To understand the man who humbly leads the world’s largest Christian denomination while serving and speaking for the poor, for refugees, for the imprisoned and even the condemned, you need to begin by understanding his personal faith and spirituality. …
Tag: Spirituality
This is why Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. This is why he taught that our neighbor is anyone in need. It’s why he told us to love the least of our brothers and sisters. Because that’s where he is and where we will most readily find him. Serving others is more than charity, more than good works, more than a quick foot washing. It’s a chance to meet Jesus face to face. …
I am very close to beginning a new walk, as retirement from my position at the university looms large (target date: June 14). The question I hear most frequently, you might imagine, is “what are you going to do?” It will likely come as no surprise to those who know me if I say, “I have a plan.” …
Almost a year ago (March 31, 2018) I posted a reflection about “waiting” during Holy Week, and that post included a new song I composed and performed with my to musical partners, John Caravelli and Phil Cooper. A year later, we now have a video to go with the song, so I thought I would post it here. Sit with it, pray with it, let it be a reminder that God is present throughout all of our days and nights… …
He was walking through the autumn-thinned woods, a carpet of fallen yellow beneath his feet. He put one foot in front of the other, the walk more of an obligation to himself than anything else. Sometimes, he thought, he prayed while he walked, but today he could not gather the will. The woods were silent and empty, as was he. …
Choosing joy is not a call to blindness, to ignoring those things we would rather not see. Rather, it is a call to see our lives and world with new and joyful eyes of faith and then set out to help bring about real change, whether serving one person or helping to reform an institution in need of healing from the inside out. …
Like many, I was impatient and restless as a young person. My favorite prayer was something along the lines of, “That was fun. What’s next?” What I learned as I grew older was the importance of savoring the gift of the present and the little. …
As the Catholic Church faces its future and works to rebuild the faith and trust of its faithful, we all need to ask ourselves a question: Are we standing in the right place? …
We live in unsettled, dangerous, destructive, confusing times, and it would be easy to allow our only response to be one of resignation, of saying to ourselves and to the rest of the world, “I give up. It’s just too big. It’s just too destructive. I have nothing to offer that will make a difference.” But such a response is lazy and not a response of faith. A response of faith allows us (perhaps propels us) to roll up our …
Beauty, as the English poet David Whyte writes above, is the “harvest of presence,” it is the reward for sitting still and waiting for something to show up, of being so present in a moment that a finch is not just a finch but a reminder that God is at work in the world. …