Author and Center for Action and Contemplation teacher Brian McLaren understands Jesus’ mother Mary as an example for all of us to find a larger hope by surrendering our lives to God. Here he comments on Luke’s Gospel and offers an Advent practice inspired by Mary ...
Prayer is in many ways the criterion of Christian life.
The theological virtue of hope keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to grace and to a future created by God rather than ourselves.
Some of the most exciting and fruitful thought in recent theology can be described as the ‘turn toward participation.’
What the ego hates more than anything else is to change—even when the present situation is not working or is horrible.
Jesus’ message of ‘full and final participation’ was periodically enjoyed and taught by many unknown saints and mystics. It must be admitted, though, that the vast majority of Christians made Christianity into a set of morals and rituals instead of an all-embracing mysticism of the present moment.
Social Influencers are not a new phenomenon. Even Jesus outed ‘Influencers’ in his time, even the ‘teachers of the Law.’
On a more negative side, Paul says, ‘You’re all sinners’ (Romans 3:23), ‘You’re slaves to the flesh’ (Romans 6:20), and ‘Your sinful passions bring death,’ (Romans 7:5).
In the midst of confusion, and the bustling and babbling of life around me, I, too, have cried out in anxiety, then courage, seeking direction, connection, and help.
In Mark 10:35-45, James and John’s sense of entitlement seems quite extraordinary. They may have listened to Jesus’ teachings, but not ‘heard’ the truth deep in their souls.
Paul uses several different words for love, but for the Great Love we fall into, the Great Self with the big S, the God Self, he uses the word ‘agape.’
Why are some times better than others? Why do some yearn for the ‘good old days’ or look forward to the ‘green pastures’ that lie ahead? Isn’t today enough?
Recently, Kirsty Bucknell, an organisational psychologist and doctoral student at Macquarie University, released some of her and her colleagues’ research on resilience.[1] As part of it they surveyed 277 ‘ministry workers’ from across Australia measuring the relationship between self-reflection, insight, ruminations, resilience and well-being.
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us. This universal force is LOVE.
We are a word driven society. What we say and do has instant impact to those around us.
The world is not simply there. Everything and everyone we see, we view through the lenses of our thoughts.
Jesus calls us to keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to all.
It is easy enough to take in good stuff; we come to church, we read our Bibles, we pray, we listen to fabulous sermons and even play Christian music … somehow over the hours that follow, the good stuff then gets changed as it passes through us.
A gift only becomes a gift when it is received ...
In his most vulnerable state, Solomon’s dream expressed his true nature (1 Kings 3:5-14).