Who are we in our deepest origins? When we look at Jesus, we see human nature as it is intended to be. Fully human, fully divine, Jesus shows us what human nature is, what the Divine nature is. Our goal is to go down, down and down into our own inner beauty and love, to rest in

I grew up in a world where being right eclipsed being faithful. Where factions and fences stood taller than following Jesus, Where desire was shameful, impulse was suspect, anxiety was sin, and the answer was a single word—no. I was formed in a system where correctness

Flying out to St. Francis Springs Retreat Center for The Soul Care Institute and pondering this meaty thought from Soren Kierkegaard: "A self is the last thing the world cares about and the most dangerous thing of all for a person to show signs of having. The greatest hazard of

Friends, this is an imaginative exercise I offer retreat participants when I speak on the three questions of Genesis 3 (see my book Healing What’s Within). I ask the participants to close their eyes and be present, imagining themselves in Eden as the drama unfolds, inviting them

Merton on a different form of dissent and resistance - a protest against participation in the “noise“:  “Soon I will cut bread, eat supper, say psalms, sit in the back room as the sun sets, as the birds sing outside the window, as silence descends on the valley, as night

The body keeps the score, but even more deeply it keeps the Story - echoes of Eden deep within, an ache of longing, subterranean memory which holds a story of beauty and dignity even within profoundly traumatized bodies. -Chuck DeGroat

"Divided among many loves, you are torn apart; you are restless everywhere, at peace nowhere. Gather yourself together in your true self. If anything outside you delights you, ask who is its maker." Augustine

We do not find Paul concerning himself with the size of churches or with questions about their growth. His primary concern is with their faithfulness, with the integrity of their witness.

Re: the idea that empathy or compassion is bad or even "toxic," a belief held by some Christians today. There is problem with that belief, and that problem comes from Jesus himself. Over and over in the Gospels, an important word is used to describe what Jesus feels whenever

Whew Tim Hoiland - Thank you.

I’m reflecting in a next book on character change these days, and I wonder if you’ve seen what I’ve seen - how the language of spiritual and emotional health has been co-opted. Might it be more helpful and substantial for us to talk less about health and more about the slow

The latest from chuck degroat on character, not health: "Character is forged slowly—measured not in weeks, but in years. Sometimes decades." sitwithchuck.substack.com/p/character-ma…

Just a few more days to apply to the next cohort of the wonderful Soul Care Institute share.google/nS0OQ2eTJSxB68…

"Loving humility is a terrible force." Here’s the context: “At some thoughts a man stands perplexed, above all at the sight of human sin, and he wonders whether to combat it by force or by humble love. Always decide: ‘I will combat it by humble love.’ If you resolve on

“We do not have to be greatly successful or even well known. It is enough for our integrity to be known to God.” —Thomas Merton (A Book of Hours) HT Alex Regets

Naming clergy harm didn't begin a decade ago. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine, and lest you lay such stumbling blocks before the blind as may be the occasion of their ruin." (Richard Baxter, 1656)

"I need solitude. I need space. I need air. I need the empty fields round me, and my legs pounding along roads, and sleep, and animal existence." -Virginia Woolf, The Diary of Virginia Woolf

You’ve been told the lie (though not in so many words) that if you don’t shine You’ll disappear. That you won’t be seen if you’re not on. That digital space is crowded and the algorithms demand your sacrifice. Feed the glow, they say Curate brilliance (even if you don’t have

"Those who do not speak the words of God with humility must be advised that when they apply medicine to the sick, they must first inspect the poison of their own infection, or else by attempting to heal others, they kill themselves.” ― Pope Gregory I, The Book of Pastoral Rule,

Looking for a Sunday afternoon read? You can access my newest Healing What’s Within at a great Kindle sale price of $3.99 right now - but likely not for long. amazon.com/Healing-Whats-…