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Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
Talking About The Faith Path
- Author Mark Dohle
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Long Hard Journey
Prayer keeps us open to the Spirit. The Spirit seeks to heal and lead us to life; we all have an infinite capacity to grow, to learn to love to have a relationship with the Infinite, the lover of our souls. Either life is an open-ended affair, or it is a dead end, when we...
The Challenge
Accept the Challenge I am Facing.
It may become my greatest gift. -Gail B.
When life runs smoothly, I tend to become less focused and alert to what is happening inside me. Perhaps when things are ‘just so’, I fall into a sort of half-sleep: routine can be soothing and numbing. If...
Walking On Thin Ice
Walking The spiritual life is not about ‘dressing up’, though it can often be that for a while. No, our seeking after the Infinite, is, in fact, a ‘dressing-down’. It is about falling through the cracks in the ice, that thin layer that hides the often-brutal unconscious from...
Do Not Be Discouraged
“Why do you grow weary of doing good to others?
Am I not in them? Would you ever grow weary of helping
Me if I were near you? You would help Me joyously, lovingly.
You would say, ‘Is there anything else you would like, dear Master?
Does that please you?’
Bossis...
This is an interview that Sandy and I were part of a few years ago. She had a powerful NDE, and well I was just the monk who was there with her being part of the conversation.. I think I took up too much...
The Journey of a Monastic Pilgrim
I do believe that in belonging to the Priesthood-Of-The-People, the persons who belong to my congregation or those who struggle the way I do. So I will often pray for those consumed with violence and have no way to deal with it. Our struggles can make us more...
Doorways
Ever since I was a child I have always loved doorways. They represent mystery, a different world that perhaps could be explored. It is like a package that is wrapped and just waiting to be opened; a gift.
We have some pretty large doorways here in the Monastery. Slowly we are having...
Praying with Mary
My soul magnifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
Because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid.
I was talking with a wonderful guest we had here for a retreat last week. We talked about many things and one of the subjects she brought up was the...
Dealing With Being Sick
I have often said that there is no real meaning to the word “mature adult’ for me. We are a mixture of being centered, scattered, loving, hateful faithful, and being faithless. How we deal with this merry-go-round that we call life tests us to respond in one way or...
To Endure
Patient endurance is what you need now,
so that you will continue to do God’s will.
Then you will receive all that he
has promised. – Hebrews 10:36
Life can become very difficult. There are some ways to deal with difficult times. One way is to escape it or try to. That seldom...
(Judy, Robert, Janie)
A Talk With My Sister Judy
I was talking to my sister Judy today. She texted me about how much she missed our brother David. I texted her back on how much I missed him as well. He lived here off and on for four years before his death. He would come up and stay while he...
Lessons from Holy Week
Holy Week has some powerful truths to tell us if one can ponder them. This also means contemplating one's life. If a Christian, this can lead to a deeper understanding of one of life’s mysteries. That is of course, why there is so much injustice in the world, so much...
A nursing home visit, some shopping, and an intelligent worker
The Monastery is about 15 miles from a town called Covington. It is a nice place and has a beautiful town square. We do not need to go there often Just for the occasional doctor appointment near the Hospital. It is starting to grow...
Destructive Habits Often Overlooked
“Even if you ceased to love Me, I should always love you. Even if you no longer listened for My voice in the silence, I should still make it possible for you to hear Me. This is how every sinner finds Me waiting. Who could ever weigh My love, or set a price...
The Simple Apple
The more I write, the more a mystery, writing becomes for me. I often think that writing is like being a weaver with many different colored threads that are woven together to make the essay, or story, into a sort of multilayered work of art. Then when people read, they take the...
I am going to love everyone
in my 30-foot circle. -Bail Bardis
Gail is a good friend of mine. When talking to her she can come up with some interesting statements that grab my intention. One such statement went like this: “I am going to love everyone in my 30-foot circle”. When she stated this...
What is compassion?
“If you only knew what compassion really is—
the compassion you must strive to imitate!
Overlooking everything to stoop to a heart’s
needs, paying no attention to any disappointments or ingratitude, being even kinder to those who
have hurt you. Just be your Christ for them...
Light is deeper buoying us up
Hell on earth can be experienced,
sometimes all one can do is breathe,
be in the moment and face the demon,
in faith, knowing that in the darkness,
light is deeper, still buoying us up,
stand on the rock, the sure foundation,
all things pass, yet love is eternal...
The Habit of Self-reflection/Prayer
December 13—Holy Hour. . . . “Practice your faith. When you were learning to walk, you leaped forward at a venture, and little by little you became surefooted. Do the same in your inner life. Take a flying leap toward the Trinity, toward My mother, in...
My experience of the Internet as a monk
I started using the Internet in 1999. I was fifty years old and was a little hesitant to start. However, it did not take long for me to understand that the computer was quite easy to navigate.
Being curious about other belief systems I started joining...