journal and reflections

The symbol of Christmas—what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live. It is the brooding Presence...

The Celtic Irish tradition recognizes that the eternal and the transient worlds are woven in and through each other. Very often at death, the inhabitants of the eternal world come out toward the visible world. . . . Your friends who now live in the eternal world...

You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who's upset and check your equipment for going onward. A lot of us are going to come under direct...

On October 31 and November 1 each year, the church gives us high the feast days of All Souls and All Saints Day to celebrate.  We are reminded in the scripture readings of the day that we, too, are part of the communion of all the souls and saints that have gone...

As we approach the particular time of All Souls and All Saints Days, the following reflection by Richard Rohr is genuinely uplifting and eye-opening. What some call “liminal space” or threshold space (in Latin, limen means a threshold) is a very good phrase for...

Developing an ego is an essential element in human growth. But it also suggests that this development might be a stage of human development rather than its end product. Developing a cocoon is a natural and essential part of being a caterpillar. But the time comes...

The light of love burns brightly even long after a life’s heart has stopped beating. Love lives on, even as the hearts of those left bear the burden of absence. Presence and absence both increase the flame of love. Pain in beauty and beauty in redemptive pain. Love...

The Divine action may turn our lives upside down; it may call us into various forms of service.  Readiness for any eventuality is the attitude of one who has entered into the freedom of the Gospel.  Commitment to the new world that Christ is creating requires...

Vespers As light departs to let the earth be one with night, Silence deepens in the mind, and thoughts grow slow; The basket of twilight brims over with colors Gathered from within the sacred meadows of the day And offered like blessings to the gathering Tenebrae....

Happy feast day to all Franciscans all over the world!