Thoughts On This House

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, often credited as the founder of Hasidism, is known as the Baal Shem Tov or by the acronym “Besht.” He lived in Mezhbizh (now Medzhybizh in western Ukraine). The Besht was ecstatically in love with God. Like Francis of Assisi, he began a grassroots movement of joyful love and service that […]

For this week’s Daily Meditations, we share wisdom from Hasidism, a Jewish mystical tradition that emerged several hundred years ago in what is now Ukraine. Jewish scholar Arthur Green summarizes this movement’s origin and its reliance on contemplative prayer: Hasidism [is] the great movement of religious revival that brought new spirit to the lives of […]

Blessed are the pure of heart; for they shall see God. —Matthew 5:8 Episcopal priest and CAC teacher emerita Cynthia Bourgeault writes of the difference between our modern understanding of emotions and the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers:  In the psychological climate of our own times, our emotions are almost always considered to be […]

Buddhist author and speaker Valerie Mason-John found meditation to be integral to her recovery from addiction. She writes: People say we can’t help how we feel. It’s true we can’t help unpleasant, pleasant, or neutral feelings arising when one or more of the six senses have made contact with an object. We multiply the intensity […]

For Father Richard, emotional sobriety is found when we experience life from our True Self:  There is something in us that is not touched by coming and going, by up and down, by for or against, by totally right or totally wrong. This part of us is patient with both goodness and evil, exactly as […]

Father Richard introduces this week’s meditations on emotional sobriety:  Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson (1895–1971) viewed emotional sobriety as where the Twelve Steps should finally lead. The goal is not simply to stop drinking, but to become a spiritually awakened person who has found some degree of detachment from their own emotional, narcissistic responses. How […]

Father Richard describes St. Francis’s commitment to peacemaking during the Crusades: Undoubtedly the most famous of Francis’s ventures into peacemaking was in 1219 when he preached peace unsuccessfully to the Christian crusaders and followed that with a personal visit with the sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil (1180–1238). An account of his interaction with the Christian soldiers has Francis saying, “If I […]

Sister José Hobday (1929–2009) was a modern Franciscan whose life exemplified her faith commitment to activism and contemplation. Editor Mary Ford-Grabowsky described Hobday as: A Seneca elder, a prominent Roman Catholic leader, and a Franciscan sister who adheres fully to St. Francis’s radical ideal of holy poverty. . . . She is also a mystic […]

Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart, and give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry out Your holy and true command. —Francis, “A Prayer before the Crucifix” Theologian and minister Bruce Epperly writes of the timely importance of the Franciscan commitment to both […]

The intuition of St. Francis is that the entire world is a sacrament revealing the presence of God! Here, Franciscan scholars explain how Francis and Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) could come to see such a universal vision of Christ in the created world:  Francis’s world was so imbued by the goodness of God that he […]