Lent – In the Desert

April 2, 2019April 2, 2019

Finger of God: Compassion and Almsgiving

“The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself” (Pr. 11:25).

As a young girl, St. Brigid was renown for generosity. Milk, butter, and meat flowed out of her home to every passing beggar. She gave with such enthusiasm, that it constantly irritated her father. Eventually, he had enough. It was time for her to marry. So he brought her to meet the King of Leinster. While the men negotiated, Brigid waited in the chariot, when along came a leper begging for alms. She could not help but give, but had no money or food on her. So, she took her father’s sword and scabbard, promising the leper that it would pay for many weeks of food. When the men returned, her father was furious. The king declared that such a woman would ruin his household. She got her wish, and was sent off to a monastery.

March 25, 2019

What Is Prayer?

A stunning field of gravity holds the planets around the sun. Its magnetism is so colossal and irresistible that everything within eleven million miles is pulled into orbit. Jupiter, Venus, Earth, and even the smallest debris are brought into this cosmic dance with the sun in the center.

March 19, 2019

Call to the Wilderness

“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Mat. 4:1).

Why into the wilderness?

In central Greece there is a place called Meteora, known for boulders that jut up into the air like natural columns or skyscrapers. At the peak of these columns, built into stone, are ancient Orthodox monasteries. One morning, after camping in the Meteora valley, I started my ascent up towards the monasteries. The sun was just beginning to rise when I heard a sound I will never forget. Nuns were chanting, high overhead a hundred or two feet up. It was haunting, like the voice of angels making their morning praise.

March 11, 2019

They Shall See God

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

The man was blind. A thick blackness engulfed everything. His life was an endless reach, feeling, grasping for some comprehension of a world otherwise dark and empty. Then he heard it, a whisper maybe, a murmur in the crowd that Jesus was coming. If anyone could save him it was this man. So he called out. Immediately, the crowd pushed around him.

March 3, 2019March 3, 2019

Repentance in the Final Hour

“A new light…cocks were crowing, there was music of hounds, and horns; above all this ten thousand tongues of men and woodland angels and the wood itself sang. ‘It comes, it comes!’ they sang. ‘Sleepers awake! It comes, it comes, it comes.’ One dreadful glance over my shoulder I essayed – not long enough to see (or did I see?) the rim of the sunrise that shoots Time dead with golden arrows and puts to flight all phantasmal shapes. Screaming, I buried my face in the fold of my Teacher’s robe. ‘The morning! The morning!’ I cried, ‘I am caught by the morning and I am a ghost’.”