Those who practice Zen refer to sitting in meditation as zazen. The Japanese word means “just sitting.” They do nothing else except sit and wait...
Practicing Catholic
Practicing Catholic essays explore Catholic spiritual practices, from lectio divina to washing dishes, through personal reflections on prayer and ritual.
According to Trappist Father Thomas Keating, a decades-long practitioner and teacher of centering prayer, contemplative prayer is about relationship, not...
Growing up, I spent one week every summer with my grandparents in upstate New York. It was a week full of traditions and rituals that were repeated year after...
I sat down on my parents’ front lawn in Los Angeles and breathed in the fresh air. I dug my hands into the dirt, relishing the feeling. Then I began tearing...
At my 30th class reunion, one of the lectures offered was by a young psychologist doing cognitive research. He showed us a three-minute video, and our task was...
My wife and I run together at a local state park. “Together” is optimistic; I can no longer keep pace with her. We ran track together in college, but I am a...
As Ebola patients began to die in Africa last summer, it was not difficult for me to revisit the memory of my first AIDS patient. His death hurled me into an...
One of the most valuable experiences from my boarding school days—and one that has remained with me—is the habit of formal prayer. I remember praying the Nunc...
I can’t remember when I learned to knit. I know it was sometime when, as a small child, I watched my mom creating a sweater or afghan and wanted to do the same...
Every year, like clockwork, my dogs receive a blessing on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The warranty on the blessing doesn’t wear out, but I...
