I was reading a beautiful article by Bishop Robert Barron that described one of the key ideas of the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola and it is also an underlying principle and part of the rationale for why I created and made my own First Things First online course (you can check out a description of the course here). In the midst of life, I have found that it is the ability to have “eyes to see and ears to hear” how all the people, events and circumstances in my life are interconnected, in addition to seeing and hearing […]
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This article from Leilamiller.net (and also shared via SpiritualDirection.com) does a beautiful job describing not only the three stages along the path of holiness, but also provides a great synopsis of how we perceive suffering during each stage. An illuminating read for anyone striving to grow in holiness. Enjoy! Because our culture is all about rejecting the cross, and because the cross is our ladder to Heaven, I want to talk about our perception of it. It’s spiritually helpful to know that our disposition toward the cross (suffering) will depend on where we are in the interior life. Traditional Catholic […]
As Father’s Day is celebrated this weekend, it caused me to reflect upon fatherhood, and it also brought to mind something that many people might not know—the IRREPLACEABLE importance of fathers regarding the spiritual lives of children, society and the world. This statement is almost revolutionary in our “everyone is equal” world that we are living in. A world that has tried its best to negate the role of men to merely a difference in chromosome. But the facts don’t lie. Fathers DO matter. But for purposes of this post, let me focus upon what I consider to be the […]
Hello, Friends! In the spirit of helping to develop and grow in virtue each day, I am excited about a new e-course that was launched by CatholicsOnline that addresses one of the most challenging facets of our life–social media. Below is a description of the e-course from one of the course creators, Sara Estabrooks: This e-course is designed to help Catholics live out their faith more fully online, by being aware and intentional about what they post and what they consume, by setting healthy limits, and by looking for opportunities to integrate the faith with their social media use. This […]
In the series finale of the epic fantasy television series, Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister, a character who throughout the series has been known for his insights and cleverness, argues for why Brandon Stark, who is now also the Three-Eyed Raven, should become the next King of Westeros. In a nutshell, Tyrion goes through all the many things that do NOT bring people together before pointing out the one thing that does–stories. Tyrion goes on to say: “There is nothing more powerful than a good story…nothing can stop it.” And Tyrion argues that this is why Bran should be king, […]
May is in full swing, and with it comes MANY invitations. Invitations to high school and college graduations, weddings, end of school year parties, Alumni or work-related BBQs, Volunteer appreciation dinners, etc. It can be rather overwhelming! But I recently was reading an article that was talking about the different metaphors to use to describe life, and one that was proposed was that life is a meal. See life as a meal. A fantastic, cozy meal. With good friends, family, loved ones – fascinating company. With great, delicious food. –Maartin van Doorn Although van Doorn was discussing a different way […]
Happy Monday of the 2nd week of Easter! Had a full and busy few weekend that was bookended by two of the most anticipated pop culture events in the last decade as I went and saw Avengers: End Game… …and then watched the living battle the Night King and his army of the dead in the Battle of Winterfell in the final season of the Game of Thrones. So as to not give away any spoilers for those of you who may not have seen one or the other, let me simply share that in both of these stories, all […]
Happy Easter! In fact, we are celebrating the Easter Octave all week–leading right up to Divine Mercy Sunday! So may the peace, joy and hope of the the Resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you today and always. Alleluia! Alleluia! Now that Lent is over though, you might be wondering, what’s next? How do I maintain the spiritual momentum I developed during Lent? Most days, we seem to live life in what seem to be “grey” areas, and it’s difficult to know if you’re doing well as a spouse, parent, friend, or a person. But if you are […]
On this Holy Saturday, as we wait in silence by the tomb of our Lord, it can be difficult to understand that Jesus is actually still going about the work of His Father today. In fact, I would argue that the work He is “doing” today is just as important as the work He did leading up to His Passion and death–the work of bringing about the redemption of everyone. Yes, that’s right. Everyone. Because today, Jesus has “descended into hell.” This ancient homily from the 2nd century explains exactly what the Lord’s Descent into Hell did, as Jesus proclaims […]
Today is Wednesday of Holy Week, also traditionally known as “Spy Wednesday”, because this is the day that we read the Gospel account of Judas’s betrayal. I also read a brilliant article entitled,“How Judas is the Gollum of the Gospels” written by Philip Kosloski in which he presents a great case that Gollum represents the disciple, Judas, in the great fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Thinking further about the comparison of Gollum and Judas, I soberly realized that I can be a lot like Gollum, pursuing “my precious” (be it a promotion, a degree, […]