How do we need the Spirit? There are the seven traditional gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and a sense of wonder). I've written previous posts about each of these gifts. But my mind today is closer to home. What do I need?...
How do we speak about evangelization in our pluralistic and politically correct culture? More and more, we have to be extremely careful about language and assumptions. Recent discussion about cultural appropriation offers a helpful reminder about the need for caution before we open our mouths and utter words that we will come to regret, words that hurt or are, at the very least, insensitive....
The post for this 6th Sunday of Easter takes us into the meaning of today's gospel words that the Spirit "abides with you."...
We celebrate Mother's Day. I'm present with my own mother today, spending time with her as I prepare for major surgery in a few weeks. We are both spending easy time together. I occasionally go out with friends for a visit or to see icebergs (this is Newfoundland after all), but generally we are at home. We sit and read, chat and spend time with family and friends....
I can't imagine a person who can proudly boast, I have enough peace." Whether we look at our own lives or the state of the world, we are easily aware of areas with an absence of peace."...
I was a member of the team at Loyola House, our Jesuit spirituality centre in Guelph, Ontario, in the 1990s. On most Good Fridays we acted out a mime version of the events of the Pascal Triduum for the retreatants. A member of the team who had studied theology in California brought the production back. I'm not usually drawn to such things, but this was really striking in its beauty and simplicity. Several of us were involved, playing the major actors of the Gospel events from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday....
Several years ago, I walked the famous Camino de Santiago de Compostela across the north of Spain. After a full day of being confined by hiking boots and having tired feet, I got into the habit of soaking and massaging my feet most evenings. That was practical, even necessary, if my feet were going to take me over the next day's route....
A doorway leading to Holy Week is an invitation to mysteries both familiar and unknown. . . .But the events of suffering, death, and resurrection are experienced in ever-new ways. Let's find our own path through the mysteries of this sacred Week....
In this six-part series, Kevin Burns selects a book for each week of Lent. Each book speaks to one of the great traditions within Catholic culture. Each book also shows how its author integrates that tradition. Six different approaches to the same journey through the desert of Lent to the Easter promise of resurrection. In this sixth and final week, we follow Monty Williams S.J. on the Ignatian path – wherever opportunity allows....
The Resurrection grace of Easter will be revealed to us when we are most in need. In the meantime, that early bud or bird arrives as a harbinger of greater things to come....
