“Murmuring betrays an urge to stay in control. We murmur when we don’t get what we think we deserve; when what we think of as our needs are not met.”
THE TRAGICOMEDY OF THE CROSS
A SILENT RETREAT AT ARDS FRANCISCAN FRIARY
It’s a lot to carry, being a pilgrim. Sometimes it’s all too much and I have to take to bed with a bag of candy and watch three Joan Crawford movies in a row.
THE SPIRIT JOURNEYS
‘The greatest among you must be as the least, the leader be as one who is a servant.’
And again, ‘A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.’
WHY WE PRAY
“One never wastes time by praying; there is no more helpful way of helping those we love.”
BRING BACK MIRTH!
We’re almost no longer “allowed” to have fun, or to read anything that hasn’t been vetted for “sensitivity triggers,” or to enjoy our day without taking sides, inwardly arguing, wringing our hands over climate change, bemoaning the misinformation-censorship complex, calling out those who won’t mask — or those who are still masking, as the case may be — or waiting for a civil war to break out.
LYING FLAT IS JUSTICE
“Lying flat is my wise movement, only by lying down can humans become the measure of all things.”
AND MY MOUTH SHALL PROCLAIM THY PRAISE: A PLUNGE INTO MEXICAN DENTISTRY
I have been reduced to driving to Mexico for dental care. That’s right. Things have come to that. I won’t bore you with the ongoing cross of my beloved, brave teeth which, over the course of my life, have undergone extractions, adult orthodontics, resorption (a supposedly incredibly rare occurence that has happened twice or maybe […]
STRANGE VAGABOND OF GOD
In 1962, Bradbirme wrote Fr. Dove, asking “Is there a cave in Africa where I can pray?” Then he rambled around Africa for seven years before arriving in 1969 at the Mutemwa (meaning, “You are cut off”) Leper Colony in Rhodesia, 90 miles northeast of the capital of Harare.
FROM PRODIGAL TO PRIEST
So he did what any true child of God and follower of Christ would do. He called his mother, back home in Spain, and poured out his heart.
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
I brought up the Gospel reading where the waves were threatening to overwhelm the boat the disciples were in, and Jesus’s response was to curl up and take a nap.
THE ORCHARDS OF PERSEVERANCE
In the silence and solitude, stripped of their previous lives, many of the men underwent a kind of disintegration of personality. The realization that they weren’t who they thought they were could be profoundly unsettling.