The Celtic Monk

AN INVITATION    7:30 a.m and 7:30 p.m.  What was the last thing you were invited to attend?  I don't mean the herd invitation... everyone is invited. I mean the personal invitation as in I'd be so happy if you would join me, or come with me, or come and see... Most of us are invited often to be part of a crowd.  Come to the spaghetti supper!  Come to the Farmer's Market!  Come to the Strawberry Festival, the Film Festival, the ... well you can just fill in the blank. I am writing to invite you to a very small gathering.  I am writing to invite you to an event where you and I will be the only visible participants.  I am writing to invite you to meet me (every morning at 7:30 a.m. EDST and every evening at 7:30 p.m. EDST) for a journey into your relationship with God which, as it turns out, ends up being a journey not only towards God, but towards yourself and into every relationship in your life. I am calling this time a retreat... because the content when added

HOPE Is there a difference for you between a wish, a hope or a dream?  I know I sometimes use those words interchangeably in a fanciful way:  I wish I was going on vacation... I hope I am going on vacation... I am dreaming of being on vacation! But when matters are more serious, or even grave...do I still use these words as if they meant the same thing?  I wish I didn't need surgery... I hope I don't need surgery... I dreamt I did not need surgery?  [I have no surgery planned]  No, I don't use these words in the same way when speaking of something more consequential, more serious. In a conversation yesterday with sister spiritual directors, one of them related something she'd heard over the weekend and that she was still in the process of unpacking and wondering about.  Her little something also captured my attention so, that it bubbled up first thing this morning.  At a conference from which she's just returned, the speaker offered this seemingly simple