HOLY SILENCE

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

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

We are broken and fragmented! And the Lord tells us why. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). To heed His words and understand how this works, we must seek clarity, stability, and wholeness within and among the five parts of the self: physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, and spiritual. In other words, we must build st