All beings are words of God, His music, His art. Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps in our souls. Every act reveals God and expands His being. I know that may be hard to comprehend. All creatures are doing their best to help God in His birth of Himself. Enough talk for the [...]
Posts in the Contemplative Living category
Discovering the True Self
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A couple of weeks ago I had my first Thai massage session. It is different than traditional Swedish style massage in that you are fully clothed and lay on a mat. The massage practitioner stretches your body in different directions to help release tension. There is also a lot of rhythmic rocking so that the body [...]
Going on Retreat
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How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters. They form our contemplation. They instill us with virtue. They make us as stable as the land we live in. -Thomas [...]
The Table as Altar
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Two weeks ago I went to a Shabbat dinner at the home of my good friend who is also a rabbi. On occasion she will invite her "women of faith" friends to celebrate this welcoming in of the Sabbath so central to Jewish life and ritual. There we were, one Jewish rabbi, one Benedictine Oblate, two [...]
Shabbat and Shavasana
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On returning from our summer travels I recommitted myself to a deeper exploration of two practices — Sabbath-keeping and yoga. I believe so strongly in the power of Sabbath, as a witness to a different way of being in the world, as an act of humility that says the world will get by if I [...]
Article on Contemplation (bonus post)
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My article on "The Practice of Contemplation as Witness and Resistance" has been published in the October 2007 issue of The Way (a journal of contemporary spirituality published by the British Jesuits). They have been behind in their production because of the editor's illness, but the issue is now available. Click on the link above to read the [...]
Radical Hospitality
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This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. [S]he may [...]
Are You Listening?
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What the Dog Perhaps Hears If an inaudible whistle blown between our lips can send him home to us, then silence is perhaps the sound of spiders breathing and roots mining the earth; it may be asparagus heaving, headfirst, into the light and the long brown sound of cracked cups, when it happens. We would [...]
Contemplative Living
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A great reflection by Robert Toth at the Merton Insitute: "Do you consider yourself a contemplative person? Would you say that you live contemplatively?" Having asked these questions of hundreds of people, we find that most people do not see themselves as contemplative or feel they are living contemplatively. Most defined contemplative living as leading [...]
