Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: humanity

We are made of fire

The inner life is like the weather. Or like the Atlantic Ocean. Weather changes for there are storms, rain, bright lightning and loud thunder and snow and hail. Then there is spring, sunshine, summer, grinding heat and fall and winter. Constant flux seems to be the only steady-state in our inner lives. Sometimes the waves… Read More ›

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Stretch

Some of the most frequently said prayers of Christians are said for the collective whole, yet on the other hand we are often quick to send the vast majority of people to hell. The older I get, the less this makes sense to me and perhaps I am not alone in this, well I know… Read More ›

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Psalm 72 (71): 11-20– He shall save the poor!

1. The Liturgy of Vespers, which we are following through its series of Psalms, presents to us in two stages Psalm 72[71], a royal and messianic hymn. After meditating on the first part (cf. vv. 1-11; [ORE], 8 December 2004, p. 11), we now have before us the second poetic and spiritual movement of this hymn… Read More ›

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I was looking for a way to reach You

I was looking for a way to reach you and be yours, but my search bore no fruit, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (Tim 1 2:5). For He has commanded me to stick to Him in order to reach You, and He – may… Read More ›

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The Spirits Around Us: What are our access points?

We write about the spirits around us, and this is a time of the year important in that regard; there have been mystics who’ve said it’s on Christmas that the greatest number of souls are released. Apparently, like certain hours of the night, like three a.m., at Christmastime the veil seems to thin. Fortunately, more… Read More ›

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‘I’m spiritual but not religious’ is a cop-out

The increasingly common refrain that “I’m spiritual, but not religious,” represents some of the most retrogressive aspects of contemporary society. The spiritual but not religious “movement” – an inappropriate term as that would suggest some collective, organizational aspect – highlights the implosion of belief that has struck at the heart of Western society. Spiritual but… Read More ›

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Reward

What is the reward for loving God and by that fact our deepening ability to love others? The remuneration for love is too simply love more. If God is love, infinite love as manifested to us in Christ Jesus, then our relationship is not static but goes deeper into this mystery of love. Our movies,… Read More ›

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Conversion involves the whole person

. . . (St. John) Newman asks the question: What does faith have to do with life? It is a very pointed question for the situation of modern humanity, which tends to see religion, faith, the practice of faith as an aspect of life, an accessory to the many other parts of our lives. But… Read More ›

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Steve Mosher: A Vision of ‘Hell’ Brought Him to the Church

His story reveals why the New Evangelization draws its strength from the Church’s pro-life witness. FRONT ROYAL, Va. — Steve Mosher was a rising Stanford University social researcher, schooled in the academy’s received wisdom on matters like abortion and the “right to choose,” when he was suddenly thrown off course. It was 1980, and he… Read More ›

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Male and Female and the Trinity

In the light of the New Testament it is possible to discern how the primordial model of the family is to be sought in God himself, in the Trinitarian mystery of his life. The divine “We” is the eternal pattern of the human “we”, especially of that “we” formed by the man and the woman… Read More ›

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