In recent months, I have noticed that myself and a number of friends and acquaintances have taken a strong liking to the adjective “intense,” to describe all manner of experiences. What tends to happen when a word is over-used is that it slowly begins to lose meaning as it acquires the status of lingo. I [...]
If you like music to meditate, pray or simply rest to, this is the best one I’ve found. It is simple and serene, a masterpiece by one of the twentieth century’s greatest (IMHO) classical composers, Arvo Pärt. He is an Eastern Orthodox believer from Estonia and spent a long season of his life in contemplative [...]
I am personally not a fan of new-years resolutions, because most never get accomplished. However, I’ve decided to take some time to reflect on what it might mean to “sanctify” the coming year to God. My thoughts here are following Jurgen Moltmann’s book Spirit of Life.
Moltmann takes issue with popularized conceptions of “spirituality.” Sometimes spirituality [...]
This is the third part in a series on the practical side of prayer. Much can be said about the theoretical side of prayer – what is prayer exactly, what does it do, etc. Also, the subject of how God feels and responds to our prayers is a VASTLY significant subject. Many people have difficulty [...]
You may notice the look of this blog has changed. Honestly, I like the way it looked better before, but this new format has a much better system for organizing posts, and as the number of posts grows, will make reading, using, and navigating this blog much easier for me and you. The look will [...]
In the course of this now lengthy “autobiographical rumination,” I have traced bits of my personal history and it seems to me that several patterns have emerged:
Observation 1 — A progression of immersion and incorporation of the major streams of Christian tradition, beginning with the evangelical tradition (the Word-centered life) I grew up in, to [...]
About a year later, ( the most startling thing happened. Through some well meaning but misguided teaching from a few friends at school, I had grown in a somewhat anti-intellectual mindset. I learned to not trust the “wisdom of the world” (understood by me as anything intellectual). Though required to take Bible classes at [...]
(continuing from the last entry…)
Several years later, I enrolled at Houghton College, a Christian (Wesleyan) college in Western New York. During the first week of classes, we had nightly services which were a vestigial form of revival services. On the first evening, the preacher gave a strong call for repentance and total commitment to Christ. [...]
I have already asserted my desirous intention to share an aspect of my life in God that is quite current, that is, my recent experiential investigations into the rich liturgical tradition of the Church. To begin this ongoing series of accounting and reflection, the contextual situation of my present experience is quite in order. [...]
After a unduly long hiatus from blogging (nearly five months) I figured that it is best time for me to resume writing publicly. Make no mistake, I have not taken a break from writing but have heretofore been occupied with a plethora of private writing endeavors which burgeoned beyond my initial expectations. I am now [...]
