contemplative

Power made perfect

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Lately I’ve been discouraged a great deal. Gasoline prices are rising nearly everyday and we seem powerless to stop it. As a person who needs to travel or provide transport for others this means more than temporary discomfort. Add to that the march of some in our government toward war with Iran and no real … Read more

Website of Unknowing

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Last night following a search for more contemplative reading material I came across a truly lovely site that I’d like to draw your attention to. It’s author works in the bookstore at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, GA. It’s title, Website of  Unknowning, invited me to explore it in some detail. … Read more

Mysticism

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Mysticism is nothing more or less than a love-driven way of knowing God, that is centered in direct, immediate experience of God’s presence—as contrasted with the efforts of our minds to think through, capture, and describe the object of our belief in clear language, theological subtlety, or scientific precision…. “A mystic,” Peers wrote, “is a … Read more

Wholeness

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Religion is about ritual, about morals, about systems of thought, all of them good, but all of them incomplete. Spirituality is about coming to consciousness of the sacred. It is in that consciousness that perspective comes, that peace comes. It is in that consciousness that a person comes to wholeness. –p.16, Illuminated Life–Joan Chittister, OSB

Road to Emmaus

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I found myself on the road once again to Mt. Irenaeus. I’ve been a regular at the Mountain for over eight years now. It’s as much my home as the one I live in most of the time and the friars are as much my brothers as anyone in my family. This morning was one of those lovely spring mornings. The sky was a deep blue and not a cloud to be seen. Brother Sun was brilliant and his rays were warming the air temperature to nearly fifty degrees at 10:45 am as I made my way along Route 275 and then onto Allegany County Route 1. There were a couple of drivers behind me who were in a bit more of a hurry than I. I pulled off on the shoulder and let them pass. I continued to poke along at a leisurely 45 mph and then turned onto Hydetown Road where I slowed even further.

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His voice

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Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.–John 18:37 What is the truth? I don’t hear the voice, but I sense it in the silence of my prayers and in the silence of my life. Martin Luther King heard his voice. All the great prophets have heard that voice and it has moved them … Read more

Being present

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This quote came in today’s mail and it really resonates for me. Being present does not mean getting rid of emotions in order to stay calm. It is the ability to stay calm within the emotional world we inhabit. Emotions have real value. At the same time, we can avoid falling prey to their traps. … Read more