Tag: Good Living

Being Loved

Are You Deteriorating or Developing?

Smitten With Goodness

As we read the Passion according to John, Jesus and his disciples have just finished the Last Supper. Now they walk along the streets of Jerusalem, pass through a gate in the city walls, cross a small valley, and begin ascending the slope of the Mount of Olives, where they plan to spend the night.

Their plans will be changed. In about an hour, Jesus will be arrested. In about 18 hours, he will be dead.

Some of us who are reading this page will die before the end of Lent. Most of us won’t. But one thing is certain: the day is coming when I shall die. How many hours, days, years do I have left?

There are two ways to think about this. One is to picture myself walking down a hill, gradually headed for the bottom where death awaits me. Another is to picture myself like a child in my mother’s womb, moving gradually towards birth into a new and broader life.

Deteriorating or developing?

These are two very different ways of looking at my death. More to the point, these are two very different ways of looking at my life on this earth.

From the Little Black Book Lent 2025

Being Loved

The Middle Way

Smitten With Goodness

Do you throw yourself with reckless abandon into Gods loving arms each day? This is necessary to walk the narrow path of salvation. Do you walk the path of your own desires excluding those before you in need? Gods will is mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. This is the purity of heart the spiritual life draws us to live, through the narrow gate of life.

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Being Loved

Reclaim Sabbath

Smitten With Goodness

Do you feel like you’re on a treadmill that never stops? Do you need some quiet time? Some family time? Some time when you can renew your mind, your body and your spirit? Things that make us the “good life?” Then maybe it’s time to reclaim Sunday as a day of rest and a special day.

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Being Loved

Clearing the Clutter

Smitten With Goodness

Lately, I’ve been drawn to the idea of “stuff is not your friend.” Not in the minimalist way but in the fact that it is a distraction. It occupies space in my heart and mind requiring time, attention, and care, leaving less time for what really matters.

On a pilgrimage to Assisi a few years ago, Saint Francis encouraged me to live simply.

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Being Loved

Wholeness is Freedom

Smitten With Goodness

I recently came across the concept of the cosmic egg and have been contemplating this idea. This concept is a great visual of the transformation Christ is drawing us into. It is the path of the mystic or someone in a personal, intimate relationship with the divine. The person who lives within the total cosmic egg is the mystic, the prophet, the universal human, the saint, the whole one living in Christ.

True transcendence frees us from the tyranny of I am, the idolatry of we are, and the scapegoating of they are. When all four stories are taken seriously, as the Bible shows us very well, we have a full life—fully human and fully divine.  – Richard Rohr

This path is what is meant by “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” The path of discipleship is the path of self-sacrificing love, and that means the path of suffering.

And the great paradox: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it.” Put that over on your screensaver. There is no better one-line guide to the happy life.

Being Loved

Building Bridges

Smitten With Goodness

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8

Love isn’t just a feeling—it’s a deliberate act of the will. To love deeply means to love beyond mistakes, beyond faults, to love in a way that forgives and heals. This kind of love is robust; it doesn’t ignore sin but covers it in grace, offering forgiveness as freely as God offers it to us. 

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Being Loved

From What Will You Fast ?

Smitten With Goodness

With lent around the corner starting on March 5, it’s time to start asking in prayer what small sacrifice we should make in order to tame our physical desires and symbolically share in Christ’s suffering. This biblically based practice comes from the 40 days Jesus went into the desert prior to his public ministry. All this is for the greater love of God.

This year I’ve been contemplating from what I need to fast. I wonder if this dish towel that caught my eye at Cracker Barrel is telling me something?

Being Loved

Stronghold of the Strong

Smitten With Goodness

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”— St. Augustine 

How is your interior life?

“Not to try to live in interior silence is equivalent to giving up the effort to lead a truly Christian life. The Christian life is a life of faith, lived in the invisible for what is invisible. Anyone who is not in constant contact with the invisible world runs the risk of remaining always on the threshold of a true Christian life. … Solitude is the stronghold of the strong. Strength is an active virtue, and our power of keeping silence marks the level of our capacity for action. ‘Without this interior cell, we would be incapable of doing great things, either for ourselves or for others.'” —Raoul Plus, S.J