“Children...begin to reject both poetry & religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes the life out of them.” Kathleen Norris

Folks, these social media posts about the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan and Steven Tyler holding moments of silence in their concerts for Charlie Kirk are nonsense. They are false. If you are sharing them, you’ve been fooled (probably by Russians).

Begins September 29! Reserve your spot today: spiritualityandpractice.com/Experiencing-God

I can only think of three reasons why a church leader who ought to be trustworthy would say something like this. Either they are deluded, they’ve been paid, or they are brainwashed. I increasingly think it is a kind of brainwashing.

Clergy friends, if you ever need a last second 3-minute homily, this should do the trick. From ‘Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart.’

Good God, help us.

A new prayer you might try this evening. The theme is, Folly is another name for righteousness. #Franciscan

She was a fun letter writer.

We celebrate my friend Phyllis Tickle on her feast day (marking the day she died; 10 years ago) this Monday. She was wonderful, gracious, brilliant, hopeful. Here's my biography of her, which few people read. And here's her talking on the book we wrote together. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yu1...

Franciscan cat.

When social media seems obsessed with hate, screaming, and conspiracy, I prefer to share stuff about books, old books, libraries, cats, and sunrises.

The separation between asceticism and mysticism is an unfortunate modern development. -Thomas Merton A Course in Christian Mysticism

Today is the Feast of the Stigmata. This is where it happened, on Mount La Verna. I once had a Franciscan mystery novel under contract, and the setting for the murder was right here, in the decade after Saint Francis' death. But I couldn't finish it. Maybe someday.

A historic declaration of friendship between the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church in Scotland has been signed in Edinburgh, allowing them to work more closely together in future.

Thank you to everyone who has helped this book reach so many people!

Then (from 'Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart') ❤️📖

Grateful to Jon Sweeney for this review of The Virtue of Dialogue, part of our Cultivating Communities Series. buff.ly/skAmOKI @jonmsweeney.bsky.social

Muriel Spark muses in a 1959 letter: “what has happened to my appendix since it has been removed & will I rise again without it? There is also the question of first teeth & the extracted second teeth. Do we rise again with two sets?” #Catholics

A little Italian neorealist classic early this morning. Rossellini and Fellini, ‘The Little Flowers of St Francis.’

I love this reflection by Karen Kiefer on the Pope's first 60 days. www.focolaremedia.com/magazine/con...

I hope I can be forgiven by my fellow Catholics for choosing to ignore the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross - the triumph of it, the supposed historical find, how it was used to buttress empire, and the vilifying of the Jews in the process (who supposedly hid the cross until Helena found it).

We can relate to Indiana. (Read the description of her.) At Homeward Bound animal shelter, Middlebury #Vermont

In case you need this today-- Here's a paragraph from the Introduction to this book, explaining why I wrote it, and for whom.

The daily news.

Of course she’s right about this.

The original coin-in-the-slot bookselling machine, 1937, in London. It was called the penguincubator. And that's Allen Lane, cofounder of Penguin Books. #bookselling

Writing advice from Muriel Spark in her novel, ‘A Far Cry from Kensington’ You are writing a letter to a friend…confiding an experience that you think only he will enjoy…. What you have to say will come out more spontaneously and honestly than if you are thinking of numerous readers. #writing

Join me if you can starting at the end of this month to talk daily for 30 days about Francis of Assisi and his experiments in experiencing God. www.spiritualityandpractice.com/Experiencing...

Reading Thomas Merton on Gregory of Nyssa, Merton describes Gregory's commentary on Song of Songs saying, the Beloved makes himself known to the soul "as a faint 'perfume,' as a voice, and finally as food for the soul that is 'tasted' and sweet."

Mice like books too.

There are a few things I miss in Milwaukee.

My late husband always said it this way: "Love is hands." (-St. David of New York)

It isn’t enough to love; you have to prove it. -St. Therese of Lisieux

A lost aspect of #printculture.

The staff feels totally spent.

I don’t have a tremendous amount of interest in Rothenstein or 20th century British art but some books you buy for $5 just because they’re beautiful.

Collect of St. Clare of Assisi for a Tuesday morning.

Consider joining me for an e-course that starts on September 29 entitled "Experiencing God with Saint Francis of Assisi." To learn more, visit this page at SpiritualityandPractice: www.spiritualityandpractice.com/Experiencing...

I’m remembering a Russian Orthodox wedding I attended 7 years ago in Detroit; at the reception, this Catholic sat with agnostic philosophy professors trying to explain progressive Judaism to them.

Bread & Puppet opening revelry

Bread & Puppet Theatre, about to begin in New Haven, Vt. Revolution in progress.

I'll be talking about Jewish-Catholic relations, Nostra Aetate 60 years on, and Rabbi Norman Lamm on March 25, 2026 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.

The older I am, the less I know.

Not as easy as it reads. From Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart’📚🙏❤️

I’ve been carrying this collection around for 40 years now. Just call me sentimental.

Arrivals 📚📚 @fsgbooks.bsky.social and @andrewsmcmeel.bsky.social

This is what I’ve been reading lately. My review: www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews...

The scarcest dust jacket around: Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock" July 1938. Because readers hated it. 8000 copies printed, but everyone threw the jacket away. $50,000 to buy one. (Don't be fooled by the facsimile.)

If you're clergy, I'd love to hear about the discussions you're having regarding safety at worship. There's a lot of conversation going on. But my white Christian clergy friends don't seem to be worrying in the same way that my African-American, Jewish, and Muslim friends are.

I love Maigret.