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Select a Month February 2017 January 2017 November 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

February 2017

February 10, 2017

Uselessness: Where Suffering and Beauty Meet

I've never been good at beauty. Yes, of course I can in some sense understand...

January 2017

January 06, 2017

The Assurance of Winter

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And...

November 2016

November 19, 2016

Rescuing Small and Huddling Things from Adversarial Protectiveness

I can't remember precisely what his answer was, but it was not the enthusiastic one...

September 2016

September 01, 2016

Discovering Humanity Through Whispered Poetry in an Age of Rhetorical Explosives

Flannery O’Connor once said in justification of her fiction that, in a deaf culture, one...

August 2016

August 27, 2016

Seeking Identity

This post is part of the Patheos Catholic Channel series, "Catholicity: Identity and its Discontents." ...

August 22, 2016

Coming Soon!

When I was approached by the Patheos Catholic channel editors to create a contemplative blogging...

July 2016

July 14, 2016

The Sacredness of Now

The bells began to ring just outside my window for Vigils, 3:15 am prayer, and...

July 12, 2016

Reflections on Grief and Compassion Overload

Exhausted. Spent. So weary of words. There are those who seem able to contain it,...

July 06, 2016

St. Maria Goretti and the Forgiveness of Rapists

It is the feast of St. Maria Goretti, who on this day 114 years ago...

June 2016

June 29, 2016

Curing the Hungry, Feeding the Sick: Caring For Your Mentally Ill Friends, Part II

Let us imagine a feast. And let us imagine someone too mentally ill to...

May 2016

May 24, 2016

How to Offer Spiritual Care to Your Mentally Ill Friends: Part I

Loneliness. I think above all, this is the single word I want you to remember...

May 20, 2016

Healing Prayer as Penance

“Spend 10 or 15 minutes praying for healing.” It doesn’t sound much like penance. Unless...

May 05, 2016

And the Truth Shall Make You Huge: Trumpian Nihilism in an Age of Apathetic Narcissism

I generally don’t discuss politics. Not because they aren’t important, and not because I don’t...

May 03, 2016

A Pill for Contemplative Spirituality?

“Is there a pill I can take for that?” said my eight year old son,...

April 2016

April 28, 2016

A Mirror Held Up to Mystery: Eros, Sex, Censorship, and the Song of Solomon

Sex. It’s what the Song of Solomon is about. But ancient Christian readers were prudes...

April 21, 2016

Contemplation and the Practice of Friendship: A Review of Love & Salt

And there in that land I encountered a strange race of people, to whom was...

April 14, 2016

Teach Us To Pray…But Be Gentle: Prayer and Mental Illness

So, God said to Job, everything’s over and you need to pray for your friends...

April 11, 2016

Why I Need Contemplative Spirituality

In his eminently affable and uncontroversial way, theologian Stanley Hauerwas once suggested he’s a...

March 2016

March 29, 2016

He is Not Here – He is Risen: Existential Encounters with the Emptiness of the Tomb

“He is not here.” So were their words when I came upon the tomb and...

March 25, 2016

Rent: A Poetic Reflection on Good Friday

"The watchmen that went about the city found me, They smote me, they wounded me;...

March 22, 2016

Lenten Reflection VI on Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out: Three Things You Need For Prayer

In the prior Lenten post on Henri Nouwen's Reaching Out, we finally reached what is both most fundamental...

March 08, 2016

Tuesday Lenten Reflection IV, Reaching Out Amidst Betrayal: Why Christians Stay

“This is the what makes Christians walk away.” I was talking to a...

March 01, 2016

Reaching Out in Lent, Part III: Hostility, Hospitality, and a Spirituality for the Academic Job Market

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building...

February 2016

February 29, 2016

Hospitality and Mount Saint Mary’s University

As we at The Inner Room blog, spend some time with Henri Nouwen's book Reaching...

February 23, 2016

Tuesday Lenten Reflection II: Living With Others in Pain

In my prior Lenten post, I discussed Nouwen’s idea that the way to deal with loneliness...

February 18, 2016

Solitude of Heart

"But the solitude that really counts is the solitude of heart; it is an inner...

February 09, 2016

Reaching Out With Henri Nouwen: A Lenten Journey

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all...

February 03, 2016

If Old Spiritual Texts Seem So Boring, Then Why Should We Read Them?

In the last post, I explored the way that, once we have moved beyond the glitter...

February 01, 2016

Why Do Old Spiritual Texts Seem Boring?

Part of prayer is learning to pray with all other Christians – where two or...

January 2016

January 26, 2016

Our Hearts Are Deadly Until They Find Rest In You

The most perilous place for each of us is the desert within our own hearts;...