Pixabay.com Forgive me if I have written this before in my blog.  I remember it was a chilly early November Sunday morning when I was to meet my fourth and fifth grade catechism class at a semi-rural church here in Ohio.  The parish was fairly upper class and the children bright and eager to learn about their... Continue Reading →

Last week I had the privilege of giving a retreat to my Sisters in our infirmary in Cincinnati.  I worked the week before to make sensible outlines of my presentations and I prayed a lot.  On the day the retreat opened, one of the sisters saw that I was carrying a three-ring binder in which the outlines... Continue Reading →

Pixabay.com Ok: Breather again.  Terry Franconca, the beloved manager of the Cleveland Guardians Major League Baseball Team, is an Aristotelian philosopher of sports.  I’ve always taken something from his interviews with broadcasters, especially as he leaves them scratching their heads and totally flummoxed as to how they might respond.  Francona never cuts competitors at the knees.  There is... Continue Reading →

All 24 of us are eager to make it to the Temple Wall in Jerusalem on a brilliant sunlit day promising to be a little cooler than the last days.  We enter the plaza, a wide area where many people are gathering and wandering to places they know to go, women on one side, men on... Continue Reading →

Garden of Gethsemane, Credit: MAF Old Olive Tree, Credit: Pixabay.com Inside the Basilica of Gethsemane is the Holy Stone on which Christ is said to have wept and sweated “droplets of blood” in his acute agony for what was to happen to him and the movement of faith he had begun.  Our group has made it... Continue Reading →

My Friends, I am delighted to tell you that you were all with me as I traveled the Holy Land of our Christian faith - and places of our Jewish heritage as well and revered places of our Muslim brothers and sisters. Over the next few blogs, I hope to show you how you were... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Mary Ann Flannery, SC Are you hungry to hear God?  Most assuredly God speaks through all kinds of human activity: noise, industry, human voices, music, in short, the cacophony of life.  That is, if you are attuned to hearing God.  Well, yes, even if you’re not attuned like in the flash of grace that seers through... Continue Reading →

Pixabay.com For some time, I’ve been pondering if I should touch on a current word that suggests political division to some people but is really an inspired word for people of some faiths.  I find that many believe it to be divisive until it’s discussed in the context of its etymology, history, and usage.  As I was... Continue Reading →

Pixabay.com Time for a little fun.  We’ve been heavy into deep prayer topics lately so why not digress for a breather?  I thought of this topic as the school year began and, of course, when International Left-handers Day took place on August 13.   Full disclosure: I am left-handed.  Most days I do not even think about it but... Continue Reading →

Pixabay.com I get asked this question a lot in my work and to be truthful, I always get a bit shaky trying to answer it.  First, masters and writers in contemplative spirituality are very knowledgeable on this topic.  Think: John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, metaphysical poets like George Herbert, John Donne, Henry Vaughan, think of... Continue Reading →