Begin your meditation by primarily using the Gospels to centre your whole attention on the person of Jesus so that knowledge can gradually turn to love. Affective Prayer begins when the sparks of love that are generated there begin to lead upwards and into the Risen Christ. After the Protestant Reformation, a new terminology began [...]
Prayer is a process of continual inner conversion that involves gently trying to turn, open and surrender the heart to God. As the process is practised, the heart is made accessible to the heart of God, and his love shafts down to purify and empty it so that Christ can come to birth again in [...]
Marriage is meant to be a bond breakable only by death, because love, by its nature, can be measured neither by space nor time. And yet, despite the ideal of marriage, the hard actualities of life make it end sometimes in dismal ruin and failure. A moment comes when the bonds once meant to be [...]
Love of one’s country stands better when it finds its office within a higher love. Lewis disaggregates ‘love’ into loves In his book The Four Loves, published in 1960, three years before he died in 1963, the Irish/Englishman C.S. Lewis says that, although goodness itself cannot turn bad, things that we associate with goodness and [...]
Some years ago, my wife and I decided to forego the over-crowded restaurants and parking lots on Valentine’s Day, light a few candles of our own, and enjoy a romantic dinner at home. With this year’s health concerns and, in some cases, more limited restaurant seating to compete for, it may be just the year [...]
The first Jews used the symbol of unquenchable fire to depict the all-consuming power of God’s love. The first Christians, however, believed that this love was now embodied in the Risen and glorified body of Jesus, as he rose from the dead on the first Easter day, and they used the radio-active energy of the [...]
Before He was born as Christ the King on earth, He was “born” in the “mind” and “heart” of God as Christ the King in Heaven. He was firstly born in eternity before time began, so that the glory that reigned in Heaven could also reign on earth, in Him. However, if God’s Son was [...]
I went to Grandma’s house to decorate Christmas cookies today. Decorating cookies with her is a tradition. She bakes cookies for Easter and Thanksgiving too, but she bakes the most for Christmas. She has lived in her house since 1968. That is 56 years. It was where her children were raised, and it was where [...]
Although there may be a hundred and one things that can be done in a Jubilee Year, there is one thing above all others, without which everything else is pointless. First and foremost, it is a time to turn back and embrace anew the only form of love that can unite us with God. In [...]
Many years ago, I had a wonderful plumber who was always there when I needed him. Nothing was too much trouble, both night and day, on weekends, and even on holidays, when he never charged more than the current rate. Sad to say, I never really appreciated him. He was just the man I turned to [...]
The challenge we face today is humanizing a Bureaucratic Regime, just as our ancestors humanized a German warrior regime. We’re in the position of the Apostle Paul, handcuffed to a Praetorian guard. As the Bubble grows more psychotic and inhumane, opportunities for evangelistic kindness and witness multiply exponentially. As we survey our emerging Bureaucratic Regime [...]
Petrarch’s Canzoniere is often referred to as merely love poetry, dedicated to the poet's lost love, Laura. This is an important observation, but it overlooks other elements of the text such as the themes of forgiveness, repentance, and the connection to the divine. Claiming that the Canzoniere is merely love poetry is not only an underestimation [...]
One powerful way to begin to escape from the Cave is to strive to love others without seeking a reward; that is, to love others the way God loves us. The Cave In the Parable of the Cave, Socrates uses powerful images to depict the universal condition of humankind. All of us, ancient Athenians and [...]
Raffaella is a new fairytale ballet commissioned by the Stroik family, in memory of their daughter, Raffaella Stroik. Inspired by her life, this full-length ballet follows the lineage of classical ballets such as Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty and seeks to embody Raffaella’s motto, “Beauty will save the world.” The ballet will be premiered on Saturday, [...]