“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the pointContinue reading “Living the Questions”
Author Archives: Amanda Achtman
Learning Out Loud: Cooking Something New Each Week of 2021
Week Eighteen: Lamb, almond, and prune tagine
Meeting Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: A Spiritual Entrepreneur for Our Time
On May 26th, 2016, I walked to Central Hall Westminster at Storey’s Gate for the Templeton Prize Ceremony for which I had flown from Poland to London. I had moved to Europe to study noble lives because, as George Weigel puts it, “The noble life is still the most compelling witness for the fundamental truthsContinue reading “Meeting Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: A Spiritual Entrepreneur for Our Time”
How to Request a Letter of Reference
When you plan to apply for an opportunity and need to request a letter of reference, here are the ingredients for making your request as straightforward and courteous as possible. Subject Line: Request for a Letter of Reference (by [Date]) Hi [Name], I’m applying for [Describe the Opportunity and Why It Matters to You Personally]Continue reading “How to Request a Letter of Reference”
Confounding all distinctions
This is one of my favourite passages from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and it comes back to my mind a lot in these days: On doctrinal points the Catholic faith places all human capacities upon the same level; it subjects the wise and ignorant, the man of genius and the vulgar crowd, toContinue reading “Confounding all distinctions”
Pathos and Sympathy
The other evening I attended a talk on Abraham Joshua Heschel. The speaker touched on his book The Prophets, which prompted me to reflect on this particular excerpt: The nature of man’s response to the divine corresponds to the content of his apprehension of the divine. When the divine is sensed as mysterious perfection, theContinue reading “Pathos and Sympathy”
Existential Alphabet
Wrote this several years ago and was reminded of it today: Existential Alphabet A is for Angst, that Dizzying Freedom B is for Being, its Possibility and its Tedium C is for the Character of Conscience as Call D is for Dasein, almost Any Existence at All E is for Existential, it’s What We Are And EContinue reading “Existential Alphabet”
The Art of Dying Well
A friend just shared this feature-length article in the New York Times, “A Reminder We Are Not Alone” about priests who have been celebrating the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick for patients with Covid-19.
Protected: Book Review: Price to Pay
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Book: Letters to a Young Muslim
Today I finished reading Omar Saif Ghobash’s book Letters to a Young Muslim. Ghobash is the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to France and former U.A.E. Ambassador to Russia (2008-2017). Through this book of letters addressed to his sons, Ghobash explores his family history, upbringing, and experiences that have led him to “see theContinue reading “Book: Letters to a Young Muslim”
Amanda Achtman 