TAKING TIME What a great relief it was to be away from the responsibilities, from the nearly constant demands on my time and attention. I was just sitting. Just being. Just quietly grateful for the loveliness of God’s creation, for the priceless gift of quiet, of time, of empty space. Fall 2023 Newsletter (1.1 MB)
STILL PRAYING What happens to us during our prayer time after we’ve been praying, day in and day out, for years? Perhaps we get tired. Or bored. Or just plain distracted, especially if we’re going through a busy time in our lives. If this happens to us—and it happens to all of us at some…
PRAYER, AGAIN How often do we turn to prayer? When we are in crisis, or in any kind of need? Or are we able to bring our deepest fears, hopes, hurts, and dreams to God? Do we even believe it’s OK to do this? Spring 2023 newsletter PDF
PRAYING Perhaps most of us learned as children to pray by way of the Our Father or Hail Mary or the Rosary, or the Divine Mercy chaplet. We were taught that this was how to pray. Perhaps we never were taught, never learned, anything beyond that—yet now that is not enough. Winter 2022 Newsletter PDF
Forgetfulness seems to be a regular part of my life these days. I’ve simply forgotten that deeper, more important reality in the midst of the daily work and responsibilities. Mindfulness, or remembering, is a major understanding in the Benedictine tradition, and in early Christianity, as well as in Buddhism and other religions. Fall 2022 Newsletter…
BEING LOST “I just feel so lost. I thought this was the right place for me, but it clearly is not. I don’t know what to do.” The spiritual journey is a path that leads us by unfamiliar and at times fearful ways. It’s a journey that we can’t control, and we don’t always know…
GENTLENESS It is beyond evident that this long lingering pandemic has us all stressed in many ways. We react in different ways: irritability, withdrawal, escapism etc. I suggest there is still another way: the way of gentleness. Winter 2021 Newsletter PDF
SPEAKING Recently I have become more and more aware of how unaware I am of how I speak, my tone of voice, my facial expressions, sometimes even my choice of words. It is a great gift to become aware in this way, though a humbling gift. I am realizing how much my tone of voice…
RELAXING When we think about trying to follow the Gospel directives, or in old-fashioned terms, the practice of virtue, we normally associate this with a lot of effort. Suppose that what is needed is not more will power, or muscle power, or major inner strategies? Suppose we might need to relax. Relax? Summer 2021 Newsletter…
The past few months have been a time of challenges for us at the Hermitage, as well as challenges for our country and for the world at large. Challenges are everywhere. How do we respond? Or do we perhaps just react? Spring 2022 Newsletter in PDF
