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The Mysticism of the Crib
When Pablo Picasso was a young child, a huge fire broke out in the city where his family lived. A night of chaos followed with people rushing about the streets
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Wrestling With God
Some years ago, counseling a young nun who was trying to make sense of her struggle with religious life, I learned something about religious ambivalence. Her life embodied it. On
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Longing At The Centre
At the core of experience, at the centre of our hearts, there is longing. At every level, our being aches and we are full of tension. We give different names
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One of Isaiah’s Visions
In this life there is no such a thing as a clear cut, pure joy. Everything comes mixed. As Henri Nouwen once put it: Every bit of life is touched
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Purgative Embrace
“Let me be punished by a kiss.” That is a prayer Therese of Lisieux used to say. What a curious, paradoxical phrase! Few of us, I suspect, pray that way,
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Living Beyond Doubt
There is a story about St. Christopher, probably more legend than truth, which runs this way: As a youth, Christopher was gifted in every way, except faith. He was a
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No Exempt Areas
110697 One of the constants within the writings of the saints is the idea that spirituality and morality are all of one piece. Every area affects every other area and
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God as Victim
“And there shone on them in that dark hour a light that has never darkened; a white fire clinging to that group like an unearthly phosphorescence, blazing its track through
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Some Christian Koans
Zen masters, when they teach meditation, occasionally give their pupils something they call a “Koan”. A koan is a puzzle which, prior to long hours of meditation, appears ridiculous, an
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Dark Memory
Inside each of us, beyond what we can name, we have a dark memory of having once been touched and caressed by hands far gentler than our own. That caress