the sensation of life
Suddenly everything comes together. I know why I am here. I know the purpose of human life. There are moments when we – and I – manipulate, destroy, create, cure. But our true place in all this is so simple. To notice. To appreciate. That's all.Dyckman, Garvin & Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, p.86 Other … Continue reading Simply to see
I live separated from myself, from this body, too much. I can locate this body and my centre fairly easily, though taking up full residence is a process that takes time and a commitment to presence. Remember: to come home to yourself is to come home to God. Coming back home is a four-fold process. … Continue reading Four steps to God
This is not the the best of environments in which to pray and come home to myself: uncomfortable, noisy with people and air conditioning, and I am tired and ache. I would like to be home. But I know You are with me, and I do my best to abandon myself to You. I will … Continue reading Evening train journey
Meditate as much while on this journey as if you were shut up in a hermitage or in your cell, for wherever we are, wherever we go, we carry our cell with us; brother [sister] body is our cell, and the soul is the hermit who dwells in it, there to pray to the Lord … Continue reading Brother Body
Yesterday, I was asked what is meant by justification by faith. This is how I see it, though I am aware this differs from much, if not all, of what is written about this contentious subject. 'Justification' is a synonym for 'having worth'. 'Faith' is a synonym for 'trust'. Justification by faith – the assertion … Continue reading No need
Be not anxious! Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety. If our hearts are set on them, our reward is an anxiety whose burden is intolerable… When we seek for security … Continue reading Adding to the Anxiety
"The beginnings of the intellectual movement whose fruits are, among many others, the establishment of the Order and the Glass Bead Game itself, may be traced back to a period which Plinius Ziegenhalss, the historian of literature, designated as the Age of the Feuilleton, by which name it has been known ever since. Such tags … Continue reading The Age of Feuillton
September 1969. I remember the first morning I walked into my classroom, 1D, at my all-boys secondary school, and met Mr Starling, the form teacher. I was excited to find he was also my chemistry teacher – the synchronicity of it. Already in love with chemistry, it was the one thing I was longing to … Continue reading You
Born in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain, the Very Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. (14 November 1907 – 5 February 1991) was the twenty-eighth Superior General (1965–83) of the Society of Jesus. Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes … Continue reading Falling in love
…though truth and love can never really differ, when they seem to, the subaltern should be truth. Auden, The Common Life In all the spiritual exercises that follow we bring the intellect into action in order to think and the will [heart] in order to stir the deeper affections. We should therefore note that the … Continue reading Yes, but…