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Commandments for the Long Haul
Daniel Berrigan once wrote a wonderful little book entitled, “Ten Commandments for the Long Haul”. It was intended as spiritual sustenance, sustaining food, for those who walk the lonely, long
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Giving Birth to God
I did my doctoral thesis on the classical, philosophical proofs for the existence of God. The concept had always intrigued me: “Can you prove that God exists?” After researching the
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Bridging the Unbridgeable Gap
How can the divine speak to us? How can God, who is infinitely beyond, touch us with divine tenderness in a way that we can understand? Christmas, the birth of
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Haunting Each Other’s Dreams
In his Booker Prize-winning novel, The Famished Road, Nigerian writer, Ben Okri, describes a mother chiding her overly-restless, ten year-old, son for haunting her dreams: “Stay out of my dreams!
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Purgatory Revisited
Several weeks ago I wrote a column in which I mentioned “purgatory”. Here’s what I said: “Purgatory is not a geography, a place distinct from heaven, but is the pain
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The Cosmic Christ
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was once called to Rome and asked to clarify certain issues in regards to his teachings. At one point, he was asked: “What are you trying
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Wrestling with God
Nikos Kazantzakis, the author of Zorba, the Greek, was an extraordinarily complex man, especially religiously. An artist, a searcher, strongly independent, yet a man with a mystical bent, he often
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Giving our Deaths to our Loved Ones
The poet, Wendell Berry, once wrote: “I almost understand, I almost recognize as a friend the great impertinence of beauty that comes even to the dying, even to the fallen,
https://ronrolheiser.com/giving-our-deaths-to-our-loved-ones/
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Praying for the Dead
Recently I received a letter from a woman asking me to explain the Christian teaching about praying for the dead. Her son had been killed in an accident and she
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In Praise of the Ordinary
Something inside us despises the ordinary. There is something in the ordinary that tells us predictable routines, domestic rhythms, and conscription to duty makes for cheap meaning. Inside us there