“You could go to Walgreens and buy things but you couldn’t sit down, so you would get your ice cream, jellybeans or hot peanuts, take it out and go into the park and eat it. The reason everybody liked to go there was because you could look into...
“We are part of a history marked by tribulation, violence, suffering and injustice, ever awaiting a liberation that never seems to arrive. Those who are most wounded, oppressed and even crushed, are the poor, the weakest links in the chain. Because of their poverty into which they are often forced, they are victims of injustice and inequality of a throwaway society that hurries past without seeing them and without scruple abandons them to their ...
ecall that true contemplation is a grace and comes from God alone – it is not our role to bring contemplation about. Our role in contemplation is to be ready to receive. We should not think of this disposition of receptivity as a passive mode. Rather, it is an active sort of preparation to receive the gifts that God wants to give. We have stated before in this space that it may be more appropriate to view the contemplative disposition as one of ...
Benedictine Joan Chittister addresses the question, “What is contemplation?” Contemplation is not the practice of saying prayers. It is the growing, overwhelming consciousness of God within and around us, before us and beyond us. It is God embedded in our souls and at...
“ One in six children in the U.S. are living in poverty. Children born or raised in poverty face a number of disadvantages, most evidently in education. Poverty reduces a child’s readiness for school because it leads to poor physical health and motor skills, diminishes a child’s ability to concentrate and remember...
If you’ve joined us in this space recently, you may find yourself wondering what is meant by “contemplation” and “contemplative practice”. If prayer is a dialogue with God, contemplation can be understood as prayer in which God is the “speaker”, and we are the “listener”. Contemplation is an experience of the...
As defined by HUD, housing is considered affordable when it costs a household no more than 30% of its income. Poor families spend more than 60% of their income on housing while lower middle class spend nearly 40%. The wealthiest people spend less than 20%. If people spend ‘too much’ on housing they may not be able to...
Now we begin again. Coming off of the Christmas Season, we experience that familiar feeling that comes after the whirlwind, when we disembark from the roller coaster, when we start back down the mountain. Having refreshed and refocused our awareness of the intimately incarnate Presence of God in our midst, we now answer the call to ...
January is National Poverty Awareness Month. “There are five key factors that impact poverty - economic and family security, education, food and nutrition, health, housing and energy. We call these the five elements of poverty. When there is a struggle in one of these areas, the other areas in a person’s life suffer.” Missouri Community Action Network. Reflection: Since the areas of...
Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, passed into eternity on the day after Christmas. In addition to being a crusader against apartheid and oppression and injustice worldwide, “The Arch” was also deeply devoted to prayer. From his deep union with the Divine and with his fellow humans, he offered the following blessing, which we share in his memory: Dear Child of God, you are loved with a love that nothing can shake, a love that ....
“The Magi didn’t have a smooth trip, but they had resources to fall back on. They had each other. They had a star. They arrived in Jerusalem, and the scribes and chief priests helped them to locate Bethlehem as the place where they should go. The journey we all take to the Lord is a long one......we’re on that journey our whole life. What about people who don’t...
The Christmas Season is an invitation to greater faith. Contemplative Core Team member Paul Schulte offers this reflection from Franciscan Richard Rohr on the nature of faith: … Faith is a kind ...