News From New Mexico
The Mendicant
A Gospel Embrace: Contemplation and Nonviolent Resistance
November 27th, 2025
Jesus was a singular figure in history—a teacher, prophet, and embodiment of the Divine. He offered a path to individual salvation through grace and prayer, a way represented today by the contemplative stream of Christianity. But he also offered something more dangerous: a revolutionary program of nonviolent
Dismantling Your Inner Empire
November 27th, 2025
We are seeing the rotten fruit of the American Empire on full display—ICE raids, kidnappings, rights stripped away, unlawful redistricting—while the fragile foundations of democracy crack and fall apart.
John Dominic Crossan, in God & Empire, names the four cornerstones of empire as political, economic
The Way of the Desert
November 27th, 2025
The ancient path of the desert mystics invites us to disrupt the patterns of ego and empire through the courageous pursuit of inner liberation. Throughout Christian history, mystics and spiritual seekers have led radical movements of departure, leaving behind the ways of the world for the desert in search of union
Grace Happens When We Let It
November 27th, 2025
At the root of war is fear; not so much the fear that men [sic] have of one another as the fear they have of everything. It is not that they do not trust one another; they do not even trust themselves. ― Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me. ― Taylor
Honra y Dignidad
November 27th, 2025
When I first heard of Don Félix, it wasn’t through a neighbor or a church. It was on the evening news. They called him “el perro del junker”—the dog of the junkyard—because that’s where he lived, in a small Puerto Rican apartment beside a car lot, watching over it so nothing would get stolen. The story
Gospel to Life and Life to Gospel
August 29th, 2025
“From gospel to life and life to gospel” is a phrase from the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order that puzzled me when I first read it. I felt called to join the Order (one of three religious orders formed by St. Francis of Assisi during his lifetime—this one for single or married people who would live “in
Contemplation, Love, and Action
August 29th, 2025
I’m inspired by the word “engaged” from my Buddhist friends who talk about engaged Buddhism. What Jesus talks about is not attending or belonging but doing. He focuses on the way we do life and do life with and for the neighbor. If going to service on Sunday morning keeps us from volunteer work on Monday
Transforming Our Collective Troubles
August 29th, 2025
As someone who grew up in church, it is easy for me to miss the transgressive nature of the gospel. Recently engaging the work of authors like Cole Arthur Riley, James Baldwin, and James Cone has reminded me of the scandalous nature of the gospel.
Cone writes, “The gospel of Jesus is not a rational concept to
What Is a Christian Contemplative Movement?
August 29th, 2025
We could say that the Christian contemplative movement has been with us since the beginning. Jesus took time apart, withdrawing into solitude and then returning to live out the fruit of what he saw and heard in that quiet place. He trusted deeply in his relationship with God, and through that trust, power flowed.
In the Desert, at the Border: Seeking a Contemplative Path at the Edge of Empire
August 29th, 2025
I was born in the desert—in Jordan, not far from where the early Christian desert mystics withdrew into the wilderness, seeking deeper communion with God. They weren’t just escaping the world, but searching for clarity, transformation, and freedom from the illusions of empire and ego. In silence and simplicity