This is the sixth of eleven reflections on Thomas Merton’s teaching on the True Self/False Self dynamic. This conflictual but enlightening relationship permeates Merton’s huge quantity of writing on the spiritual life. The basic point of the conflict is the individual’s pull toward a...

John 14:15-21 Dear Friends, As we draw close to this Easter Season, it is good to reflect on The Acts of the Apostles. Only in the Easter season do we have the first reading from The Acts. Every other Sunday the first reading is from the Hebrew Scriptures. The Acts is a book about the birth and growth of the Church. It also is a revelation of what happens to people when they understand and our committed to the Pascal Mystery, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.Jesus could have made many promises to the first disciples. He could have them fulfill their early dr...

This is the fifth of eleven reflections on Thomas Merton’s teaching on the True Self/False Self dynamic. This conflictual but enlightening relationship permeates Merton’s huge quantity of writing on the spiritual life. The basic point of the conflict is the individual’s pull toward and away from God, one’ true and ultimate destiny. Merton’s exposure of the consequences of original sin is ruthless in its intensity. This is the task of the False Self. At the same time, the pull of the True Self, the ever-present call of God’s personal and passionate love, is even more power...

John 14:1-12 Dear Friends, In my early days as a Carmelite seminarian, I had a retreat that I remember quite vividly these seventy -one years later. I do not remember anything of the preacher’s message. What I do remember is that he told us he slept in a coffin each night. He wanted to grow in awareness that he was going to die. At the time, I thought it was really weird. Now that I am several decades closer to my death, I think the nightly coffin routine is way beyond weird. In the Easter Season, there is a magnificent message about our personal death. It is not...

III Lectio Divina and Deep Personal Prayer As we grow in understanding Lectio Divina, there is a truly beautiful unveiling of the approach to God’s Word and prayer. The practice of deep personal prayer draws one into oneself where the light of God’s Word opens the passage to true self-knowledge. This, in turn, draws us back to the world in a way that moves away from selfishness to service and loving presence to all.Faithfulness to prayer engenders an ever-repeating cycle. We turn inwards to seek God and we turn outwards to share in the divine love for our brothers and sisters. True prayer will always lead us to the tas...