Before I begin, a disclaimer … I am a trained Christian pastor, an Oblate with the Benedictine order, with a heavy focus on peace and justice. I am an outpatient mental health therapist with a therapeutic focus on trauma and education; I am opposed to violence for the sake of violence. My views in this post are as objective as I can make them. They do not reflect one political party or another. I am a Christian who leans heavily... Read more
Questing takes all shapes and forms. This last weekend, I took my wife and daughter on a 127-mile bike backing trip. We have been preparing for weeks, starting with small, twenty-mile rides and two weekends ago, completing a fifty – three-mile ride. I am a huge fan of doing hard things and I have written on both doing hard things and the spiritual practice of questing. Questing Three Days On The Appalachian Trail and Questing Going into the weekend, I... Read more
What is a True Self I have been thinking about one’s true self lately. The contemplative teachers Richard Rohr and Joan Chittester have both devoted recent posts and meditations on this topic. Chittester has devoted the whole month of July to this topic in her Monastic Way ( https://joanchittister.org/content/newsletters/monastic-way/current-issue ) I recently wrote a post around Thich Nhat Hahn’s book “Peace with Every Step” ( https://www.patheos.com/blogs/loveopensdoors/2024/07/is-peace-achievable-in-todays-society/ ). Returning briefly back to this book, I want to reflect on Hahn’s thoughts... Read more
A Definition As we continue to blur the lines of right and wrong, it is important to return to the basics and explore the ancient, historical origins of concepts of morality, virtue and even personhood. In this post, I want to explore how we have moved from an ancient, objective perspective of virtue to a subjective, often agenda-based ideology of virtue. Plato and Aristotle are Western pioneers of this school of thought and in the East, we find Confucius... Read more
Is Peace Achievable? There is a lot of talk these days (or every day since time immortal) about all the chaos we are observing. Some would go as far as saying this is the worst it has ever been. I strongly disagree. I am sitting with Thich Nhat Hahn’s 1991 book, “Peace is Every Step” this week and contemplating and meditating about peace. This would be one of the first books I read from him when I was in college,... Read more
Emotional Openness While men and women both struggle with emotional openness, men more often are stereotyped as such, and women are often pathologized. The emotional landscapes and conditioning of men and women can be quite different, often influenced by societal norms and expectations. From my side of the chair, I have found that many men have a harder time being emotionally open due to a variety of reasons: Societal Conditioning: Traditionally, many cultures have conditioned men to view emotional vulnerability as... Read more
Are the teachings and ruminations of John Wesley relevant to today’s society? They were thought of over 200 years ago. How is 18th Century England and Europe like 21st century America and Europe? What can we learn from these old teachings? I came to the United Methodist Church in 1997 to pursue ministry and would attend seminary in 2001 – 2004 to be trained as a minister. While I have not always agreed with the UMC, I still believe in... Read more
What is Apologetics? Historically, apologetics is the task of presenting a well-reasoned, intellectual defense of the truth claims of the Christian faith. In the early church, persecuted Christians defended the faith against paganism, polytheism, and political threats. Over the last thirty years, though, we have observed a new Christianity arise. This new(ish) form has been seen before in many iterations, but this new Christianity that we are observing is more insidious, more rigid, more extreme. Are “apologetics just another “right-wing” tactic to impose... Read more
Psalm 42 My morning prayers, Lauds today had me thinking about Psalm 42. It got me thinking about how this Psalm can teach us how to deal with challenging times. Using the framework I posited in my other post this week, using lectio, oratio, contemplatio and meditatio, let us consider Psalm 42 (From the NIV version): As the deer pants for streams of water, so, my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.... Read more
The process of being present is a spiritual journey. I was talking to a client about the contemplative life this morning. In the world of psychology and therapy, mindfulness is a huge attention getter, and everyone talks about it like it is some magical event. After twenty-seven years of practice, I can say that contemplative practice has been one of the best and the worst experiences I have had in my faith journey. While there are mountain top experiences, these... Read more
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