Oh, Lord, I have seen the kingdom and it looks so good to me! I am transported to the kingdom when what I say is just what the other needs to hear, when the newest grandchild is experienced as the teacher, when I am filled to overflowing with life and love, when in me there […]
We post-modern people like our facts neat, without any flourishes, black or white, not grey, either supporting one side or the other, and certainly not both. So what do we do with Jesus who clearly embraces more than just one facet of life, who lives out the ultimate paradox of being divine […]
If we meditate on the cross as the intersection of heaven and earth and of God and man, then we would say that the vertical axis is God/heaven and the horizontal one is man/earth. It is at the intersection of the two axes that all our decisions and actions become clear. Here is the dilemma […]
While I was on retreat this summer I heard about Rev. Walter Ciszek, a priest who is being considered for sainthood. One day in the library I picked up his book, He Leadeth Me, [Ignatian Press, San Francisco, 1973] which describes what he, a Polish-American Jesuit priest, learned from being a prisoner […]
Life is a gift, a wrapped present that we open bit by bit, day by day. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. It is a wonder and a blessing. However you were born, whatever you are doing with you life, step back and look with wonder at who you are, where […]
The true value of the Bible lies, not in its historical accounts of the Israelites or of Jesus, although they are incredibly insightful into the nature of God and man and certainly capture the essence and teachings of Jesus, but in its being a living document of our living God. It is […]
I will be leaving this afternoon for a long retreat, returning at the end of July. I will not be posting my blog on my website during that time, but you can read it on Facebook at By the Waters. There you will find that I break the essay into five pieces and post one […]
I have been writing in recent weeks about how to take on yourself and your shadow—what to do with grief, anger, fear and anxiety, the week of 6.3.13, with our dreams and desires, 6.10.13, and with not identifying with the way we think and feel, but just observing ourselves, 6.17.13. You’ll find […]
Instead of identifying with all that you think and feel, try this: step back slightly from your own inner experience of your mind and self and see your own thinking from the point of view of an observer. Try to hold what your mind offers you with less attachment. Instead of “I […]
I’ve written before about seeing my life as an airplane in which God is the pilot of the airplane and I am the co-pilot. There is a lot of back-and-forth between us as I surrender to the direction God has set and as I comment on what is happening in my life. My […]