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The Value of Ritual in Sustaining Prayer
In a homily at a wedding, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once gave this advice to a young couple: “Today you are young and very much in love and you think that your
https://ronrolheiser.com/the-value-of-ritual-in-sustaining-prayer/
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Contemplative Prayer
One of the great spiritual writers of our time is Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk. Merton, though, wasn’t born in a monastery. A checkered past and a driving restlessness led
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Affective Prayer
A couple of years ago, I attended a six-day retreat given by Robert Michel, an Oblate colleague and a highly sought-after spiritual mentor. His approach was disarming. Most of us
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Seeing the Resurrection
God never overpowers, never twists arms, never pushes your face into something so as to take away your freedom. God respects our freedom and is never a coercive force. And
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Priestly Prayer – Prayer for the World
One of the responsibilities of being an adult is that of praying for the world. Like the high priests of old, we need to offer up prayers daily for others.
https://ronrolheiser.com/priestly-prayer-prayer-for-the-world/
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Obstacles to Prayer
Jan Walgrave once commented that our present culture constitutes a virtual conspiracy against the interior life. He wasn’t suggesting that somewhere there is a deliberate force that is consciously scheming
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Pray Always – Prayer as Lifting Mind and Heart to God
One classical definition of prayer defines it this way: “Prayer is lifting mind and heart to God.” That’s a wonderful and accurate description of prayer, the problem is that we
https://ronrolheiser.com/pray-always-prayer-as-lifting-mind-and-heart-to-god/
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A Challenge from our Born-Again and Devotionally-Oriented Siblings
Twenty years ago, the renowned scripture scholar, Raymond Brown, gave a series of lectures to an ecumenical audience on how the various New Testament writers understood the church that Jesus
https://ronrolheiser.com/a-challenge-from-our-born-again-and-devotionally-oriented-siblings/
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The Churches and the Social Gospel
It’s fashionable today to bash the churches, not just in terms of the scandals within them that hit the newspapers, but, more importantly, in terms of making them out to
https://ronrolheiser.com/the-churches-and-the-social-gospel/
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In Defense of Mystery
Recently I attended a symposium on Interreligious Dialogue. The keynote speakers were all excellent, with a single exception. One speaker suggested that one of the problems with Christianity is that