Posts in Blogs

“Severe”, “unfriendly” – the words hit too close to home. So I went back to dig around: what’s the desire underneath my reluctance? What do I want?

“I know no psychology of sleep, but I do trust my experience. I’ve grown accustomed to rushing through days long enough that I rarely let all the stuff that comes my way sink in…”

This can’t be what extraordinary looks like, I think. But it can. And it’s the holding out for something so perfectly special that keeps me from missing what’s right before me.

“Living in an old house, like listening to old music, reminds me that I’m part of something greater than I am, something broader.”

Finding one of his heroes at a quiet, Saturday morning mass spurs Joe Simmons’ thoughts on friendship, imagination and spiritual equality.

I did not call up my formerly-very-good-friends because I was more or less paralyzed by one question: how long is too long before giving up hope of reconnecting?

Too often, in the name of efficiency or convenience, we avoid the costs of intimacy, and in doing so we pay a steep price. But what we buy is freedom from the pain of intimacy, not an actual experience of it.

Is Pope Francis lowering the bar for believers by saying that even atheists are redeemed? Joe Simmons takes stock of the fearful answers given by the indignant voices inside us.