Collected here are articles and reviews that have appeared in print, as well as a presentation of my books. There are a few interviews and some sound material, notably my reading of the Gospels in Greek, a project that remains work in progress.
If I set out to correct, or worse, to condemn, another on the basis of bitterness, anger, or revulsion, my words, however tinged with glacial piety, will bring no blessing; no, they are likely to do harm, perhaps even to induce despair, causing little ones to sin while readying my own stiff neck, the support of my conceited head, for the millstone.
Continue reading We may have known times when an action or a word of ours has ruined something precious; when that which, a moment ago, was integral and dear lies at our feet in pieces, mud-splattered - at such times the voice of God resounds in our inner ear, ‘Adam, where are you?’ And we have no answer.
Continue reading Despair tends to issue from ambivalence, situations in which we feel overwhelmed by confused pain, unable to enact a response. What we can articulate, we can learn to deal with.
Continue reading My little peanut heart starts growing as it becomes more and more able to assume into itself the reality of other lives. It starts growing, step by little step, towards the dimensions of God's heart, which is a heart without any limitations at all.
Continue reading We discover what is in our heart when, notwithstanding the manicured elegance we like to project, someone steps on that toenail, whether by accident or design. Such discovery is pretty unpleasant, but useful.
Continue reading I get quickly bored by attempts to just condemn the contemporary world, or to proclaim that it's gone off the rails. If we as Christians could only look out on the world with a bit more love, and I don't mean a feeling of lovey-dovey love, I don't mean being emotional or endlessly affirming, but looking out on the world and seeing it as a world that merits to be saved by grace.
Continue reading What has the monastic tradition taught us about being human? Is contemplation in competition with rational enquiry?
Continue reading Whether our lot today is struggle or rest is not all that important. What matters is to let God act as he sees fit and not to miss his visitation because, instead of being peacefully present in our cell, our tent of meeting, we are out and about, driving downtown distributing questionnaires on the spiritual life to passers-by.
Continue reading If I am very good at something, and recognised by others as being good, I am tempted to define myself in terms of this gift. The gift is a blessing; but once I display it as a possession in search of admiration or power it may exercise corrupting influence - it takes purity of heart to negotiate great talent.
Continue reading Our wounds will finally heal when they have become so one with Christ’s, so fully surrendered, that we no longer know where his passion ends and ours begins.
Continue reading After a brief period of enjoying a sense of peace, the rumbling within begins. We realise what masses of noisy junk we carry, what unresolved tensions born of anger, jealousy, desire, anxiety, greed, all those movements of the heart the Fathers referred to as ‘passions’.
Continue reading Let us beware of coveting our neighbour’s call. Let us instead wholeheartedly consider, embrace, and be faithful to our own.
Continue reading Within the mystery of the Church, we dare to believe that a Christian life truly given may, by God’ s providence, be an effective balm on the wounds of the poor of our world, who are given us to carry and nurture.
Continue reading In the Book of Daniel, the prophet is referred to as vir desideriorum, a man of desires. This image has always represented the archetype of the monk; it is not less the archetype of the apostles, and of every Christian.
Continue reading The Fathers never forgot that the finality of human life is participation in God’s loving nature. That is why their words, even when they are stern, are light, and full of light.
Continue reading The test of Christian authenticity is always relational. Rid yourself of the habit of judging others, therefore, for who are you to know what moves them or the change of which they are capable?
Continue reading Don Luigi Giussani, a priest of Milan, was one of the twentieth century's great teachers and preachers of Catholic faith, ever clear in his allegiance to the Church, ever committed to making Catholic doctrine comprehensible, applying it with originality and passion to the predicaments, hopes, and anxieties of our times.
Continue reading The Fathers would all have felt deeply offended, had it been suggested to them that they were saying something original. Their concern was to point towards Christ, to be roadsigns, which, when we travel, we acknowledge gratefully but then pass beyond, our eyes set on our destination.
Continue reading Grace builds on nature, and God knows who you are, and also knows what will serve your flourishing and will enable you to render the most effective service. So, pray, listen, watch, and follow.
Continue reading Temptations have their usefulness; in them the gold of authenticity is purified. Only, we must consent to the melting-off of dross.
Continue reading In St Antony the life of God was palpably present. This presence revealed man in his natural state, which we are all called to reach.
Continue reading The delight of silence is to us a taste we must acquire, much the way a palate brutalised by sugary soft drinks must undergo a slow apprenticeship, a fasting from overwhelming sensation to relish the distinction of fine jasmine tea.
Continue reading Instead of rising up to follow Christ's call, we say, ‘Mañana - perhaps.’ Meanwhile time passes, grace is lost.
Continue reading The discovery of Antony made Augustine cringe at the half-heartedness of the prayer he had long recited: ‘Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’
Continue reading Do you remember the account of Christmas 1886 in Thérèse of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul? It describes the incident which she, that incomparable Doctor of the Church, would later refer to as her ‘conversion’.
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