Fr. Ronald Rolheiser on priestly celibacy and the spirituality of sticking with it

The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

America Media

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“The Spiritual Life” host James Martin, S.J., talks with famed spiritual author and guide, Ron Rolheiser O.M.I., about: Different habits of prayer, including discursive and centering prayer Staying the course when your vocation feels boring or dry What we have misunderstood about chastity and celibacy Why praying relentlessly about your problems might not be spiritually wise and what to do differently in prayer Ron’s books mentioned in the episode: The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity Domestic Monastery: Creating a Spiritual Life at Home Link to Fr. Jim’s spiritual advice article on this episode: https://www.americamagazine.org/podcasts/2025/08/26/father-james-martin-ronald-rolheiser-spiritual-life Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: thespirituallife@americamedia.org Become a subscriber today at Americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the spiritual life.
0:05.6	I'm Father Jim Martin.
0:06.9	On this podcast, we reflect on how people experience God in their prayer and in their daily lives.
0:12.8	And I'm joined by my excellent producer, Maggie Van Dorn.
0:15.8	Maggie, good to be back with you.
0:17.1	Good to be with you, Jim.
0:18.4	And I'm so excited because the guest we have on today, I know,
0:22.3	is a personal hero of yours and mine, and that, of course, is...
0:27.8	The great Ron Rollhizer, one of my favorite all-time spiritual authors.
0:32.5	Yes, so Father Ron Rollhizer is a Catholic priest, a theologian, and an author known for his profound spiritual
0:39.4	insight and accessible writing. He is a member of the missionary obliates of Mary Immaculate,
0:45.3	and he has served as the president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.
0:51.0	Ron has written many books on Christian spirituality, at least 16 by my count, including
0:56.4	the Holy Longing and Forgotten Among the Lilies.
0:59.0	Those are two classics that I read in college.
1:01.9	And Sacred Fire, a vision for deeper human and Christian maturity, which you talk about
1:07.0	at great length with Ron in this conversation.
1:10.6	Also, domestic monastery, creating a spiritual
1:14.1	life at home. When Ron is not crafting brilliant books, he is an in-demand and well-known speaker.
1:22.9	So happy to have him. I'm really excited. So we'll get to that conversation in just a minute,
1:28.2	but first we have a question from our audience. This comes from Marston, and the question is, what spiritual
1:34.0	practices do you think will be useful to young men in particular as they navigate changing and often
	...

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