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Monthly Archives: June 2014
The Differences between Terminal and Chronic Illness
D. G. Myers writes a very frank article, The Mercy of Sickness before Death, about some aspects of his experience of end stage metastatic prostate cancer. You may, for instance, become more conscious of time. What once might have seemed like wastes of time—a solitaire game, a television show you would never have admitted to …
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The Sacred as Discussed by Roger Scruton
Philosophy Bites has an interesting podcast with Roger Scruton discussing his understanding of the sacred. In particular he draws upon our experience of each other to help us grasp a sense of the sacred.
Silence and Spirituality
A few years ago the BBC ran a three-part series, The Big Silence, about a group of only-vaguely-religious people undergoing an individually-guided, Ignatian retreat at St Beuno’s Retreat House in North Wales. Though good viewing in and of itself it was undermined by a rather confused premiss: the programme tried to invite the participants into …
‘Peirce’s argument for form’
James Chastek over at Just Thomism has an interesting short post on Peirce’s argument against Nominalism ‘in favor of forms that are both common and existing in things apart from the consideration of mind’. Chastek illustrates the argument this way: I can pick up and drop ten rocks and watch them fall each time, and I …
Cosmology, Evil, Art
The mind a creature is, yet can create, To nature’s patterns adding higher skill ; from ‘Look Home’ by Robert Southwell, SJ Brandon at Siris has a fascinating reflection, The Subcreation of Ephemeral Good, twining together theodicy, human and divine creativity, and cosmology. He says he was prompted by two posts I had been mulling …
’13 Tips From 13 Years Sick’
Toni Bernhard over at Turning Straw into Gold has some good advice on living with chronic illness. in her post 13 Tips From 13 Years Sick. For example: 11. Prepare yourself for the possibility that you’ll be chronically ill for the rest of your life. This may not be the right course for everyone, but …
Weird Search Terms
One of the joys of website statistics is seeing what Google search terms have brought people to your site. Most of the ones leading here are WordPress-plugin-related. A few are to do with Ignatian spirituality or prayer. Today I noticed this one: magic spell for catching minnows Indeed a few pages down the Google search …
Spiritual Exercise, Part II
I noted in a previous post that St. Ignatius prefers to talk about spiritual exercises or practices rather than about praying as such. I explored the way new retreatants often are surprised that a retreat can feel like hard work. Another surprise is in the offing if they come with the expectation that they will …
ME and the Immune System
Cort Johnson at Simmaron Research writes about an upcoming study of how the immune system is compromised in ME patients. For thirty or forty years you might be able to easily slough off this bug or that pathogen, but at some point for some reason the stars aligned; you were depleted in just the right …