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Living With Less Fear
We live with too much fear of God. This has many faces, from the superstitious fear of the naive, to the legalistic fear of the over-scrupulous, to the intellectual fear
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Never Grow Weary
There is a Norwegian proverb that reads: Heroism consists of hanging on one minute longer. When I was a child in elementary school one of the stories assigned to us
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Pride in Subtle Forms
One of the wonderful features of young children is their emotional honesty. They don’t hide their feeling or wants. They have no subtlety. When they want something they simply demand
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Tribalism and Fear: Unworthy of Christianity
In her most recent book, a series of essays entitled, When I was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson includes an essay called Wondrous Love. She begins the essay
https://ronrolheiser.com/tribalism-and-fear-unworthy-of-christianity/
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Willpower Alone is Not Enough
John Shea once wrote a haunting poem about John the Baptist. The poem begins with the Baptist in prison, hearing the dancing above his head and knowing that this is
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Laughter as Faith
In our novitiate, when I was a novice with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, our assistant Novice Director, a sincere but overly-stern man, cautioned us about too much levity in
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The Right Answer Alone Is Not Enough
Truth alone is not enough. It must be balanced off with the other transcendental properties of God: oneness, goodness, and beauty. That might sound abstract, but what it means concretely
https://ronrolheiser.com/the-right-answer-alone-is-not-enough/
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The Three Levels of Christian Discipleship
Nikos Kazantzakis once suggested that there are three kinds of souls and three kinds of prayers: · I am a bow in your hands, Lord, draw me, lest I rot.
https://ronrolheiser.com/the-three-levels-of-christian-discipleship/
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Of Pharisees, Pots, Bronze Kettles, Liturgical Rubrics, Cups, And Cats
Several years ago, I was at church meeting where we were discussing liturgical rubrics. There was heated discussion over a number of issues: Should the congregation be standing or kneeling
https://ronrolheiser.com/of-pharisees-pots-bronze-kettles-liturgical-rubrics-cups-and-cats/
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Categorical Imperatives
There’s a well-known axiom that I will phrase more delicately than its usual expression. It goes this way: Every time you tell yourself that you should do something, you pay