• Books,  Church Life,  Daily Life,  Lectio Divina,  Prayers,  Quotations

    Shut Down Upon Our Little Days

    I’ve always been something of a worrier, a personal trait that has never done me or anyone around me any good. Like so many other of my quirks, I have tried to pray it away or master it by stern self-discipline, but it remains as much a part of me as my freckles or my bone structure. Last time we were back in Texas, I found a tattered little prayer book in an antique store and bought it for five dollars (I’ve since learned that a used copy of this book sells on a major website for something like $80 or $90). Stuffed inside its pages were various holy cards…

  • Lectio Divina,  Reflections

    What I Most Want

    In replying to a comment on one of his recent posts on salvation and Heaven, Bruce Charlton made a very penetrating remark: “In general God grants us what we most want, or a simulacrum of it…” My interior ears pricked up at this phrase because I have been thinking about this very thing for much of the past few days. When it comes to the other side of this life, to Heaven, to what lies beyond, to eternity….what is it that I want? If I believe that my Father will give me the desires of my heart, and if this earthly sojourn serves to shape and refine those desires….where am…

  • I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation,  Prayers,  Reflections

    A Wonderful Plan

    This morning I read a post by Dr. Bruce Charlton, a post examining the idea of finding the spiritual — the significant — in everyday life. Dr. Charlton uses Rudolf Steiner as a platform from which to dive into this topic. I had never heard of Steiner before reading of him in the past on Dr. Charlton’s blog, and I will confess that my attempts to read Steiner have not panned out well. I lack the intellectual muscle-tone to heft this sort of weighty writing (I often have to read some of Dr. Charlton’s essays several times before I can grasp the points he is making). But the central idea…