Minute Meditations

Sit down and, keeping your back straight but free, begin quieting your mind and your body by taking a few relaxing, deep breaths. Close your eyes if you wish. Center your awareness on the silent and infinite presence of God within ...

“Rich by reason of its poverty.” That phrase was as difficult to understand in Francis’s day as it is in ours. Celano was not pulling this expression out of thin air.

The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins crystallized so beautifully the effect that John Duns Scotus’ teaching has on mystical minds: Yet ah! this air I gather and releaseHe lived on;These weeds and waters, these walls are whatHe hauntedWho of all ...

Downward mobility. It invites each of us to recalibrate.

Like Christ, who died upon another tree, our beloved oak tree had to expire in order to inspire.

The practice of solitude uncovers and heightens that uniqueness, and fraternal life deepens in the respect and support the brothers give to each one’s unique aloneness.