This is going to be a little bit of a different post than you usually see here. Tomorrow I celebrate seven years of sobriety. There are spiritual reasons I gave up drinking alcohol, so I thought it was important to share this milestone here. If you have no interest in sobriety, feel free to stop… Continue reading Seven Years of Sobriety
Category: Mysticism and Contemplation
The Mysticism of Jesus and Paul
The roots of mystical experience in Christianity go back to Jesus and Paul. It is a precious gift of the biblical authors to record this because this mystical experience is what I believe drove the initial growth of the Christian Church and should continue to be a focal point if not the primary focal point… Continue reading The Mysticism of Jesus and Paul
Healing Our Separation from God
I am haunted by the creation story. It’s not that I believe in the literal six-day creation or even an actual place called the garden of Eden. What amazes me about the story of the garden and our fall – our original occasion for sin – is that sin is the recognition that we are… Continue reading Healing Our Separation from God
My Personal Chaplet
I always tell people that I am “little-c Catholic.” Of course, we all are, in the sense of belonging to the body of Christ. But I also mean that while I don’t think I could ever convert to Catholicism, I have a deep respect for the history, tradition, magisterium and practices of the Catholic and… Continue reading My Personal Chaplet
Does Prayer “Work?”
A close family member who was raised Christian, but is now an atheist, told me once over dinner, “it’s funny, but even though I don’t think it does anything, I still pray when I’m worried or stressed.” I see no paradox. I’ve prayed daily since I was a child, yet there are many times I’ve… Continue reading Does Prayer “Work?”