Many years ago I was asked to speak at a retreat for college students on worship. I wasn’t ready. I had recently finished my Masters in Theology and the Arts, had a couple of years of teaching under my belt and had some thoughts on the topic of the retreat.But deep down, I was terrified. I was afraid I’d be exposed as a fraud. I was far from a good place internally. I was angry. I was bitter and resentful about my life situation at the time. The poor kids on the retreat were treated to an extremely self-conscious speaker who didn’t exactly deliver. The Problem For much of my life I had been&n ..read more

Love exists. She is never not present although her life-giving presence is rarely perceived, much in the same way as we breathe in air moment to moment barely noticing the gift of life it sustains. Nothing exists without Love. She is the secret Heart of all. These are not just words. They are an introduction to an Invita­tion created when Time began. To what are we invited? To know that we are already a measure of Love’s Timeless Life . . . if we will only agree to learn the lessons she has prepared for us, beginning with this: Love knows whom She will, and none may come to know her treasures ..read more

I arrived at Central House Monastery on Sunday, January 5, 2007, around 5:30p.m. My family had been quite nervous about me driving through New England in the dead of winter, but I encountered no snow on the two-day trek. Five minutes after I parked my car on the monastery driveway, snow began to fall.  “You must be Clint,” an elderly nun held out her hand as I walked towards the door, “I’m Sister Cleo*. Welcome to Rose House.” I entered the monastery house, which immediately struck me as extraordinarily quiet, and Brother Arch, then the guest steward, showed me my quarters and went briefl ..read more

Once we understand that all forces – even the seemingly contradictory ones – are secretly complementary, we stand on the threshold of not only discovering the lost secret of letting go and letting God… but, at the same time, find that we are well on our way to realizing the unconditional holiness of life. Do you know people who, when things are going well for them, but things are going bad for you, will tell you: “Let go and let God”? Doesn’t it drive you crazy? They got a check that day or they lost a few pounds, or it’s a good hair day, or whatever it is, and they say, “Let go and let God ..read more

First Key Lesson: Any form of painful demand – whether on others, or upon ourselves – is born of unconscious attachment; it is proof of a level of consciousness that would rather cling to what has been, than allow real Life to help us see our True Self is not only the living incarnation of each new moment, but the eyes that see it take birth. Second Key Lesson: Unwanted moments in life don’t mark the end of our path through it, let alone what we have yet to discover during our earthly journey; to the contrary, (they are) actually the revelation and realization of an “old” part of us that has o ..read more

The ceaseless, anxious search to find our true place in life, including what we should be doing with it, can never lead to a happy ending until we realize – in real terms – to “whom” it is our life belongs… and to what end. Let me tell you a little story. An aspirant, someone who wanted to make the discoveries that you and I are interested in, went to the master that she was working with, and wanted to know why it was that her transformation machine – which was designed to turn lead into gold – wasn’t working the way it was when she saw her master use it. She says to him, “Look. I know it’s bu ..read more

Everyone wonders whether or not there is one great secret for truly successful living. There is. And it is not a secret. It has been quietly, steadily telling itself right in front of us all along. We just couldn’t hear it over the clatter and chatter of our own secret demands. Listen quietly for a moment. Everything can change right now. Learning to hear this supreme secret is no more difficult than choosing whether to swim against a current or to let it carry you safely to the shore. Let it speak its wisdom to that secret part of you that can not only hear what it is saying but that is, in r ..read more

Can you see that there is something inside of you that immediately begins to tell you what any event means and what you need to do about it? You’ve been with this storyteller for so long, it’s an unquestioned presence in your mind. It’s just part of what we call our life. But this storyteller isn’t really alive. Its story is to ensure the continuation of its life – of the memories of experiences and the content of your life up until that point – so that all it’s really ever doing is going before you to insure that somehow you don’t get anywhere you haven’t been before. No matter where you go ..read more

Aesthetics has long played a significant role within the life of the Church, as religious art and architecture have been used to visually express and reinforce religious beliefs, values, and practices. Historically, the Church placed great importance on the creation of aesthetically pleasing and meaningful religious art and architecture, often commissioning works of great beauty and craftsmanship to inspire and uplift worshippers. In the last fifty years, the role of aesthetics in the Church has undergone significant change in many parts of the world. One major factor has been the decline of r ..read more

If we would ever be free…this is what we must come to see: our troubled thinking is a “racket” in both meanings of the word: (it is) a noise seeking to silence itself, in a “rigged” search that has no end. Though largely unseen, the following fact can be verified by anyone who wishes to see the truth of it…and be set free, accordingly: the ongoing unwanted experience of any given moment is inseparable from the unseen activity of an unconscious mind that – as it reacts to, and then explains to itself the meaning of the moment it doesn’t want – is actually creating its own unwanted experience of ..read more