As our technological capacities rapidly develop, for example in the realm of medical technology and genetic manipulation, we and perhaps the entire human race are faced with the question of whether or not we should always do what we are able to do. If any, what are the boundaries around human power that are to be respected?…[read more]
“Nathanael said to Jesus, ‘How do you know me?’” In a very brief gospel story, we are given ample illustration of precisely how guileless Nathanael is. As “a true child of Israel,” Nathanael knows well the words of Psalm 139: “You discern my going out and my lying down;/you are familiar with all my ways.”…[read more]
He answered one of them and said: “Friend, I did you no injustice. did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. I choose to give to this last one as to you. Is it not allowed to me to do what I wish with my own? Or is…[read more]
Van Kaam tells us that we are formed as human beings by a process of differentiation and integration. New experiences and new insights in life will at times come together in such a way that we experience an integration of our person, a new current form of life which “feels” to us to be more ourselves than we have ever been before. At such moments we have the welcome experience of “self-possession.”…[read more]
Because they had thus abandoned him and served Baal and the Ashtaroth, the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel, and he delivered them over to plunderers who despoiled them. He allowed them to fall into the power of their enemies round about whom they were no longer able to withstand. Whatever they undertook,…[read more]
Then I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle , while Jacob and his…[read more]
It well may be that nothing is more sought after and yet found more elusive than what we term “self-esteem." It is psychologically understood to be our subjective evaluation of ourselves, and we have come to recognize it as a significant influence on a person’s behavior.…[read more]
And now Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being, to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes that I charge…[read more]
When he was campaigning for President in 2000, George W. Bush issued a values critique of the Clinton administration by saying: “Our generation has a chance to reclaim some essential values, to show we have grown up before we grow old.” Politics aside, as a member of Bush’s generation I found myself pondering his words.…[read more]
The Xaverian Fundamental Principles remind us that the heart of discipleship, of the call of Jesus to each of us, is to recognize that all is gift. The “secret” of life, from the Christian perspective is that our very life is a gift to us, and, because it is a gift, it is given to us that we might give it away.…[read more]
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