tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43266483415271327312011-11-16T17:08:50.800-08:00Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-73098446451241206082011-11-16T17:08:00.001-08:002011-11-16T17:08:50.818-08:00

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-85794633624564701032011-11-04T09:46:00.000-07:002011-11-04T09:46:05.506-07:00

Part of my comfort with Christianity as I got older came from new prophets who assured me that it's OK not to believe in the miracles of Jesus. Such belief was not necessary to get the message of Jesus, and to begin the long journey of unity and rejection of dualism. Still, there is something appealing about miracles. We don't want to dis-believe. When I was a boy I used to have a recurring

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-7351651394476335642010-07-13T15:05:00.000-07:002010-07-13T15:30:08.595-07:00

Dear xxxxxxx,Your prayer for judgment, asking God to take a look at your heart and mind, underlines the courage which you have been given, by Grace, to walk openly before God. (If I did not know you, I would have taken this as a 'dare' to God.) In it I hear the desire to walk the path of perfection, and the plea to resist the temptations that often can take us off that path. The fruits of your

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-54735192305996221432010-07-08T05:58:00.000-07:002010-07-08T06:16:08.954-07:00

Dear xxxxx,You speak in your letter titled Psalm 18 of a vision that you had- a vision with disaster, with enemies, with the breakers of death and cords of hell.And then of God as "mounted on cherubim and swooping down on the wings of the wind, bringing you into an open place because he delighted in you".Can you tell me more about what you think that these breakers of death and cords of hell

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-41428026022715529492010-07-06T20:35:00.000-07:002010-07-06T20:57:53.046-07:00

SSM 2vDear Thomas,I hope you are beginning to see the invitations that surround you like dust that appears in sunlight as it beams into a room. As you stood on that corner in Louisville, you recalled "..how strange it was to see people walking around as if they had something important to do, running after buses, reading the newspapers, lighting cigarettes." And then "How futile all their haste

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-15834474522401409092010-07-01T22:24:00.000-07:002010-07-01T22:43:54.243-07:00

SSM 2ivDear Thomas,You must free yourself of all dependence on the perceptions of others, or you will not be able to discern even the slightest whisper of what God calls you to. Are you able to hear the full mathematical set of answers, or will you only hear what you perceive to be your destiny as your desire drowns out the rest?What does God desire for the world? Can you predict this, and then

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-1867133601288736462010-06-24T19:55:00.000-07:002010-06-24T20:24:57.786-07:00

SSM 3i,iiDear Thomas,Your movement to begin looking at monastic orders seems to be moving at a pace that even surprises me. I'm sure you will soon find that the abbot of the order will not move towards entry at the same pace as you might desire. There is good reason for this, proven by the endurance of each order. The desire to quickly enter an order is itself an attachment, albeit an attachment

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-91940026469618516942010-06-23T16:21:00.000-07:002010-06-23T16:57:51.255-07:00

SSM 2ivDear Thomas,As you talked about your experience yesterday I sensed that you were being drawn toward, rather than driven away. And then came your description of what was happening at that moment:"It was a strong and sweet and deep and insistent attraction that suddenly made itself felt, but not as movement of appetite towards any sensible good. It was something in the order of conscience, a

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-1251188275343620752010-06-23T15:16:00.000-07:002010-06-23T15:41:54.312-07:00

SSM 2iiDear Thomas,I am not confused or disappointed that in response to my question about whom you wish to become you have settled upon, after first responding 'a famous author', the more ambitious 'a saint'. We often run away from that word because it conjures up some polished image of Ignatius or Francis or Theresa that ignores the humanness that surely was as present in them as it is in

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-877284905697372922010-06-02T10:19:00.000-07:002010-06-02T10:22:51.238-07:00

We are created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord and by this means to save our souls. The other things on the face of the earth are created for us to help us in attaining the end for which we are created. Hence, we are to make use of them in as far as they help us in the attainment of our end and we must rid ourselves of them in as far as they prove a hindrance to us.

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-49909915629362627202009-12-21T22:04:00.000-08:002009-12-22T17:03:38.500-08:00

Cairn Holy, ScotlandDear xxx,In each sentence of your latest letter I hear the interference of attachment. You write of your desire to enter into the heart of a great unity with the divine, but I hear anxiety over money and a desire to 'matter' to a world that will soon forget you. These are distractions that test the authenticity of your desire to enter into that unity.Most disturbing is the

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-79334649144825655552009-11-04T12:15:00.000-08:002009-11-04T13:05:44.738-08:00

Dear xxx,You ask me for assistance in guiding you to some 'practices' that might be helpful to you in your desire for a more complete spiritual life. It is always difficult to answer such a request at the beginning of spiritual companioning.Wisdom men and women who are wiser than me in this area suggest that the first place to begin is to 'wake up'. Not from that rest which we all need; we all

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-85834041314773064472009-08-22T20:39:00.000-07:002009-09-01T14:55:40.807-07:00

Dear Xnnnnnn,I totally understand your admiration of Merton. He seems to speak to us as pilgrims along the way, sometimes as if he is a companion at our side, and other times as the leader showing us the way.Merton often tells us that we are not spiritually free unless we are free from depending on external conditions, or others, for our responses to reality. So I am not surprised that his

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-26194690199072287902009-08-13T09:08:00.000-07:002009-08-13T09:42:58.759-07:00

"When everything is taken away, you can still be free and that is true freedom, and this is why we are here, to find this out." - Thomas MertonDear Xxxxxx,Thank you for your letter. I value deeply the level of sharing in it.Your description of the 'separation' experience when you were 13 is of such a personal nature that it is humbling to be asked to comment on it. However this was a moment when

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4326648341527132731.post-70681529821180270922009-08-09T20:31:00.000-07:002009-08-13T09:40:51.393-07:00

On grace, recollection, and prayers for absent angels.Dear Xxxxxx,The encounter that you described in your letter has all of the characteristics of grace. That you didn't at the time associate the experience with God's presence is often a sign of the silent movement of the spirit. And the appearance of an angel such as the government office manager in such a desperate time, given that he did not

Steve Brucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18366698345480833989noreply@blogger.com0