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New Year Resolutions? Bah Humbug!

12/31/2019

By Fr. George Morelli Probably one of the most useless wastes of mental and spiritual energy engaged in by some individuals is the making of New Year resolutions. One reason for the futility of New Year resolutions is that they are usually couched in such general terms that they invite procrastination, hesitation, ensuing failure and either anxiety or depression. Typical New Year’s resolutions are familiar to all: Stop smoking, lose weight, spend more time with

The Morality of Christmas

12/10/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 5, 2017 Morality is tricky business in what is an extremely moral society. I pray my readers to be patient with me as I explain what I think is the problem. First, I will note that morality is all that is left when the most fundamental grounds of a culture have been destroyed. We indeed live in just such a time, hence the rise of a vehemence in the moral life. Second,

Forgiveness: Forgiving Reality for Being What It Is

11/04/2019

The story of Noah and the flood is filled with insight. God tells Noah to bring into the ark all the opposites: the wild and the domestic, the crawling and the flying, the clean and the unclean, the male and the female of each animal (Genesis 7:2-15). Then God does a most amazing thing. God locks them together inside the ark (Genesis 7:16). Check it out. Most people never note that God actually closed them

Sin: Symptom of Separation. The Myth of Transgression

10/14/2019

First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God. —Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–c. 1416) [1] It is in falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually. As many of the parables seem to say, you have to lose it (or know that you don’t have it) before you will really seek it, then find it, and fittingly celebrate (see all three parables of Luke 15).

Thoughts on the Spiritual and Material. Thoughts on Questioning.

10/09/2019

By Michael Haldas Thoughts on the Spiritual and Material, June 9, 2016 “…the Church’s perspective is not dualistic, but rather sees that the spiritual and material parts of man are both in need of transfiguration and redemption. Man is not saved without the body; through the body he has his being and life. Our quest is not a mental salvation that we seek in the Church through our thoughts about God; such thinking is rationalistic

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Leaving the Garden

10/07/2019

Now let’s look at “The Fall,” as we usually refer to the pivotal event described in Genesis 3. The Fall is not simply something that happened in one historical moment to one archetypal couple, Adam and Eve. It happens in all moments and lives. It is the shape of creation. It sets the plot line. After Adam and Eve took their identity as separate from their Source, “the eyes of both of them were opened”

The Beloved Community (Martin Luther King Day)

01/21/2019

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. —Martin Luther King, Jr. [1] As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saw clearly in the last years of his life, we face a real choice between chaos and community—we need a moral revolution. If that was true fifty years ago, then we must be clear today: America needs a moral revival to bring about beloved community. —William J. Barber II [2] I believe that

Upon Which Foundation?

07/24/2018

Upon Which Foundation? “My poor children,” God says, “you want to live without me. What, then, do you depend upon? What is your essential foundation? “My poor child,” He declares, “you think you can escape from me by plunging yourself into what you conceive to be the ‘natural world.’ But what you cling to is not at all the natural world in its very depths. “You think you can lead a better life by distancing

Paradox: Overcoming Contradictions

06/25/2018

Sadly, a large percentage of religious people become and remain quite rigid thinkers because their religion taught them that to be faithful, obedient, and stalwart in the ways of God, they had to seek some ideal “order” instead of growing in their capacity for love. These are not bad people; they simply never learned much about living inside of paradox and mystery as the very nature of faith. Dictionaries define a contradiction as two things

The Burden of Reality

09/29/2016

Can we carry the burden of reality? How can we remain open to all human tragedies and aware of the vast ocean of human suffering without becoming mentally paralyzed and depressed? How can we live a healthy and creative life when we are constantly reminded of the fate of the millions who are poor, sick, hungry and persecuted? How can we even smile when we keep being confronted by pictures of tortures and executions? I

Archive

New Year Resolutions? Bah Humbug!

The Morality of Christmas

Forgiveness: Forgiving Reality for Being What It Is

Sin: Symptom of Separation. The Myth of Transgression

Thoughts on the Spiritual and Material. Thoughts on Questioning.

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Leaving the Garden

The Beloved Community (Martin Luther King Day)

Upon Which Foundation?

Paradox: Overcoming Contradictions

The Burden of Reality

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