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“I Am . . . with you always.”  Jesus The Christ “Learning to pay attention to God’s Presence . . . is the foundation of the life of prayer.”[1] David Benner “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” St. Paul When Moses asked God “his” name, the response was simply,…

“We are vulnerable to absence, because we so deeply desire presence.”  John O’Donohue “We know as long as we are alive here on earth, we are absent from the Lord.” St. Paul Who do you miss? Who is gone from your life that you wish you had back?  If you had just one day to…

“Early on the first day of the week Mary went to the tomb . . . Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’ . . . and she said Rabboni.” John 21 “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” Rev. 2:10 The first witness to the resurrection was a woman.  According…

“He went ahead, ascending into Jerusalem” Luke 19:28 “Ride on, Ride on, In Majesty; In lowly pomp Ride On to die.”[1] “There is a presence who walks the road of life with you.  This presence accompanies your every moment.  It shadows your every thought and feeling. On your own, or with othe4rs, it is always…

“The Lord God formed mankind from the clay of the ground.”  Genesis 1:7 “It is mysterious that the human body is clay.”  John O’Donohue[1] “The body—this dazzling flesh we inhabit—is the necessary vehicle by which everything in creation connects.”  Belden C. Lane[2] Anam Cara.  Soul Friend.  I’ve been basing these recent blogs on the book…

“In a little while you will not see me.  And then in a little while you will see me again.”  Jesus “My heart will not rest until it rests in Thee.”  St, Augustine “Absence holds the echo of a fractured intimacy.” O’Donohue Life’s ultimate terminus is death.  A final departure from all that one has…

“The soul needs love as urgently as the body needs air.” John O’Donohue “When we love, and allow ourselves to be loved, we begin more and more to inhabit the kingdom of the eternal.”  John O’Donohue Love inhabits many faces. It begins with the face of our mother. From there it may be the face…

“I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”  Revelation 22:13 “Every day we begin again.” St. Benedict “Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” From the song “Closing Time” by Semisonic There is a curious phenomenon—dare I say illness?—that sets in as one ages.  I will call…

“Silence is God’s first language.”   Thomas Keating “If you take time to just sit in silence and listen, you may begin to realize that in the ‘emptiness’ there is something there, something profound.  There is a fullness, closeness, a presence behind all the outer acoustic and visual activity.”  Erik Stensland “Ascetic solitude involves silence.  And…

“Jesus reached out his hand and touched him.” Luke 5:13 “The language of touch is a language all itself.” John O’Donohue What is that language that O’Donohue speaks of? You and I both know—it is the language of love.  There is no means of communication more powerful than that of “touching love.”  “Virtual reality”, which…