Soul Seeing

Michael Leach and friends write about seeing God, the world and ourselves with the eye of the soul. Each column is a spiritual reflection on the beauty that hides behind appearances and the peace that is beyond all understanding.

Having the time of my life

by Michael Leach

Mar 31, 2020

Soul Seeing: Ever since Vickie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 17 years ago, I've been learning to live in a kind of timelessness, where there is "no play of passing shadows" (James 1:17). Time flies, slows, breaks things down. Timelessness stands still, brings peace, gratitude and assurance.

The joy of turtles

by Joni Woelfel

Mar 17, 2020

Soul Seeing: For many years now, I have pondered the story of the turtles, wondering why it moved people so. I decided it was because of the happy ending. Life is filled with challenges, hardships, suffering and loss for all of us; we've all known heartbreak.

Tend to what repulses you

by Pauline Hovey

Mar 10, 2020

Soul Seeing: Sometimes, to be in service to love goes well beyond being inconvenienced. Sometimes it smells like feet that have been stuffed into shoes worn for weeks on end.

I found God in the pain of my brother's suicide

by Patrick T. Reardon

Feb 18, 2020

Soul Seeing: Either I believe that God is here with me in these darkest moments — or desolation, all is desolation.

Columns ›

Having the time of my life

The joy of turtles

Tend to what repulses you

I found God in the pain of my brother's suicide

The gift of staring at your shoes

Christ has no body on earth but yours

The gift of five No. 1 steel knitting needles

Let it snow, let it snow, let me see

The materialism of Santa Claus and the spirituality of Baby Jesus

I believe in love even when I do not feel it

Hope for creation never runs dry

Lazarus at our gate

God calls us to show up, be present

St. Francis, as well as a cat, helped me understand the souls of animals

Stopping to smell the flowers in East Africa

A voice from the past: 'That talk in your office changed my life'

St. Bernadette's rib opened something

Reflective writing's call is to pay attention, to be awake and aware

I'm breathing my way past the 'prison' of the internet

How do you get Mother Teresa to stop praying?

In the holiness of beauty, a glimpse of God shines through

My 90-year-old mother falls, caught in the eye of apocalypse

Thank you, Jean Vanier, for teaching me to see

What's God got to do with it?

Pages