One morning, a year or so ago, as I stood in the Communion line I looked up to see a person receiving the cup—a person whom I do not like and rarely agree with…on anything. As I smirked my dislike in his direction, I heard a still small voice murmur, “You’re going to spend eternity with this person; you might as well start getting over yourself now.” I was stunned, in that eternal moment at Christ’s banquet table, to hear eternity addressed in such tactless terms. Continue Reading
Recently, in thanks for a small contribution to “Home of Hope India” (which helps neglected, abused and abandoned girls in Southern India), I received a wonderful gift: a copy of In Due Season: A Catholic Life–autographed, no less, by its author, Paul Wilkes. (He is also executive director of “Home of Hope India.”) Continue Reading
I’m not sure if you can buy them anymore–those magic 8 balls that looked like miniature bowling balls with a tiny water-filled window atop them, a different message on each side of the 8-sided shape. The messages were responses to a question you were supposed to pose to the magic 8 ball, before turning it over and upside down and rightside up to see what the “answer” to your question might be. Continue Reading
Last night I read Psalm 79–one of the psalms of the day, and one of the psalms that call for God’s wrath upon the “heathen” (KJV) who’ve defiled the temple and killed many people of the covenant. Continue Reading
Read short Advent reflections and prayers from the Sisters. We’ve already posted six, and will continue to post them throughout the season!
I’ve just walked down to the library and back. My umbrella, for the limited amount of rain it kept off my head, told me that the wind is changing. Well, that and the obvious fact that it’s fifteen degrees colder than yesterday. We stand on the verge of winter; a token, introductory inch of snow is forecast for tonight. Continue Reading
One of the Psalms for this evening–131–is very short but takes us in swiftly to meditate upon the image of ourselves becoming before God as still as a child quietly and contentedly nursing. Continue Reading
Hi Everyone, The Psalms have been posted here on the Oblate blog. Just click the tab at the top of this page! Also, Advent reflections from our Sisters will be posted all month!
In both a recent interview published in CONNECTING POINT (Autumn 2009) and a story posted on the SMM oblate blog/facebook (October 2009) I discussed my business trip to Nigeria this summer, during which I spoke to Nigerian business executives and attorneys about corporate criminal laws in the U.S. My reflections on this trip brought to mind something Richard Rohr observed about “liminal experiences,” that is, those events that tend to induce a type of “inner crisis to help us make a needed transformation”–sort of a displacement in hope of a new point of view. Continue Reading
What have you learned about praying while you are yourself ill? Temporarily, or in a chronic way? How has your prayer transfigured itself in response to new awarenesses about your body–of its capacity for not working right, or for pain or discomfort? What have you learned about prayer during the times of uncertainty about knowing the cause of those not-good changes? Continue Reading
Benedictine Oblate Musings 