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The Last Temptation
The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason. T.S. Eliot wrote those words to describe how difficult it is to purge our
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The Invitation to Courage
Courage isn’t one of my strong points, at least not one particular kind of courage. Scripture tells us that as John the Baptist grew up he became strong in spirit.
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Pornography and the Sacred
The ancient Greeks had gods and goddesses for everything, including a goddess of Shame called Aidos. Shame for them meant much more than it normally means to us. In their
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Suicide and Melancholy
We no longer understand melancholy. Today we lump all forms of melancholy together into one indiscriminate bundle and call it “depression”. While a lot of good is being done by
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Letting Go of False Fear
Recently in a radio interview, I was asked this question: “If you were on your deathbed, what would you want to leave behind as your parting words?” The question momentarily
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On Not Locking Our Doors
In his book The Secret, Rene Fumoleau has a poem entitled Sins. Fumoleau, who was a missionary priest with the Dene People in Northern Canada, once asked a group of
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Sacred Permission to Feel Human
It is normal to feel restless as a child, lonely as a teenager, and frustrated by lack of intimacy as an adult; after all we live with insatiable desires of
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Some Secrets Worth Knowing
Monks have secrets worth knowing, and these can be invaluable when a coronavirus pandemic is forcing millions of us to live like monks. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of
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Deeper Things Under the Surface
Imagine this. You are the dutiful daughter or son and your mother is widowed and living in an assisted living facility. You happen to be living close by while your
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Praying When We Don’t Know How
He taught us how to pray while not knowing how to pray. That’s a comment sometimes made about Henri Nouwen. It seems almost contradictory to say that. How can someone