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Celibacy – What’s to Be Said?
Some years ago, an op-ed piece appeared in the New York Times by Frank Bruni, entitled The Wages of Celibacy. The column, while provocative, was fair. Mostly he asked a
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Loving Your Own Church and Your Neighbor’s Church as Well
I teach Spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Fifteen years ago, we began offering a PhD in Spirituality. In the fifteen years since we have
https://ronrolheiser.com/loving-your-own-church-and-your-neighbors-church-as-well/
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What Shapes a Soul?
In a section of her poem The Leaf and the Cloud, Mary Oliver describes her feelings as she stands by the gravesite of her father and mother. She reflects on
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The Road Less Travelled
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Most of us are familiar with these words
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The Illusion of Our Own Goodness
One of the great tragedies in all literature is the biblical story of Saul. Saul makes Hamlet look like a Disney character. Hamlet, at least, had good reasons for the
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Keeping the Sabbath
The Sufi mystic Rumi once lamented: I have lived too long where I can be reached! That was twelve hundred years ago, long before cell phones, the internet, computers, and
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Sacred Permission to be in Agony
We live this life “mourning and weeping in a valley of tears.” This was part of a prayer my parents prayed every day of their adult lives, as did many
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Praying When It Seems Useless
Prayer is most needed just when it seems most useless. Michael J. Buckley, one of the major spiritual mentors in my life, wrote those words. What does he mean by
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What Has Been Given You to Carry?
What has been given you to carry? Where do the needs and pains of others conscript your freedom? When is freedom mitigated by circumstance? What are the situations that you
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Giving One’s Death Away
According to the renowned mystic John of the Cross, we have three essential struggles in life: to get our lives together, to give our lives away, and to give our