The Celtic Monk

          M. Scott Peck's best seller began famously: "Life is Difficult."  While I agreed with him whole heartedly 25 years ago and still do, I'm more aware today of the nuances, difficulties and my own ability to be present to life and changes especially when they present themselves as difficulties or challenges. In other words, the parameters of what constitutes difficult has changed for me.  It's been a journey.            For so long I saw events, people or situations in black or white; good or bad in and of themselves. If "a" happens its good, if "b" happens it will be bad--very, very bad.  What I realize now is that that kind of thinking and responding created its very own kind of hell and suffering.  Because "b" happens a fair bit of the time--and if I allow myself to only see "a" as good...and allow no room for "b"  "c...

        It is true that a picture is worth 1,000 words.  Above is the church of my youth.  I was baptized there. As a second grader, I made my First Communion there.  I was confirmed at that altar while in fourth grade and took the name of "Bernadette." I went to mass not only on Sunday, but Monday thru Friday most of my grammar school days because St. Alphonsus was also my school.  I was in the building next to this amazing sanctuary when the news came over the PA system that John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot and the country was for a few hours without a President.         Maybe surprisingly to some it was here that I learned the love, reverence and awe of God that I practice still.  All those days surrounded by statuary and stained glass imprinted something on my soul. I can hear phrases of the Latin mass echoing through the gothic architecture.  God befrien...

        I recently completed a paper on the theme of the dark night of the soul as found in John of the Cross and the interior castle as described by Teresa of Avila.  It was a timely topic for this season of my soul, as I both invited and allowed myself to step out of the false surety of Enlightenment thinking and into the place where mystics meet God.         The paper  opened with these assumptions from which to dialog with John and Teresa:  "the fullest understanding I bring to this theme is that the spiritual journey far from being a common path, is unique to each person as we undertake to follow the pull of the Spirit.  Implicit are these assumptions: Each person is uniquely created; There is a will great than our own and a purpose beyond what we see; though we can journey with others, no one else's journey is ours.  Ultimately, our spiritual journey is custom de...