This morning I visited a truck stop restroom near Bozeman, Montana, and came back to the car raving to my husband Bob about how wonderful it was. “It was amazing!” I told him. “A flush toilet, hot running water, a soap dispenser, a paper towel to dry my hands, and a mirror!” There’s nothing like two weeks of staying in U.S. Forest Service campgrounds in the mountains to make one appreciate civilization. It likely won’t surprise you to hear that... Read more
Today, let’s talk about money. That may seem like a strange thing to do on a site devoted to Spiritual Travels, but the two are not as unrelated as one might think. In fact, how we spend our money is intimately tied to our spiritual lives. Recall how many of the parables of Jesus relate to economics in some way–from the widow’s mite to the laborers in the vineyard–or the old saying that if you want to know what people... Read more
OK, so I know you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet. But here’s a piece of information that I’d sure like to believe is true. The Daily Meditation website has named Spiritual Travels/The Holy Rover as one of the Top 10 Spiritual Blogs. Here’s what it has to say about this site: On the site you’ll find reviews of the latest spiritual books, which really go into depth about what makes the book good / bad. You’ll also... Read more
Today I’m going to tell you about a holy site, but unlike most of the destinations on Spiritual Travels, it’s not one that you can visit. The monastery’s senior monastic, Father Simeon, said to me: “Tell people what we do, not where we are.” So that’s just what I’ve going to do. Actually, I’m not sure if I could find St. Isaac of Syria Skete again even if I tried. The place has a bit of a Brigadoon quality to... Read more
Life is a luminous pause between two great mysteries, which themselves are one. Carl Jung Read more
Today’s post is by guest blogger Bob Sessions, a continuation of his Barriers to Spiritual Growth: If you’re like me, you’ve struggled to make sense of the many far-out claims of religion. So often it seems we’re asked to leave our intelligence, experience, and scientific learning at the door when we enter the holy realm. At the very least we’re asked to embrace an extraordinary vocabulary and set of beliefs that seem to fly in the face of most of... Read more
Today’s post is by guest blogger Bob Sessions: You’re probably becoming a bit tired reading about Richard Rohr on this blog, but he has a remarkable knack for putting sophisticated ideas in clear and often homey ways. He not only has many suggestions for how we might grow spiritually, but he also reveals, in helpful ways, barriers to this growth. One of Rohr’s most interesting discussions is of four “splits” or dualistic separations that we develop in our culture that... Read more
Today I’m going to run the risk of redundancy by recommending a book that’s already been recommended once on this blog: Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. My husband Bob raved about it before, but just in case you didn’t believe him, here’s my second to his recommendation. I’ve been slowly making my way through this text over the past few weeks and I think it’s one of the wisest books I’ve ever read about spiritual... Read more
My writings about Tibetan Buddhism have brought an unexpected treasure to my mailbox: a review copy of Bobby Sager’s Beyond the Robe, a gorgeously illustrated book detailing the growing dialogue between Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhist monks (we do live in an interconnected world, do we not?). Bobby Sager is a philanthropist and entrepreneur who for more than a decade has funded a program called Science for Monks, which teaches Western science to Tibetan monks and nuns. The program began at... Read more
Today’s post is a sermon I delivered this past Sunday, on a topic that will be familiar to regular Holy Rover readers: Holy Silence. One of the pleasures of being married to my husband has been the many stories I’ve heard through the years about philosophers and their peculiar habits. One of my favorites is about a friend of Bob’s who several years ago gave a lecture in a philosophy class and then was asked a follow-up question by a... Read more
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