When The Teacher Comes

FACING OURSELVES HONESTLY is a bitter pill to swallow; we hope it is also good medicine. At the end of our rope, a guide or mentor can be just what is needed to move from self-pity to wholeness. If we can learn to trust. Dante fears that the bitter but gracious truths he had learned about himself will die with him, leaving no opportunity to be translated into life. He is ready for a teacher, but the Teacher has not come. Paul Patterson continues to channel Dante's imagination through the part of The Divine Comedy. In the twilight

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Tools of Character

AS DIFFICULT AS it is to learn to trust a mentor, it is even more arduous to break down our self suspicion. Do we have what it takes to break free of the entanglements of the Dark Wood - to melt with feeling-intellect the icy encrustations of Hell that keep us paralyzed in our self defeating patterns? We stare eyeball to eyeball at the antagonist within, sizing up our character and our chances of restoration.

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Traintalk: Am I a Tourist or a Pilgrim?

THE LAST FIVE years have been comfortable. THE LAST FIVE Admitting this comes hard for someone with my intensity. An amiable life conjures images of being lazy, being part of a bovine collective, lulled asleep by consumerism and the mind-numbing drone of what my grandfather called “the idiot box” — the family TV set. I laugh as I write this staring at recent additions to that idiot box: a DVD player, a VCR, and Digital Surround Sound. That little distraction that once graced the center of the living room has taken over. My so-called room of living has evolved

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A Review of The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Once I got over the Dickensian style, especially the delicate china doll description of his woman protagonist, Rosa Bud, I was hooked. This sadly foreshortened-by-death novel reveals as much in its superb descriptions, including a humanly depicted dish set, that speaks to the reader, as it does in its plot.

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Journey, Ascent and Development

Last night we studied different metaphors that have been used classically throughout the history of Christianity to describe the spiritual journey: Journey, Ascent and Developmental. Eldon presented each image and then described the positive and limited aspects of each. good for me to remember is that each image can be helpful in a certain context. Just because an image has limitations, doesn't mean that is doesn't serve people at a certain time in their spiritual lives. 1) The Journey - This image has a strong base in the Exodus journey of the Old Testament. As with any journey there are

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Mount Merton

fair-haired whelp of the Alps fragile
depth charge dodger
brought to himself.

Through motherlessness
black virgin Alabama
to Madonna girl, child of the drama.Through fatherfulness
securing nothing, liberation from France,
leads you in a desperate cheek to cheek dance.Through dissipation's fatigueyou're brought to God
lost layers of loneliness long to be heard.

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