new Facebook status or link.) Monastic stability consists of centeredness, commitment and relationships (Chittister, Wisdom 150). To be centered is to have our center focused on something larger than ourselves – to be where God is and to know that God is where we are.  Recently I wrote a poem that describes my own longing for centeredness.    Looking for You I climb a ladder to reach you, Deep inside my spirit. The night stars twinkle, Dazzling light illumines the way. I reach out my hand, My fist grasps only air. You can...

Conversion of Life Conversion of life – conversatio morum – is a person’s life-long process of being transformed as he follows Christ.  Thomas Merton described it as “A commitment to total inner transformation.”  In the Prologue, Benedict tells us “God in his love will show you the way of life.”  This is a call to metanoia , a real turning around of one’s life (de Waal, Seeking 69).  I remember in the midst of my deepest depression being faced with a decision – to allow my illness to define my identity – or to strive for true repentance, doing everything in my power to regain (and improve) my health. In my autobiography, I stated that Easter had become a Holy Day of profound significance for me.  Conversatio forces us to face death itself through a series of lesser deaths throughout our lives – such as the loss of health, relationships, abilities, possessions – until we reach that last, ultimate death.  But from death comes new life.  New patterns of...

I feel incredibly guilty for recycling old material for inclusion into the blog, but most days I've been so mentally exhausted that creativity comes  in the shortest of bursts.  Anyway, I think I have some pretty good material that hasn't been published, so now I'm letting it see the light of day.  The following posts will be excerpts from a reflection paper I wrote about the Rule of Benedict.  Click here for more information about St. Benedict . Obedience   When I hear the word “obedience,” I tend to imagine the soldier who obeys orders without question.  Obedience, in this sense, seems to require that one “checks in his mind at the door.”  So it seems that before I can promise to be obedient, I need to know “What is obedience?” Obedience has been defined as “holy listening.” The Prologue begins with the word, “Listen,” and continues with the instruction to listen “with the ear of your heart.”  But what do we listen to? First, we listen to G...

Dearest child, My wish for you is That you live your life Full of adventure, Eager to find the new and wonderful. Full of contentment, Striving for more, yet happy with what you have. Full of knowledge, Learning much, but knowing that some things are unknowable. Full of love, Loving others and being loved. Full of holiness, Certain that you are a child of God. I wish…That your life is full. 2013

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.  1 Corinthians 10:13 For years, this verse has been one of my go-to verses when life's struggles seem like too much to handle.   It begins with the premise that whatever is causing my distress is nothing new.  I've heard of this similarity among people referred to as "terminal uniqueness."  That is, we're all unique up to a certain point.  God has seen situations like mine before.  He's handled these situations before.  It's nothing new to him. The next sentence is a statement of God's faithfulness.  Not only because it begins with the words, "God is faithful..." but also because it says that whatever we're facing, God will help us find a solution, a "way out", that will help us get through it.  I h...

Today's epistle (letter) from the Revised Common Lectionary was Galatians 1:1-12. I like reading the letters of the Bible.  The writers pull no punches when they outline what the problems are in a given community.  However, they don't just point out faults, they also empathize with their readers and tell them how to resolve their problems. This letter, attributed to St. Paul, was likely sent by courier to its intended congregation.  I wonder what it would be like today, if Paul Skyped the congregation.  The writing is so vivid, I can almost see him exhorting the congregation to turn away from the "different" (false) gospel and return to Christ.   This letter, like the others also shows that people, at the core, have not changed that much in two thousand years: "Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ." This reading only covers ...

...priest, author, sociologist, complainer. Catholic priest, Father Andrew Greeley , died May 29 at the age of 85.  I don't have an extensive Greeley library, but his fiction and nonfiction works have given me much food for thought.  Father Greeley was a prolific author.  An extensive list of his books can be found here . Surprisingly, one paperback that did not make the book list was  Complaints Against God , a collection of essays, or "complaints," about issues ranging from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis to the End of Summer, and the Holy Roman Catholic Church.  The complaints, as a whole, address God with the understanding that God is omnipotent, and that there may be reasons for God's actions that are beyond our understanding.  In this sense, these complaints remind me of the Psalms.   Psalm 10 begins "Why do you stand so far off, O LORD, and hide yourself in time of trouble?"  Father Greeley's complaint number 20 tells God, "...you s...