Tag: Chittister
Unity Is Seeking Out Differences
Unity is more than solidarity and more than uniformity. Unity, ironically, is a commitment to becoming one people who speak in a thousand voices. Rather than one message repeated by a thousand voices, unity is one message shaped by a thousand minds. In times of great social change, as now, in times when the very… Read More ›
Commentaries on the Rule Of St. Benedict
Several Oblates have asked for suggestions on commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict (RB). The list is too exhaustive to list. Commentaries can be broken into three primary groups; devotional, line by line (exegesis), and a combination of the two. But before listing various commentaries, please remember that there are also quite a number… Read More ›
Peace Be With You
A commitment to peace, to being peaceful, to peacefulness draws from a very deep well. It is a source beyond the corruptions of either ambition or pride. It transcends addiction to either power or personality cults. Once peace comes to a person, the need for power simply disappears and goes to dust inside ourselves. We… Read More ›
We Are Shaped by the Past
The past colors the way we look at today and think about tomorrow. It forms our very definition of ourselves. The past never, ever really leaves any of us. All of us come from something — an alcoholic home, incest, embarrassing poverty, perhaps. That’s why it is so important, both to our spiritual life and… Read More ›
What that does the future hold?
The future is many things at once. It is the vessel into which we pour all our hopes and all our fears. “When all else is lost,” Christian Bovee says, “the future still remains.” The problem is that future is a panacea for some and a threat to others. It is at the edge of… Read More ›
Hope is a Slippery Thing
Holy Saturday is a day nobody talks about much in the liturgical year. There are no public ceremonies, no particular liturgies to interrupt the sense of waiting and vacuity that mark the day. For the most part, we are simply left on our own on Holy Saturday. And yet every human being who has ever… Read More ›
A Walk into the Dark
The spiritual life does not come cheap. It is not a stroll down a Mary Poppins path with a candy-store God who gives sweets and miracles. It is a walk into the dark with the God who is the light that leads us through darkness. Darkness, I have discovered, is the way we come to… Read More ›
Recent Books by Women
In five days, Running With Expanding Heart: Meeting God in Everyday Life by Sister Mary Reuter OSB will be released by Liturgical Press. It is being made available in both paperback ($14.95) and e-book ($9.95) versions. S. Mary served as prioress of Saint Benedict’s Monastery from 1989 to 1995. She currently teaches in the department… Read More ›
What is the Point of Suffering?
Lent is about the holiness that suffering can bring. It is about bringing good where hate has been. It is about the transformation of the base to the beautiful. But don’t be fooled: Lent is not about masochism. It is about being willing to suffer for something worth suffering for, as Jesus did, without allowing… Read More ›
And the Greatest Is Love
Saint Benedict had a sister, Scholastica, — many say his twin — who had been consecrated to God since her youth and was herself a spiritual leader. During one of their annual visits, Scholastica, inspired by the depth of their conversation, asked Benedict — by now an abbot of some renown — to remain overnight… Read More ›