Mining the Now

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM    October 12, 2025

We’ve had something of a litany of saints this past week: Memorials of St. Therese, the Guardian Angels, St. Francis Borgia, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Bruno, and today we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. When we reflect on Mary’s life expressed in the mysteries of the Rosary, we see a woman who was fully available to God in her life of prayer and service. She models for us how to be attuned to the Holy in every aspect of our lives.

In both of our readings today, we also see an emphasis on listening, attunement, especially as it leads to fresh attitudes and a change of heart. First, the prophet Jonah (Jonah 3:1-10), who’s been pretty reluctant to go where God has been calling him. Yesterday we heard about his unfortunate encounter with a very large fish. This time, though, Jonah truly gets the message and goes to Nineveh to preach repentance. Amazingly, he had made it through only one third of the city when the people of Nineveh took his message to heart. And the king also, when he heard Jonah’s words, immediately proclaimed a communal fast and repentance. That’s a pretty rapid conversion, isn’t it?

What might this say to us? When we come for a retreat, we’re also being invited into deep listening and a profound change of heart. To live inside of a more tender energy. To see and to hear with the eyes and ears of Jesus. To stand in the place of love that Jesus offers.

Our Gospel is the familiar story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), having their friend, Jesus, over for dinner. I suspect this was never intended to pit contemplation against action, Mary listening and attentive at the feet of Jesus versus Martha cooking in the kitchen with her sleeves rolled up. I prefer to hear it as related ways of being fed: fed with deep listening to the word of God and fed by a meal and loving service. But not to compare ourselves, as Martha did, with what others are already engaged in. Instead, to be fully present and fully attuned to the Holy One in whatever we’re about.

So how might we live the message of this Gospel? When we are what Ignatian spirituality calls “contemplatives in action.” When we engage in inner soul work and are also deeply engaged in God’s work in the world. When we join God’s active labor to heal the world. To pray and to act in ways that move us closer to God’s dream for our world—abundant life for everyone, no exceptions. This spiritual practice invites us to seek and to find the Holy One everywhere in our workplaces, homes, families, and communities.

As we’re near the end of this directed retreat, we might be wondering: How will we integrate the graces from this retreat once we return home? The spiritual writer, Steve Garnaas-Holmes, was wondering about this very question as he ended his vacation. Listen to what he wrote:

“Back from a week in a cabin on the coast of Maine.  I’m all slowed down.  The thing now is not to jump back up into fifth gear and start hurrying and fretting and multitasking all night long.  Don’t come back from vacation or retreat and fill up with stuff.  Stay a little vacant.  Keep the empty place.  Stay slow.  Keep paying attention, keep being deeply present.

“The thing as I rise from prayer is to stay in prayer. The purpose of prayer, or vacation, or retreat is not just to come up for air so you can go back into the fray, but also to slow yourself down so that what you go back into isn’t a fray.” Could this be the one thing Jesus hinted to Martha? To stay rooted in prayer even when we’re not at our times of prayer?

During these days of retreat, we’ve been living as contemplatives in action. Listening to the cries of our beautiful yet wounded world and holding those needs in our prayer. Savoring silence and being nourished by the word of God—and also some fabulous meals. Gathering the rhythm of the waves, the cry of the gulls, the changing color of the leaves, and turning our awe into thanksgiving for these gifts. Wanting everyone to have what we have here. Setting our intention to return home renewed in compassion and justice and kinship with everyone we encounter.

So tomorrow, may re-entry be gentle with all of us. Whatever might await us on the other end, may we keep the empty place and stay slow. May we stay rooted in prayer even when we’re not at our times of prayer. May we remember the grace we’ve received from these days, the one thing needed. The one thing that is more than enough. Because the Holy One’s love at work in us knows no limits, has no end, and is infinitely more than we could ask or imagine. May it be so!

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
Reflect on the tasks or events ahead of you this day.
How might you hope to be in prayer even when you’re not at your usual times of prayer?
Ask the Holy One to help you stay slow and attuned.

You might also use this Takeaway at the end of your day as a review of your deep listening.

Featured Images:  Isaac Owens, Unsplash; Sam Badmaeva, Unsplash

NOTE:
Welcome back to Mining the Now.
Thank you for remembering me during my September hiatus from writing and posting this blog. As you can see, today’s blog post is an adaptation of a reflection I offered during my time at Eastern Point Retreat House.

Thank you for your prayerful remembrance of all who were part of my retreat experiences during the month of September:

September 7 – 12:
A guided retreat for the Maryknoll Sisters in Ossining, NY.

Week of September 15:
My own retreat

September 30 – October 8:
Directed retreat at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, MA. I served as a guest director for this retreat.

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

Go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)* In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe” and follow any prompts. When you receive a confirmation email, be sure to confirm. Otherwise, you won’t be subscribed. Once you confirm, you’ll then be subscribed to automatically receive any future blog posts from Mining the Now.

*NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   August 31, 2025

No wonder I yelped. The lifeforce in my tiny garden has burst out in a riot of fuchsia, bright orange, shades of yellow, deep pink, and green. In this densely packed space, even weeds are intimidated. You can imagine my surprise when I was maneuvering my watering can one humid morning and the large gray feral cat that roams the neighborhood jumped out from under a patch of Black-eyed Susans. I had unintentionally watered him, and we looked at each other, startled.

In hindsight, I should not have been so stunned. This summer I had been noticing Tom (a really original name, I know) had chosen as his preferred spot for lounging a space on the patio right next to pots of mint and basil and lavender. I wondered if he was drawn by their fresh scents or if the attraction was the direct line of sight this gave him for gazing at the flower bed bursting with color on the ground below.

Because Tom really was gazing in that inscrutable way of cats. Delighting in something akin to the way I bask and breathe in all that beauty and whisper, “Thank you!”

Which drew me into a wondering about soul, the souls of animals. I’ve read that Thomas Aquinas considered animals to have what he called sensitive souls, the animating principle of living organisms. I suspect, however, that Thomas might have been shocked to hear my third grade self insisting that I did not want to go to heaven if Corky, our beloved Cocker Spaniel mix and the sweetest being I had ever met, was ineligible for the afterlife. How could I be happy forever with God, I wondered, if a resurrected Corky could not be at my side in heaven? How, indeed.

I imagine that all of us who delight in, care for, and talk to any four legged companions sense that dogs and cats and other members of the animal world are more than pets. In New Tricks: How Pet Ministry Can Transform Faith Communities and Change Lives, the authors note that, just as the Holy One offers love without conditions or expectations and loves us simply as we are, so “our animal friends embody this kind of love” and offer a glimpse of unfailing faithfulness. What a sacred kinship we find ourselves enjoying when we enter into relationships with these sensitive souls created by the Holy One. Who lean in closer. Who nuzzle us. Who read our moods and emotions. Who scrutinize and scan our expressions. Who show us affection, no matter what.

What I propose is not so much a theology as a deep intuitive knowing. I’m quite certain that Mary Oliver and many of us are aligned in naming the company of animals as yet one more expression of the love the Holy One holds for us. With the poet, may we also prepare our hearts and be engaged in “Making the House Ready for the Lord”:

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed
but still nothing is as shining as it should be
for you. Under the sink, for example, is an
uproar of mice—it is the season of their
many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves
and through the walls the squirrels
have gnawed their ragged entrances—but it is the season
when they need shelter, so what shall I do? And
the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard
while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;
what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling
in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly
up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will
come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox,
the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know
that really I am speaking to you whenever I say,
as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, Come in.

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
If you have furry companions nearby, invite them to sit with you for a bit.
Or set before you their photo or an image of an animal you’re drawn to love.
Reflect on the qualities of these animals that hint at the love of the Holy One for you.
Give thanks for the wonder of all creation.

Featured Images:  unscriptedMe, Unsplash; Nicholas Brownlow, Unsplash

NOTE:
During the nine years I’ve been writing for Mining the Now, it’s been my custom to take a break from writing for one month each year. For 2025, that pause will be in September. I’ll still be engaged in retreat ministry but will not be posting any new blogs until October.

Meantime, we continue to hold in our hearts the wounded in our world, especially the children of Gaza and Ukraine and Minneapolis and those who give their lives over to caring for and protecting them.

Please also hold in your prayer all who will be part of these retreat experiences during September:

September 7 – 12:
Guided retreat for the Maryknoll Sisters in Ossining, New York

September 15 – 20:
My own retreat

September 30 – October 8:
Directed retreat at Eastern Point Retreat House, Gloucester, MA
I will be one of the guest directors for this retreat.
Thank you!

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

On a laptop or PC, go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org) *In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe”. Be sure to CONFIRM your email address when prompted, so that you’ll now be subscribed to automatically receive any new blog posts from Mining the Now.

*NOTE: If you’re trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll now be able to see the full blog page on your phone.  Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following Mining the Now!

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   August 17, 2025

When I’m away for retreat ministry, I love to take in the neighborhood surrounding a retreat center. Fortunately for me, many of the places where I serve as a guest director during spring and summer months are near the ocean. As a “Jersey Girl,” this nearness to the sea always feels like a homecoming of sorts, and a revisiting of the many weeks my family spent soaking up sun and surf every summer. Once I cross a bridge, smell the sea air, and listen to the cry of the gulls, I’m home.

Being in the neighborhood of the Atlantic Ocean invites reflection on how the landscapes of our early lives, our formative years, shape us and create a sense of home and the familiar. For me, it’s the sound of the surf; for others, the majesty of a mountain range or the stillness and hidden life of a desert, or a campground surrounded by forest and lakes, or a lush tropical paradise. These sacred natural places offer us renewal and a chance to restore our souls.

While walking in the neighborhood that surrounds the retreat center here in Stone Harbor, I noticed a sign over the front door of a condo. I smiled as I read “The Seventh Day.” I’m wondering if the seventh day might be a reference to the Genesis story, where God enters into the divine labor of both imagining and then creating shapes and forms: flowing bodies of water and the creatures that spend their lives in them; birds who move effortlessly through the air; the brilliance of a night sky filled with stars; solid ground, flat or mountainous, sandy or clay or limestone; every finned and furry and feathered animal; and finally, the human family walking on two feet. Then I picture the Holy One doing what many an artist, poet, sculptor, composer does: resting a bit, savoring what has been created, entering into a very long gaze, and then saying, “Oh, wow! This is really good!”

Perhaps we’ve experienced the inevitable consequence of returning home after vacation or retreat. After being immersed in the Wow! of creation for a few days, a week, or even longer, the challenge, as we pack up to head home becomes this: how to hold the peace and the beauty and the slower pace that offered us time to tend to body and soul now that we’re heading back to “the rest of our lives.”

In “Don’t Come Back Soon,” one of his posts for Unfolding Light excerpted here, Steve Garnaas-Holmes wondered about exactly this as he prepared to head home from a break.

He writes, “Back from a week in a cabin on the coast of Maine.  I’m all slowed down.  The thing now is not to jump back up into fifth gear and start hurrying and fretting and multitasking and plowing all night long.  Don’t come back from vacation and fill up with stuff.  Stay a little vacant.  Keep the empty place.  Stay slow.  Keep paying attention, keep being deeply present.

The thing as I rise from prayer is to stay in prayer. The purpose of prayer, or vacation, or sabbath, or sleep, is not just to come up for air so you can go back into the fray but also to slow yourself down so what you go back into isn’t a fray….

Go on vacation, or into prayer, or on sabbath, early and often.  Go there now.  And don’t come back soon.”

Thank you, Steve, for your reminder to hold on to the peace we have taken in. May our re-entry after any time away be gentle. May we keep in our hearts glimpses of beauty and remembrances of the community we find in the natural world. May we discover and practice ways to abide there for a very long time.

Takeaway

Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
If you’ve returned from time away, pause and reflect on how your re-entry process has been going.
If you’re about to depart for retreat or vacation, pause and be aware of what you might be bringing home with you.
If you have no upcoming travel or trips on your calendar, pause and practice already now an awareness of the natural world around you.
Name for the Holy One what you most appreciate in the created world.
Give thanks for the loveliness of God’s creation.

Featured Images:  Jaime Dantas, Unsplash; Jon Tyson, Unsplash

NOTE:
Thank you for your prayer for all who are part of a directed retreat at Villa Maria by the Sea Retreat Center in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, still going on as I write. The retreat concludes on Monday and I’m continually grateful for the many ways you support me and my mobile spirituality ministry.

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

Go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)* In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe” and follow any prompts: when you receive an email asking you to confirm that you wish to subscribe, be sure to confirm. Otherwise, you won’t be subscribed. After you confirm, you’ll automatically receive any future blog posts from Mining the Now.

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   August 3, 2025

True confession: every so often something catches my eye on social media and I go down the rabbit hole in pursuit of it, losing track of time in the excitement and promise of the search. Judging by the number of pets and wild animals that appear in my Facebook feed, it would seem that Alice in Wonderland has nothing on me.

A recent rabbit hole experience led me to chase a singular trait of the Golden Retriever, beloved to me and so many. I’ve experienced Goldens up close thanks to my sister and brother-in-law’s family, beginning first with Bobbie, surely the most affectionate, gentle, and goofy creature ever to grace this world.

During my plunge down the rabbit hole, I discovered that Golden Retrievers were originally bred in Scotland as hunting dogs with the ability to retrieve game birds without harming them. Goldens are known for their “soft mouth,” a disposition towards gentle handling of objects, particularly when retrieving. Goldens can carry fragile things like raw eggs in their mouths without cracking or harming them. (Apparently, stuffed toys are the exception to this leaning). But it seems that this physical trait can also be a behavior, a way of life, a tendency to handle all objects gently.

This new learning offers spiritual parallels. My journey down the rabbit hole of Golden Retrievers has invited me to sit with the unusual trait common to this breed and to wonder how it might apply to our two-legged species. What might it look like if the human family deliberately cultivated a spiritual “soft mouth?”

In our world often marked by the marshaling of words weaponized to wound, demean, and separate, I often gaze at a piece of wall art hanging above my desk. It speaks to this question and my calling as a writer by reminding me, “Words are so powerful they should only be used to heal, to bless, to prosper.” Only that. Healing. Blessing. Doing whatever fosters the growth of the human spirit and of all creation. Promoting whatever ushers into all lives a worldview marked by welcome and tenderness.

We can cultivate a soft mouth even when protesting injustice, raising our voices loudly and with passion yet conscious of tone that respects the other. We can do this even when condemning social sin that oppresses those made vulnerable by poverty, hunger, or war, as we refuse to cut off the one sinning from the possibility of turnaround towards compassion. Is cultivating a nonviolent spirit possible, with God’s grace? Yes, absolutely. Is it difficult? Yes, beyond words. We know that making the Holy One’s stance of unconditional love our default setting is the work of a lifetime.

Recently I read a response from a woman who was asked why it was important to be kind, which I consider an essential quality of a soft mouth. She answered, “Because we walk past hundreds of people every day and none of them wear signs that say, ‘I’m grieving.’ ‘I’m exhausted’ or ‘I’m barely holding it together.’ But they’re everywhere. Kindness might be the only softness they receive today.”

As persons struggling to be the face of Love, the voice of Love, in a world both broken and beautiful, may the words springing from our hearts and flowing from our mouths foster healing, offer tenderness, and little by little transform every one of us.

Takeaway

Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
You may want to bring to your prayer a person or situation in your life that makes it difficult for you to practice a soft mouth.
Share this challenge with the Holy One.
Listen.
Ask for the grace of a deepening tenderness.

Featured Images: Faber Leonardo, Unsplash; Matt Collamer, Unsplash

NOTE:

August 11-18:

Please hold in your prayer all who will be part of a directed retreat at Villa Maria by the Sea Retreat Center in Stone Harbor, NJ. Villa Maria is staffed by the IHM Sisters (Immaculata) who have a special place in my heart. I’m delighted and honored to serve as the guest director for this retreat. Thank you for your prayer.

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

Go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)* In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe” and follow any prompts: when you receive an email asking you to confirm that you wish to subscribe, be sure to confirm. Otherwise, you won’t be subscribed. After you confirm, you’ll automatically receive any future blog posts from Mining the Now.

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   July 20, 2025

So here we are these days, engaged in this very countercultural thing called retreat. Why are we here? Ultimately, because we desire to tenderize our hearts and cultivate the mercy that the Holy One desires. Ah, but there’s a bit of a wrinkle, isn’t there? Because to tenderize our hearts, we have to change in some way. We have to move from where we were when we arrived to where the Holy One is calling us though deep listening.

And about this moving: Like the people of Israel hurrying into the wilderness (Exodus 11:10-12:14); like the disciples following Jesus who had no place to lay his head (Matthew 12:1-8), we can’t carry a lot of luggage with us. We carry in our hearts these days the weight of the lives lost to floods in the Texas Hill Country, the terror of our immigrant sisters and brothers on the move, and so much more. During this retreat, we  need to pare things down to an attitude of readiness. To enter into deep inner soul work.

What does it mean to eat and to live like people in flight? This question reminded me of  my first trip to Haiti in 1993. I was invited to be part of a human rights delegation when Haiti was under brutal rule by the oppressive Tonton Macoute. Our delegation was charged with gathering stories of human rights abuses and bringing them home to the US to raise awareness. We were told that we’d be traveling in a cramped van and could bring only one very tiny suitcase and one backpack. And since there were no stores anywhere in Haiti, we’d need to bring every supply we thought we might need. For 4 weeks!

Even though I always joke that I don’t go anywhere that I can’t use my hair dryer, my heart was moved to say yes. Every day, we had appointments with Haitian people who were risking their lives to come and share their stories of injustice with us. They were catechists and peasants and clerics and farmers and activists. So the first day, we Americans gathered at 10:00 AM to meet with one of them. Then it was 10:30. Then 11:00 and no one came. Sometimes we waited for hours until it was safe for the person to come out of hiding to meet with us.

I still carry their courage and their passion in my heart. I thank them for stretching my worldview and witnessing to me what it means to live like those in flight. To come out of the shadows and speak up for the common good. To entrust your life to the mercy of the Holy One. To hold your possessions, your time, your convenience very lightly. To take the long view of what is really essential.

We know that when people are on the move, like the Israelites or the disciples who followed Jesus, sometimes they’re uprooted in seconds. So when we see the disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath because they’re hungry, we get it. It’s like having a minivan full of hungry children and no McDonald’s in sight. And yet the Pharisees ignored the very critical human need for food and instead focused on the rules. They overlooked what was moral and pastoral: feeding bodies and showing mercy.

I like how the Message Bible translates the response Jesus gave to the Pharisees. We’ve heard it as “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” In the Message Bible, the Pharisees complain: “Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath rules.” And Jesus responds, “I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual.” A flexible heart!

As we listen to the directions for the Passover meal and how to eat it, those words remind us of the modern day thousands who are on the move, and not by choice: our neighbors at the border. The people of Gaza and South Sudan. All refugees holding their breath on an uncertain journey. All people living with the threat of bombing or famine. All those in flight.

So during this retreat, as we’re seeking our own healing and wholeness, may we not stand at a distance from our neighbors in need, from the woundedness of our world.

May we spend this time and the days that follow deeply contemplative, radically generous, and always attentive to the movement of the Holy One. May we cultivate and take home with us a heart that is both merciful and flexible. May it be so!

Takeaway

Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
You may want to place before you a small suitcase or traveling bag.
Spend some time reflecting on what you might want to pack in it: what will work for your well-being, or bring you comfort, or provide for your essential needs.
Invite into your prayer all those who at this moment are fleeing for their safety or for a place of peace and hope, and who have no time to pack.
Add comfort and compassion and spaciousness of heart to your bag. Offer a gesture of sharing it with your neighbors.

Featured Images:   Salah Darwish, Unsplash; Sisters of IHM, Border photo

NOTE:
This blog post was adapted from a reflection I offered on July 18 at the Sisters of St. Joseph Spirituality Center in Ocean Grove, NJ, where I served as a guest director for a directed retreat. Thank you for your prayerful support for all who are still part of that retreat.

July 25-27:
Please hold in your prayer my IHM Sisters and Associates as we gather for our annual Assembly and Jubilee weekend in Scranton and on Zoom. Thank you.

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

Go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)* In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe” and follow any prompts: when you receive an email asking you to confirm that you wish to subscribe, be sure to confirm. Otherwise, you won’t be subscribed. After you confirm, you’ll automatically receive any future blog posts from Mining the Now.

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   July 6, 2025

One of the briefest conversations I entered recently began with the invitation, “Tell me about your dreams.” I have friends who can recount in vivid detail and in technicolor every aspect of how their consciousness came alive during the night and offered them fantasies or sometimes strange and seemingly unrelated stories. Sometimes these dreams are easily traceable back to an event that happened during the day or to a long-standing hope, worry, or fear. Sometimes they seem to have no grounding in reality but leave a person wanting to get to the root of significance and meaning.

I confess to feeling a bit jealous of these slumber experiences because when I’m asked what fills my sleep, I have nothing to talk about. I have almost no recollection of anything beyond getting into bed and then waking up. I do, however, have an answer to that invitation to share my dreams. You see, I believe I dream while I’m fully awake.

If I’m at home during the day, I’m usually engaged in creative and imaginative work in writing or planning presentations or I’m fully engaged in attentive presence to people I accompany in spiritual direction. All of this brings me face to face with both the joy and the pain of our world, so I’m understandably spent when I go to sleep. I’ve come to understand that for me, sleep is a time of restoration. The work of the day is pretty much given over to accompaniment of some kind, standing in for the Holy One who is healing the wounded, consoling the bereft, rejoicing with the hopeful. So sleep offers my imagination and my heart a pause. Sleep feels like a time in which my mind demands a surrender and a letting go of the deep listening and inner soul work I’ve been about during daylight hours.

Perhaps I’m thinking about dreams because I recently returned from serving as a guest director for a directed retreat. This is a privileged and deeply humbling experience for me. In that role, I’m a listener. I’m a witness to how the Holy One is at work in people’s lives. During the retreat, I’m in a constant state of awe that people who began the retreat as strangers have entrusted me with their dreams and their deepest longings.

Sometimes those dreams might be about something that came to them as they slept during the night. Mostly, though, those dreams are waking dreams, focused on a vision of what the world they want to live in looks like. Or on what the Holy One might be inviting them to do or to be to move that dream closer to fullness, more in alignment with God’s dream for our world: abundant life for all, no exceptions.

And what of your own dreams? Whatever those dreams might be, do they get you out of bed in the morning with a sense of purpose and meaning? Do they invite you during the day to wonder, puzzle over, and hold them in your heart? All I know is that our world so desperately needs dreamers, so please, dream on!
Perhaps you may find resonance with this prayer reflection attributed to Joseph Whelan, SJ:

Nothing is more practical
than finding God,
than falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
Share with the divine a sleeping or waking dream that reveals what you are in love with, what seizes your imagination.
Ask for guidance as to how to bring that vision closer to completion for the life of the world.
Pause, listen, give thanks.

Featured Images: Nguyễn Hiệpnguy, Unsplash, and Afsal Shaji, Unsplash

NOTE:
July 10-13
Please remember in your prayer the three branches of my IHM congregation (Scranton, PA; Monroe, MI, and Philadelphia, PA) and the Oblate Sisters of Providence, who are a significant part of our shared story, as we gather virtually to celebrate the 180^th anniversary of our founding by Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin and Father Louis Florent Gillet in 1845.

July 17-20
Please also hold in your prayer all who will be part of a directed retreat at the Sisters of St. Joseph Spirituality Center in Ocean Grove, NJ. I’ll be one of the guest directors for this retreat. Thank you!

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

Go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)* In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe” and follow any prompts. You’ll then be subscribed to automatically receive any future blog posts from Mining the Now.

*NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   June 22, 2025

Perhaps it’s been a few years (or many) since we learned to pray. We might have been initiated into that practice by our parents or guardians, kneeling next to us at a bedside, offering us a sample of what might be spoken aloud to the Holy One before sleep, then encouraging us to “fill in the blanks” ourselves. We might have learned the practice of giving thanks for our food as we gathered around a table for supper. Perhaps an adult modeled for us the practice of pausing and entering into silent wonder before a brilliant sunset, an unfolding rose, a deer stopped in its tracks nearby. No words necessary. Wonder. And stillness.

As adults, we sometimes have to get creative in finding time and space to be silent and pray. I once had a harried mother with two toddlers at home tell me her plan: she established with her little ones that when she burrowed into her closet and closed the door, she was talking to God and couldn’t be interrupted—except for an emergency. It worked, she said, mostly.

I suspect that for many of us, our manner of praying has evolved over the years as our image of the Holy has also expanded. Often when I meet seasoned pray-ers through my retreat ministry, there is conversation about prayer, not so much the how-to of early days but more around questions about where persons find themselves in their life of prayer: Am I doing this prayer thing right? Should I be praying more often, praying longer, praying differently…? Or, how do I know if God is pleased with the way I pray? Or, I worry that my life is so full of responsibilities that I can’t seem to find time to pray. Or, I wonder if my prayer is making any difference.

But usually as I listen to people trying to shake out in words their practice of prayer or what prayer means for them, I find myself saying with a bit of holy envy to God, “I want that!” Often I have to hold myself back from bowing down in awe. I sometimes meet people who have been deprived of affirmation or encouragement or who worry about prayer and who have no idea what I see right in front of me: how brightly the astonishing radiance of their own goodness shines through, how loudly their desire for the Holy speaks.

I’ve come to believe that the very desire to pray is itself a prayer, a longing, a yearning to connect to a higher power, a Spirit larger than oneself. Prayer, I believe, is less about the words we say and more about a deepening relationship with the divine. Just as in human friendships we need to give time to be with the other in order to deepen connection and understanding, so in our life of prayer we need to give some time over to the Holy One each day in order to foster an intimate relationship. One of the ways I pray comes from a delightful practice a spiritual guide shared with me years ago. She mentioned that when she woke up in the morning, her first prayer took the form of a question to God: “What mischief can you and I get in together today?”

I’d like to write more about prayer, and I will another time. But for now, wherever you are and whatever time of day it might be, I invite you to take a moment to pause and ask the Holy One that same open-ended question: What mischief can you and I get in together today? I invite you to notice where that takes you.

Takeaway

Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
Imagine:
What might it mean for you to get into mischief with the Holy One?
Chat with God about that.
Then sit back and simply listen.
Invite the Holy One to accompany you through the rest of this day.

Featured Images:   Shalom Ejiofor, Unsplash;  Guillaume de Germain, Unsplash

NOTE:
June 22 – 29
Please hold in your prayer all who will be part of a directed retreat at Mercy by the Sea in Madison, CT during this time. I’ll be one of the guest directors for this retreat. Thank you.

To automatically subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

Go to the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)* In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”

Enter your email address in the space provided and then click on “Subscribe” and follow any prompts. You’ll then be subscribed to automatically receive any future blog posts from Mining the Now.

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM    June 8, 2025

Have you ever found yourself remembering a long forgotten person or experience and wondering how you got from there to here? Or wondered what might have activated a decades-long memory held in your unconscious? Our olfactory system is often the trigger that evokes stories from our past.

A whiff of salt air might return us to summers by the ocean. The scent of talcum powder or Jean Naté could bring to life a beloved grandmother. Toll House cookies still warm from the oven might draw us back to after-school snacks and the person who baked them, while freshly mown grass returns us to a favorite playground.

All these musings were part of a recent post-stroll day, for as I walked in an abandoned field near my home, I noticed patches of white, purple, and shades of pink waving in the breeze. I crossed over to introduce myself to these beauties. Wild Phlox, I thought, but then, when I counted the number of petals (four, not five) on each flower, I found myself instead surrounded by Dame’s Rocket, a lovely but invasive species of wildflower. I asked the flowers’ permission to take a handful home and add them to my prayer table.

That evening I was sitting in my favorite chair, reading, when I got a whiff of a sweet fragrance, proof that even an uncultivated, unwanted species can give glory to the Holy One. Within a few minutes the air in my living room was heavy with a delicate perfume, and I was immediately transported to John 12:1-3. Jesus enjoying dinner with close friends in Bethany. Mary pouring aromatic nard onto his feet in anointing. The house filling “with the fragrance of the oil” because of Mary’s tender gesture. Imagine the consequences of her act: perfumed liquid seeping into the dirt floor, lingering there. Imagine the aftermath: for the rest of their lives, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus savoring the warm presence of their friend and the company of one another every time they caught the scent of this anointing in their home.

Perhaps today holds an invitation to pay particular attention to the fragrances of your everyday living. The aroma of dough transformed into crusty bread by your oven. The scent of lilacs or roses from your garden. The breath of a furry companion panting in your direction. The lingering perfume of a friend who has embraced you. All of these and more, tangible reminders that the loving care of the Holy One always surrounds us and invites us to find God in all things.

What memories might you be invited to notice, revisit, and explore as this day unfolds?

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
If you’re able, pray with scent.
Light a candle or burn incense or add a flower or potpourri into your prayer space.
Breathe in the fragrance of these gifts.

If your sense of smell has lessened or disappeared, place before you an image of fragrance.
Linger with scent or the remembrance it evokes.

Featured Images:   Maxime Doré, Unsplash; Josue Escoto, Unsplash

NOTE:
Blessings of the gifts of Spirit on this feast of Pentecost.

Blessings also to all fathers and to all who parent, guide, teach, mentor, and love young and not-so-young ones into the fullness of life the Holy One desires for us all.

To subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

On the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)*
In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”
Enter your email address in the subscription box and click on “Subscribe.”

You’ll receive a confirmation email.
Please click the link in that email to complete your subscription.
If you don’t see the confirmation email, check your spam/junk folders.
(For best results, add “wordpress.com” to your email safe senders list before subscribing).

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM    May 25, 2025

I am reminded every time I fly that I am Christ. Permit me to explain. With twenty letters comprising my first and last names, my full name doesn’t fit on a boarding pass. So to accommodate the space, my name prints out as “Koellhoffer, Christ.” Christ. Wow! That’s who I am.

Seeing that I am Christ bestows a certain awareness on me and makes me feel that I travel wearing the mantle of the Holy. It also intensifies my sense of identity and prompts me to wonder: Am I seeing like the Holy One? Listening as the Holy One does? Does my presence feel like God’s blessing to those I encounter?

While not everyone sees their name listed as Christ on a boarding pass, every one of us is called to wear the mantle of the Holy One. To put on the mind of Christ, to incarnate, with God’s grace, the Holy One’s way of being in the world. In Prayers for People Who Say They Can’t Pray, Donna Schaper urges, “Let us find the sacred deep within the ordinary, in the sweetness in our coffee and the bread on our table. Let us never miss a chance to praise what is good…”

This is such a simple practice, isn’t it? But imagine how rich our day might be if we followed this. We might begin by gratefully savoring that steaming cup of coffee or our steeping tea or whatever beverage helps us to greet the next twenty-four hours. Our first cup may offer us a chance to sit with the Holy One in stillness and offer thanks for that space. Perhaps we greet the morning sun with Mary Oliver’s thanks, “Hello, sun in my face. Hello, you who make the morning…” (“Why I Wake Early”). From those simple beginnings, we might continue our awareness as we prepare ourselves or our children for carpooling or catching a bus or the day’s sports activities. If we include in our morning routine a few minutes of listening to headlines, we might integrate onto our prayer the news we hear of the world’s suffering.

Perhaps we commute to work, drive or walk or board a train. A wonderful opportunity to pray the Metta, blessing ourselves and sending that blessing to all our fellow commuters and beyond. If we notice travelers’ faces worn with worry or full of exhaustion, we might breathe compassion and strength to them. Perhaps words of thanks if we have meaningful employment or work that feeds our spirit.

A pause for a coffee break at work or as we catch our breath and tend to the needs of our home may lead to another moment where we express thanks for the food we have and for the nourishment of relationships that feed us in other ways. Conversation around the dinner table may also nourish, restore, and support us.

And at day’s end, we might find a few minutes to reflect on what we have seen or heard or felt this day, and how the Holy One has been part of our mindfulness. All of these pauses or moments of reflecting are ways of noticing the ordinary and giving thanks for the hidden gifts it holds.

It’s all about intentionality. Perhaps we may recognize something of our own way of praying and a kindred spirit in this whimsical prayer-poem from Steve Garnaas-Holmes:

   Ink
God, I was trying to write you a prayer
but the ink leaked onto my fingers,
the words all over my hands,
and I tried to wipe them off
but I got the words all over me
and then whole sentences got smudged
onto everything around me,
onto the world and wouldn’t you know it,
there’s no more ink left in my pen,
and I think I’ve lost the prayer entirely,
except I keep seeing it
on every tree and wall and person and headline,
and even the streets are smeared with it,
and even the clouds at times seem
prayerfully inky, and at night—
well, all I see is the ink of my prayers.
But my thoughts
have no more words
so

Amen.

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
If you’re praying at dawn, ask for the grace of awareness to notice the “ordinary” parts of your day and to receive them gratefully.
If you’re praying at day’s end, review what has come into your life this day and notice your awareness of how the “ordinary” has been a gift for you.

Featured Images:  Clay Banks, Unsplash; Marcus Dan, Unsplash

NOTE:
Thank you for your prayer for all who were part of the guided retreat I offered for the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, Long Island, this past week. I’ve just come home from the retreat but I’ll be savoring the gift of their prayer, presence, and hospitality for quite some time.

For those who are relaxing or traveling, have a safe and renewing celebration of the Memorial Day holiday. Let us remember the sacrifices of the many we commemorate this day.

To subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:
On the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)*
In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”
Enter your email address in the subscription box and click on “Subscribe.”

You’ll receive a confirmation email.
Please click the link in that email to complete your subscription.
If you don’t see the confirmation email, check your spam/junk folders.
(For best results, add “wordpress.com” to your email safe senders list before subscribing).

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!

 

 

 

 

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   May 10, 2025

In the 13^th century, the poet Rumi, who lived in what is now Afghanistan, must have been outdoors and breathing in this season when he observed, “Spring, and no one can be still, with all the messages coming through.” Oh, Rumi, you are so right on!

At this moment in the Northern hemisphere, our eyes are feasting on a riot of pink on the cherry willows, the greening of baby asparagus and red leaf lettuce, and the brave lineup of tulips as they burst into watercolors. And our ears? Such delight to be awakened at dawn not by the harsh cry of an alarm clock but by the singing and chanting of our feathered friends. Chirps and trills and warbles and whistles, so much to chat about as a new day begins.

I’m more intentionally taking in the sounds of this season since I had to purchase a new smart phone to replace my dying one. Once I got over the shock of a replacement’s cost, I discovered some good news: that with an upgraded operating system, I could at last subscribe to the Merlin Bird ID app. Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this free app makes bird identification accessible to everyone and offers various features like photo and sound identification. A user can be outdoors or sitting near a window with the app open and can eavesdrop on avian conversations. This practice opens us to wonder and encourages our desire to listen contemplatively, to live with awareness, and to be fully present to the world around us.

In Chant, Katherine Le Mée notes that this practice aligns with spiritual teaching, which “has always pointed to the fact that everything in creation has a sound, its own unique vibration.” She writes that when we try to live as conscious listeners, we “may perceive more and more of what the universe is saying to us by the simple act of listening.”

If you, like me, have an intimate relationship with the created world, you may find additional delight in now being able to address our winged neighbors by their proper names. “You’re sounding especially chipper today, Mr. Cardinal,” I might say after hearing that distinctive whistle. Or “Oh, Ms. Crow, what’s all the excitement about?” after some boisterous caws. This way of intimate and focused listening to the avian world might seem a logical next step if you, like me, already greet our bird neighbors’ relatives in the floral kin-dom by name whenever we meet one another.

So here’s a question to carry with us into the season of spring, or really into any and every one of the four seasons: What might be some of the messages you are hearing, seeing, noticing in creation in your corner of the world? What might our feathered and petaled friends be telegraphing to you about new life, fresh perspectives, and the deep yearning encoded in our spiritual DNA?

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
You may want to sit or walk outside and simply listen to the voices of the natural world.
Notice the singing of birds or the gentle sway of petals in the breeze or the refreshing scent of mint.
What might the Creator be saying to you through your senses?
Share that with the Holy One, and give thanks.

Featured Images: Joshua J. Cotten, Unsplash; Austin Chan, Unsplash

NOTE:
Mother’s Day blessings to all mothers and to all who give their lives over to nurturing, encouraging, supporting, teaching, and loving life at every level.

We pray also for blessing and wisdom for our new Pope, Leo XIV, as he enters into his ministry as a newly elected global pastor.

May 18-23:
Please hold in your prayer safe travel and blessings for all who will be part of a guided retreat I’m leading for the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, New York. Thank you!

To subscribe to receive new posts from Mining the Now:

On the Home Page of Mining the Now (chriskoellhofferihm.org)*
In the left-hand column above the section marked “Archives,” you’ll see the words, “Subscribe to blog via email.”
Enter your email address in the subscription box and click on “Subscribe.”

You’ll receive a confirmation email.
Please click the link in that email to complete your subscription.
If you don’t see the confirmation email, check your spam/junk folders.
(For best results, add “wordpress.com” to your email safe senders list before subscribing).

NOTE: If you are trying to subscribe while using a mobile phone, you may have to take another step. As you look at the blog post, there should be 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the page. Click on these lines and you’ll be taken to what’s on the left hand column (on a laptop or PC). Scroll down and follow the directions at * above.

Thank you for following!