The shared imaginal world is where encounter and deep change really happen. Images have the power to transform us and even steer history
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Image of God"
"Sabbath Meditation"
Saturday, 12 July 2014
"Remember: Image of God"
This God that Israel—and Jesus—discovered is consistently seen to be “merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love.” (Sunday)
If God is always mystery, then God is always on some level the unfamiliar, beyond what we’re used to, beyond our comfort zone, beyond what we can explain or understand. (Monday)
Jesus was not changing the Father’s mind about us; he was changing our mind about God—and thus about one another.
(Tuesday)
Francis surely loved and related to God as “Jesus” in a personal and intimate way, and yet he also saw God in “Brother Wind and Air,” as “Sister Water,” “Brother Fire,” and “Sister, Mother Earth.” (Wednesday)
Trinity becomes the revelation of God as community, God as relationship itself, a God who for Christians is seen as a mystery of perfect giving and perfect receiving, within and without. (Thursday)
God is humbly recognized as beyond any of our attempts to domesticate, understand, or control the Mystery. (Friday)
"Rest: Imaginarium"
Each of our imaginaria—our unconscious but operative worldviews, constructed by our experience, including all the symbols, archetypes, and memories that inhabit it—are foundationally real and have very concrete effects in how we think and at what level we think. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and Hindus all live in quite different imaginaria, and there is not much point in calling another “wrong.”
Einstein said that “imagination is more important than intelligence.” Plato, later Neo-Platonists, and in our time, Carl Jung, recognized that the shared imaginal world is where encounter and deep change really happen. Images have the power to transform us and even steer history. God can only come to any of us in images that we already trust and believe, and that open our hearts.
Draw to mind a symbol or metaphor from your imaginarium that reminds you of some aspect of God or Reality. Visualize it as fully and clearly as you can, imagining the shape, color, sound, texture, smell, taste. Let these details sink into your heart, deeper than head and rational thought. Feel them. Allow the image to move you beyond words to experience and encounter. Rest in the mystery of God’s presence within and infinitely more than your imagination can fathom.
Adapted from Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, pages 256, 258
Gateway to Silence: I am a hole in a flute that the Christ'’s breath moves through—listen to this music.(Hafiz)
For further study:
The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis (CD)
Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
Hierarchy of Truths: Jesus’ Use of Scripture (CD, MP3 download)
Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go
Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality
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