personal development on Attachments

Theophane, a Cistercian monk residing at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, tells a striking story that beautifully illustrates such letting go: I saw a monk working alone in the vegetab...

Thomas Merton describes those who never experience the gift of a contemplative life. His explanation for why some people never experience this can be found in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation: [T...

[These thoughts come from a journal entry of about 10 years ago when I was experiencing a deep and dark night of faith] I have found insight and wisdom for my journey with Christ in the writings of J...

Almighty and gracious Father, since our whole salvation standeth in our knowledge of thy Holy Word, strengthen us now by your Holy Spirit that our hearts may be set free from all worldly thoughts and ...

“Atonement was powerful; it was the lock on the door you closed against the past.”

In this context (Matthew 6)…storing up treasures focuses particularly on the compassionate use of material resources to meet others’ physical and spiritual needs, in keeping with the priorities of God...

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.

We often become offensive to respectable types when we enter into other people’s suffering and brokenness, or divulge our own.

Holy God, we come to You confessing that we never have enough. We are never satisfied with what You have given us. We look at others with envy and we want more, even when our homes are overflowing wit...

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

Craftsmanship [is] the state of being engaged.

Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.

Be not only attentive in hearing, but retentive after hearing.

Attention is an intentional, unapologetic discriminator. It asks what is relevant right now, and gears us up to notice only that.

When you take "personal" attacks personally, you unwittingly conspire in one of the common ways you can be taken out of action-you make yourself the issue. Attacks may be personal, understan...

Attitudes are more important than facts

Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our wo...

Customs are generally unselfish. Habits are nearly always selfish.

For all our time and attention, no matter how carefully we curate our stuff or how much we might enjoy ourselves along the way, we’re all merely stocking and staging someone else’s opportunity for bar...

One of the ways we reflect God's love and bring him glory is to accept each other just as he accepts us. This means we accept others' quirks and look past their faults in order to see a person...

Imagination “completes the picture” by transcending the actual memories and provable facts.

Let temporal things serve your use, but the eternal be the object of your desire.

Presence is experienced as a unitary whole. Think, for example, about the experience of sitting on the top of a hill, far from the polluting lights of a city, gazing at a dark, starry sky. Unless you ...

Heavenly Father, we confess that we are unable to do all the work that you wish for us to do. We are held back by our own desires and our own apprehensions. We know that you make us bearers of your im...

When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here.

A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.

This moment is God’s irreplaceable gift to you.

Almost all of us feel torn by the things we want to do, by the demands placed on us, by the many responsibilities we have.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.