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Faith, Fear and Death
A common soldier dies without fear; Jesus died afraid. Iris Murdoch wrote those words which, I believe, help expose an over-simplistic notion we have of how faith reacts in the
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Jean Vanier (1928-2019)
Our differences are not a threat but a treasure. Jean Vanier, the Founder of A’Arche, who died in Paris on May 7th wrote those words, but their truth is far
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Where is Home?
During the years that I served as a Religious Superior for a province of Oblate Priests and Brothers in Western Canada, I tried to keep my foot inside the academic
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Language, Symbols, and Self-Understanding
A reporter once asked two men at the construction site where a church was being built what each did for a living. The first man replied: “I’m a bricklayer.” The
https://ronrolheiser.com/language-symbols-and-self-understanding/
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Who Goes to Hell and Who Doesn’t?
Hell is never a nasty surprise waiting for a basically happy person. Nor is it necessarily a predicable ending for an unhappy, bitter person. Can a happy, warm-hearted person go
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Beyond Mysticism
“I’m a practicing mystic!” A woman said that in one of my classes some years ago and it raised lots of eyebrows. I was teaching a class in mysticism and
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Ascending, Descending, and Just Keeping Steady
Where should we be casting our eyes? Upward, downward, or just on the road that we’re walking? Well there are different kinds of spiritualities: Spiritualities of the Ascent, Spiritualities of
https://ronrolheiser.com/ascending-descending-and-just-keeping-steady/
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And All Manner of Being Shall be Well
We are all, I suspect, familiar with the famous expression from Julian of Norwich, now an axiom in our language. She once famously wrote: In the end all shall be
https://ronrolheiser.com/and-all-manner-of-being-shall-be-well/
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Our Own Good Friday
When the Romans designed crucifixion as their means of capital punishment, they had more in mind than simply putting someone to death. They wanted to accomplish something else too, namely,
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What We Haven’t Got Right About Sex
Several years ago, in the question and answer period after a public lecture, a rather disgruntled young man asked me a question that carried with it a bit of attitude:
https://ronrolheiser.com/what-we-havent-got-right-about-sex/