Seems to me the word “mitzvah” is being used a lot these days. Usually it shows up in exclamations: “It’s a mitzvah.” Maybe I’m noticing this because the recent preponderance of unnaturally natural disasters has highlighted people reaching out to help one another. Or, maybe this is all going on in my mind? I wouldn’t [...]
{ 1 comment }
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 [...]
{ 2 comments }
With Valentine’s Day coming up I’m taking the initiative to get folks thinking about love. Here’s a clip that I sometimes make reference to in my classes, from the 1997 film As Good As It Gets. If you can’t see the video, click here. Ignatius wrote that “love shows itself more in deeds than in [...]
{ 0 comments }
One of the very best lines I’ve heard about love came from the wise mouths of Zhang Mucheng (101 years old) and Xu Dongying, (102) of Shanghai, celebrating 80 years of marriage together. When asked about love, they said “We are not used to kissing and hugging…we just feel good when we are together.” And [...]
{ 0 comments }
It was a moment of grace on a Sunday afternoon. My husband, Jim, and I were walking through the crowd into a Creighton U basketball game. In the middle of the throng on the sidewalk ahead of us, we spotted a little girl, about 5 years old, wearing a spectacular fluffy ballet tutu in game [...]
{ 9 comments }
I’d like to propose a juxtaposition of two ideas that emerge from the Spiritual Exercises: practice and love. Without getting into too much insider baseball on how Ignatius’ text emphasizes these themes, let me suggest a brief thought exercise that you might take into prayer. 1. We learn anything by practicing: the piano, soccer, algebra. [...]
{ 4 comments }
“Imagine God thinking about you. What do you assume God feels when you come to mind?” That question begins David Benner’s Surrender to Love which I have been reading recently. In our heads we mostly know what the correct answer is, or should be: Of course God loves us. But deep in our hearts, it’s [...]
{ 2 comments }
Something to think about | Harvard University in 1994 studied forty adults in their early forties with a history of multiple, significant stressors during their childhood and adolescence, including serious illness in themselves or their families, low income, chronic family discord or parental fighting, parental substance abuse, persistent and harsh parental discipline, or prolonged parental [...]
{ 0 comments }
In the US on Sunday, we will celebrate Mother’s Day. I have been thinking of my mother a lot lately, maybe because this is only my second Mother’s Day without her. Her long battle with Alzheimer’s had a terrible beauty to it, her fight for reality and her letting go and trusting. Sometimes I wish [...]
{ 3 comments }
dotMagis blogger Tim Muldoon has just published a new book, a memoir titled Longing to Love: A Memoir of Desire, Relationships, and Spiritual Transformation. Here’s what Tim himself says about why he wrote it: It has arisen in large part from my work trying to understand and speak to students about the prevailing hookup culture, [...]
{ 0 comments }
Sign up for dotMagis updates in an RSS reader
Sign up for dotMagis updates by e-mail