What Does the Phrase “Dark Night of the Soul” Actually Mean? For St. John of the Cross, who first coined the term through his own poetry, the “Dark Night of the Soul” is a season of “weaning” us from the...

Is It Normal to Lose Your Faith? Absolutely. However, I would make a differentiation between “losing faith” and “losing a kind of faith” or “outgrowing a stage of faith.” What Actually Caused This – A Specific Betrayal, a Loss, a...

I’m not sure why I am writing this. I feel compelled to, but I’m not sure why. I am a mystery to myself. Is this my attempt to share some truth, or is this some means by which I am...

I believe it was Father Thomas Keating, the Trappist Monk of Colorado and Massachusetts, who said that, “There are three sciences: STEM are the hard sciences, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the like are the soft sciences, and then there is...

On June 7th, 2025, Jess and I got hitched. It was a lovely day with waffles, omelettes, mimosas, and a coffee truck. More importantly, though, it was attended by beautiful people who have invested in us and inspired us to...

I mean, there we go. It’s the big question, isn’t it? What if the Dark Night of the Soul is necessary? Recently, I had a conversation with a delightful young person who went to school for ministry. They had tons...

I just can’t fully give up on faith. I don’t know if it is because it won’t give up on me, I have no idea. Here is what I believe: The literal world is at stake, and it is dependent...

This is a picture of former Trappist monk turned psychotherapist Jim Finley, who was once mentored by the (in)famous Thomas Merton. He is standing in front of Merton’s hermitage at the Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Trappist, Kentucky. Merton...