What is the future of humanity? Will we ever evolve beyond our current identity of homo sapiens? After all, our ancestors weren’t always homo sapiens. Go back far enough and we find homo neanderthalensis or homo erectus in our past. We’ve evolved before, so doesn’t make sense to assume that we shall evolve again?…… Read more at Patheos
Category: Spirituality
The Royal Donkey and the Reign of Humble Peace
A Meditation for Palm Sunday, April 14, 2019 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from…… Read more at Patheos
Joyful Penitence and a Continuous Lent
Alleluia! Lent is almost over! In just a few days to come we will journey through the Sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, culminating in the Great Vigil of Easter, marking the Resurrection of Christ—and the end, for another year, of our Lenten fasts and sacrifices.…… Read more at Patheos
The Poetics of Faith, or, Why Centering Prayer is a Method and Not a Technique
Recently on social I media I offered this observation: My online friend James Ishmael Ford, author of books like Introduction to Zen Koans and Zen Master Who?, reposted it to his timeline, dutifully crediting me as the source. I was surprised — and a bit bemused — by the response. James is a…… Read more at Patheos
Six Videos on a Variety of Contemplative Topics
In August 2015 I had the opportunity to record a series of videos in front of a small audience. Here are each of those videos, in the order in which they were filmed. Enjoy! Enjoy reading this blog? Click here to become a patron…. Read more at Patheos
The Easy Way to Pray the Liturgy of the Hours
I believe that anyone who is serious about embracing the Christian contemplative path needs some form of sustainable daily prayer. For most of Christian history, this has meant using a breviary — a prayer book which contains prayer “services” or offices for praying throughout the day. Such collections of prayers are known as The…… Read more at Patheos
Contemplation, Atheism, and Amputees
N.B. I wrote the first draft of this post about a year ago, at a time when several militant atheist commentators were active on my blog’s comment section. Eventually I banned the ones who were trollish, some of them moved on, and many of those original comments got deleted. I…… Read more at Patheos
On the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) — Let’s Practice “Presenting” Christ to One Another
Today is the feast of the presentation. It’s also traditionally known as Candlemas; it was a time when candles would be blessed —a candle, after all, emits light, and Jesus is the light of the world. If Christmas were a forty-day season instead of just a 12-day season, today would…… Read more at Patheos
A Contemplative Perspective on Tithing (At Church… and Beyond)
A friend on Facebook named Stephanie posed this question to me: Hello Carl, I am wondering if you’ve ever written anything on the subject of tithing in the church, and what that looks like in regards to a contemplative practice? I am a member of an Anglican church and participate…… Read more at Patheos
Navigating through the Bible’s Shadow
One of this blog’s patrons named Aaron asked, in response to my post Nonduality in the Bible and Us: Not sure if you’ve posted one before, but is there a resource that collects verses for the mystical and non dual in the Bible? Did you have a post that…… Read more at Patheos
Silence is Not a Vow (Not Even for Monks)
“There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.” — Saint Benedict A common misunderstanding of Trappist monks and nuns is the erroneous belief that they make a “vow of silence.” In fact, no such vow has ever been part of Christian monastic life,…… Read more at Patheos
The Privilege of Silence
Back in 2003, I spent a day at a relatively new monastery near Sligo, Ireland. Like many small religious foundations just getting off the ground, it was struggling, although the members of the community were filled with optimism and a sense of purpose about their shared mission. I plied one…… Read more at Patheos