Something to think about | The question to be constantly asked in decision-making is “what do I really want?” Deep down, that’s what God wants too. God wants what is best for us. This isn’t something repugnant, or burdensome, or sad, or difficult. The way of life that God desires for us is the way [...]
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The decisive moment in Ignatius’s life came when he realized that he was imitating the wrong person. He realized that imitating the example of a noble knight could not satisfy him, and that he had a deep desire to imitate the saints. He had once been satisfied to imitate the knight, with all the social [...]
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As I deepen my love for my friend, I come to know what she likes and dislikes. I come to see the world through her eyes, and thereby experience it anew. What once was trite and meaningless to me now becomes an object of wonder, when I look at it with her. This deepening friendship [...]
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Something to think about | We cannot choose correctly all the time. That plain fact inhibits many of us from making as many choices, and bold choices, as we ought to. Particularly prone to choice phobia are smart people who excelled in school and have ever since imagined that the real world would be similar [...]
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A ship may be tossed on the seas, buffeted by storms of every sort. Its crew may be struggling mightily every day simply to keep it afloat, wearying themselves, becoming chilled to the bone. They may fear for their lives every day, and regret ever having set sail with the hopes of adventure and fame [...]
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Somewhere nearby—perhaps a co-worker in the next cubicle; a friend across the room; a stranger in the chair next to you; a spouse beside you in bed; a child clawing at your leg for attention–there, now, is an opportunity for love. Before you is God’s invitation to know him. Do not delay; do not postpone [...]
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Years ago, Austen Ivereigh, executive editor of The Tablet made a 30-day Spiritual Exercises retreat when he was a Jesuit novice. He spent most of the time in a state of desolation. “I grasped the paradox at the core of this desolation: you can only know God through simplicity of heart, yet I could not, [...]
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Nicholas Carr asks what the internet is doing to our brains. His answer: rewiring it for easy distraction. He observes that the way we read online–with constant distractions–is actually changing the way our neural pathways work, with the resulting effect of limiting our ability for sustained attention to a long reading. It is good to [...]
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If you don’t know Viktor Frankl’s work, read his book Man’s Search for Meaning–one of the most important books of the 20th century. Below is a short video of a presentation he gave at a 1972 conference in Toronto, in which he offers a basic thesis about psychotherapy that applies more broadly to life: we [...]
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Susan Stabile, an Ignatian spiritual director and law professor, distinguishes between the desire that causes pain and the desire that motivates us: Attachment (what might be called disordered desire) always feels tumultuous, unsettling and lacking in peace. Deep desire has an element of peace in it and it pulls us generally forward rather than roiling [...]
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