Tag Archives: meditations

Jill’s Place

Posted on by
8

Every neighborhood has one: the Kool-Aid house. The one place where all the kids hang out, play, and laugh. Schools have them too, Kool-Aid classrooms, where kids congregate before or after school to chat with the teacher; the place to which graduates return.

Jill’s classroom was the Kool-Aid house of our school. Day after day, students stopped in to chat, surrounding her desk as she sat in her motorized scooter. Whenever I saw an All Saints graduate return for a visit, I knew exactly where they were heading: last door on the right, 5 North.

Continue reading →

Mary: A Model of God’s Invitation to Shared Life and Sacrifice

Posted on by
Reply

How wonderful to open up the January issue of Give Us This Day and discover that the very first meditation of the new year is by my diocese’s very own Bishop Blase Cupich. Here is the conclusion of his meditation on this Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:Theotokos

This blessed virgin agreed not only to give birth to the Son of the Most High God. She also consented to enter into a unique relationship with God, a relationship that is so intimate that only the bond between a mother and a child comes close to explaining or understanding it. The message of this first disciple of Jesus is clear as we begin a new calendar year: God invites us into an authentic relationship of shared life and sacrifice. It is a relationship in which we come to know who we are in knowing God, and he wishes us to know him in a way that gives us new life.

Continue reading →

St. Francis de Sales Video Meditation

Posted on by
Reply

St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life is one of my favorite spiritual classics.  If you’re looking for a good read this Lent, I highly recommend it, especially the ten meditations St. Francis provides.  At one time, I thought I would try adapting those ten meditations for today’s junior high students (age 10-15).  I even had the thought to turn them into videos for the iPod generation.  I’ve since had to put that idea on hold indefinitely, but here’s the first video I made, for what it’s worth:

The Best Thing I Read This Week

Posted on by
Reply

I found a real gem at the used book store yesterday: Quiet Places with Jesus by Rev. Isaias Powers, C.P. I’ve been looking for a prayer book to help me concentrate more on the person of Jesus as I pray. I tend to be a bit too intellectual when I meditate and I wanted something that would help tap my imagination.

Fr. Powers wrote these guided meditations in the 1970s and they’re very much in the Jesuit tradition of using the imagination to help one pray. What I’ve been impressed with most so far, however, is Fr. Powers’ summary of how to know if one’s prayer is successful. He’s captured the essence of effective prayer so beautifully that I want to share it with you: Continue reading →