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Bewailing our Virginity
Scripture is often shocking in its earthiness. The Book of Judges gives us an example: A certain king, Jepthah, is at war and things are going badly. He prays to
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Suicide – When Someone is too Bruised to be Touched
A few days ago, I was asked to visit a family who had, just that day, lost their 19 year-old son to suicide. There isn’t much one can offer by
https://ronrolheiser.com/suicide-when-someone-is-too-bruised-to-be-touched/
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Taking our Rightful Place with the Scheme of Things
What do we need to achieve to make us happy? What brings us peace and meaning? Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote this about his own life: “Some sort of
https://ronrolheiser.com/taking-our-rightful-place-with-the-scheme-of-things/
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The Right to Call Another to a Vocation
Recently I participated in an International Conference on vocations. It gathered a wide assortment of persons to reflect upon why less people in the Western world are entering the priesthood
https://ronrolheiser.com/the-right-to-call-another-to-a-vocation/
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Carrying a Scandal
The Catholic church in North America today is undergoing a crisis of soul, perhaps the most severe one in its young history. Sex scandals among the clergy and the less-than-ideal
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Moving Beyond Our Little Rule
Among the desert fathers one finds this story: “Abbot Lot went to see Abbot Joseph and said: `Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my
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Giving up our need to be right
Jesus left us the Eucharist as the source of our unity. Sadly, often, it’s the cause of our division, both among Christian denominations and within them. We tend to do
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Ten Tensions to Carry
The thought of some of the greatest and most influential persons in history seems, at times, riddled with inconsistencies. Jesus, Augustine, Socrates, Aristotle, among others, appear at times to contradicting
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From the House of Fear to the House of Love
Henri Nouwen, in his writings, frequently asked this question: “How can we live inside a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence and not be destroyed by it?” At a
https://ronrolheiser.com/from-the-house-of-fear-to-the-house-of-love/
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God’s Gender
God is ineffable. What this means is that everything we imagine, think, or say about God is, because of the very nature of God, highly inadequate, poor theology at best.