Jesus At 2am - A Humorous, Intelligent Look At The Bible, Church History & The Life Of Faith

There is nothing harder for me to bring to God than guilt – real guilt.  Not the shame of a minor offense or trivial wrong-doing. But the guilt of one who has transgressed very badly, who has clearly overstepped the bound of righteousness love. In those times when I know that I am guilty and possess no defense, […]

Often our most desperate hours are marked by a fundamental sense of disorientation. Beyond the direct emotions of fear, sorrow, even anger…is the larger feeling that world as we once knew it has been overturned. We no longer know which way is up or where to find a port in the storm. It is in these moments – perhaps more […]

Doubt is a part of every intimate relationship. No matter how confident we are in the love of another, there are times when we wonder if that love endures (if it was every really there at all). It happens in friendships, families, marriages…and in our relationship with God. We ought not be surprised by this or […]

We’ve all heard of the “foxhole prayer” – pleading with God in our most desperate hour. It’s an experience we’ve all had, and one that often comes with a tinge of guilt: Will God be angry that we turn to prayer only when we are overcome with fear? Take heart, then, to know that the […]

The great gift of the psalms is that they give us the words to pray from the depth of our soul, to give words to our experience. We pray them not because they are the “approved” prayers of the church, but because they help us articulate (and thus feel) what is most true about ourselves […]

Prayer is not a duty. It is not the means of gaining favor with God or demonstrating devotion. Rather, prayer is the means of making genuine contact with the Father who loves us. And the ultimate fruit of prayer is…happiness.  (Note that the opening word of the Psalms is “Happy!”) In this continuing look at […]

What if I told you, you could build a life of meaningful connection to God in a matter of minutes a day?  Really!  I know it sounds like a cheap hook for a diet pill, but it happens in this case to be true.  You can build a habit of prayer in minutes a day by using […]

 Jesus said the way to be first is to be last; the way to life abundantly is to die to self; and the way to maturity is to become like a little child. In this episode we examine the Fifth Rule of the Spiritual Life: Let God be Your Father. One of the greatest challenges […]

Ever since Plato, it has been tempting to equate “spiritual” with “ideal” – to imagine that spiritual growth is a way out of the pains and sufferings and frustrations of life. And many a well-intentioned person has taken up the life of prayer in the hope of transcendence (escape?). But perfection does not belong to […]

Here we continue our look at the classical tradition of Christian spiritual formation by examining the Benedictine vow of stability – the commitment to stay put, to stay engaged in our most valuable relationships and to work out the discipline of love within them. Our 21st century culture is more mobile and virtual than ever, […]

This is an episode about the commitment to endurance and its essential role in the process of our spiritual formation. Classically, we are warned that one of the most deadly poisons to the spiritual life is despair.  And by despair we don’t mean depression, sadness, frustration…even very serious doubt. Despair is surrender.  As Martin Thornton […]

As we take our next step in our understanding of Christian spiritual practice, it is essential to remember that the goal of our practice is not “discipline,” but relationship.  We are not aiming to be good at “spirituality,” but to love – and, ultimately, to be loved by – God. Relationship does require discipline (and thus […]

There are few claims of Christian theology more audacious than the bodily resurrection of Jesus. And any citizen of the 21st century who doesn’t doubt such assertions is probably in need of a good head examination (or a reduction in their AMC viewing…). Dead bodies don’t return to life. Not as ghosts. Not as zombies. And certainly not […]

Having – hopefully – made the theological case for contemplation (as St. Ignatius of Loyola describes it), in this episode our pal, Jon Saur, gives a short example of the practice. This sermon was preached on Palm Sunday 2015 and thus uses the traditional story of Jesus’s “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem as the gospel text to […]

“Contemplation” is one of the most transformational practices I was ever taught. While the word carries connotations of abstract pondering, for St. Ignatius it describes a very active method of reading the Bible (more on why we care about St. Ignatius is found here.) What Ignatius reminds us is that Jesus is truly risen. That […]

If we believe that God is actively seeking to communicate with us (see Loving God 101, Part 1 and Part 3), then we would be wise to go the places where we know God’s voice is loudest.  We’ve already examined some of these (e.g., sacraments, acts of compassion and service to others). But the place where God’s […]

Love is learned by experience. I often think of it as osmosis – absorbing from the environment. In other words, if we want to love, we must begin by being regularly in the presence of love to let it have its effect on us. Understanding this has many implications for the relationships we form, the […]

For most of Christian history, the central element of both corporate worship and individual prayer has been regular participation in the sacrament of  Communion.  Indeed, the Roman Catholic mass still centers on the Eucharist (as the Lord’s Supper is also called) as the priest consecrates the elements of bread and wine and invites the people of God […]

Learning to “hear” God’s voice (i.e., “discernment”) actually begins by learning what is not God’s voice. That is to say, each of us arrives to our relationship with God with many voices in our head – the voices of our family, our culture, our friends…the voice of Reason, of our deepest hopes, our deepest fears.  Indeed, […]

For most of us “confession” does not sound like a very liberating idea. For me it used to conjure images of self-loathing, as I enumerated my sins with with heaps of guilt on the side.  (Martin Luther was plagued by such feelings early in his life – often returning to confession right after he left […]