Awe
As Rabbi Kushner points out, Abraham and others were asked to leave everything familiar to them behind and to go to a new land that God would show them (Genesis 12:1). ...
Cultivating Creativity and Curiosity
Our creative abilities connect and contact many different aspects of our humanity. Take time to reflect on these two excerpts from Mirabai Starr’s book “Wild Mercy.” When speaking of art, we ...
Creating a Rule of Life
Wisdom arises from the power of the monastic way of life. Few contemporary writers speak about modern monasticism with as much depth and clarity as spiritual teacher Beverly Lanzetta. She notes ...
I Belong
As we grow spiritually, we discover that we are not as separate as we thought we were. Separation from God, self, and others is a deep and tragic illusion. As we ...
Examen of Consciousness
Examen of Consciousness St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits, proposed a daily exercise which he called the Examen of Consciousness or the Daily Examen—a ...
Love Upwelling
Love Upwelling Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39), not “as much as you love yourself.” We are to love our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves. “We love because ...
Praying Unceasingly
Praying Unceasingly For Jesus, prayer seems to be a matter of waiting in love, returning to love, and trusting that love is the bottom stream of reality. Prayer isn’t primarily words; it’s ...
Walking Meditation
Walking Meditation Jonathon Stalls, founder of Walk2Connect, writes about learning how “we share a common journey of wanting to love and be loved; that we want to feel safe, comfortable, and ...
Giving Thanks
Giving Thanks Many cultures and religions have a beautiful tradition of saying a prayer before or after a meal, expressing gratitude and asking for blessing. If we are accustomed to praying ...
Staying Grounded
Staying Grounded There are lists upon lists of things you can do to help the environment. You’ve read and perhaps tried many of them: reducing, reusing, recycling; walking, biking, or taking ...
Conversations with Nature
Conversations with Nature Although creation may be “wordless,” we can still dialogue with it as St. Francis did. Bill Plotkin suggests a practice of “talking across the species boundaries” in his ...
Moving Beyond Matter
Moving Beyond Matter Look around you and notice your surroundings at this moment. Let your eyes fall on some object—perhaps a candle, tree, rock, or creature. Simply observe the object, without ...
Making a Mandala
Making a Mandala Mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle, is a Hindu and Buddhist symbol for the universe. It represents the Whole of which we are a part. In Carl Jung’s ...
Falling and Failing into Love
Falling and Failing into Love In many ways prayer—certainly contemplative prayer or meditation—is planned and organized failure. If you’re not prepared for failure, you’ll avoid prayer, and that’s what most people ...
Boats on a River
Boats on a River Most people have never actually met themselves. At every moment, all our lives long, we identify with our thoughts, our self-image, or our feelings. We have to ...