The Real Spiritual Battle We’re approaching Holy Week, the days of silence, reflection and accounting we’re given by the Christian liturgy each year to reply to some questions and thoughts: The real spiritual battle is forgiveness, not of others, but of ourselves. Because always, an honest examination of ourselves reveals flaws, failures and weakness–sin. Annually […]
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The culture of Lent: Ash Wednesday Is Lent a culture? Really? When considering the word culture, we understand it signifies a cumulative deposit of knowledge, beliefs, values, notions of time and of roles. So yes, the upcoming forty days embodies a “culture of Lent.” One that I aim to inhale more completely this year than
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A Spirit of Silence In the Rule of Benedict, silence is necessary, even indispensable for those of us who seek God. In fact, chapter six of the Rule of Benedict, “A Spirit of Silence,” makes clear why Saint Benedict considers silence imperative. The chapters’ title challenges our conception of silence as a lack, an absence.
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Tiny acts of heroism It didn’t take me very long to understand as a brand new Christian the tiny acts of heroism we Christians are required to commit each day-each minute. If we’re serious, that is. They are, in their own way, much tougher than one glorious and final act of martyrdom and complete abandonment.
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Kill the monster: The paradox of completion Finishing anything always involves paradox. Okay, but kill the monster? A strange phrase to use when completing a long project- one that has taken years to finish…like a book. Especially this book! Or is it? I’m a writer but the paradox is not limited to writing; instead, it
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We should kneel down in gratitude! McCoullough’s comment, “We should kneel down in gratitude!” applies, of course, to more than the personage of George Washington. Still, after watching and listening to McCoullough talk about our first president, I read 1776 a second time. It’s an astounding read. The book reads like a novel as it reveals the
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In praise of work- The Christian in the world. If the title seems peculiar, particularly the correlation between praising work with the Christian in the world, by the end of this piece, I hope you’ll see the association between work and Christians living in the world. “So Lin, what will you do when you retire?”
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We have no right to happiness: Last words of CS Lewis Right, it’s the title of the last article CS Lewis penned before he died. I’ll admit his statement consititutes a 180 for me since I have written numerous times about happiness—what I think is entailed to be happy. And more recently, thoughts that achieving happiness have
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A little spark gives way to a great flame. I’ve known forever that I should read Dante’s Divine Comedy. After all, it’s one of the most famed of all literary writings. Hence we should all have at least a nodding acquaintance with the Inferno and Purgatoria, perhaps even Paradisio, right? But yet I managed to avoid reading
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Feast of Christ the King of the Universe is the Apocalypse Yes, you’ve read the words correctly. For sure if you’d said this to me before I began researching and writing this piece about the humungous “AHA!” given to me by Bishop Robert Barron this past week, I’d have replied with something highly reasoned like, “Huh?” Or,
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