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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Living Simply
Living Simply We discover simplicity in the silence of contemplative prayer. As we let go of thought and sensation, we reconnect with our Center, our source of abundance and enoughness. You ...
Kenosis
Kenosis The Trinity is unhindered kenosis or self-emptying, self-giving, holding nothing back. Jesus modeled such vulnerability and surrender: becoming human, serving the poor and the sick, and giving up his life. As Paul ...
Mirroring
Mirroring Contemplative knowing intuits things in their wholeness, with all levels of connection and meaning, and perhaps how they fit in the full scheme of things. Thus, the contemplative response to ...
The Virgin Prayer
The Virgin Prayer God regarded her in her lowliness. —Luke 1:48 You must seek to be a blank slate. You must desire to remain unwritten on. No choosing of this or ...
The Welcoming Prayer
The Welcoming Prayer This is a form of contemplation—a practice of accepting paradox and holding the tension of contradictions—called The Welcoming Prayer. First, identify a hurt or an offense in your ...
Loving Your Enemy
Loving Your Enemy One of the hardest things to understand with the dualistic mind is Jesus’ command to love your enemy. “How can we love the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or ISIS (Islamic ...