A group who is studying my book Practicing the Presence of People asked me to provide a short video introduction. Watch the result on YouTube. I’m not a dynamic speaker, so if you’d rather read than watch, I’ve added the script.
Binary Thinking: A Simple Lesson in Theology
Imagine you’re a robot with a binary brain, all 1’s and 0’s.
Now picture yourself looking at a flower.
Dearest Sister Wendy: A Surprising Story of Faith and Friendship
In my “Christmas Shelfie” I featured a book by Sister Wendy Beckett, a Carmelite nun who became rather famous in the 90’s as an astute and winsome commentator on art, both in a series of books and also in popular TV specials.
My Visit to the Sleep Clinic
As research for my current project, a book on the spirituality of sleep, I arranged a visit to the Sleep Clinic in Parry Sound, an hour’s drive north of where I live.
The Real Santa Claus: A Christmas Parable
This one’s not in my book Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas because it was written later. Merry Christmas, everybody!
Christmas in El Salvador, 1981
An American priest visited a displaced persons’ refuge in El Salvador in 1981 and wrote the following reflection. It could just as easily apply today to a migrant camp in Lebanon or a bomb shelter in Ukraine.
25 Poems for Christmas
This is so good I just have to share it. Thanks for this post to Victoria Emily Jones of the “Art & Theology” blog, who has a daily Advent series you can sign up for here.
A Christmas Shelfie
Colored lights appear, secret packages arrive, and the sound of distant (very distant) sleigh bells can be heard drifting down from the north.
Knowing God: Savoir and Connaître
I’m sitting at my window, looking out at the sky, the trees, the flowers, the river, the waterfall.
Sometimes I think, “If God had made nothing else but this tree, its myriad leaves ballet-dancing in the breeze, He would still be worth praising forever and ever.”
Is Putin Going to Hell?
As the war in Ukraine grinds on from one horror to another, I think we must seriously question whether someone like Vladimir Putin is a human being, or whether he has abrogated his humanity. Colloquially we may call such people ‘monsters,’ but might not this assessment in fact be the truth?