That God's love is ever present to us is of no doubt. The question is, what are we doing to receive it? It is only by daily turning away from self-absorption that we can become absorbed in the love of God that is continually poured out upon us by his son, Jesus Christ. When going [...]
At the very beginning of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius writes that they have been written to enable a person “to conquer oneself.” The way this is done is by embracing the stoicism kept at bay in the early Church but introduced into Christianity at the Renaissance. When most of our school friends were dreaming [...]
If you continue persevering in prayer, come what may, the subtle magnetic force of God’s love becomes stronger. Then, as this process continues and you feel you are going nowhere, a welcome change takes place. When your purification has been sufficiently advanced you are able to experience the love of the Holy Spirit enveloping you [...]
There are many moral problems in our world, but they are all arguably rooted in a lack of prayer, of regular communion with God. Here, then, at an opportune time comes a book about prayer: James Papandrea’s "Praying the Wisdom" teaches how to pray with the Bible. Praying the Wisdom: Inspired Prayers for Lectio Divina [...]
Do you go to prayer for what you get out of God or for what you want to give him, with and through Christ who died for us on the Cross? There is an unwritten law in every religious order or congregation that no one should interfere with the person in charge of the novices. [...]
True tradition is allowing true love to be handed on. That is what the word tradition means. It is continually handed on to be received by each successive generation by the Risen Christ through His sacraments. In an earlier chapter I told the story of how a scripture scholar who wrote a book in the [...]
I asked the old priest about what is called “Quietism.”A friend had given me an old copy of Molinos’ Spiritual Guide, and I knew that the writer had been condemned and imprisoned for life, and yet I could not understand in what lay his crime. “It is difficult to put into words,” said the priest, [...]
There is only one power that can destroy this evil at its source within us, and that is the power of infinite love. When we do all in our power to invite infinite love into our hearts, we are doing the most important thing we can so that evil may be defeated and good may [...]
What can our poor prayers—so broken like ourselves—do for if not echo constantly the very petition Jesus has made known to us? Nothing else will matter in eternity. John 17: 20-26 continues the priestly prayer of Jesus that we have been listening to throughout the week. Again, we hear its simple but sublime themes rehearsed: [...]
When St. Peter was asked how to receive the outpouring of God’s love on the first Pentecost he answered, “repent,” just as Our Lady keeps asking us to keep repenting in prayer. For it is here alone that our acts of love enable us to receive God’s love in return. All good parents hope their [...]
Anyone who has known moments of intense joy will know that these experiences would be diminished if they could not be shared with another. Surely this is why God created other beings to receive and return his love, to know and experience true joy on earth and the fullness of happiness in the world to [...]
Authentic discipleship transforms all aspects of life, every day, at work, at home, in all relationships. My discipleship to Jesus is, within clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. Dallas Willard One of the great oaks among us is fallen. Dallas Willard, who died [...]
It is precisely because God has implanted into all of us the profound and deep desire for infinite love, that anyone can become the genius that love can make of us. Only those with hearts of stone are excluded. Conventional wisdom tells us that geniuses are born. However, the Catholic metaphysical poet Francis Thompson, said [...]
There are within all of us innumerable drives and urges that if allowed to rule would destroy us. If we are not consciously and daily engaged in the spiritual combat that calls upon us to act selflessly, then we will be unable to admit the New Man which is Christ, so that he can do [...]