Saturday, August 24, 2013

Mary & Mimetic Desire

Those of you who attended the first T&P meeting in Chicago might remember that I presented a paper called Living by the Breath of God. This was and is something of a manifesto for developing Christian spirituality with an in the truth of mimetic desire. I decided to post this paper on my blog for those who wish to review it or read it for the first time. In retrospect, I see that it has set the direction for my continuing thoughts over the past years.

The Feast of St. Mary the Virgin was on August 15 and I posted my reflections on Our Lady and the tradition of the Assumption in Mary's Blessedness, Everybody's Blessedness.  In this article, I refer to Drasko Dizdar's magnificent book Sheer Grace which I strongly recommend for a deep Girardian exploration of the Eucharist and the Church Year.

Two days later, I got to preach on Jesus' hard saying about bringing a sword (or Division) instead of Peace. This from the Prince of Peace of all people" This raises the question whose sword he was talking about  which I discuss in Human Swords, God's Peace.

Since I have now posted quite a few articles on mimetic desire, and since the concept is unfamiliar to many, I have had to constantly add cross-references, I have put all these articles together on a page called Mimetic Desire and Mimetic Rivalry that will expand with new entries. This will be handy for a review or to help any newbie get oriented as to what this is all about.

Speaking of mimetic desire, I have just started what I expect to be a series of posts called Mimetic Desire and Truth. The first post in the series is available here. Stay tuned for more!

The main page of the blog for those who wish to go there is here.

The more I explore mimetic desire and the more implications I see for its applicability for the Christian life and the human life in this time that continues to become more turbulent, the more important I think it is to spread the word about it through our own reflections and making the reflections of our friends and colleagues known to others. I know that time is finite for all of us, but telling people we know when we have a chance, sharing links on Facebook & sending tweets and retweets on Twitter can all help spread the word.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Transfigured Mirror Neurons

I start with Mary & Martha who were featured in the Gospel reading a couple of weeks ago. My reflections are posted in Mary and Martha at the Feet of Jesus.

 Then I finally got around to writing a post briefly introducing mirror neurons for those who haven't heard the rumors from the scientific world about them in Mirroring Desires.

Some follow-up reflections exploring a few more ramifications of mimetic desire are posted in Connecting our Desires.

With the Feast of the Transfiguration coming up Tuesday August 6, I posted these thoughts in Transfiguration of the Material World.

If you want, you can go straight to the main page of Imaginary Visions of True Peace.

Ever wanted to have Christmas in July? Well, here is a chance. Thanks to a friend of the abbey, we have just posted an eBook version of my collection of Christmas stories called Born in the Darkest Time of Year. Kindle & Nook formats are available for $4.00 per copy. (my publisher hasn't bothered to do these formats.) You can order paperback hard copy of any of my books from the Abbey's website. PayPal is accepted. If you don't have an account with PayPal & don't want to make one, you can check out just using a credit card.