Immersive Prayer

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter When my mother was dying un-expectedly, we had a lifetime of conversations in one day. We talked about how grateful she was to my father, how proud she was of her children, how happy she was and how she looked forward to heaven. I learned at 80 she [...]

Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter To take Christ words plainly is an oxymoron; there is always more than meets the eye, living words Lectio unwinds. Between the lines I perceive evil’s true intent is to scatter, to separate us from God and each other so we cannot be loving brothers and sisters. Doesn’t [...]

Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, martyrs To quote St. John of the Cross, “One dark night, fired with love’s urgent longings, ah, the sheer grace!” Two dark nights – one of physical pain but the spiritual more frightening as God seems missing, yet hidden grace produces a hunger, a taste of love’s [...]

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary My heart has leap for joy at the expectation of childbirth, receiving Eucharist and in the encounter of a faith filled Christian.  Spirit’s invisible force creates an invitation to talk, to become brother or sister, to pray, to help recognize Christ in each other, to add strength [...]

Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter As a teenager I separated Spirit, not including Christ, and therefore Father, a disruption to an integrated life. Now, the escape to know Trinity creates temporary impossibilities as the horizon moves. Yet, after follows after, disruptions attempt to kill the moment of surrender, of immersion in the goodness of [...]

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter Straddling, one foot in, one foot out, is coming to an end. The signs are both physical, such as a Cross on my office wall, but also interior as I walk away from conversations I do not like, finding solace in prayer. Yet, is complete exit possible, does [...]

Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, priest For me love’s journey has been a crooked line, because I have not fully embraced the virtue. My macho humanness is in the way of complete surrender, the one necessary thing that will make me whole.  I did not learn love’s depth in my youth, but now as Christ’s [...]

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter When I bushwhack in the woods, my heightened senses focus on avoiding getting picked off by stray branches. Yet, when I mow my lawn I’m in a different world, constantly getting whipped from growth that reaches out to me, demanding to be cut back.  A metaphor is brewing; [...]

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter The truth; too not so humbly challenge divinity to “show me this living water”, thinking no guts, no glory – “God, show yourself”! Oops, certainties deep impression means a gentle pull to do as Christ would do. Now challenged further still, do I dare believe that works greater [...]

Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter Horizons are a fascinating faith concept. I approach them, they approach me, they move away, I move towards them, slightly out of touch but obviously there. Is that not a metaphor for heaven? U2 subtly tells us that there is “No Line on the Horizon” in song.  Are [...]