Saturday, May 21, 2022
Finally! A True Roman Catholic Archbishop!
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Contemplation Is A Way Out Of Self-Centeredness
Once we discover interior silence, compassion flows. The deeper we enter into inner silence, the deeper becomes our compassion for others. It is impossible to enter through the doorway into silence without becoming a part of God's embrace of al humanity in its suffering and joy.
T
Paradox Of the Mystical Life
One of the paradoxes of the mystical life is this: that a man cannot enter into the deepest center of himself and pass through that center to God unless he is first able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of selfless love.
T
Loving The Creator Through His Creation
Friday, April 15, 2022
Good Friday: "Pain Is God's Megaphone!"
T
Thursday, April 14, 2022
The Doorway Into The Silent Land Is A Wound
The doorway into the silent land is a wound. Silence lays bare that wound. We do not journey far along the spiritual path before we get some sense of the wound of the human condition, and this is precisely why most people abandon contemplation as soon as it begins to expose this wound; they move instead to some form of spiritual entertainment that will maintain distraction or hide us from our woundedness.
T
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
How Do I Give Glory To God?
A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. Likewise, I give glory to God by being who I am. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of my discovering who I am and by discovering my true self. Not to accept and love and do God's will is to refuse the fullness of my existence.
T
PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Make me an instrument of your PEACE.
Where there is hatred, let me sow LOVE.
Where there is injury, PARDON.
Where there is doubt, FAITH.
Where there is despair, HOPE.
Where there is darkness, LIGHT.
And where there is sadness, JOY.
O DIVINE MASTER
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to CONSOLE.
To be understood, as to UNDERSTAND.
To be loved as to LOVE.
For it is in GIVING that we receive,
It is in PARDONING
That we are pardoned.
And it is in dying
That we are born to ETERNAL LIFE.
T
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
What Have We Franciscans Become?
Who are we Franciscans now? What have we Franciscans become? One giant shrine of stones hidden behind the walls of Assisi, Pogio Bustone, Fonte Colombo and Greccio? Is that all we are now? Where are the beggars in cords? Where are the beggars in patched habits?
T
Self-Centered Prayer
True prayer demands that I be totally honest with myself because it is only the real me who can talk with God. If, for example, I feel the need to be "worthy" or "perfect" or "holy" before I am allowed to pray, then I will most likely never pray at all, or if I do, it will be a fake, self-aggrandizing, self centered me talking to myself rather than with God.
T
Monday, April 11, 2022
Have You Ever Heard A Tree Grow?
Have you ever heard a tree grow? Have you ever heard grass grow? I haven't. Have you ever stretched out across the ground at midnight and stared up at the moon and the stars? We do this every clear night at the Portiuncula. Tell me, what sound do the stars make as they move across the sky? NONE! Complete silence! No wonder our seraphic father, Saint Francis, loved nature so completely. This is how nature taught him to pray: in S-I-L-E-N-C-E!
T
You Don't Know Me
If I say I love you and then begin to tell you about all those things I love about you and you say, "Well, you don't know anything about me then. You don't really know me!" Can the same thing be said about our love for Jesus Christ? In order know the true Jesus Christ and to fall in love with the reality of what and who He truly is, we must first divest ourselves of any pre-conceived notions we have of Him. We discover who Jesus really is by letting go of what we think Jesus is and allow Him to show us who He is.
T
Saturday, April 09, 2022
The Portiuncula Is a Place Of Spiritual Revolution
The Portiuncula is a place of spiritual revolution, not of personal retreat. It is a place of deep encounter, not of superficial escape. It is a place of repentance, not recuperation.
T
Thursday, April 07, 2022
Consumerism Consumes The Consumer.
10 Reasons Why You Should Pray The Rosary In Latin
Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Saturday, April 02, 2022
Spiritual And Not Religious?
In an age when people claim to be "spiritual, not religious ," they really don't have a clue what either term means and their lack of motivation is quite common. We must long for truth, freedom, loving communion with the silent depths of God (like the depths of the ocean).
T
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Washing Of Feet
God does not give us graces or talents or virtues for ourselves alone. I do not wash my feet to make them more beautiful than my face.
T
Sunday, March 27, 2022
A Tribe Of Devils
If you go into the desert merely to get away from people you dislike, you will find neither peace nor solitude; you will only isolate yourself with a tribe of devils
T
The Portiuncula Chapel In Assisi, Italy
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