Healing through Community

You can't defeat persistent sins by yourself. If you could have, you would have. God wired us to need each other. We heal in community. ~Rick Warren on Twitter

Wandering Minds

How often do we find our minds wandering during prayer? The reason, St. Francis de Sales suggests, is that our minds, which think by concretely re-presenting reality, cannot focus well on abstraction. They will always gravitate to more concrete things.... Weiterlesen

Types of Spirituality

Authentic prayer – which is deeply sensible of God, who speaks out of the depths, and in an awareness of the chaos that surrounds us – requires that we move out of the structure into the antistructure. Here the receptive... Weiterlesen

Loving Others

Genuine love is so contrary to human nature that its presence bears witness to an extraordinary power. ~ John Piper When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than... Weiterlesen

Sharing God’s Love

Francis of Assisi said: Don't you know that everybody who encounters you during the day should see something of God's love in you? Is this really possible? Yes, but not through our own effort but by opening the "curtains" our... Weiterlesen

Looking into Reality

Spirituality is not about looking away from life but more deeply into it, not about denying the human but about releasing our true selves, and that the life of our truest self partakes of the very substance of God’s life,... Weiterlesen

West African Insects

... because there is no need to think a whole week about it ;-). I should say, looking back calmly on the matter, that seventy-five percent of the West African insects sting, five percent bite, and the rest are either... Weiterlesen

Longing Motivates

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea! - Antoine de Saint Exupery  

African Proverbs

« Sumu ɲuɔnliɛn kɔlɔn ye n banu kaa a na kai. » (Bozo-Djenaama) The stranger has big eyes but he does not see anything. *** « Jirikurun men o men ji la, a te ke bama ye. » (Bambara) No... Weiterlesen

Christmas Reality

Shona Neff, founder of 'Christian Women Take Root' and 'Take Root and Write' - two Networks for Christian Women and Writers, reflects on the meaning of 'Merry Christmas,' suggests a triple reality check in Reality Check: Merry Christmas, and comes... Weiterlesen

St. Francis of Assisi

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace... Weiterlesen

What Makes Us Glad?

“What can we do that makes us the gladdest, what can we do that leaves us with the strongest sense of sailing true north and of peace, which is much of what gladness is? Is it making things with our... Weiterlesen

Loving Embrace

Fitting for today's name saint, a quote from his name sake Nicholas of Cusa: All my endeavors are directed towards you, because all your endeavors are directed at me. All my looking is focused on you and I will never... Weiterlesen

Opposites

Faith is not opposed to knowledge; it is opposed to sight. And grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning. Commitment is not sustained by confusion but by insight. The person who is uninformed or confused will... Weiterlesen