The greatest love scene in the Gospels between a man and a woman is the most profound revelation of who the historical Jesus is NOW for us and what our relationship is with him. Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Wisdom Jesus, calls the bond between Mary Magdalene and Jesus “love, pure and simple.” […]
Love Encounter
January 28, 2014 by
Jesus’ Love Meal—our Eucharistic Celebrations—is a Love Encounter. A Love Encounter with the Father, who is the Source of All Love. A Love Encounter with Jesus, who is Love in Action. A Love Encounter with the Spirit of Love, who anoints us to live a life of love. In short, Jesus’ Love Meal is a […]
Mystery of Love
November 23, 2013 by
Forty years ago I left the Marriage Encounter weekend with two deep desires. The first desire was to grow my relationship with my wife. The weekend had taught me the need for communication to nourish our marriage and the techniques to do so. The second desire was to pursue a greater love of God, […]
Spirit’s Sculpture
September 27, 2013 by
A picture is worth a thousand words. The great 17th Century artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, did it one dimension better. He did it in stone. Bernini captured the essence of the spiritual life with his sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Here he dramatically depicts the spiritual life as our relationship with the Spirit who […]
Releasing the Spirit
September 2, 2013 by
When I told my friend that she had empowered me, she replied in surprise: “I have never empowered anyone in my life.” I didn’t know how to respond to her. I only knew that I did not have the courage to do what the Spirit was asking of me, but after her affectionate embrace before […]
Sacred Dance
October 13, 2012 by
Lovers know it. Would-be mystics discover it. The Song of Songs celebrates it. It is the Sacred Dance. What is it? Putting ourselves gradually at the disposal of the beloved. Gifting ourselves, yielding ourselves, surrendering ourselves to the beloved’s invitation to union. We must dance this Sacred Dance, for it is our surrender that leads […]
Spirit Wilding
June 13, 2012 by
On April 19, 1989 the newspapers reported that a gang of young thugs had assaulted and raped a young woman jogger in New York‘s Central Park. According to a police investigation, the culprits were gangs of teenagers who would assault strangers as part of an activity that became known as “wilding.” You can imagine my surprise […]
Awareness, Awareness
December 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Living the spiritual life is anything but being a robot or a sleep walker. For a spiritually centered life, we need self-awareness. It anchors our life in reality. Not for creating scruples, but for living a creative, deep spiritual life. Self-awareness is a heightened consciousness of the presence, depth and source of the movements (thoughts, […]
Divine Dialogue
November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
In spiritual circles, the word “discernment” has two meanings: the perception or discovery of a movement of Spirit-given grace; and the procedure that best disposes a person for such discovery. However, behind these concepts is the important faith vision that is fundamental to our relationship with God: namely, that God is constantly communicating to us […]
Spirit at Work
November 14, 2011 by
Sometimes a word can capture our imagination and we can use it to bring deeper understanding to many situations. Such a word is “dialectic.” It is derived from the Greek word for conversation. In ancient Greece, Socrates made this word famous by his practice of exposing false beliefs and arriving at truths through dialogue with […]
