Last year I described a practice I’d begun during the pandemic: applying lectio divina—a slow, contemplative reading of sacred texts—to stories and photos from the world’s most ravaged places. Let’s call it photo divina for [...]
In the last week of March, having shown my first signs of COVID, I wrote my spiritual director to postpone our appointment. He wrote back something no one else said: “May this be a challenging [...]
My brain is hyperactive. It likes to spin out ideas, fantasies, things I want to say, actions I want to take. An insight comes to me and within seconds I’ve leapt to wordsmithing it for [...]
Part of my job description as a contemplative involves paying attention. When world events come to the fore, I try to listen deeply, take the events into my heart and mind, and let them make [...]
We, as solitaries…allow the Light penetrating our lives to shine out as through stained glass windows and awaken others to the beauty, hope, and goodness that surrounds us. —Karen and Paul Fredette, “A Word from [...]
For the months of March and April, I’d been in an odd place spiritually—not traumatic, just unsettling. Sorting through it took some serious work: a number of journal entries, an intense session with my spiritual [...]
Quick: what does contemplation mean? (No fair peeking at this post.) If you’re drawing a blank, don’t worry. It took me forever to understand it even a little—and I’m trying to live it. Contemplation doesn’t [...]
Not so long ago, most of my writing was devoted to dialogue. Dialogue and Donald Trump. Dialogue and the debate over guns. Dialogue and why my website isn’t called Dialogue Venture anymore. A whole book [...]
Before Irma, I had never heard of Barbuda. How could I have known it would alter the way I pray? The hurricane had sent my wife and me scurrying to Google Maps for a crash [...]
I’ve been away from this space awhile, and with good reason. The good reason is hard to describe. It could have been an episode of severe depression, or a dark night of the soul, or [...]