Category: Commonplace Book

A commonplace book

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It’s fortunate that other people’s outlook conflicts with ours, since then we have the chance to escape our narrow-mindedness and open ourselves to other values. I have lived in a community for twenty-five years, and I may have received more from people I found it hard to get along with than from those I found… Continue reading Untitled

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The most difficult thing in the world is to listen, to see. We don’t want to see. Do you think a capitalist wants to see what is good in the commum’st system? Do you think a communist wants to see what is good and healthy in the capitalist system? Do you think a rich man… Continue reading Untitled

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One further point: What really hurts is not so much suffering itself as the fear of suffering. If welcomed trustingly and peacefully, suffering makes us grow. It matures and trains us, purifies us, teaches us to love unselfishly, makes us poor in heart, humble, gentle, and compassionate toward our neighbor. Fear of suffering, on the other hand, hardens us in self-protective, defensive attitudes, and often leads us to make irrational choices with disastrous consequences.

Fr. Jacques Philippe – Interior Freedom

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Colin Kaepernick vs. Tim Tebow: A tale of two Christianities on its knees

It seems to me that Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick represent the two very different forms that American Christianity has come to.

And not just in the United States. In many parts of the world it feels as though the church is separating into two versions, one that values personal piety, gentleness, respect for cultural mores, and an emphasis on moral issues like abortion and homosexuality, and another that values social justice, community development, racial reconciliation, and political activism.

One version is kneeling in private prayer. The other is kneeling in public protest.

One is concerned with private sins like abortion. The other is concerned with public sins like racial discrimination.

One preaches a gospel of personal salvation. The other preaches a gospel of political and social transformation.