Author: tomstellawebsite

“Now at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken… So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and traveled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem…in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. … Continue reading Glory to God in the Lowest

“Life is short. Remember that, too. I’ve always known this. Or almost always. I’ve been living with mortality for decades, since my mother died of ovarian cancer when she was forty and I was nineteen. And this is what I learned from that experience: that knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God … Continue reading Life is Short

“Familiarity need not breed contempt, but it can breed a complacency that encourages us to take things for granted. Too often, we fail to appreciate the people and experiences that enrich our daily lives. Their proximity to us dulls our sensitivity to their beauty and uniqueness, and they start to come across as unremarkable landmarks … Continue reading Grateful for Life

“In the chapters to come, I speak often of my own mistakes – of wrong turns I have taken, of misreading of my own reality – for hidden in these moments are important clues to my own vocation. I do not feel despondent about my mistakes…though I grieve the pain they have sometimes caused others. … Continue reading The Crooked Path Home

“A pious old man prayed five times a day while his business partner never set foot in church. And now, on his eightieth birthday he prayed thus: Oh Lord our God! Since I was a youth, not a day have I allowed to pass without coming to church in the morning and saying my prayers…Not a … Continue reading God, Person or Presence

  “Early Christian monks went out to live in the desert in order to find emptiness. Modern life is becoming so full that we need our ways of going to the desert to be relieved of our plenty. Our heads are crammed with information, our lives busy with activities, our cities stuffed with automobiles, our … Continue reading The Virtue of Emptiness

“Poet Robert Frost was awaiting admittance…into a student fraternity and was told confidentially that only one factor was delaying his entry: the fact that he took long walks in the woods by himself…He was caught being an individual, with an inner life of his own, instead of the dead and public machine life of joining … Continue reading The Road Not Taken