Entries by

On the way to peace (I)

Defining PEACE, the fullness of all goodness, is not easy. We know what it is until we try to explain it or, in order to do so, we look it up in a dictionary, and then suddenly we realize how ignorant we are. But lacking peace is more painful than our ignorance. Will words help […]

Happiness of the gaze

Happy those who stop their gaze without haste, those who do not shy away from the others’ gaze. Happy those who fix their most attentive gaze on the most every day events, and apparently insignificant. Happy those whose immediate, daily problems do not prevent them from reach the horizon. Happy those whose eyes have been […]

Empathy

The word empathy emerged in the 20th century to express the capacity to understand the feelings of others from right inside oneself. It is derived from the Greek empatheia, although, strictly speaking, this word means passion, affliction (en: inside; pathos: feeling, suffering). The Greek word to denote empathy was sympatheia (“to suffer with” the other […]

Let me weep for you

Let me weep for you Let me weep for you, my brother. Let me hold you, my sister, your aching heart beating against the rhythm of my own, our tears mingling, our ancient angers pooled red around our feet. And when our hearts dry and our tears slow, may we see in one another’s eyes […]

Spirituality and Transcendence: how to live the old age

              (Lecture delivered in the SUMMER COURSES of the UPV-EHU –University of the Basque Country–, in the Course “Meaning and spirituality of life. Taking on new dimensions in the old age paradigms”, in Miramar Palace, Donostia-San Sebastian, September 13, 2021) I start these reflections with two biblical sentences and three introductory observations. “A rich experience […]

Autumn

           Rafa Redondo writes: My dear friends, It has been a while since my last newsletter. The existence of each and every one of us has changed somewhat. After nearly two years, I find myself in the body of an 80-year-old man in a delicate state of health that is affecting my capacity to receive […]

Ángel Mari Unzueta, travelling companion

In the tribute that his family and friends paid to him in Urkiola,  one year after his unexpected death:   I greet you, Ángel Mari, in this place that you loved so much, Urkiola, crossroads of paths. You also had to live at the crossroads of two eras and two Churches, and you opted without […]

Fire in the Catholic Church

In April 2019, while the world stared with astonished eyes, the flames destroyed a seizable part of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, the most beautiful cathedral in the world, the one I had visited so many times with deep emotion. But those flames were nothing compared to the devastating fire the Sauvé Report just set on, […]

Today I celebrate Francis of Assisi

            Today, 4 October, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, little, poor and brother, a past that is future. 800 years ago, he wrote: Blessed is the servant who would love his brother as much when he is sick and cannot repay him as he would when he is well and can repay him […]

I don’t want to be a dualist

The article “Yo quiero ser dualista” (I want to be a dualist) recently posted by Carlos F. Barberá on the ATRIO website (www.atrio.org) takes me somewhat by surprise and leads me to certain reflections, which I will set out calmly and simply. 1. The first thing I find perplexing has to do with the title. […]