Journal Entries
Personal reflections by Philip G. Roets
March 12, 1998
On the Gift of Silence
There is a kind of silence that is not emptiness but fullness — the silence of a soul at rest in God. I have been thinking about the Desert Fathers and their insistence on stillness as the precondition for prayer. In our noisy age, silence has become a form of resistance.
June 4, 2001
A Morning with the Psalms
I spent the early hours with Psalm 139 today. "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me." There is both comfort and challenge in those words. To be fully known — and still fully loved — is the heart of the Gospel.
November 23, 2005
Reflections at 84
Another birthday. Lois made her famous apple cake. I find myself grateful for the simplest things — morning light, a good cup of coffee, the sound of children playing outside. God is in all of it, if we have eyes to see.
February 8, 2010
On Teaching
A former student wrote to say that a class I taught forty years ago changed the direction of his life. I do not remember the class, but I remember the student — a quiet young man who asked the best questions. Teaching is a form of planting seeds you may never see bloom.
September 15, 2015
The Mystery of Suffering
A friend lost his wife this week. I sat with him for a long time and said very little. There are moments when words are not enough — when the only honest response to suffering is presence. Job's friends were at their best when they sat in silence.