Light: Wednesday

There’s something I find incredibly reassuring about how God separates light from darkness. Orchestrating it all with infinite possibilities, God decides to create a cadence of light and darkness to fill each day. It’s true about the soul, too: we can only bear so much light. If there’s too much light coming at us, we’re blinded. Light can be as blinding as darkness.

– Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE


Way of Love: Daily Practice

Turn off all screens tonight. Watch darkness fall and be present to it.


Share your experience in the comments below

6 Comments

  1. Todd Strader on March 4, 2020 at 6:43 am

    “Though he slay me still will I love him” I appreciate Br. Curtis sharing his experience. I have had my own dark night of the soul and those instances where I shouted to heaven “are you in this at all?” I have no desire for such experiences. I never want for them. Yet, in honesty, I admit these are when I am most shaped. It is at (or after) such times that I am nearer to my Father.

  2. Susan Keith on March 4, 2020 at 8:56 am

    Altitude Sickness

    I have suffered from physical altitude sickness
    In the heights of beautiful Utah.
    It nearly cost me my life,
    But it actually saved my life.

    I have also suffered from spiritual altitude sickness.
    I love being on the “mountain top”.
    Being in those thin places
    where the sacred and the secular merge
    where you can reach out and almost touch the heavens
    where you can sense the presence of our foremothers and forefathers.

    Often when I come back down to earth
    I joke about needing a scarf to hide my glow.
    But I have lingered too long on a “mountain top”.
    I have gotten lightheaded and giddy.
    I have gotten lost in the thinness.

    It is great to go to the mountain top,
    To visit those thin places.
    But they need to be visits
    Not changes of address.
    The mountain top ceases to be significant
    If I don’t return to my regular day to day world.
    Even spiritual altitude sickness
    Can take your life.

    ©Susan Keith March 4, 2020

  3. Jeanne DeFazio on March 4, 2020 at 9:34 am

    Too much light is blinding. I find each dày new and wonderful insights into Scripture this Lent! Blinded by the light Paul reversed his persecution of Christians and followed Jesus. His transformation impacted Christianity. Light of the World, You stepped out into darkness opened my eyes let me see! God bless you for doing the same!

  4. DeAnne Stokes on March 5, 2020 at 10:09 am

    Yesterday at Sunset I did turn off all screens, watched from my balcony as the Sun dropped behind the mountain peak to the West at 5:15 pm. and for the next hour and 45 minutes watched as the light everywhere changed, the Moon appeared, one star and then more stars until the sky was dark.
    A beautiful experience and a remarkable sense of being connected to place and surrounded by the majesty of God’s creation.
    Thank you for offering up this Lenten path.

  5. Jane Buttery on March 5, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    I remember watching the sky when we lived in Australia for a year. We lived outside of Canberra and the night sky was sometimes spectacular. I was reminded of God telling Abraham that , from him, many would be born. (Genesis 15:5) ‘Now look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can … I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky,’ In the darkness, the richness of stars God provides for us to enjoy, is wonderful. It’s good in Canada too but so different in the southern hemisphere.

  6. Eben Carsey on March 18, 2020 at 5:53 pm

    Dear Brother Curtis, thank you for sharing your spiritual experience so generously and with such humility. May we all aspire to such spiritual humility. I am sure, and hope that you are also, that no matter how darkly we may see now, soon we will see, know, and be known face to face.

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