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Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
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Hall of Mirrors
- By Mark Dohle
- The Chapel - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Hall of Mirrors
Living in a monastery, where we share life in such a close way, can be daunting. We have different generations praying, eating, and working together. Each brings his own history, temperament, and perspective. Add to that differing political views, and it is not surprising that tensions can arise.
Love and Discernment
Jesus gave us counsels for living that are not always easy to apply. They require discernment.
For example, there are times when turning the other cheek is the right response—and times when it is not. Without discernment, even something good can be misapplied, and harm can be done. So we are asked not only to obey, but to reflect, to pause, and to seek wisdom before we act.
The Commandment of Love
There is, however, one commandment that admits of no exception:
to love God and to love others as we love ourselves.
This is not a sentimental love, nor one limited to friends or those we naturally get along with. It includes everyone—especially those who are different, difficult, or even unsettling to us. Such love is beyond our natural capacity. It can only grow in us through grace.
And yet, this commandment includes something we often overlook: we are to love others as we love ourselves. If our relationship with ourselves is marked by rejection or harshness, that will inevitably shape how we relate to others.
The Danger of Judgment
In monastic life, we encounter brothers we do not fully understand. Some remain, in a real sense, an enigma to us. We are not called to grasp everything about one another, but we are called to resist harsh and final judgments in our minds, which closes us off from who they really are. In a deeper sense, this is a failure of love—it diminishes both the one judged and the one judging.
A Hall of Mirrors
Our community can be seen as a kind of hall of mirrors. In others, we often encounter reflections of parts of ourselves—especially the parts we have lost touch with, or would rather not see. What we react to most strongly in others can reveal something within us. When we reject or condemn those reflections, we may also be rejecting something in ourselves. In that sense, judgment becomes not only a lack of charity toward others, but also toward our own inner life.
Self-Knowledge and the Inner Life
This is why self-knowledge is so important. It is part of the long and often difficult journey toward genuine self-love.
In prayer, as we go deeper, we begin to see ourselves more clearly. But this deeper knowledge can only take root if we are willing to accept what we see. This includes what is sometimes called the “shadow”: those underdeveloped, wounded, or even self-destructive aspects of our lives.
As our love of God grows, we slowly gain the capacity to face these parts of ourselves. When we can name them and hold them in Christ, they begin to lose their power to harm us—or others. They are no longer hidden forces, but something we can bring into the light.
Growth in Compassion
From this comes a deeper compassion. We begin to recognize that others are struggling as we are. Their faults no longer seem entirely foreign. We see that we are all on the same path, all in need of patience, mercy, and grace. Community life then becomes less of a burden and more of a place of transformation.
A Choice
But this path can also be refused. If we avoid self-knowledge, if we cling to judgment, then community easily becomes a cycle of tension and opposition. Relationships grow adversarial instead of life-giving. The hall of mirrors then becomes a place of distortion, where we only see what confirms our judgments.
But if we accept the work—if we allow God to guide us into truth—then those same mirrors can become a place of insight, humility, and growth in love.-Br.MD
Hall of Mirrors
- By Mark Dohle
- The Chapel - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Hall of Mirrors
Living in a monastery, where we share life in such a close way, can be daunting. We have different generations praying, eating, and working together. Each brings his own history, temperament, and perspective. Add to that differing political views, and it is not surprising that tensions can arise.
Love and Discernment
Jesus gave us counsels for living that are not always easy to apply. They require discernment.
For example, there are times when turning the other cheek is the right response—and times when it is not. Without discernment, even something good can be misapplied, and harm can be done. So we are asked not only to obey, but to reflect, to pause, and to seek wisdom before we act.
The Commandment of Love
There is, however, one commandment that admits of no exception:
to love God and to love others as we love ourselves.
This is not a sentimental love, nor one limited to friends or those we naturally get along with. It includes everyone—especially those who are different, difficult, or even unsettling to us. Such love is beyond our natural capacity. It can only grow in us through grace.
And yet, this commandment includes something we often overlook: we are to love others as we love ourselves. If our relationship with ourselves is marked by rejection or harshness, that will inevitably shape how we relate to others.
The Danger of Judgment
In monastic life, we encounter brothers we do not fully understand. Some remain, in a real sense, an enigma to us. We are not called to grasp everything about one another, but we are called to resist harsh and final judgments.
To label someone, to “box” them in, is to reduce them. It fixes them in our minds and closes us off from who they really are. In a deeper sense, this is a failure of love—it diminishes both the one judged and the one judging.
A Hall of Mirrors
Our community can be seen as a kind of hall of mirrors.
In others, we often encounter reflections of parts of ourselves—especially the parts we have lost touch with, or would rather not see.
What we react to most strongly in others can reveal something within us. When we reject or condemn those reflections, we may also be rejecting something in ourselves. In that sense, judgment becomes not only a lack of charity toward others, but also toward our own inner life.
Self-Knowledge and the Inner Life
This is why self-knowledge is so important. It is part of the long and often difficult journey toward genuine self-love.
In prayer, as we go deeper, we begin to see ourselves more clearly. But this deeper knowledge can only take root if we are willing to accept what we see. This includes what is sometimes called the “shadow”: those underdeveloped, wounded, or even self-destructive aspects of our lives.
As our love of God grows, we slowly gain the capacity to face these parts of ourselves. When we can name them and hold them in Christ, they begin to lose their power to harm us—or others. They are no longer hidden forces, but something we can bring into the light.
Growth in Compassion
From this comes a deeper compassion.
We begin to recognize that others are struggling as we are. Their faults no longer seem entirely foreign. We see that we are all on the same path, all in need of patience, mercy, and grace.
Community life then becomes less of a burden and more of a place of transformation.
A Choice
But this path can also be refused.
If we avoid self-knowledge, if we cling to judgment, then community easily becomes a cycle of tension and opposition. Relationships grow adversarial instead of life-giving.
The hall of mirrors then becomes a place of distortion, where we only see what confirms our judgments.
But if we accept the work—if we allow God to guide us into truth—then those same mirrors can become a place of insight, humility, and growth in love.-Br.MD
Happy Birthday, Mr. President...
- By Michie
- Ethics & Morality
- 2 Replies
Happy Birthday President Trump! 
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Browns Players Carson Schwesinger and Raheim Sanders Baptized at Cleveland for Christ Event
- By Michie
At the inaugural “Cleveland for Christ” event on Sunday (June 7), two pro football players were baptized and community members gathered for prayer, worship music, and faith-sharing. Cleveland Browns chaplain Nobles Darby IV led the event, which was free and open to the public.
Metro Cleveland FCA, the organizer behind “Cleveland for Christ,” encouraged people to especially invite young athletes and non-believers. Because the gathering was held at a municipal swimming pool, it was the ideal place to make faith declarations through baptism.
Two Browns players did exactly that. Linebacker Carson Schwesinger and running back Raheim Sanders were both baptized at Sunday’s event. Other players present—and wearing matching “Cleveland for Christ” shirts—included Shedeur Sanders (no relation to Raheim), Taylen Green, Zion Washington, Chris Edmonds, Mason Graham, Daniel Thomas, and Tyson Campbell.
Thomas and Campbell, who previously played together in Jacksonville, each led portions of the worship event with Chaplain Darby.
Continued below.
churchleaders.com
Metro Cleveland FCA, the organizer behind “Cleveland for Christ,” encouraged people to especially invite young athletes and non-believers. Because the gathering was held at a municipal swimming pool, it was the ideal place to make faith declarations through baptism.
Two Browns players did exactly that. Linebacker Carson Schwesinger and running back Raheim Sanders were both baptized at Sunday’s event. Other players present—and wearing matching “Cleveland for Christ” shirts—included Shedeur Sanders (no relation to Raheim), Taylen Green, Zion Washington, Chris Edmonds, Mason Graham, Daniel Thomas, and Tyson Campbell.
Thomas and Campbell, who previously played together in Jacksonville, each led portions of the worship event with Chaplain Darby.
Continued below.
Browns Players Carson Schwesinger and Raheim Sanders Baptized at Cleveland for Christ Event
Cleveland Browns players Carson Schwesinger and Raheim Sanders were baptized at the inaugural Cleveland for Christ event.
churchleaders.com
