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Understatement alert!  Many words have been written and spoken about sin.   What if any communication on the topic started with St. Ignatius’ contention that a lack of gratitude was the sin to watch out for.  How would that change the conversation? “It seems to me in the light of the Divine Goodness… that ingratitude isContinue reading “In Gratitude  “

Last year, I saw a US Catholic Bishop interacting with his smart phone in a remarkable way. Before he would unlock it, he would discretely cross himself and momentarily pray.   I did not ask him about this practice (I wish that I had!) but I wonder what his intention or petition was as he prayed.Continue reading “A Smart Phone Benediction”

When we feel threatened, our brains click over to fight or flight or freeze mode.  We attack, run, or seize up.  And this does not help us address the “threat” intelligently. Ok, we have heard this before. But there are two more (tricky) manifestations of this that also counterproductive, but less obviously so. (1) FAWN:Continue reading “Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Fix”

Two weeks ago, I wondered about what it would look like to take on the discomfort of leading, of gathering a group around a purpose, for Lent. This bit from chapter one of The Art of Gathering nicely focuses the challenge for our times.

Even if we were given a smartphone for free, it may still be the most expensive thing we own.

Our most precious resources are our time and attention.  Smartphones manipulate these two resources in ways that we do not see or even realize.

“Here are all the things to buy,” says the phone, “that will never satisfy.  Here is all the curated outrage and anxiety… and here is unlimited access to work (even compelling work!) at all hours at the day or night.”  

Unless we take measures to stop it, these things will distract us so thoroughly that we no longer know what we want to want.

Through our schooling, our teachers reminded us to show our work.  They invited us to make sure our thinking was sound and clear when making an argument, demonstrating a proof, or solving a problem.

Cognitive distortions abound and so teachers who do this well are priceless. 

Leaders (that is to say, all of us) need to make a habit of showing our work.  As we confront the realities of our day, let’s show our work and invite others to do the same.

This week, I’ve picked up this astounding little book again.

Here is part of the author’s riff on the magnificent value of cultivating solitude.

“To be alone is not necessarily to be absent from the company of others; the radical step is to let ourselves alone, to cease the berating voice that is constantly trying to interpret and force the story from too small and too complicated a perspective…”

“It may be that time away from a work, an idea of ourselves, or a committed partner is the very essence of appreciation for the other, for the work and for the life of another; to be able to let them alone as we let ourselves alone, to live something that feels like a choice again, to find ourselves alone as a looked-for achievement, not a state to which we have been condemned.” (Consolations, pg.14)

Whoa! And yes, please!

Rededicating to a discipline of solitude is a wonderful way to live the season of Advent.

A moment of anger can be quite involuntary. Something happens, crashing against our expectations of how things should be, and all of a sudden, we are furious.

Okay. But then what happens.

Choosing to fan the fury leads to barricading oneself on a self-righteous patch of moral high ground. Not a fun or productive place to live. This approach keeps us from being able to listen and relate to people who think differently from us. And so, anger keeps us from seeing and responding effectively to the situation that made us angry in the first place.

If we find ourselves to be furious, we can afterwards choose to become curious.

The assembly for the Synod on Synodality opened yesterday.  Let’s pray for the folks in the mix… pray for the grace to embody this outstanding passage by Henri Nouwen.

“Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance. Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, Christian leaders have to learn to listen again and again to the voice of love and to find there the wisdom and courage to address whatever issue presents itself to them. 

Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.

For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required.” 

(In the Name of Jesus, Page 45-46)

This child.

This spouse.

This project.

This tree or bird or blossom.

This interaction.

This prayer.

This moment.

Today, we have been given some things – not all those other hypothetically “better” (as whipped up by an anxious mind) things – but these things that are here, now.

These things, in their particularity, call to us.

Let’s attend to and answer the immense call of the particular.  Grace lies within.