Fr Philip Carter offers a ministry of spirituality, with a series of meditations on some questions that we may ponder as we consider our life in God.
You will find here his reflections and questions for meditation, images, music and poetry to enrich your life’s journey.
My life is with my brother (and sister)
Abba Anthony
The way forward is the way to someone else.
John V. Taylor
Hospitality begins at home – with ourselves.
Hospitality is about acceptance, of ourselves and others,
and is always in the context of the immediate and the concrete.
For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:19
Charles de Foucauld, a modern desert monk, said of the human being that
“Behind the veils and appearances, [there is] an unspeakably holy being”.
Think of a friend, a neighbour, a stranger, an enemy in the light of these words.
Do you want to live as if these words are true?
And what difference would it make?
It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd,
and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts.
Amma Syncletia
The desert – at best – is not an escape. Transformation, which we long for, does not happen by escaping ourselves, or others. Withdrawal is not escape: it is about focussing on what matters. Spend some time on what you would like to run away from. Of course we must move away from what is harmful or destructive – but so often the Other (while at first seemingly threatening or even frightening ) can become gift and invitation.
He who sins against his brother (or sister) sins against himself.
Abbe Anthony
The desert asks us to face and stop the many ways we project our issues on to others.
This requires courage and hard work.
St. Augustine asks a powerful question:
“Whatever makes us think that our enemies will do us more harm than our enmities?”
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
