Hello! I'm writing a book at present on sins of speech for Emmaus Road. I've been thinking a lot about cultivating healthy habits of communication, so just thought I'd share a few thoughts. Prayers for you during this Holy Week!

There are various different prayer practices that people have used in the tradition as a way of remaining in the presence of God--the practice of the presence of God (or recollection) is just one. In this video, I explain a little how it helps us to connect the dots between earthly life and heavenly realities.

These past two months have been a bit brutal : ) Sleep, in which I typically indulge sparingly (not by choice), has been practically impossible. At a certain point, it's like: "What's going on?" This video narrates my attempt to make sense of a stressful time. . . . Where is the Lord in the midst of anxiety?

Working on an entire album of lofi music. Here's one of those songs. Album should drop next week. THEN, a couple of weeks after that we hope to have our 24/7 stream up and running.

THE ERROR OF ARIUS ABOUT THE INCARNATION

In their eagerness to proclaim the unity of God and man in Christ, some heretics went to the opposite extreme and taught that not only was there one person, but also a single nature, in God and man. This error took its rise from Arius. To defend his position that those scriptural passages where Christ is represented as being inferior to the Father, must refer to the Son of God Himself, regarded in His assuming nature, Arius taught that in Christ there is no other soul than the Word of God who, he maintained, took the place of the soul in Christ’s body. Thus when Christ says, in John 14:28, “The Father is greater than I,” or when He is introduced as praying or as being sad, such matters are to be referred to the very nature of the Son of God. If this were so, the union of God’s Son with man would be effected not only in the person, but also in the nature. For, as we know, the unity of human nature arises from the union of soul and body.

The...

RESTORATION OF MAN BY GOD THROUGH THE INCARNATION

We indicated above that the reparation of human nature could not be effected either by Adam or by any other purely human being. For no individual man ever occupied a position of pre-eminence over the whole of nature; nor can any mere man be the cause of grace. The same reasoning shows that not even an angel could be the author of man’s restoration. An angel cannot be the cause of grace, just as he cannot be man’s recompense with regard to the ultimate perfection of beatitude, to which man was to be recalled. In this matter of beatitude angels and men are on a footing of equality. Nothing remains, therefore, but that such restoration could be effected by God alone.

But if God had decided to restore man solely by an act of His will and power, the order of divine justice would not have been observed. justice demands satisfaction for sin. But God cannot render satisfaction, just as He cannot merit. Such a service pertains to one who ...

I want to share an image with you—an image that I think sheds light on how the pleasures the world offers pale in comparison to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I was about eighteen, out on the town with friends in Adelaide. We’d spent the whole night partying—too much to drink, too much noise, chasing the kind of thrill we all assumed would make us happy. As dawn approached, we wandered through the quiet streets of the city, still laughing, still buzzing from the night.

That’s when I noticed it. The sun was beginning to rise over the skyline. Its light spread slowly, steadily, illuminating everything with a kind of quiet majesty. And as it did, the neon signs that had lit up the night—those glowing blues and reds advertising clubs and bars—started to fade. Started to lose their charm. Against the brilliance of the sunrise, they looked weak, sad, almost embarrassed to still be shining. Their glow couldn’t compete with the sun.

That image has stayed with me. Because what ...

Let’s all pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis.