“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.”
TRAVEL
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 GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: ADORATION
“Silence in the desert, silence in the cave, silence in the Eucharist. No prayer is so difficult as the adoration of the Eucharist. One’s whole natural strength rebels against it.”
FIAT LUX
One thing I know already: I wouldn’t have missed this adventure, these people, this place, for the world.
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.’
SEASONS OF LIFE
“We have to renounce far more than we accomplish.” –Paul Tournier, The Seasons of Life “How can we possibly entertain the idea that we are different from other men, when we shout, cry, feel afraid, lack determination, and behave atrociously just like everybody else?” –Carlo Carretto, Letters from the Desert
WHY WE PRAY
“One never wastes time by praying; there is no more helpful way of helping those we love.”
HUNGER
“Write it. Write. In ordinary ink
on ordinary paper: they were given no food,
they all died of hunger.”
THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS
The people of Omelas have no king, no sword, no stock exchange. They don’t resort to violence. They are joyous. But are they happy? The narrator isn’t taking sides, only observing. “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.”
JOIN ME AT KYLEMORE ABBEY!
The summer tourists will have gone and I, for one, cannot even imagine the beauty.
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 […]