During this COVID-19 crisis, many will spend their time in leisure – or they should. With so many cancellations, in which the majority of sports and events are being closed down, it is critical for us to understand what leisure is and why it is important. We can spend our many idle hours being consumed in mindless activities like binge watching ...

Dr. Paul Griffiths recently made the surprising claim that Christians don’t need leisure: The deleterious effects of narcissism are evident in the work of many, Christian and otherwise, who advocate leisure as good for us, appropriate to us, necessary for us, a blessing to us, an aid to contemplation, the foundation of culture, and so on. Christ...

“I am fed up with my job!” How many of us have said this. Yes, I am raising my hand too. I think that one of the biggest reasons people get fed up comes from the inability to rest well. There are obviously two extremes in this work/ life balance. On the one hand, you can spend all your time working and never get a real break where you leave ...

What could a text written in Germany well over a half century ago possibly teach us about our contemporary lives? For Josef Pieper, “leisure” properly understood is not just “sitting around,” but is a disposition of the heart and mind to receive the reality of the world as it is given to us – to receive life as a gift. Pieper remind...

The Christian life is not easy.  We are a people called to perfection (Mt 5:48), but we achieve it ever so gradually.  We implore God for His grace and put forth much effort, but perfection always seems to escape us.  This often leads to discouragement, and even at times despair.  Unable to relate to the Psalmist—“But you, O Lord…are the ...

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.  The passions of anger and hate are actually aroused because you love something, and that something is being threatened.   This is the sense in the Gospels when Jesus says we must “hate” even father, mother, and so on for His sake.  This is not meant to say that we are to actively disdain ...

Jesus reveals that true manhood loses itself for the beloved.  But what if we don’t see others as exactly loveable, let alone “beloved”?  If you are having trouble really loving, perhaps you’re having trouble seeing.  We look at humanity and the humans that make it up (even those close to us) and see sin, error, ugliness – but God saw ...

I looked at the map. It was as incomprehensible as my handwriting. “Somehow from this series of lines, I have to make a decision that will dictate the success and safety of our trip.” I had to decide where we would backcountry ski that day. One wrong decision and we could be swept away by an avalanche. Or even worse – I could lead the grou...