Only God is perfectly capable of keeping God's commandments, as they require perfect love (recall that Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37-40 that all Divine commandments are finally summed up in love of God and love of ...
Any “good Christian” will have been taught about their unity with God, how they are sons and daughters, princesses and princes in the family of the great King. Until one has experienced that unity, however, such talk sounds like...
St. Peter makes a pretty audacious claim in this Sunday's second reading: "[Suffering} is grace before God" (1 Pt 2:20). Because we know God is all-loving, we can reach a logical conclusion that all life experiences are grace before...
A science teacher and mentor once shared with me an anecdote about a time when she was leading her young students in an experiment. As the teacher, she thought she understood what the experiment was supposed to...
The late Pope Francis once said of the mercy of God, “It is not easy to entrust oneself to God's mercy, because it is an abyss beyond our comprehension. But we must! ... ‘Oh, I am a great sinner!’ All the better! Go to Jesus:” Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices are ways of descending into...
It’s very difficult to recognize sin, prejudices, or hatred once it has been normalized, once we’ve grown cozy with it. Perhaps this is why the Bible speaks so much about blindness: if we’re honest, every one of us is loaded with blind spots, inherited from...
Former MMOC Contemplative Core teammate Saralou Hendrickson offered this insight in 2021 – we share it again this week in memory of her:
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious about many things. One thing is...
In his “Message for Lent 2026,” Pope Leo XIV makes a connection between authentic fasting as a witness to the world, and awareness of and surrender to Divine Communion, such as is cultivated by our contemplative practices. He then calls us to a unique fast born out of this communion:...
As we begin the season of Lent, many Catholics will undertake or rededicate themselves to the three Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in order to grow in openness to God. Popular Catholic author and speaker Fr. Mike Schmitz ...
We all have our preferences, but for the most part, we must admit that our likes and dislikes are often based on external factors such as cultural conditioning, habits, and unquestioned assumptions, rather than really being rooted in...
Contemplative practice and its fruits certainly edify the soul, but this edification and the ever-growing realization of our absolute communion with God come not through any sort of filling up, but rather a stark and beautiful surrender to..
In recent weeks, much of this space has been devoted to the great inner “yes” that is revealed and strengthened through contemplative practice. However, we must be clear that a stance of yes to the Divine Presence in things as they are is not the same as approval of the status quo. Even a cursory look at the...
Our offering this week is a joint effort: Writer and speaker Rebecca Hastings published an article entitled “5 Guaranteed Ways to Find God in the Everyday”. We’ll share her five suggestions, with our own take on...
This weekend reminds us of a profound Trinitarian display in the life of Jesus. We must always be mindful that, as was the case with Jesus, such profound experiences are often followed by a call to the desert. Author and podcaster Cassidy Hall explores the desert as a metaphor for difficult times in...