Tag: Chittister
“Steady” and “static” are not synonyms
Division of opinion, too often the fault line of human relationships, is, when we embrace it openly, what invigorates thinking and stirs new thought. It is the ground of new beginnings, the beginning of new insight, the foundation of new respect for the other. If anything sharpens the dull edge of a relationship it is… Read More ›
Discovering the mystery of God
The Sufi tell stories that say all I think I’ll ever know about finding God. The first story is a disarming and compelling one. It is also, I think, a troublesome one, a fascinating one, a chastening one: “Help us to find God,” the seeker begged the Elder. “No one can help you there,” the… Read More ›
Be Grateful for Doubt
The fact is that all the great spiritual models of the ages before us found themselves, at one point or another, plunged into doubt, into darkness, into the certainty of uncertainty: Augustine, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, John the Baptist, Thomas, Peter, one after another of them all wondered, and wavered,… Read More ›
We need St Francis now
NCR, by Joan Chittister on Sep. 27, 2010. Some things never go way. The best ones, in fact, come back to us in whole new ways. Saints are like that. The church calendar that formed me, for instance, provided the Catholic community one feast day after another designed to remind us of the heroes of… Read More ›
I Honor the Place within You
“Hospitality is one form of worship,” the rabbis wrote. Hospitality in a culture of violence and strangers and anonymity has become the art of making good connections at good cocktail parties. We don’t talk in elevators, we don’t know the security guard’s name, we don’t invite even the neighbors in to the sanctuary of our… Read More ›
What Do You Weep For?
Evagrius of Ponticus, one of the early desert monastics, counseled young monastics: “First pray for the gift of tears, to soften by compunction the inherent hardness of your soul.” And fifteen centuries later, George Eliot wrote, too, “The beginning of compunction is the beginning of new life.” The point is clear: Weeping is a very… Read More ›
The Artist and Monk Are One
If, indeed, truth is beauty and beauty truth, then the monastic and the artist are one. Monasticism, in fact, cultivates the artistic spirit. Basic to monasticism are the very qualities art demands of the artist: silence, contemplation, discernment of spirits, community and humility. Basic to art are the very qualities demanded of the monastic: single-mindedness,… Read More ›
What Do You Have Time For?
One of the obsessive concerns of contemporary society is speed. Everything we produce we produce to go faster than the ones before it. Planes go faster than the speed of sound, though no one cares. Computer upgrades costing hundreds of dollars are downloaded every day to take milliseconds off the operating speeds of the versions… Read More ›
The Purpose of Wealth
Clearly, the purpose of wealth is not security. The purpose of wealth is reckless generosity, the kind that sings of the lavish love of God, the kind that rekindles hope on dark days, the kind that reminds us that God is with us always. It creates in the holy heart a freedom of spirit that… Read More ›
Thoughts Count
At no time of day or night are we not thinking about something. The only real question is, What is it? What do I choose to ruminate about in the interstices of the day, in the dark quiet of the night? Where does my mind go when there is nowhere specific defined for it to… Read More ›