HOLY SILENCE

I look up and I ask Why me? You have the whole of heaven And the entire universe And all the angels and the saints. Nothing and no one that grows weary. Yet, You still know me and Care about me You come to me in my sin You come to me in my silence You even have a will for me As if You have nowhere better to be and No one better to help. But this is Your way. You walked in the garden In the cool of the day, Calling and calling. As it turns out, I was the one who heard You, And

There are times when our faith grows thin. Not gone, but thin. The prayers that once came easily now feel like words spoken into an empty room. The certainty we used to lean on has gone quiet. So ... we do what God's people have always done: we reach out in the dark of night and cry out, "Lord, show me the path. Show me the way of salvation." If that is where you are today, take heart. That cry is not a sign that your faith has failed. It is a sign that your faith is alive an

Love is the one thing God asks of us that He first gave to us. Before we could offer anything back, He loved us into existence. We often treat love as a feeling that Arrives and departs on its own schedule. Scripture treats it as a choice, A willingness to remain when remaining costs something. That is why divine love is beautiful. Anyone can feel affection. But it takes grace to keep loving on the days When affection has gone quiet. And love is what will outlast us. Our know

Find it within. Find it without. Discover God's will. Follow it with hope and joy. Be a light to others, even though there is so much in the world that we can grumpy, angry, and sad about. Be anointed and healed so that you may be of help to everyone around you. Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

We often ask, "Why didn't they just leave?" It's a natural question, But it's the wrong one. Abuse rarely announces itself As a single, escapable event. It's a slow erosion involving a cycle of Tension, violence, apology, and false hope Repeated over and over Until the mind adapts to survive it. What looks like passivity from the outside is Exhausted vigilance on the inside. When abuse continues unchecked, and People think leaving is more dangerous than staying The real shift

There is a quiet violence in covert resistance. Here I do not mean the kind of opposition Born from the desire to be free. Absolutely not. Not at all. Here I am speaking of the Insidiousness of the withheld hand. The help that is named but never given. The agreement that never becomes action. Covert violence offers the face of cooperation While the heart stays closed. It claims to live with integrity, but A chasm remains between word and deed. Yet wisdom asks something of us

Christ calls us to freedom: freedom from the work of demons within us, from the sins that hold us captive, from our own lack of faith. He frees us so that we may know Him as Lord, God, and Savior ... and so that we may know what His will is for us. These days we stand between two feasts, Pentecost and the Transfiguration. Both speak of God's presence: in us, around us, among us. Both tell us the same thing: we are not alone. God is within and without. And through the various

Freedom is transfiguration The self ... Opened ... Illumined ... Indwelt by the ineffable God. On Tabor ... The veil between Heaven and earth thinned ... Christ was transfigured ... Apostles beheld uncreated light. The mystery's promise? Humanity's destiny ... Radiant with uncreated glory! Tabor's end and Upper room's beginning! Freedom is Pentecost(al) Winds blow while Hidden chains disappear Tongues of fire ... Set people ablaze. Contemplation stills the heart Confession un

Five weeks from today, on August 6, we celebrate the great Feast of the Transfiguration, when Christ ascended Mount Tabor and shone before Peter, James, and John with a light not of this world. I have stood on that mountain. Tabor rises alone from the Jezreel Valley. The road to its summit climbs in tight switchbacks that force you to slow, to turn, to ascend in earnest. At the top, looking out over the green hills of Galilee, I felt my own calling to the contemplative life q

Diabolic obstruction is the Dark art of the Closed door Disguised as an open one. It does not destroy the path But complicates it. Placing delay Where there should be motion, Doubt Where there should be resolve. There are hundreds of 'Reasonable' hesitations 'Good' intentions 'Better' suggestions 'Practical' ideas and 'Real' love. Its genius is patience. It rarely forbids outright. It merely postpones ... Qualifies ... Entangles ... Obfuscates. It knows that a will deferred o