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Reflections on a New Year’s Eve
When I was a child, New Year’s Day was very special. Our family always had a big celebration, complete with a number of rituals. The rituals began already on New
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The Checkered Origins of Grace
God writes straight with crooked lines. We know that expression, though we rarely apply it to sacred history or to the birth of Jesus. We should. The Christmas story is
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The Struggle with Terrorism
There’s an old axiom that says that the country with the best poets eventually triumphs. The strength of a people, in the end, lies not in its military power, but
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Ad Usam
Several years ago a young Benedictine monk shared this story in class. He lived in a monastery that kept a rather strict rule. Their observance of poverty and obedience required
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Old and New Struggles with the Church
Today a lot of people are struggling with the church and this is more complex than first meets the eye. Statistics show that in the last fifty years there hasn’t
https://ronrolheiser.com/old-and-new-struggles-with-the-church/
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Introverts and Extroverts and the Spiritual Journey
Nothing so much approximates the language of God as silence. So writes Meister Eckhard. Among other things this tells us that there is a certain inner work that we can
https://ronrolheiser.com/introverts-and-extroverts-and-the-spiritual-journey/
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Dark Nights of Faith in Our Lives
When the memoirs of Mother Teresa were published they revealed that for the last 50 years of her life she had struggled painfully to feel God’s presence in her life.
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Evangelizing the Religious Imagination
A novel is meant to be, first of all, a work of art. That is why it is always risky to try to use a novel to try to promote,
https://ronrolheiser.com/evangelizing-the-religious-imagination/
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Beset By Weakness
Some years ago, Michael Buckley, a Jesuit theologian of exceptional insight, delivered a homily at the first mass of a young man who had just been ordained. His approach was
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Reading the Signs of the Times
There is a story told about the Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova. During the Stalin purges, she was standing one morning outside a prison along with some other women, all of