One of the great people I met during my time in Atlanta was the writer, my friend, Carl McColman. Carl keeps several wonderful blogs (find one here) in addition to keeping up with publication deadlines for books he has in the pipeline, leading spiritual retreats, caring for his family and living into a life of simple holiness as a Lay Cistercian at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. An attribute I appreciate deeply about Carl is his ability to maintain "a non-anxious presence" with others in times of pain and difficulty. He has taught me much about fearlessness in the face of death. I don't mean just death in terms of our mortal bodies, but death in all its forms -- death of a dream, a way of being in the world, a false identity we have clung to in the past.
To follow Christ means to step into each day ready to die a little. Some days, to die a lot.
Life “given to the Spirit” stands as a healthy corrective to the anxiety of mortality. And I’m not talking about life after death — but rather about life before death. From now until the moment of our final breath, we are all given a limited amount of life.-- Carl McColman
Carl McColman giving a talk on Celtic spirituality at the Hill of Tara in Ireland.
