The Richard Rohr Meditation: "The Template of Reality" The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Sunday, 29 April 2018
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Eighteen: "Relationships"
"The Template of Reality"
Sunday, April 29, 2018God is love. (1 John 4:8)
The physical structure of the universe is love. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) [1])
If a loving Creator started this whole thing—the Big Bang, the evolution of diverse and beautiful life forms—then there has to be a “DNA connection,” as it were, between the One who creates and what is created. The basic template of reality is Trinitarian, it’s relational. God is relationship.
“Let us create in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves,” the Creator says (see Genesis 1:26). The Hebrew writer used the plural pronouns for some wonderful reason.
St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) called the Trinity a “fountain fullness” of love. [2] God is unhindered dialogue, a positive and inclusive flow, an eternal waterwheel of self-emptying and outpouring love—that knows it can completely self-empty because it will always be filled back up. This is the very definition and description of divine love; all human love merely imitates, approximates, and celebrates this same pattern.
The energy in the universe is not in the planets or in the protons or neutrons, but in the relationship between them. Not in the particles but in the space between them. Not in the cells of organisms but in the way the cells feed and give feedback to one another. Not in any precise definition of the three persons of the Trinity as much as in the relationship between the Three! This is where all the power for infinite renewal is at work:
The loving relationship between them. The infinite love flowing between them. The dance itself.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
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[1] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, trans. J. M. Cohen, “Sketch of a Personal Universe,” Human Energy (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: 1962), 72.[2] Bonaventure, Breviloquium, part 1, “On the Trinity of God.”
Adapted from Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 43, 55, 56; and
Richard Rohr, God As Us: The Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine, disc 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2011), DVD, CD, MP3 download.
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News from the CAC
The "Anger" Issue of CAC's Journal Oneing
Much of the work of emotional maturity is learning to distinguish between emotions that give us a helpful message about ourselves or the moment and emotions that are merely narcissistic reactions to the moment. —Richard Rohr
Learn anger's lessons in a collection of thoughtful articles by Richard Rohr, Barbara Brown Taylor, Brian McLaren, Barbara Holmes, Mirabai Starr, Joan Halifax, Walter Brueggemann, and others. As Father Richard writes, allow your own anger to come up "for the fresh air of love, conversation, and needed forgiveness."
Purchase a limited-edition copy at store.cac.org.
"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time! Click the video to learn more about the theme and to find meditations you may have missed.
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Inspiration for this week's banner image: Love is the most powerful force or energy in the universe. That power is multiplied in relationships. Love’s potency is released most powerfully among people who have formed a relationship. (Louis Savary and Patricia Berne)
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Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
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