Judy and I are just back from a two week trip to Florida. We spent two weeks in the car touring the South. We are good traveling companions, but there where a few times when there was tension between us. Where to go, but to do, and when to go. We had to make decisions. …
A “wild” man is a man who has a desire to break out of the conventional “box” of religion and culture, which assumes that men are in the business of creating their own self image. When men allows themselves the space to listen to “the inner voice” of the Spirit they become aware that there is more to their spiritual life then they…
I want to start this blog with a quote from Ronald Rohleiser, a contemporary Catholic spiritual writer. In his book “The Shattered Lantern” he observes that Western culture has a very reduced experience of God. “God is present to us but we are no longer present to God because we are no longer contemplative. We …
When a man moves beyond the threshold, where by faith he begins to move from that which is within his control, where he had some understanding, where he could rely on some familiar signposts, and now begins to sink into his heart, he will now be out of control, sometimes in darkness, and will not often understand. It will be one of…
I have been away from Canaan for the past two weeks. We have been with family. At present we are baby sitting our three grandchildren in Olathe, Ks. for a week. So I feel a little out of the flow. The posts I have been doing about a Father who delights in us, takes some reflection…
I would like to start this post with a quote from Thomas Merton, “In prayer we discover what we already have. You start from where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize you are already there. We already have everything but we don’t know it and don’t experience it. Everything…
In this post I want again to start with a quote. This is from William Shannon, “Wordless prayer…..is humble, simple, lowly, prayer in which we experience our total dependence on God and our awareness that we are in God. Wordless prayer is not an effort to ‘get anywhere,’ for we are already there (in God’s…
I want to begin this post with some thoughts from M. Basil Pennington, a Cistercian monk, who taught on Centering prayer, “God is infinitely present. He will not push himself into our lives. He knows the greatest thing he as given us is our freedom. If we want habitually, even exclusively, to operate from the…
In my my last post I ended by saying in order for men to have a “heart” connection with the love of God, we will need to learn to “receive” and “see.” For us to get “unstuck” so we can communion with God, that is, have a relationship beyond thoughts, perceptions and feelings, we are going to have to pay attention to our hearts. Heart is the innermost…
I wonder if there are not men who are read this blog from time to time, who are living lonely, isolated and frustrating lives, wondering if it is really possible to connect and relate to God on a more personal level. David Benner points out that the deepest yearning in the heart is spiritual. We were made for intimate connection with…