The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — the Catholic process by which adults enter the Church — suggests that there are four stages or steps in the process of Christian…
Category: Spirituality
“We have been given the Holy Spirit”
Jesus returned to Nazareth, the town where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, he went to the synagogue, as was his custom. On this particular day,…
Do Contemplatives Need the Church?
A post on this blog received the following comment yesterday: Having been with the Catholic Church and seminary trained for all my 71 years of life. I am naturally contemplative…
Three Approaches to Prayer When the Dry Times Come
A friend of mine posed the following question recently on Facebook: You may have written about this before but how about dry times in prayer? What to do? Does it…
Is There a “Contemplative” Personality Type?
I once heard Richard Rohr tell a charming story of giving a retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton lived. Rohr was surprised to find that not all…
Seven Blessings of Silent Prayer
Silent prayer — contemplative prayer, what the Catholic Catechism calls “wordless prayer in which mind and heart focus on God’s greatness and goodness in affective, loving adoration” — is an…
Relational Contemplation
The Christian faith stands on the recognition that God is Love. Therefore, love is the heart of all spirituality, including contemplative prayer. We are called not just to be contemplatives — we…
Is Contemplation Dangerous?
Contemplation: is it the key to happiness — or a path to holiness? Is contemplation dangerous? Some people think so. This past weekend I read a book that has given…
Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office
Everyone knows that monks devote their lives to silence, but also to daily prayer and chanting. Monastic prayer occurs at fixed-hours throughout the day. The rota of Psalms, canticles, scripture readings,…
What Are We Afraid Of?
I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s charming and delightful book on the English language, The Mother Tongue, and ran across this delicious tidbit: English speakers dread silence. We are all familiar…
The Three Advents
Advent is almost over. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the season of Christmas begin the day after that. Even though the Christmas season is technically shorter than Advent, it always seems…
How to Find a Contemplative-Friendly Church
Spirituality is all about love, and love only exists in relationship. Therefore, spirituality is healthiest when it is expressed in a communal way. For better or worse, this means — at…