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May 2016

May 25, 2016

Mystagogy: the Heart of Spiritual Formation

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — the Catholic process by which adults enter...

May 17, 2016

“We have been given the Holy Spirit”

Jesus returned to Nazareth, the town where he had been brought up. And on the...

March 2016

March 16, 2016

Do Contemplatives Need the Church?

A post on this blog received the following comment yesterday: Having been with the Catholic...

March 09, 2016

Three Approaches to Prayer When the Dry Times Come

A friend of mine posed the following question recently on Facebook: You may have written...

March 02, 2016

Is There a “Contemplative” Personality Type?

I once heard Richard Rohr tell a charming story of giving a retreat at the...

February 2016

February 24, 2016

Five Essential Dimensions of Christian Prayer

I talk a lot about silent prayer in this blog, which is understandable considering that...

February 17, 2016

Seven Blessings of Silent Prayer

Silent prayer — contemplative prayer, what the Catholic Catechism calls "wordless prayer in which mind...

January 2016

January 27, 2016

Relational Contemplation

The Christian faith stands on the recognition that God is Love. Therefore, love is the heart...

January 20, 2016

Is Contemplation Dangerous?

Is contemplation dangerous? Some people think so. This past weekend I read a book that...

January 06, 2016

Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office

Everyone knows that monks devote their lives to silence, but also to daily prayer and...

December 2015

December 30, 2015

What Are We Afraid Of?

I've been reading Bill Bryson's charming and delightful book on the English language, The Mother...

December 23, 2015

The Three Advents

Advent is almost over. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the season of Christmas begin the day...

December 16, 2015

How to Find a Contemplative-Friendly Church

Spirituality is all about love, and love only exists in relationship. Therefore, spirituality is healthiest...

December 09, 2015

Does Union with God mean Losing Your Self?

"If the goal of the contemplative is union with God, does the individual begin to...

December 02, 2015

Deeper into the Heart of Christ

Over the past year I have become interested in the topic of "Christian leadership." People...

September 2015

September 23, 2015

Nine Ways to Foster a Contemplative Church

If you are the pastor of a church or parish, this post is for you....

September 16, 2015

Thirteen Characteristics of Healthy Spirituality

Following the passing of Anglican contemplative theologian Kenneth Leech, I've been revisiting several of his...

September 09, 2015

The Fear of the Lord and the Love of God

As a young man growing up in the American south, I heard the phrase "God...

August 2015

August 26, 2015

Seven Ways the Mystics Inspire Us Today

One of my favorite quotations comes from Karl Rahner: "The Christian of the future will...

July 2015

July 22, 2015

What to Say to the Nay-Sayers: Talking About Contemplation With Its Critics

If you are active in a church or other faith community, and you are drawn...

July 08, 2015

Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part Two)

Last week I shared six principles that guide me in my understanding of what Christian...

July 01, 2015

Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part One)

A couple of years ago Rob Bell wrote a book with the title What We...

June 2015

June 10, 2015

The Rule, the Discipline, and Spiritual Growth

I bet if I took a poll, almost everyone who reads my blog would agree...

June 03, 2015

Better to Light a Candle (of Silence) than to Curse the Darkness (of Language)

Does language always limit the way we talk about, think about, or even pray to, God?...

May 2015

May 20, 2015

The Last Instructions of Christ to His Disciples

In the first chapter of The Acts of the Apostles, Jesus gives his disciples their...

May 06, 2015

Contemplative Leadership with Saints Benedict and Ignatius of Loyola

In recent months I have become very interested in the topic of leadership. Which might...

April 2015

April 29, 2015

Five Ways You Can Enjoy a Deeper Personal Prayer Life

"We need to deepen our own personal prayer lives." — The Most Reverend Wilton D....

April 22, 2015

A Prayer for Contemplatives

O Divine Beloved, you are the source of life and the fountain of all goodness....

April 15, 2015

Contemplation and Grieving

A reader named Monika wrote the following comment and left it on one of my...

April 08, 2015

Contemplation and Conflict, or, How the Prayer of Silence Changes the Way We Think About Possessions, Theft, and Just About Everything Else

I simply love this story of two desert fathers, which Thomas Merton recounts in his...