Prayer and Orthodoxy Dan Burke recently began posting a three part response, in the National Catholic Register, to a question about false teaching on prayer. The question was how do we know when a teaching is false. The answer is not easy, but even in the very first part of his answer, Dan gets us
I recently accompanied a group of pilgrims from the Tatra Mountains of Poland to Warsaw for the Year of Faith. Twenty years ago, the Pilgrim Pope came to celebrate World Youth Day in Denver and spent time in prayer in a retreat center, high up in the Rocky Mountains. We decided that we would go to
Faith in Christ opens us to unconquerable ecclesial horizons even when love seems impossible and the world is falling apart around us. It is about the solidarity we have in Christ. The solidarity that compels us to pray in terms of “we” and “our” instead of remaining on the level of “I” and “mine.” The
At the center of the spiritual life is the real presence of Christ Jesus given to us in the Eucharistic worship He instituted for our sake. Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church, reminds us of the proper disposition we must maintain throughout our worship. It is a disposition of quaerere Deum, a reverent
Contemplative Prayer and Theology Contemplation needs scientific theology and theologians need contemplation. Historically, contemplatives who have presumed otherwise unwittingly submitted themselves and those they influenced to all kinds of demeaning irrationality. At the same time, whenever theologians believe they can conduct their investigations without prayer, their body of scholarship becomes less capable of building up
In the wisdom of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, there is great reason to be confident as we begin to learn to love God. He is not ignorant of the fact that most of us often fall short in our efforts to seek God and live according to His commands. His exhortation stands, not on the
Is it possible to pray out of misery without falling into self-pity? The question, posed by one of our readers, indicates a grave evil confronted in prayer. Misery is the demeaning absence of God’s love, a love we have rejected. Without the love God created us to know, we are restless and in our restlessness
Saint Catherine of Siena spent her life encouraging a deeper obedience to God the Father. Although the earthly life of this Doctor of the Church ended over six hundred years ago, her spiritual teaching has passed into the universal patrimony of the Church. In particular, the personal relationship she enjoyed with the eternal Father through
What is Spiritual Theology? There is a lot of diverse opinions on this topic. Probably the best explanation is provided by Jordan Aumann, O.P., in his well-known Spiritual Theology. To best understand the conversation that he introduces, it is important to note that all the branches of theology, as a disciplined study of sacred doctrine, constitute
“Behold, I am with you always unto the end of time.” (Matthew 28:20) These last words of the Risen Christ to the Apostles before He ascended into heaven are words that live in our ongoing encounters with the Son of God today. Because He has not abandoned us and is at work in the world,
