Center for Action and ContemplationY: "Richard Rohr's Meditation: The Great Chain of Being" Thursday, 13 February 2014 & Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Creation is the First Bible" Friday, 14 February 2014

Center for Action and ContemplationY: "Richard Rohr's Meditation: The Great Chain of Being" Thursday, 13 February 2014 & Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Creation is the First Bible" Friday, 14 February 2014
"In the Beginning"
"The Great Chain of Being"
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Of Christ’s fullness, we all have a share. — John 1:16, Colossians 2:9-10
The Great Chain of Being was the medieval metaphor for ecology before we spoke of ecosystems! This was the philosophical/theological attempt to speak of the circle of life, the interconnectedness of all things on the level of pure “Being.” If God is Being Itself (Deus est Ens), then the “Great Chain” became a way of teaching and preserving the inherent dignity of all things that participate in that Divine Being in various ways. It was not intended to teach hierarchy, as much as inherent sacrality, continuity, and communality. This was the Biblical pleroma or fullness (Genesis 2:1, Ephesians 1:23).
Such a graphic metaphor held all things together in an enchanted universe. To stop recognizing the “image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26) in any one link of the chain was to allow the entire coherence to fall apart! It would soon become a disenchanted universe. If we could not see the sacred in nature and creatures, we soon would not see it in ourselves, and finally we would not be able to see it at all (modern atheism). “Uni-verse” means to turn around one thing. The Great Chain of Being resolved the early philosophical problem of “the one and the many” to allow us to live coherently inside of one shared universe of meaning. This is the way they saw it:
Link 1 – The firmament/Earth/minerals within the Earth
Link 2 – The waters upon the Earth (snow, ice, water, steam, mist)
Link 3 – The plants, trees, flowers, and foods that grow upon the Earth
Link 4 – The living animals on the Earth, in the skies, and in the waters
Link 5 – The human species, capable of reflecting on all the other links
Link 6 – The world of angels, and the perfect communion of those who have passed over
Link 7 – The Divine Mystery Itself
From insert in A New Cosmology: Nature as the First Bible
(CD, MP3 download)
Gateway to Silence: God is all in all
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"In the Beginning"
"Creation is the First Bible"
Friday, February 14, 2014
What can be known about God is perfectly plain, since God has made it plain. Ever since God created the world, God’s everlasting power and divinity, however invisible, has been there for the mind to see in the things that God has made. — Romans 1:19-20
Every day, we are given a natural way to reconnect with God. And it doesn’t depend on education. It doesn’t depend on getting a degree in philosophy or theology. Or what period of history we lived in. Or what our religion precisely is. It depends on really being present to what is right in front of us. Or, as Paul says, “God has made it plain.”
The missing element for many of us in the developed world has been contemplation, which allows us to really see the natural world. Without this, I don’t think religion achieves a deep level of authenticity—or joy! Many people don’t seem to be highly transformed. They are stuck in a dualistic belief system that doesn’t synthesize reality very well. But if they were to spend time in nature, alone like Jesus or the hermits or the desert fathers and mothers, they would know many of the same things religion has been trying to teach, but they would know them on a cellular level, on a physical and energetic level. It’s not contradicting the rational, but it’s much more holistic and heartfelt.
That’s the way that religion is supposed to know, and it’s a kind of knowing that really changes people. It rearranges one’s worldview at a level that actually cannot be contradicted by mere words or passing ideas. Instead of undergoing this wonderful transformation, most Western religion has been simply transmitting information, and then we argue about it. What a waste of time. There is nothing that is not spiritual for those who have learned how to see.
Adapted from The Soul, the Natural World, and What Is
(CD, MP3 download) and The Cosmic Christ, disc 1 (CD, MP3 download)
Gateway to Silence: God is all in all
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Center for Action and Contemplation
1705 Five Points Rd SW
Albuquerque, NM 87105 United States (physical) 
PO Box 12464
Albuquerque, NM 87195-2464 United States (mailing) 
(505) 242-9588
cac.org
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