Brother Weeps Gives Some Advice

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Daniel J. Miller

Brother Weeps was not in the habit of giving advice. He guided people to discover and live into the deep truth of their own life. But I do remember once—maybe he was especially good-humored that day—when a sincere young buttoned-up professional-looking Read more [...]

The Vital Question — A Life-Line

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Daniel J. Miller

Today's Life-Life is: Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be? The tendency to forget Read more [...]

Brother Weeps on Fake Flowers

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Daniel J. Miller

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8 At Holy Mess & Mystery Monastery, two novices each week are responsible for making sure there are fresh flowers in all the vases in the church: Read more [...]

Being Alive to the Aliveness of God

Posted on October 9, 2021 by Daniel J. Miller

If we want to be spiritual, then, let us first of all live our lives. . . Let us embrace reality. ~ Thomas Merton Nineteenth century American poet Emily Dickinson famously wrote "Tell the truth/ but tell it slant." These days, from where I'm sitting, Read more [...]

The Measure of Our Aliveness

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Daniel J. Miller

Today's Life-Line is: What counts on your path to fulfillment is that we remember the great truth that moments of surprise want to teach us: everything is gratuitous, everything is gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is the measure Read more [...]

The Way of the Mystic 2

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Daniel J. Miller

The late Carmelite monk William McNamara describes the simple awe and perceptive appreciation that is at the core of the mystic way. He writes: To engage in the natural art of contemplation is to look long and steadily, leisurely and lovingly at Read more [...]

The Way of the Mystic 1

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Daniel J. Miller

The mystic or contemplative is the man or woman who is intensely and intentionally alive to the aliveness of God. Mysticism or contemplation is “the wordless awareness of oneness with God beyond what thoughts can grasp or words can adequately convey.”[1] Read more [...]

Attuned to the Rhythm of Lent

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Daniel J. Miller

“There is no movement without rhythm” On a busy street near my home there is a single-level building containing two businesses that share a common wall. One is a donut shop. Next door is a weight loss clinic. Like the storefront shops, the days Read more [...]

The Gift Who Was Claire Wineland

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Daniel J. Miller

I do these talks to make a point that you can have a painful life, you can suffer, you can experience what it's like to feel like a human being -- all those messy and gross emotions -- and yet you can make a life for yourself that you are very, very Read more [...]

Life-Line

Posted on August 28, 2017 by Daniel J. Miller

Today's Life-Line is: People say that what we're seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. ~ Read more [...]

The Sacred Braid

Helping Persons and Communities Weave Lives of Spiritual Depth.

Tag Archives: Aliveness