The Early Morning Hours and Silence
I remember from the years I lived in Panama, from 1958-1967, how much I loved to go to bed early, very early. If it was raining, even if it was only 8 PM I would go to my room and just lie there listening to the rain, the wind, and the swaying of the...
Faith and the Unconscious
The truth is that our unconscious minds are active, purposeful, and independent. Hidden they may be, but their effects are anything but, for they play a critical role in shaping the way our conscious minds experience and respond to the world.---Leonard Mlodinow...
Razor's Edge
Lord, we are always on the edge,
we can hide from it, keeping busy,
yet no one is so special that we are not vulnerable,
what a boon this short life with its valleys and hills
and occasional mountain view.
What a gift, is a life,
both in its fullness,
as well as its brevity. --Br.MD
Hope
To hope is to reach upward
when all is dark,
when one is alone,
yet propelled to reach for grace,
God's love is beyond our emotions,
feelings, and even our deepest
misunderstandings of Infinite Love
Just reach.--Br.MD
Our Spiritual Path
I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly
calling in Christ Jesus. --Philippians 3:14
When people speak to me, more than a few when sharing their spiritual path, and frustrations can overlook what is the most obvious. For they will often complain that...
The Monastic Journey
(Chapter talk 11/14/2020)
The world tells us to seek success, power, and money;
God tells us to seek humility, service, and love.--Pope Francis
++++++++++
The human journey from my experience is not a simple affair. There is an old saying “What you see is what you get”...
Well said. The death to self that Jesus calls us to is to expand our often fearful, tribal hearts to one of Universal love, and to be loving and gentle when we speak what we believe is true.
peace
mark
How else can we love ourselves?
God is always at work, in ways that can't be comprehended, or even seen. When Jesus was in the tomb, for a time, it seemed that evil had won, yet that was not the case, nor is it now.
As Christians, when we gain understanding more deeply what it means to be in...
All Souls Day 2020
"The more one longs for a thing, the more painful does deprivation of it become. And because after this life, the desire for God, the Supreme Good, is intense in the souls of the just (because this impetus toward him is not hampered by the weight of the body, and that time...
All Saints Day 2020
“If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31): this is the source of the peace found in the saints. Such inner strength makes it possible for us, in our fast-paced, noisy and aggressive world, to give a witness of holiness through patience and constancy in doing good. It...
It is in giving that we receive
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to...
Show respect for all people
The climate in the United States is pretty ugly at this time. It would seem that Christians could be the worst offenders in how they attack one another and even condemn them to hell. I recently wrote a piece on 'Silence' and posted it on a Catholic site. The response...
"We become what we hate".
There is an old saying "We become what we hate". It is a paradox, absurd, yet when I attack someone on whatever grounds, I tend to become the very thing I am fighting.
It is as if we have seeds laying within, more or less dormant, and they only take root when watered...
I got my ballot
I got my ballot in the mail today. There have already been 21 million votes, I guess that is a record. I am weary of it all but hopeful. I hope that when this over, whoever wins, perhaps the next four years can be used to actually doing their jobs instead of all this partisan...