I would love to attend the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin next month — if for no other reason than to be at the North American premiere of the…
Tag: silence
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…
Seven Ways the Mystics Inspire Us Today
One of my favorite quotations comes from Karl Rahner: “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.” It’s a prophetic statement, from a man who died…
What to Say to the Nay-Sayers: Talking About Contemplation With Its Critics
If you are active in a church or other faith community, and you are drawn to (or practicing) silent prayer, if you talk about it with others you will likely,…
Mindfulness and Contemplation
Recently a reader left the following comment on this blog: I have been reading and tried to practice the way of a contemplative life although poorly I believe. But my…
Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part One)
A couple of years ago Rob Bell wrote a book with the title What We Talk About When We Talk About God. I haven’t read the book, but I love…
Letter and Spirit: Thoughts and Silence?
In his sermon On Conversion, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux quotes Acts 26:24, only he paraphrases it like this: “Too much thinking has made you mad!” Whenever I see a verse like…
Better to Light a Candle (of Silence) than to Curse the Darkness (of Language)
Does language always limit the way we talk about, think about, or even pray to, God? This question has been on my mind for the past few days. This past weekend…
A Prayer for Contemplatives
O Divine Beloved, you are the source of life and the fountain of all goodness. In the mystery of your silence we recognize who we are, for we are created in your image….
Contemplation and Grieving
A reader named Monika wrote the following comment and left it on one of my blog posts: I recently lost my husband of 49 years to a sudden brain tumor. I…
Psalm 131: Humility, Silence and Hope
Sometimes I get asked “Where is contemplation in the Bible?” One obvious answer to this question is Psalm 131. It’s a short Psalm, only three verses. Here it is in…
Why We Need Contemplation
I am troubled by the idea that it’s harder to be a child today than it was when I was young. Is that just my personal angst, the anxiety of someone…