Today’s Lenten reading comes from Thomas Merton’s Theology of Creativity. As I will be on retreat beginning 5:00 tonight until Easter Sunday night, this will be my final Lenten posting. Blessings to all on this holy Triduum:

The creativity of the Christian person must be seen in relation to the creative vocation of the new Adam, the mystical ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading for Palm Sunday comes from St. Augustine's Sermon 215, preached on the 5th Sunday of Lent, at the giving back of the Creed by the catechumens preparing to be baptized at Easter Vigil:

Perhaps this may seem little enough, that he should come, clothed with human flesh, God for human beings, the just one for sinners, the ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 Message for Lent, dedicated to the practice of fasting:

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one's body. Fasting certainly bring ( Read more... )

I apologize for missing a few days with the Lenten readings. Exams and all have meant little sleep. Today's reading comes from St. Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians:

Now I beseech you all to obey the word of righteousness, and to endure with all the endurance which you also saw before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from The Divine Names by St. Dionysius the Areopagite:

We go where we are commanded by those divine ordinances which rule all the sacred ranks of the heavenly orders. With our minds made prudent and holy, we offer worship to that which lies hidden beyond thought and beyond being. With a wise silence we do honor to the ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes once again from St. Therese de Lisieux's Story of a Soul. Just to provide a very brief bit of context here, this is from Chapter X of the book (a book she was ordered to write under obedience), where she describes the very dark night of faith she has entered. Therese had her entire life enjoyed the most intimate ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from a 14th century anonymous letter written in Germany, popularly referred to as The Silent Outcry:

Learn how to let go of God through God, the hidden God through the naked God. Be willing to lose a penny in order to find a guilder. Get rid of the water, so that you can make wine. The creature is not strong enough ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from St. John of the Cross' spiritual classic, The Dark Night. As an aside, by default I consistently now type that as The Dark Knight, and then have to fix it. In this passage he is commenting on the line, "In darkness and secure," from the poem that provides the setting for his treatise. In St. John's spiritual ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes again from Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. This chapter is addressed specifically to those in religious vows, but clearly it can be applied to all disciples of Christ:

Each day we ought to renew our resolutions and arouse ourselves to fervor as though it were the first day of our religious life. We ought to ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from two short stories about Theophilus the Archbishop, recounted in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers:

1. One day blessed Theophilus the archbishop came to the mountain of Nitria and the abba of the mountain came to meet him. The archbishop said to him, "Father, in this way of life which you follow, what do you find ( Read more... )