We live in a world wherein most everything over-stimulates our grandiosity, even as we are handed less and less tools to deal with that. Several years ago, Robert L. Moore wrote a very significant book, Facing the Dragon. The dragon that most threatens us, he believes, is the dragon of our own grandiosity, that sense…
“I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world.” Socrates wrote those words more than 2,400 years ago. Today more than ever these are words which we would need to appropriate because, more and more, our world and we ourselves are sinking into some unhealthy forms of tribalism where we are…
The Gospels tell us that after King Herod died, an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, telling him: “Get up! Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the child’s life are now dead” (Matthew 2: 19-20). The angel, it would seem, spoke prematurely,…
“The most damaging idolatry is not the golden calf but enmity against the other.” The renowned anthropologist, Rene Girard, wrote that and its truth is not easily admitted. Most of us like to believe that we are mature and big-hearted and that we do love our neighbours and are free of enmity towards others. But…
Pain will flow into us more deeply when we take God seriously not because God wants it or because pain is somehow more blessed than joy
The spirituality writer, Tom Stella, tells a story about three monks at prayer in their monastery chapel. The first monk imagines himself being carried up to Heaven by the angels. The second monk imagines himself already in Heaven, chanting God’s praises with the angels and saints. The third monk cannot focus on any holy thoughts…
Accommon soldier dies without fear, yet Jesus died afraid. Iris Murdoch wrote this and that truth can be somewhat disconcerting. Why? If someone dies with deep faith, shouldn’t he or she die within a certain calm and trust drawn from that faith? Wouldn’t the opposite seem more logical, that is, if someone dies without faith…
A seminarian I know recently went to a party on a Friday evening at a local university campus. The group was a crowd of young, college students and when he was introduced as a seminarian, as someone who was trying to become a priest and who had taken a vow of celibacy, the mention of…
Among the Ten Commandments, one begins with the word “remember”: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day”. It reminds us to recall something we already know. There are commandments of mercy written into our very DNA. We already know them, but we need to remember them more explicitly. What are they? The Ten Commandments of Mercy…
Before you get serious about Jesus, first consider how good you’re going to look on wood! Daniel Berrigan wrote those words and they express a lot about who he was and what he believed in. He died at the weekend aged 94. No short tribute can do justice to Dan Berrigan. He defies quick definition…