What is it like to experience the presence of God? Drawing from the Contemplative Prayer tradition there are three general ways Gods presence has been described: an intellectual vision or grasp God, an intuitive sense of God, and a social interactive sense of God's presence. The intellectual vision first requires that our emotions are quieted and mistaken images of God are removed from the intellect. With the intuitve sensing of God's presence, the intellect is stilled since God is beyond our fu...
Aug 01, 2023•12 min•Ep. 84
In this episode, we begin a series on spiritual discernment, how to find out what is Gods will for us in different situations. Or if you prefer, what is the spiritual purpose of one's life. First we look at what will not be covered in this series regarding spiritual discernement. A related issue is how spirituality is defined. In particular, what is meant by the phrase "I am spiritual but not religious?" Finally, a definition of spirituality is suggested that will be our beginning point. To see ...
Jul 02, 2023•10 min•Ep. 83
At last we have climbed the ladder to reach gratitude. Along the way we have looked at several values that help us reach gratitude. Gratitude is possible about little things such as a good meal or a good movie. What we aim for is a broader understanding of gratitude. We look again at Fr. Thomas Merton's advise and discover one more value, humility. With so many values supporting gratitude, how do we keep them up? Gratitude is an ongoing dance between these various values that helps us to be than...
May 15, 2023•7 min•Ep. 82
How can beauty and wonder help us reach gratitude? When we see beauty, we often feel a sense of wonder at what we have witnessed. This sense of wonder can help us break out of our bubble of personal concerns. Beauty and wonder can remind there is so much more in the world besides our own daily routine and struggles. Especially in relation to gratitude, wonder can lead to joy, which can lead to hope, two key values we have looked at on our way to gratitude. If all of us can experience beauty in s...
Apr 17, 2023•10 min•Ep. 81
We consider joy in the growing list of values that can lead us to gratitude. Joy is something that most of us have experienced before, but it helps to stop and think more about it. What is joy? Is it the same as happiness or is it different? How do we find joy? One challenge for many of us, how do we hold onto joy when we feel crowded by many different concerns? How do we tell good joy from bad joy? We continue to find that there is a growing network of values that leads us to gratitude: caring,...
Nov 15, 2022•15 min•Ep. 80
What is hope? We look at some different aspects of what it is. Hope involves resiliency when our plans do not happen as we had imagined. Humility helps us to sort out realistic hope from too high expectations. 'Sometimes we must lose what we wanted before we can find it' is an important lesson for holding onto hope. Hope is a choice, but on what basis do we choose hope? It becomes clear that hope is connected to several things- humility, happiness, healthy spirituality. To see Craig's books and ...
Oct 14, 2022•15 min•Ep. 79
One of the stepping stones to gratitude is caring. Most of us have experience in caring relationships. The capacity to care maybe what makes humans unique. Caring is central to the Golden Rule in its various forms, giving us a minimal definition of community. When we learn we can have an impact on the lives of others, it can change our own attitude about ourselves dramatically. To see more of Craig’s books and music go to www.craigowen.net...
Sep 24, 2022•13 min•Ep. 78
In this episode, we begin a new direction: How to find gratitude. Gratitude involves a number of attitudes and feelings such as care, joy, hope and beauty. Exploring these in subsequent episodes will bring us to the threshold of gratitude. Fr. Thomas offers advice on how to find a balance between gratitude and humility. To see more of Craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net
Aug 29, 2022•9 min•Ep. 77
What is the purpose of righteous anger? Any kind of anger is a short term emotion. It can only be sustained by finding new targets to resent and with which to be angry. Righteous anger raises our awareness, but should lead to compassionate confidence. Compassionate confidence is more durable over time since it involves attitude an beliefs, not just an emotional reaction. To see more of Craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net...
Aug 03, 2022•17 min•Ep. 76
When we are ultimately loyal to a process of spiritual transformation, how does this reflect on our loyalty to individuals? In this episode, we look at how our lack of awareness of the false self can leave us open to being manipulated by unscrupulous leaders of any kind. This lack of awareness had lead to many bad conseqeunces in the past. How do we undo it? To see more of Craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net
Jul 15, 2022•13 min•Ep. 75
How does our ultimate loyalty to spiritual transformation inform our other loyalties? In this episode, we will look at loyalty to institutions and loyalty to beliefs and groups who share our beliefs. While institutions and groups who share our beliefs are important, when we depend on them too much for identity and a sense of purpose, trouble can easily arise. Our ultimate loyalty to spiritual transformation can give us a larger perspective and greater sense of purpose that can keep us from blind...
Jun 27, 2022•18 min•Ep. 74
In this episode, we finally have an answer to our question, to what are we ultimately loyal. Consideration is given to a problem we all struggle with: the willingness to say and do anything to hold onto our pride, power and privilege. To counter this problem, we must commit to a process of spiritual transformation, and this is to what we are ultimately loyal. [In episodes 12,13 and 40-52 I explain in detail how this works]. How this ultimate commitment affects our other loyalties will be the top...
Jun 04, 2022•12 min•Ep. 73
I suggest three boundaries that we should look for to avoid crossing into corrupt righteous anger. First, we look at the admonition "love your enemies and pray for those who oppose you." What does that really mean? Second, that no political view, religious or ethical belief can enirely fit every situation we encounter. And finally, the most important of the three, "the worst kind of evil is evil that ALMOST makes sense." After exploring these three boundaries, we are ready to answer the question...
May 17, 2022•12 min•Ep. 72
We look at the three steps that lead from righteous anger to corrupt righteous anger. Nahum illustrates all three steps. We also look at the book of Jonah, which might have been written as a counterpoint to Nahum. Jonah shares the same mindset as Nahum: the Assyrians must be destroyed. But with Jonah, God wants him to go to preach to the Assyrians in their capital of Nineveh. How serious are Nahum and Jonah about their faith? Have they added nationalism to their faith, making it equal to or more...
Apr 23, 2022•13 min•Ep. 71
When does righteous anger go bad? In this episode we will look at an example of corrupt righteous anger. Looking at a passage from the Hebrew prophet Nahum, there are major differences between his version of righteous anger and what we saw in Amos and Jeremiah. There is no hope of renewal, no concern about the poor in Nahum, only hatred and a desire for the complete destruction of those whom he views as the enemy. How does one cross the line from righteous anger to corrupt righteous anger? We wi...
Apr 02, 2022•10 min•Ep. 70
What is righteous anger? What is unique about it? These are the questions we will look at in this episode. In examining an example of righteous anger from the Hebrew prophets, we see to what that anger is related. Most of all, what is the source of the moral urgency in the righteous anger of the Hebrew prophets? This brings us to one of the most important questions in these episodes: How does righteous anger go bad? How we answer that question will help us sort out to what are we ultimately loya...
Mar 14, 2022•14 min•Ep. 69
In this episode we are taking a new direction. We start with the challenge that the Book of Revelation makes, Who is your God?, or To what are we ultimately loyal? The theme that will tie together the next few episodes is: Loyalty without integrity leads to fanaticism and idolatry. Exploring what this statement means, we look at the Hebrew prophets' ideal of integrity and the values that support that ideal. If you have read any of the Hebrew prophets, you will notice many angry words from the pr...
Feb 24, 2022•13 min•Ep. 68
In this episode we will wrap up our study of the Book of Revelation. What is the basic message of Revelation, especially to us today in the 21st century? It presents us with two challenges: 1) Don't mistake the ephemeral for the eternal and 2) Who is your God? or put another way, to what are we ultimately loyal? This episode will explore challenge 1). What is the one of the biggest challenges facing us today that the Book of Revelation points out? Challenge #2): too many people are giving their ...
Feb 05, 2022•12 min•Ep. 67
In the last episode I suggested what was the real message and spirituality of the book of Revelation. It is NOT telling us to be passive, waiting for God to intervene in history as all kinds of horrible things happen to the earth. The author of Revelation copied heavily from the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Both Daniel and Revelation were written to religious groups who were being persecuted and oppressed. Both books allegedly predict all kinds of terrible things that wil...
Oct 26, 2014•10 min•Ep. 66
Finally, we are at the point of finding the answers to our question 'what is the spirituality of the Book of Revelation?' As I have commented in previous episodes, what the Book of Revelation is about is answering questions about the problem of evil. If God is all powerful, how can God let the community of faithful believers be persecuted, killed and tortured? [Once again I am drawing upon Dr. Craig Koester's book Revelation and the End of All Things for much of these insights]. We find several ...
Oct 04, 2014•16 min•Ep. 65
Last time we looked at the story of the prophet Jeremiah and king Zedekiah. In this episode we will look at that story more closely and answer the following questions: 1) Does a prophet make prophecies about the distant future or mostly to the people and times in which they live? 2) Do we have free will in what a prophet predicts? 3) When a prophet makes predictions, are they set in stone and unchangeable, and are we powerless to do anything about it? In the next episode, we will look at what do...
Sep 09, 2014•13 min•Ep. 64
What is the role of a prophet? Are the predictions of prophets totally accurate? Can predicitons be changed or are they fixed and there is nothing we can do? Do we have free will? These were the questions we left off with last time. In this episode, we look at a story of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah. The story takes place in the year 587 BCE when Jerusalem was completley surrounded by the huge army of Babylon. We will find answers to these questions in this story. In this episode we go over the s...
Aug 15, 2014•11 min•Ep. 63
What do we make of all the scary and gory events portrayed in the Book of Revelation? For example, in chapters 8 & 9, it talks about the seven angels and the events the set in motion such as a third of humanity is killed, a third of the oceans are destroyed, a third of the vegetation is wiped out. Are these things predictions about events in the future we can do nothing to stop, or is it someting else? In wrestling with this questions, we come to the three questions at the heart of our study...
Jul 22, 2014•9 min•Ep. 62
We look at some of the specific symbolism of Revelation and try to figure out the message of the author. The cycles repeat- seven seals,seven angels and all kinds of bad and scary plagues and disasters. Part of what the author is doing is trying to is scare us into making a choice. We explore what that choice is and what it means for us today. In the next episode we will look at all of the terrible events that these cycles portray a nd hat they might mean. To learn more about this series go to m...
Jul 04, 2014•14 min•Ep. 61
Many people believe that the book of Revelation is a roadmap of the End Times, explaining what will happen and when. For this to be true, it is assumed that Revelation reads like a modern story, with a straight line plot containing a clear beginning, middle and end. But is this really the case? This is the issue we will look at in this episode. I will be drawing upon the insights of Rev. Dr. Craig Koester, a scholar and Professor of New Testament who specializes in the Book of Revelation. His ve...
Jun 08, 2014•11 min•Ep. 60
In this episode we look at when, where and why the Book of Revelation was written. This will give us a clue about what the message of the book may be. The author of Revelation copies a lot of his style from the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. The circumstances in which both of these books were written are very similar and will reveal a lot about the authors' intentions. In the next episode we will look at the structure of the book of Revelation whcch will tell us something about how it shoul...
May 22, 2014•12 min•Ep. 59
The Book of Revelation is at the end of the Christian New Testament. Many people believe that this book is a road map or story of how the world will end. Revelation has exerted a strong influence way beyond Christianity. In this first episode, I want to begin a study of some of the themes and imagery in the Book of Revelation. Is it really about the end of the world? Or is it about something else? How should this little book affect our spirituality? If it is really about the end of the world, ar...
Apr 25, 2014•8 min•Ep. 58
In the last episode I closed with a proposed definition of what is the Kingdom of God. In this episode, we will look at this definition closely to see if common ground can be found between different religious traditions. Some of the values this definition suggest are humility and mercy. Mercy is perhaps the most important value suggested by the proposed definition of the Kingdom of God. I do not think very many people would argue that there is too much mercy in the world. In the next episode we ...
Apr 07, 2014•10 min•Ep. 57
So far, we have considered the Kingdom of God as a place, an intution or even a country. We have aslo considered the Kingdom as being found in the afterlife. None these seem to work too well. In this episode, we will look at a better definition: the Kingdom of God as the invisible community of faith. If this is correct, it would be an ever changing domain whose borders are not confined in time and space. This might explain why the Kingdom is considered by some to be here already, yet not complet...
Mar 18, 2014•9 min•Ep. 56
Last time we looked at the idea of the Kingdom of God as being a country or an institution to which people can belong. In this episode we will consider the Kingdom of God as heaven or the afterlife. When we die, only the good people get into the kingdom and will spend eternal life there. The kingdom as being heaven in the afterlife is the opposite, even a rejection, of the kingdom as an earthly institution. People who take this approach often point to the politics and corruption of earthly insti...
Mar 01, 2014•7 min•Ep. 55
