“I asked God to spare me nothing but life.” — Teddy Macker I first learned to practice from William Johnston’s book Christian Zen back when I was a shaggy haired 20 year old. It was a quake book, a book that shook my foundation, just as Brother Lawrence had done for me 5 years earlier. In Christian Zen the intersection of the disciplined approach of Zen and the pure gift of Christian contemplation spoke to me. As I deepened in my practice, I put Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God on the shelf for a few years, as …
Author: Swanson
James Finley on the Healing Path
“The beauty and illumination of Jim’s language, whether he is writing about trauma or God’s presence, open the heart. To read this book is to be changed forever.” — Bonnie Badenoch(Author of The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships) I was overly giddy, strangely nervous, but above all grateful to be in conversation with Jim about his breathtaking new book, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. Each page is a thousand pages deep, that is how Jim walks about the world, drawing from the depths and teaching with winsome grace, poetics, and …
It’s Not About the Beer, It’s About the Beer
“It’s not about the chocolate, it’s about the chocolate.” — Shawn Askinosie (A musing inspired by Shawn Askinosie’s story about Belgium beer brewing monks and the parables of Jesus) There once was a monastery in Belgium that was famous in its county for its delicious beer. And at the same time, on the other side of Belgium there was a Greedy Young Capitalist who was gifted a bottle of this beer. Upon tasting it for the first time, the Greedy Young Capitalist had an idea. So, the Greedy Young Capitalist set out for the monastery, and after days of travel, …