Tag: Jesus

The Christian Soul: The Devil

Published on by dpatrickcollins2 Comments

When I was young, my mother received a knock at the door one Saturday morning. It was the neighbor’s kid who could not have been more than four years old. “Do you know the Debo?” he asked. Puzzled, my mother asked, “Who?” “You know,” the small boy continued, putting his fingers to his head in the form of horns. “The Debo!”

Thus began my first encounter with theology in the public square. I thought to myself this neighbor kid was much too young to be worrying about the Devil. And in a way, all of us are. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: The Devil” →

The Christian Soul: Principles

Published on by dpatrickcollins4 Comments

I wish to expand on the idea we introduced in our last post concerning the idea of control in the Christian life and outline five principles pertaining to how control — or rather our surrendering of control — determines our success in the Christian life.

But first, let’s connect some dots and briefly discuss how control relates to the other concepts we have discussed in this series. Simply put, control is the opposite of love. You may say hate is, and that is fine. But in the context of relationship, control is more its opposite than anything else. When we seek control in a relationship, we have ceased to love. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Principles” →

The Christian Soul: Control

Published on by dpatrickcollins3 Comments

It is God working in the soul to make it like unto Himself. Perfection is neither more nor less than the faithful cooperation with this work.
— Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

I came to the Lord in a rather unusual way. I was raised Catholic, and though Catholics are not necessarily known for having (or at least professing) a personal relationship with Jesus, this young Catholic stumbled into one quite unexpectedly. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Control” →

The Christian Soul: Looking for a Way Out

Published on by dpatrickcollins5 Comments

So we are saying then is that the Christian life is a life motivated by love. That in the Christian life, we are only responsible to do what love for God compels us to do, and this is what true Christian spirituality is all about. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Looking for a Way Out” →

The Christian Soul: Acceptance

Published on by dpatrickcollins5 Comments

I have to let you in on a little secret: This whole series on Christian Spirituality is personal to me. I suppose any topic written is personal to its author in some way. But this one is especially so. When I talk of “you” and “us” and “we” in these discussions, I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else. The “you” inside me is listening to what I have to say.

And so last week when I introduced the question concerning what motivates us, I was thinking about what happened to me long ago. I was thinking about being told by some individuals I was not okay before God, and that the only way I could be okay before God was by doing everything the Bible said — which meant doing everything they said. It was that simple, really. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Acceptance” →