I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
I Was an Entity Learner
One of the most fascinating books I’ve read: Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning. Waitzkin is the chess champion (once a child prodigy) who was the subject of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer (also good). As an adult, he moved from chess into martial arts and chronicles the correspondences he finds between the two disciplines. [Read more…]
Fear Takes Me By Surprise!
I thought I’d hate this book! The title, The Gift of Fear, hit me the wrong way. Was Gavin de Becker going to promote fear as an approach to life, tout the benefits of self-protectiveness and toughness, teach readers to look out for #1?? Boy was I surprised!
Instead of finding out where he was wrong-headed, I discovered how right he was. Well, he at least agrees with me about a lot of things! His thesis, that a guarded, defensive posture toward life actually prevents our fear mechanisms from making us aware of real danger, resonated with me – a page right out of my ‘poetic personhood’ talks. [Read more…]
Beautiful Education
If I could make one book required reading for Catholic parents and educators, it is Stratford Caldecott’s Beauty for Truth’s Sake. In six succinct chapters, he leads readers from the history of education’s disintegration to a vision for its restoration and ‘re-enchantment’. Caldecott’s proposal to return wonder, beauty, integrity and, thus, enchantment to the sphere of education calls for a reawakening of some ancient sensibilities. [Read more…]
Living the Sabbath Ideal
It often surprises people to find out that I do not prescribe or proscribe activities for the Sabbath. As the author of ‘the Catholic Sabbath book,’ I’m expected to tell people what to do, or not do, to keep the ideal Sabbath. The problem is, my whole approach is exactly opposite – strongly rooted in the real instead of in an abstract ideal.
I’ve found that, in every area of life, Sabbath-keeping included, people need help understanding how ideas get realized – how to move from the Ideal to the Real, or from theory to practice. In this talk, I focus on that process, discussing the role of symbols, of freedom, of gestures, and of leisure in the development of one’s own approach to Sabbath-keeping.
I love the way this process parallels artistic accomplishment. An artist must learn to realize ideas, and so must every individual, garden-variety Catholic. I believe that attention to the design of an authentic and personal Sabbath is the key to making our lives works of art. If I can help open this door for others, I’ll be very happy!
Filling Your Net
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to the, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. John 21: 4-7
The fishermen had been going through all the motions, and were drained of strength and disappointed and hungry. In obedience to Him, they rehearsed those motions one last time: gather the heavy, sodden net just so; heave together to lift and throw it; pull against the enormous drag of deep water and haul it back in to the boat with calloused hands and aching muscles.
What they had been doing all night in their own strength finally brought an abundant reward when the motions became acts of obedience. If you have been going through the motions at Mass, and bringing up an ’empty net’ over and over, you can revitalize your experience and start to take home a full catch!
In this talk I gave practical helps for the common experience of dryness, dullness, emptiness in the lives of Mass-goers. I created it for an evening of reflection led by the Apostles of the Interior Life, when they invited members of their Collaborator Family to contribute to their parish mission work. The Apostles, my Family, are something of a ‘sending community’ for me – rooting my speaking and writing in the practice of their charism and the sharing of their goal to lead people deeper into the interior life of union with Christ.
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