Those who fall into the safety net of divine silence find that it is not at all a fall into individualism, but just the opposite. True prayer or contemplation is a leap into commonality and community and connection.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Contemplation"
"Held by the Whole"
Friday, 12 September 2014
I am convinced that most of the major beliefs and doctrines of the Christian churches (e.g. Jesus is “fully human and fully divine,” Mary is both virgin and mother, bread is still bread and yet Jesus, etc.) can be understood, relished, and effectively lived only through non-dual consciousness, by contemplatives—people who know how to be present to the naked and broad now. As Karl Rahner is often quoted as saying, “The devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic’ . . . or will cease to be anything at all.”
I think we are on the very edge of history—and about to be edged over—by the depth of the need for wider consciousness and from the depths of our own desire. We live in an amazing time, where quantum physics and neurology are among the sciences supporting our mystical intuitions! It seems God has wired us for love, for intimacy, for empathy, for compassion, and for union—beginning with the gaze between a mother and her newborn, which some say creates the mirror neurons necessary for healthy relationship.
To practice contemplative prayer is to practice being in loving relationship with God, with others, with everything, and even with oneself. Those who fall into the safety net of divine silence find that it is not at all a fall into individualism, but just the opposite. True prayer or contemplation is a leap into commonality and community and connection. You know that what you are experiencing is also held by the whole and that you are not alone anymore. You are a part, and forever a grateful part. As a part, you are participating in the whole.
Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, pp. 37-37; and Transforming the World through Contemplative Prayer, disc 4 (CD, MP3 download); and Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation, pages 4, 15, 19
Gateway to Silence: Christ is in me, and I am in Christ.
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