Carl McColman's Blog, page 36

Silent Prayer Every Day: How Much Do We Need?

A reader writes,

I just finished reading the article about having everything you need for Divine union. I want to share it with my Carmelite spirituality group. However, I don’t understand one sentence. It’s this one: “ I would invite you to pray every day, with at least some of that prayer including contemplative silence.” What is the antecedent of “that prayer”?

Thanks for your question. First, the grammar: by “that prayer” I mean whatever prayer you “pray every day,” in other words, you...

Can Contemplation Change the World?

Four years ago I wrote a blog post titled Is Contemplation Dangerous? It was a review of a book called The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You? Written by two British psychologists, the book looks at a variety of meditation practices, such as Transcendental Meditation and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, the book offers a balanced assessment of what science has to say about how meditation can — and cannot — make a difference in terms of our physical and mental health.

Even beyond that...

Martin Luther King Jr, the “Arc of the Moral Universe,” and Maintaining Faith in Difficult Times

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

When I thought I would write about Martin Luther King, Jr., that was the first quote that came to mind. Apparently King used this line more than once — a brief Google search reveals he said this in an essay he wrote in 1958, and in a Baccalaureate sermon he preached in 1964. But in the essay, he puts the line in quotation marks, showing that he did not consider this his original thought; indeed, it comes form the ideas of...

The Power of Powerlessness

At the climax of the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, young Harry meets his nemesis, the evil Lord Voldemort, who was functioning like a parasite being hosted in the body of one of Harry’s professors at Hogwarts. Voldemort makes the following declaration of his philosophy of life:

There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.

Harry rejects this philosophy — and so should we all. It’s only the beginning of a seven-year-long...

“Blessed are the Peacemakers” — Jesus Said It, and It Still Applies Today

A couple of days ago in a dream I was instructed to write about “Blessed are the Peacemakers.” At first I put it off, because it’s such a huge topic and I’m not sure how qualified I am to write about it.

But then today, while working on theSpiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, I had the task of meditating on the Beatitudes. So it seems that I need to go ahead and listen to my dream and reflect on Matthew 5:9:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

It’s the...

White Supremacists use the Celtic Cross as a Symbol of Hate. But True Celtic Spirituality is Anti-Racist.

According to the Anti-Defamation League’s website, the Celtic Cross — particularly when rendered as an equal-armed cross — is used by white supremacists as a symbol of their racist beliefs.

The website says:

The white supremacist version of the Celtic Cross, which consists of a square cross interlocking with or surrounded by a circle, is one of the most important and commonly used white supremacist symbols.

This boggles my mind. And it breaks my heart.

As someone who is profoundly opposed to...

Kindness, Cynicism, and a Better World: A Contemplative Approach to Social Media — and Digital Civility

I don’t think it’s very shocking to acknowledge that we live in a cynical world.

We have learned, especially over the last fifty years, to take pretty much everything our political and cultural leaders say with a hefty grain of salt. In the 1960s, it was fashionable for young people to say, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Of course, those same young people — if they lived long enough — soon were over thirty themselves! So perhaps an entire generation learned thattrust simply wasn’t a value...

Some Thoughts on the Roaring 20s — for 2020 (and Beyond)

I’m writing this on the second day of January 2020 — and I’m mindful of an amusing meme that made its way around Facebook last week. By the time you are reading this, it will be a stale joke, but imagine you saw this on December 26, 2019, and perhaps you can appreciate the humor.

And of course, as I scrolled through Facebook to find this one image, I had to wade through all the various announcements for “Roaring Twenties” New Years Eve Parties that took place on 12/31/2019.

Why are we so in...

How the Beatles Help Me Overcome Writer’s Block

I suppose most writers don’t like to talk about writers’ block. It’s not a pretty sight — to have a deadline looming, and every time you sit down at the blank screen, you just get lost in the void of it all.

And instead of writing… nothing.

It’s such an ominous part of the writer’s life that you can find lists online of movies devoted to the topic. I can think of two off the top of my head: Shakespeare in Love and Ruby Sparks. Both are humorous stories, and in each film, the writer — who is...

A Few Thoughts on the Passing of Ram Dass

Ram Dass, author of many books including the spiritual masterpiece Be Here Now,has died. He passed away yesterday, 22 December 2019, at his home in Maui. He was 88 years old.

I never met Ram Dass, or even saw him in person. My friend Mirabai Starr knew him well, so she would be in a much better position to offer a meaningful encomium. My purpose in writing about him is modest: I simply want to appreciate how he made an impact on my life and my spiritual journey, merely through his writing,...