Through the psalms, we were reminded of our constant reliance on God; through the silence, our mortality; through the minimalist architecture, our tendency to excess; through reading, our ignorance; through the monks, our pride.

If we neglect the little things, we neglect everything. The big things (marriage, careers, friendships, children) are made of the little things (an unnoticed good deed, a phone call with a friend, sharing a compliment just because).

We cannot be severed from the body of the Church without falling into the danger of hell, and we cannot neglect our mission to love and convert the world lest we fall into impotence and lukewarmness.

Everything we do we do to be happy.  The wise today are not the hackers, but the happy ones.  We all want happiness, but if the steady stream of surveys shows us anything, we are lonely and unhappy.

When you work with your hands, you channel the way you’re made in the image and likeness of God. You resemble God the Father pouring Himself out in creativity, in divine generation.

I don’t have much use for success gurus, but one idea from Tony Robbins that I heard years ago stuck with me. When asked the secret of change, he talks about taking “massive action.” We often don’t achieve our dreams, he claims, because we’re too half-hearted and timid about pursuing them. We think about what […]

Modern historian and commentator Kenneth Clark said in his popular BBC show Civilization, “Western Christianity survived by clinging to places like Skellig Michael, a pinnacle of rock [seven] miles from the Irish coast, rising seven hundred feet out of the sea.” It’s an intriguing claim, crediting the solitary monastery on Skellig Michael with a role in the […]

One of the most paradoxical aspects of the spiritual life is the tension between human effort and Divine generosity. That is, the question of whether we are saved by what we do or by what God does. Confusion arises because we are quite clearly told in scripture that we must do certain things. We must forgive or […]