Richard's Old Writing

What Is Your Prayer Life Like Today?

Photo from bigstockphoto.com What is your prayer life like today? In what specific ways do you feel called to deepen your prayer life?...

In The Heart of an Ant

I wrote this post in July of 1980. I still find it relevant and inspiring. My wife Winnie watching the fish in her backyard pond Photo...

Mark Richard Southworth

Photo by Winnie Southworth Mark is our son. He was born in 1970 and the original reflection was written around 1983 when he was thirteen...

Living By A Rule of Life

The Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue, Verses 8-13 Let Us Then At Last Arise Photo by Winnie Southworth Let us then at last arise, since...

Living By A Rule of Life

Introduction Photo by Winnie Southworth The Rule of Saint Benedict has played an important role in my spiritual journey. It has touched...

Restraint of Speech - Speak Rarely, Briefly, and Directly

Very few monks today take a vow of silence, but they do practice a discipline referred to as restraint of speech. In many monasteries...

A Voice Calling In The Desert

I wrote this prose poem, I'm guessing in about 1988, give or take a year or two. I would have been about forty-five, and that would have...

In The Heart of an Ant

This article was written In July 1980, some forty years ago. It is one of my wife Winnie's favorites. by Richard Southworth July 1980 i...