Meditation

“The earth is the only road that can lead us to heaven. There is no other. And the earth is not an idea, an argument, an abstraction, or a concept. It is not even a law. It is a thing, a gigantic thing, a great tangled swarming mass of things; it is a universe. “And [...]

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Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of [...]

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My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing [...]

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Remember a time when you saw Jesus with the inner eyes of your soul, when you experienced his presence in a vivid way, when he came alive for you in your prayer. Remember the inner details and outer circumstances of the experience. Savor the richness of the experience and relive it in your memory, feeling, [...]

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A listening exercise by Vinita Wright, from her book Days of Deepening Friendship. Over the next several days, practice listening. Listen to everything—traffic sounds, nature sounds, speaking sounds, and the sounds of peace and quiet. Try to listen with great attention for five or ten minutes every day. Do this during a coffee/tea break, if [...]

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The feast of Epiphany today brings the Christmas season to an end.  To mark the day, here’s a litany called “Now the Work of Christmas Begins” composed by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when [...]

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This past Sunday was the feast of the Holy Family, and it calls to our imagination that “longest sermon” of Jesus first thirty years, as Cardinal Seán O’Malley called it. I remember, as a teenager, wondering what Jesus was like as a teenager.  (What did he do with rushing hormones, for example?)  As a father, [...]

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Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, notes something unusual in a Renaissance depiction of the Annunciation: Mary is surprised, but the angel Gabriel seems to be surprised too. That’s the beginning of a fine Advent meditation. (If you can’t see the video, click here.)

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This depiction of the Nativity is a mosaic by Fr. Marko Rupnik, SJ, in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.  Fr. Jim Martin has written meditations on three of the mosaics in a recent online edition of America magazine.  You can view a slideshow of Rupnik’s mosaics here.

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Brother Thomas Koller, SJ, at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California, has been praying the rosary with Ignatian-style visualization, a method of prayer used in the Spiritual Exercises. His meditations on the mysteries help people put themselves into the gospel setting as participant-onlookers.  Fifteen of Brother Koller’s meditations can be found here.  (H/T [...]

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