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The Internal Battle for our Souls
Two contraries cannot co-exist inside the same subject. Aristotle wrote that and it seems to say the obvious, something can’t be light and dark at the same time. However, in
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The Size of our Hearts
It’s common, particularly among religious commentators, to describe the human heart as small, narrow, and petty: How small-hearted and petty we are! I find this distressing because religious thinkers especially
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Struggling with our Complexity
In a book on preaching, entitled, Telling the Truth, Frederick Buechner challenges all preachers and spiritual writers to speak with “awful honesty” about the human struggle, even inside the context
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Meaning and Happiness
Am I happy? Is my life a happy one? Am happy inside my marriage? Am I happy with my family? Am I happy in my job? Am I happy with
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Listening to Christ’s Heartbeat
The last supper account in John’s gospel gives us a wonderful mystical image. The evangelist describes the beloved disciple as reclining on the breast of Jesus. What’s contained in this
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Simplifying our Spiritual Vocabulary
Somewhere near his 75th birthday, Morris West wrote a series of autobiographical essays entitled, A View from the Ridge. In the Prologue of that book he suggests that at age
https://ronrolheiser.com/simplifying-our-spiritual-vocabulary/
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God and Violence
God is non-violent. God does not prescribe violence. Violence should never be rationalized in God’s name. That is clear in Christian revelation. But that immediately poses the question: What about
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The Other Side of Orthodoxy
There are more ways than one in which our belief system can be unbalanced so as to do harm to God and to the church. What makes for a healthy,
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Mothers’ Day
For many years, I’ve had a bias against Mothers’ Day. I’m not against the concept, it’s a private grudge. My own mother died 40 years ago and my ignoring of
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The Gift that was Henri Nouwen
Henri Nouwen was perhaps most popular spiritual writer of the late 20th century and his popularity endures today. More than seven million of his books have been sold world-wide and