Tag: joy
The General Dance
For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in… Read More ›
Pope Francis reminds Christians to have a festive faith
Vatican City, May 16, 2015 / 02:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to vowed religious, Pope Francis said Christianity must be festive. He praised the special nourishing power of a nun’s smile. “The feast is a theological category of life. And you cannot live the consecrated life without this festive dimension. It’s a party. But partying… Read More ›
Our elders
They are everywhere, these very old people, each a call to meditate on our own mortality, something most would like to put off until tomorrow, yet we only have today, tomorrow does not yet exist, will never in fact, well as an idea, for there is only this day where our potential can be lived out…. Read More ›
The last phase of life
As I was taking care of Luke early this morning I could tell that this was going to be a morning of confusion. He was in a good mood, but as happens often with the very old, he will soon be 102, his body is awake but his mind is still in some dream. Luckily… Read More ›
Life is good (aside from all the crap)
Theodicy is the discipline that seeks to understand the reason for so much suffering in the world. To say that human life is often tragic and filled with loss, pain and mourning is so obvious that it need not be said. Yet lots of paper is spent on seeking to understand this reality. There are… Read More ›
Inner
Sometimes I think my inner world resembles a basement filled too overflowing with all kinds of things. Some new, others old and moldy; useful tools though they are often buried under layers of chaotic junk. I get lost sometimes, so many images floating to the surface; faces, scenes, emotions, rambling thoughts, and irrational episodes of… Read More ›
Make the Lord your joy
My advice to you is to turn aside occasionally from troubled and anxious pondering on the paths you may be treading, and to travel on smoother ways where the gifts of God are serenely savored, so that the thought of him may give breathing space to you whose consciences are perplexed. I should like you… Read More ›
Always joyful
When we die, we are reduced to our real selves. We die into who we really are. In Heaven, we have the expanded intelligence of instant recognition such that we do not speak with the lips nor even necessitate a name. Our “masks” are no longer. We lose the facade we wore to work. We… Read More ›
The Sign of God Working in Souls
With this in mind, then, you understand how it is in the spiritual life that the first fruits of the Holy Spirit give joy to those whose hearts he sees to be pure, and yet after bestowing this joy and sweetness on them the Spirit holds aloof and forsakes them. The explanation is this: he… Read More ›
Reflecting on Lent
. . . we are halfway through Lent. We have gone through twenty days and three Sundays. We have twenty days and three Sundays ahead. So it is a good moment to stop and look. What have we been doing with this Lent? Going back and listening to Benedict again: During these days, therefore, we… Read More ›