Thoughts on the perennial demands and changing shape of Christian spirituality.
“You may be dying, but you should hear what’s happening to me.” “Well, enough about me, what do you think about me?” People don’t really say that kind of thing, do they? Actually, yes, they often do. Maybe not in so many words. But, if you listen to the shape of many conversations, you will [...]
A student of mine drew my attention to this story from Anthony Bloom’s Beginning to Pray: The lives of the saints are enlightening in this respect, and in the life of St. Philip Neri just such an occasion is described. He was an irascible man who quarreled easily and had violent outbursts of anger and [...]
Are demons real? Yes. Are they Individual, identifiable and possess a power of their own? Are they able to override and overrun the innocent without their cooperation, as in the film “Rosemary’s Baby”? No, I don’t think so. A physician who is both a student and a friend observes, “…all of this talk of the [...]
Bob Erskine, who is a cartoonist, recently featured a drawing in which a fortuneteller is sitting across the table from a dog. Peering into the crystal ball before her, the fortuneteller says to the dog, “I see a series of short-term romances, a number of territorial disputes, some questionable food choices and a lot of [...]
I have a friend who is addicted to all things Mac. Steve Jobs announced the arrival of the new Mac Air Book two days ago and yesterday my friend negotiated his Christmas present. As a fellow Mac devotee, I am keenly aware of how strongly attractive this all is. In fact, I’ve often thought it [...]
My wife worked for a major advertising firm in Chicago and one of their clients was Cream of Wheat. In the face of a culture that was increasingly given to things that were sticky, sweet, and easily prepared — like Pop Tarts — the folks at Cream of Wheat struggled to market their product. In [...]
In a world where we are accustomed to fixing or replacing things, it is not surprising that we find ourselves wanting the same thing in our spiritual lives. We want our spiritual struggles ended now. But typically, what goes around comes around. All the biggest issues in our spiritual lives are usually defining for us. [...]
Not all guilt is good guilt. Good guilt is temporary. It alerts us to spiritual danger and provides us with a way back to God. Good guilt is not a way of life. It is a way back to life. That’s a good thing. Bad guilt has nothing to do with God’s desire for us. [...]
We are wired to maximize good feelings and minimize the bad ones. Guilt is a case in point. But guilt can be a good thing — if what it does is draw us into deeper communion with God. Psalm 32 provides an excellent sketch of the experience: 1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, [...]
In the July-August edition of the Harvard Business Review the editors featured an article by HBS Professor Clay Christensen. Entitled “How will you measure your life?” the article was something of a phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands went on line to read the article and journalists around the world picked up on themes from it, including [...]
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