Latest Posts
Williamsburg and the Human Hand
“That the future may learn from the past.” Such is the motto of Colonial Williamsburg—a favorite haunt of our family for years. We just spent a lovely weekend there, and once again what most struck me is the astounding reality of the human hand. It is the common...
Do I Really Hear Other People?
At the heart of relationships between people is hearing. Hearing, says Thomas Aquinas, is how we learn from another person. In the very same vein he says, “Hearing is the way to life.” But there is hearing, and there is hearing. And sometimes we might realize that...
Finding Joy in Hope
Something many struggle with—I certainly include myself—is how to find joy when one is not ‘feeling’ joyful. This is a complex question that calls for careful and nuanced consideration. Part of thinking clearly about it is recognizing that real sorrow has a...
Remembering I Am Dust
Somehow I must learn to put the spiritual life first—truly first—while also giving due to my bodily life. Human life is unified—or in any case it can and should be unified. But this means there is also a genuine duality. Thomas Aquinas, a master of expressing the...
A Simple Exercise to Practice Contemplation
Contemplation: it’s a word that both thrills and intimidates. We fear that we don’t really know what it is, and that even if we did we’d find it very difficult to do. This sense is heightened by hearing that contemplation is the heart of happiness in the next life....
Winter: A Time for Noble Joy
What does it take to form virtue—or to ‘educate’ in the most important sense? This perennial question concerns all of us, at all stages of life. Aristotle offers a simple but surprising principle that should focus us on what we’re doing at home in these winter days....
Aristotle on the Divine in Us
The great Greek maxim “Know thyself” surely has two distinct but related aspects. Both are very challenging and call for intentional, regular reflection. The first is to know what it is to be human; the second is to know myself as an individual. For the first the key...
What Are We Working For?
Given how much of life is taken up with work, I think we give too little reflection to a key question: what really is, or should be, the point of our working? We often undertake our work simply as something that must be done. But the intention and so also the spirit...
A Surprising Fallacy about Kindness
This morning, I read a beautiful and practical insight about a power for good at my fingertips. The effects of kindness are disproportionately far-reaching. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced. And really encouraged. At times the ugliness of how people...
Do the Stars Really Stand in Attendance?
Yesterday I experienced once again the astounding Byzantine liturgy of Epiphany. Among other things, there was the special blessing of water, wherein the entire natural world is invoked as a chorus of witnesses to its Creator. This gives occasion to ask whether we...
Can Every Day Be Christmas?
I find ‘A Christmas Carol’ to be an utterly amazing masterpiece. I know not whether literary critics would frown at me, but frankly I don’t care. We have just read it aloud again as a family. And I am inspired to join Scrooge in his solemn resolution. "I will live in...
He Came to Bring Us Home
There is a Home that is truly our home. And the Father in that home bends all His energy to make possible our taking up residence there. Permanently. It really is that simple. It is simple, but it is also somewhat involved—because life there is so rich. This is not...