We are alive because of our ancestors, that “great cloud of witnesses” mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews (12:1). Our grandmothers and grandfathers...
Author - Christine Valters Paintner
In 2003, when I was 33 years old, my mother died. Her body became overwhelmed quite suddenly by infection because of years of use of prednisone to treat the...
Breath has long been a way I could steady myself in anxious moments. When the pandemic hit the world, in Ireland where I live we went into full lockdown off...
Years ago, when I was in graduate school, I had a wonderful spiritual director who would often ask me this simple question when I was in the midst of...
Each of us contains a multiplicity of selves. This becomes most obvious to us when we experience an inner conflict of desires. Perhaps our desire for a more...
The desert mothers and fathers have much to teach Catholics about contemplation and prayer. In the third- to sixth-century desert landscape of Egypt, Syria...
In our daily rush through life, we so often neglect the body’s wisdom. We work through fatigue and illness, pushing our bodies and feeling frustrated when they...
St. Benedict is a wise guide and presence in my life through the teachings he left in his Rule for monasteries. Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy and died at...
How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our...
