Tag Archives: birth
A Midwife for the Soul
Spiritual Direction A Midwife for the Soul Monday, June 21, 2021 Summer Solstice Tend only to the birth in you and you will find all goodness and all consolation, all delight, all being and all truth. Reject it and you reject all goodness and blessing. What comes to you in this birth brings with it… Continue Reading A Midwife for the Soul
Birth Is Just the Beginning
Incarnation Birth Is Just the Beginning Sunday, December 20, 2020 We must move beyond a merely sentimental understanding of Christmas as “waiting for the baby Jesus” to an adult and communal appreciation of the message of the incarnation of God in Christ. We Franciscans have always believed that the incarnation was already the redemption, because in… Continue Reading Birth Is Just the Beginning
Giving Birth to Christ: Weekly Summary
Giving Birth to Christ Saturday, December 12, 2020 Summary: Sunday, December 6—Friday, December 11, 2020 If we try to “manage” God, or manufacture our own worthiness by any performance principle whatsoever, we will never bring forth the Christ, but only more of ourselves. (Sunday) We are a part of this movement of an ever-growing Universal… Continue Reading Giving Birth to Christ: Weekly Summary
Becoming Icons of Christ
Giving Birth to Christ Becoming Icons of Christ Friday, December 11, 2020 What is it that grasps and impels these men and women to push beyond conventional boundaries and so delight us, ultimately, with new creative spaces? Wisdom—God’s Playmate, the Feminine Principle of the Godhead—is at work, ever delighting in birthing new possibilities and inviting… Continue Reading Becoming Icons of Christ
Fruit of Our Labor
Giving Birth to Christ Fruit of Our Labor Thursday, December 10, 2020 When we are engaged in some form of contemplative practice, we are more able to bring Christ into the world. By emptying ourselves, we are more able to embody God’s presence for others. Professor and Episcopal priest Vincent Pizzuto writes about how contemplation… Continue Reading Fruit of Our Labor
A Lifetime Commitment
Giving Birth to Christ A Lifetime Commitment Wednesday, December 9, 2020 My dear friend Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I. reminds us that giving birth spiritually is a dynamic and creative process. To bring Christ into the world involves an ongoing commitment to growth, to discomfort, to love, and to surrender. It is not for the faint of… Continue Reading A Lifetime Commitment
Receiving the Gift
Giving Birth to Christ Receiving the Gift Tuesday, December 8, 2020 Why, from the earliest centuries, have Christian people been so excited about Mary? What’s happening in the depths of our soul when we hear her story? Surely it must be about more than the miracle of the virgin birth. As Benedictine oblate, author, and… Continue Reading Receiving the Gift
Christ Is Born in Creation
Giving Birth to Christ Christ Is Born in Creation Monday, December 7, 2020 Humanity too is God’s creation. But humanity alone is called to co-operate with God in the creation. —Hildegard of Bingen For of his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. —John 1:16 The Greek word for “fullness” in this gospel passage… Continue Reading Christ Is Born in Creation
The DNA of Creation
Giving Birth to Christ The DNA of Creation Sunday, December 6, 2020 Second Sunday of Advent We Franciscans believe that the first coming of “the Christ” is in creation itself. The Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (1266‒1308), whom I studied for four years, wrote that “God first wills Christ as his supreme work.”… Continue Reading The DNA of Creation