Guidelines

The soul remembers its regrets even longer than the body remembers its wounds. Even if out of our awareness, regrets like old wounds are just a touch away. We all have our “if only” wishes. Whether trifles or tragedies, whether tickling or tormenting us, there are things we would like to go back and redo. […]

Compassion means not just to feel for, but also to feel with another. The origin of the word combined “com” (together), with “pathos” (pain or suffering.) Hence, it meant to “feel with or share in another’s pain.” And in the Hebrew Bible, “compassion” took its root in “womb love,” the love of a mother for […]

Much good would come if you began and ended each day focusing on that for which you are grateful. Melody Beattie said, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. gratitude makes sense of our past, brings […]

Talking about something helps. Just talking about it may not seem to have much power to change our life situation for the better, but words are all we have. Do not underrate or underestimate the positive effect of simply talking through something with a trusted other. My life can be viewed as a series of […]

One of our greatest and most constant searches is for personal peace. One reason we have difficulty gaining and maintaining peace is because we often misunderstand it. Peace is not a mere state of mind; it is a state of relationships. Hence, it is not something under our exclusive control. Peace is harmonious connection with […]

Hope is as breath to the soul. It instantly comforts and rejuvenates your inner being, so you can somehow go on when a minute ago you were wondering how you could do just that. Back in October of 2002, I led a group of men on my annual weekend “Men’s Prayer Retreat,” at New Melleray […]