Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Photograph by BryanHanson, 2015.
"Grace: Week 2""Implanted Desire: for Tuesday, February 2, 2016
The idea of grace first develops in the Hebrew Scriptures through the concept of election, or chosenness, and is finally called "covenant love" because it becomes a mutual giving and receiving. This love is always initiated from Yahweh's side toward the people of Israel, and they gradually--very gradually--learn to trust it and respond in kind, just like each of us. The Bible shows a relentless movement toward the actual possibility of intimacy and divine union between Creator and creatures. For this to happen, there needs to be some degree of compatibility, likeness, or even "sameness" between the two parties. In other words, there has to be a little bit of God in us that wants to find itself. (Yes, read that again!)
We see the message of implanted grace most clearly in Jesus. He is able to fully recognize that he is one with God. Jesus seems to know that it is the God part of him who does the deep knowing, loving, and serving. He seems able to fully trust his deepest identity and never doubts it, which is probably the unique character of his divine sonship. We doubt, deny, and reject our sonship and daughterhood much of the time. Humans find it hard to believe in things we did not choose or create ourselves. Such unaccountable gratuity is precisely the meaning of grace and also why we are afraid to trust it. "I am not the source," the ego says, "so it cannot be happening." Yes, it is God in you that always seeks and knows God; like always knows like. We are made for one another from the beginning (Ephesians 1:4-6). Maybe the ultimate grace is to fully know that it is entirely grace to begin with! It is already a grace to recognize that it is grace.
In Deuteronomy, God says to Israel, "If Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you were greater than other peoples. In fact, you were the least of all the peoples. It was for love of you and to keep the covenant that he swore to your fathers and mothers that Yahweh has brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery" (7:7-8).
This passage and the continuation of this same pattern throughout Scripture emerges as the supreme theme of grace, which is concretely taught by Paul. In fact, I would call it the theme of themes. God does not choose to love the Israelites, anybody else, or us today because we are good. God loves us from a completely free, deliberate, and arbitrary choice. This recognition is the engine that drives the entire divine drama. Without it, we have nothing but sterile requirements and rituals. From the very beginning, receiving God's love has never been a "worthiness contest." This is very hard for almost everyone to accept. It is finally a surrendering and never a full understanding. The proud will seldom submit "until they are brought down from their thrones," as Mary put it (Luke 1:52). It just does not compute inside our binary, judging, competing, and comparing brains.
God does not love you because you are good; God loves you because God is good. And then you can be good because you draw upon such an Infinite Source. The older I get, the more I am sure that God does all the giving and we do all of the receiving. God is always and forever the initiator in my life, and I am, on occasion, the half-hearted respondent. That's just true! My mustard seed of a response seems to be more than enough for a humble God, even though the mustard seed is "the tiniest of all the seeds" (Matthew 13:32).
Yes, God is both very humble and very patient, if everything we see about the universe is true. God makes use of everything that we offer and seems most grateful for the smallest bit of connection or response from our side. Otherwise it would not be a covenant (mostly unilateral), but a mere coercion. God "does not want slaves but friends" (John 15:15). And it only gets better: God even creates the desire within us to do the desiring for love and for God. So all we need to do is to keep praying for the desire to desire, especially on those many days when the well feels dry, ordinary, or boring.
Gateway to Silence: Everything is grace.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality(Franciscan Media: 2007), 163-164.
Last chance to register!
Breathing Under Water: A Spiritual Study of the Twelve Steps
A self-paced, online course
February 17-April 12, 2016
Learn more and register at cac.org.
Registration closes February 3, 2016, or as soon as the course fills, whichever comes first.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
---------------------
Richard Rohr "How can we experience true transformation?" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Center for Action and Contemplation
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Grace Is Key" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Monday, 1 February 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Photograph by BryanHanson, 2015.
"Grace: Week 2""Grace Is Key" for Monday, February 1, 2016
The following three paragraphs came to me very clearly in a very short time while I was walking along the Pacific Ocean during my Lenten hermitage in 2012. I think they sum up why, for me, grace is the key to accepting all deaths--and experiencing all resurrections.
The goodness of God fills all the gaps of the universe, without discrimination or preference. God is the gratuity of absolutely everything. The space in between everything is not space at all but Spirit. God is the "Goodness Glue" that holds the dark and light of things together, the free energy that carries all death across the Great Divide and transmutes it into Life. When we say that Christ "paid the debt once and for all," it simply means that God's job is to make up for all deficiencies in the universe. What else would God do? Basically, grace is God's first name, and probably last too. Grace is what God does to keep all things God has made in love and alive--forever. Grace is God's official job description. Grace is not something God gives; grace is who God is. If we are to believe the primary witnesses, an unexplainable goodness is at work in the universe. (Some of us call this phenomenon God, but the word is not necessary. In fact, sometimes it gets in the way of the experience, because too many have named God something other than grace.)
Death is not just our one physical dying, but it is going to the full depth, hitting the bottom, going the distance, beyond where I am in control, and always beyond where I am now. No wonder it is scary. Such death is called "the descent into hell" in the early Apostles' Creed, while in other sources, "the pit," "the dark night," "Sheol," or "Hades." We all die eventually; we have no choice in the matter. But there are degrees of death before the final physical one. If we are honest, we acknowledge that we are dying throughout our life, and this is what we learn if we are attentive: grace is found at the depths and in the death of everything. After these smaller deaths, we know that the only "deadly sin" is to swim on the surface of things, where we never see, find, or desire God or love. This includes even the surface of religion, which might be the worst danger of all. Thus, we must not be afraid of falling, failing, going "down."
When you go to the full depths and death, sometimes even the depths of your sin, you can always come out the other side--and the word for that is resurrection. Something or someone builds a bridge for you, recognizable only from the far side, that carries you willingly, or even partly willingly, across. All that we hear from reputable and reliable sources (mystics, shamans, near-death visitors, and "nearing-death experiences") indicates no one is more surprised and delighted than the traveler himself or herself. Something or someone seems to fill the tragic gap between death and life, but only at the point of no return. None of us crosses over by our own effort or merits, purity, or perfection. We are all carried across by an uncreated and unearned grace--from pope, to president, to princess, to peasant. Worthiness is never the ticket, only deep desire, and the ticket is given in the desiring. The tomb is always finally empty. There are no exceptions to death, and there are no exceptions to grace. And I believe, with good evidence, that there are no exceptions to resurrection.
Gateway to Silence: Everything is grace.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), xx-xxii.
Last chance to register!
Breathing Under Water: A Spiritual Study of the Twelve Steps
A self-paced, online course
February 17-April 12, 2016
Learn more and register at cac.org.
Registration closes February 3, 2016, or as soon as the course fills, whichever comes first.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
-------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Not Merely an Era of Change, but A Change of Era" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Sunday, 31 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Photograph by BryanHanson, 2015.
"Grace: Week 2""Not Merely an Era of Change, but A Change of Era" for Sunday, January 31, 2016
These recent words from Pope Francis are still begging humanity to recognize the seismic shift in consciousness that the Gospel is forever trying to bring about. But Pope Francis is also recognizing that the planet is changing at an alarming speed, and the church had best stop fearing change--or we are ill prepared to announce our own message. Grace and mercy are, and always will be, a radical shift from normal consciousness. We truly are entering a change of era. Until recently, Christianity has largely reflected the common consciousness instead of enlightening it. Nowhere is this more evident than in our preference for punishment over mercy.
"Mercy is the Lord's most powerful message!" Pope Francis proclaimed at the beginning of his pontificate. [1] A few days later, he said, "Dear brothers and sisters, let us be enveloped by the mercy of God. . . . We will feel [God's] wonderful tenderness, we will feel [God's] embrace, and we too will become more capable of mercy, patience, forgiveness, and love." [2] This is of such crucial importance that Pope Francis has declared this year an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. We will return to this theme throughout the year to make clear how it sets people and culture on an utterly different foundation and in a truly new direction.
I am so very grateful for Pope Francis, who I feel is himself a gift of God's mercy to the Christian churches and to the world in this time of counting, weighing, and measuring everything for our own small advantage. If we truly understood ("stood under") God's mercy, we would see how we've gotten everything "upside down and backward," as Fr. Thomas Keating loves to say. Most of us think and act as if God is a God of retribution and even eternal punishment. But the Bible, Jesus, and the mystics of all the world religions reveal that God is infinite love, which really changes everything. Most religious people have put the cart before the horse by imagining that we can earn God's love by some kind of moral behavior. Whereas, according to the saints and mystics, God's love must be experienced first--and then our moral behavior is merely an outflowing from our contact with that infinite source toward all other people and things. Love is the powerful horse; morality is then the beautiful cart that it pulls, not the other way around.
The passion of Pope Francis is to again make merciful love the foundation, the center, and the goal of Christianity. Love is not just the basis on which we build everything, but it's also the energy with which we proceed, and it's then the final goal toward which we tend. Love has two lovely daughters, twins called grace and mercy. Like identical twins, they are often indistinguishable: Grace is the inner freedom to be merciful. Mercy is grace in action. And both are the children of love.
To operate inside of this always new and open-ended field, is to live in a truly new era--where evil has no chance to fester, grow, or triumph--because if your only goal is to love, there is no such thing as failure. Really! Even, and most especially, failures are another occasion and opportunity to learn and practice love, even toward yourself. You deserve mercy too.
Gateway to Silence: Everything is grace.
References:
[1] Pope Francis, Homily, Holy Mass in the Parish of St. Anna in the Vatican, March 17, 2013.
[2] Pope Francis, Homily, Papal Mass for the Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, April 7, 2013.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2009; CD, MP3 download);
Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 4, (CD, MP3 download);
and "Francis Factor," an unpublished talk at Trinity Wall Street, December 6, 2015.
Last chance to register!
Breathing Under Water: A Spiritual Study of the Twelve Steps
A self-paced, online course
February 17-April 12, 2016
Learn more and register at cac.org.
Registration closes February 3, 2016, or as soon as the course fills, whichever comes first.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Grace: Week 1 Summary" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Saturday, 30 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
National September 11 South pool, New York, New York, April 2012. Photograph by NormanB.
"Grace: Week 1"
"Summary: Sunday, January 24-Friday, January 29, 2016
"How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy."[Pope Francis] (Sunday)
Grace, arising from God's limitless love, is the central theme of the entire Bible. (Monday)
God "punishes" us by loving us more! (Tuesday)
Water always falls and pools up in the very lowest and darkest places, just like mercy does. And mercy is just grace in action. (Wednesday)
Much of Christian history has manifested a very different god than the one Jesus revealed and represented. (Thursday)
Only a personal experience of unconditional, unearned, and infinite love and forgiveness can move you from the normal worldview of scarcity to the divine world of infinite abundance. (Friday)
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Grace: Week 1 Summary" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Saturday, 30 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
National September 11 South pool, New York, New York, April 2012. Photograph by NormanB.
"Grace: Week 1"
"Summary: Sunday, January 24-Friday, January 29, 2016
"How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy."[Pope Francis] (Sunday)
Grace, arising from God's limitless love, is the central theme of the entire Bible. (Monday)
God "punishes" us by loving us more! (Tuesday)
Water always falls and pools up in the very lowest and darkest places, just like mercy does. And mercy is just grace in action. (Wednesday)
Much of Christian history has manifested a very different god than the one Jesus revealed and represented. (Thursday)
Only a personal experience of unconditional, unearned, and infinite love and forgiveness can move you from the normal worldview of scarcity to the divine world of infinite abundance. (Friday)
"Practice: Living in the Flow"
By being observant of your own emotional life and perhaps getting in touch with your own unconscious, you might become aware of your psychological blockages to experiencing grace and mercy. Try to feel, especially in your body, when you are tight, emotionally stingy, constricted, and in a withholding state--and when you are "in the flow" without any holding back or reserve. If you cannot distinguish between these two inner states in your own self, you may be able to notice them in others. There are numerous nonverbal cues most of us learn to read very early. Even children can sense the difference between cold and warm people.
The cold person lives from a place of scarcity, invariably protecting and defending what little they think they have or are. A person in the flow neither protects nor guards their inner source, vitality, or emotions--any more than necessary to maintain a needed sense of identity. You can tell when someone is in the flow, when they trust that their very life is given freely; you may see it in their smile.
The natural flow of grace is largely impossible when we are "sucking in"--when we're stingy, petty, blaming, angry, playing the victim, or in any way offended. When we're recounting what people did to us or what they did not do for us, we're pulling back and sucking in. We need to notice when we're in this constrictive state right away before it takes hold of us.
I believe that's what morning prayer is for: to bring me back in alignment with the Divine Flow so the Infinite Source can once again flow into me and through me. Great love, great suffering, and some form of contemplative practice are the usual paths that help me get my small, false self out of the way and become an open conduit for the gushing stream of water that God always is and that the believer always becomes (see John 7:38). This is the abundant life that Jesus speaks of with so many metaphors and stories (John 10:10).
People often ask me how long they should pray, and I say, "As long as it takes you to get to yes." If your heart and emotions are still saying "No!" to the moment right in front of you, don't leave your place of prayer until you find "Yes," until the flow begins to happen and the constriction (which often feels like pettiness) begins to lose its hold on you. Then you're abiding in a place of abundance where you know there's more than enough of you left over, and you don't need to be stingy, guarded, or hold on to even minor grudges. You can let a quiet love flow; you can let grace happen--to you and through you--toward all the world around you.
Gateway to Silence: Open me to grace upon grace upon grace.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Today Is a Time for Mercy," December 10, 2015, https://cac.org/richard-rohr-on-mercy-mp3.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Hell, No! (CD, MP3 download)
Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality
Richard Rohr, "Today Is a Time for Mercy"
Authentic Transformation
a live webcast with Richard Rohr
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
4:30-6:00 p.m. US Mountain Standard Time
What does it actually mean to be transformed?
How does true transformation happen?
Fr. Richard shares three key steps along the path toward authentic conversion, including a contemplative practice to help us stay open to God's continued work in our lives.
Register for as little as $1 at cac.org.
Registration includes access to the replay, which will be available throughSunday, March 27, 2016.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
By being observant of your own emotional life and perhaps getting in touch with your own unconscious, you might become aware of your psychological blockages to experiencing grace and mercy. Try to feel, especially in your body, when you are tight, emotionally stingy, constricted, and in a withholding state--and when you are "in the flow" without any holding back or reserve. If you cannot distinguish between these two inner states in your own self, you may be able to notice them in others. There are numerous nonverbal cues most of us learn to read very early. Even children can sense the difference between cold and warm people.
The cold person lives from a place of scarcity, invariably protecting and defending what little they think they have or are. A person in the flow neither protects nor guards their inner source, vitality, or emotions--any more than necessary to maintain a needed sense of identity. You can tell when someone is in the flow, when they trust that their very life is given freely; you may see it in their smile.
The natural flow of grace is largely impossible when we are "sucking in"--when we're stingy, petty, blaming, angry, playing the victim, or in any way offended. When we're recounting what people did to us or what they did not do for us, we're pulling back and sucking in. We need to notice when we're in this constrictive state right away before it takes hold of us.
I believe that's what morning prayer is for: to bring me back in alignment with the Divine Flow so the Infinite Source can once again flow into me and through me. Great love, great suffering, and some form of contemplative practice are the usual paths that help me get my small, false self out of the way and become an open conduit for the gushing stream of water that God always is and that the believer always becomes (see John 7:38). This is the abundant life that Jesus speaks of with so many metaphors and stories (John 10:10).
People often ask me how long they should pray, and I say, "As long as it takes you to get to yes." If your heart and emotions are still saying "No!" to the moment right in front of you, don't leave your place of prayer until you find "Yes," until the flow begins to happen and the constriction (which often feels like pettiness) begins to lose its hold on you. Then you're abiding in a place of abundance where you know there's more than enough of you left over, and you don't need to be stingy, guarded, or hold on to even minor grudges. You can let a quiet love flow; you can let grace happen--to you and through you--toward all the world around you.
Gateway to Silence: Open me to grace upon grace upon grace.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Today Is a Time for Mercy," December 10, 2015, https://cac.org/richard-rohr-on-mercy-mp3.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Hell, No! (CD, MP3 download)
Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality
Richard Rohr, "Today Is a Time for Mercy"
Authentic Transformation
a live webcast with Richard Rohr
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
4:30-6:00 p.m. US Mountain Standard Time
What does it actually mean to be transformed?
How does true transformation happen?
Fr. Richard shares three key steps along the path toward authentic conversion, including a contemplative practice to help us stay open to God's continued work in our lives.
Register for as little as $1 at cac.org.
Registration includes access to the replay, which will be available throughSunday, March 27, 2016.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
-------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Scarcity or Abundance?" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 29 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
National September 11 South pool, New York, New York, April 2012. Photograph by NormanB.
"Grace: Week 1"
"Scarcity or Abundance?" for Friday, January 29, 2016
The flow of grace through us is largely blocked when we are living inside a worldview of scarcity, a feeling that there's just not enough: enough of God, enough of me, enough food, enough mercy to include and forgive all faults. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the mind is apparently unable to imagine anything infinite or eternal. So it cannot imagine an infinite love, or a God whose "love is everlasting" as the Psalms continually shout.
A foundational abundance within reality is clearly exemplified in all of the "multiplication" of food stories in the Gospels, when Jesus feeds a crowd with very little (for example, Matthew 14:15-21). The real spiritual point is grace and not some mere physical miracle. Notice in almost every case, the good old apostles, who represent our worldview of scarcity, advise Jesus against it: "But how will two fish and five loaves be enough for so many?" Jesus is trying to move them from their worldview of scarcity to a worldview of abundance, but does it with great difficulty. In the end there is always much food left over, which should communicate the point: reality always has more than enough of itself to give, it is an inherent overflowing. Observe the seeds, spermatozoa, and pollen of the natural world.
Our unhealthy economics and politics persist because even Christians largely operate out of a worldview of scarcity: there is not enough land, healthcare, water, money, and housing for all of us; and in America there are never enough guns to keep us safe. A saint always knows that there is more than enough for our need but never enough for our greed. In the midst of the structural stinginess and over-consumption of our present world, how do you possibly change consciousness and teach the mind to operate from mercy and graciousness? It will always be an uphill battle, and it will always depend upon a foundational and sustained conversion.
Only a personal experience of unconditional, unearned, and infinite love and forgiveness can move you from the normal worldview of scarcity to the divine world of infinite abundance. That's when the doors of mercy blow wide open! That's when you begin to understand the scale-breaking nature of the Gospel. Catholics and much of the world are now stunned to observe a Pope who actually exemplifies this worldview in our time. We can no longer say it is impossible idealism.
Gateway to Silence: Open me to grace upon grace upon grace.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Today Is a Time for Mercy," December 10, 2015, https://cac.org/richard-rohr-on-mercy-mp3.
Authentic Transformation
a live webcast with Richard Rohr
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
4:30-6:00 p.m. US Mountain Standard Time
What does it actually mean to be transformed?
How does true transformation happen?
Fr. Richard shares three key steps along the path toward authentic conversion, including a contemplative practice to help us stay open to God's continued work in our lives.
Register for as little as $1 at cac.org.
Registration includes access to the replay, which will be available throughSunday, March 27, 2016.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
-------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Scarcity or Abundance?" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 29 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
National September 11 South pool, New York, New York, April 2012. Photograph by NormanB.
"Grace: Week 1"
"Scarcity or Abundance?" for Friday, January 29, 2016
The flow of grace through us is largely blocked when we are living inside a worldview of scarcity, a feeling that there's just not enough: enough of God, enough of me, enough food, enough mercy to include and forgive all faults. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the mind is apparently unable to imagine anything infinite or eternal. So it cannot imagine an infinite love, or a God whose "love is everlasting" as the Psalms continually shout.
A foundational abundance within reality is clearly exemplified in all of the "multiplication" of food stories in the Gospels, when Jesus feeds a crowd with very little (for example, Matthew 14:15-21). The real spiritual point is grace and not some mere physical miracle. Notice in almost every case, the good old apostles, who represent our worldview of scarcity, advise Jesus against it: "But how will two fish and five loaves be enough for so many?" Jesus is trying to move them from their worldview of scarcity to a worldview of abundance, but does it with great difficulty. In the end there is always much food left over, which should communicate the point: reality always has more than enough of itself to give, it is an inherent overflowing. Observe the seeds, spermatozoa, and pollen of the natural world.
Our unhealthy economics and politics persist because even Christians largely operate out of a worldview of scarcity: there is not enough land, healthcare, water, money, and housing for all of us; and in America there are never enough guns to keep us safe. A saint always knows that there is more than enough for our need but never enough for our greed. In the midst of the structural stinginess and over-consumption of our present world, how do you possibly change consciousness and teach the mind to operate from mercy and graciousness? It will always be an uphill battle, and it will always depend upon a foundational and sustained conversion.
Only a personal experience of unconditional, unearned, and infinite love and forgiveness can move you from the normal worldview of scarcity to the divine world of infinite abundance. That's when the doors of mercy blow wide open! That's when you begin to understand the scale-breaking nature of the Gospel. Catholics and much of the world are now stunned to observe a Pope who actually exemplifies this worldview in our time. We can no longer say it is impossible idealism.
Gateway to Silence: Open me to grace upon grace upon grace.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Today Is a Time for Mercy," December 10, 2015, https://cac.org/richard-rohr-on-mercy-mp3.
Authentic Transformation
a live webcast with Richard Rohr
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
4:30-6:00 p.m. US Mountain Standard Time
What does it actually mean to be transformed?
How does true transformation happen?
Fr. Richard shares three key steps along the path toward authentic conversion, including a contemplative practice to help us stay open to God's continued work in our lives.
Register for as little as $1 at cac.org.
Registration includes access to the replay, which will be available throughSunday, March 27, 2016.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
-------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "God Is Eternally Giving Away God" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Monday, 25 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
National September 11 South pool, New York, New York, April 2012. Photograph by NormanB.
"Grace: Week 1"
"God Is Eternally Giving Away God" for Monday, January 25, 2016
(Feast of St. Paul, the Apostle of Grace)
It is by grace that you are saved, through faith, not by anything of your own, but by a pure gift from God, and not by anything you have achieved. Nobody can claim the credit. You are God's work of art.[Ephesians 2:8]
By grace you notice, nothing to do with good deeds, or grace would not be grace at all.[Romans 11:6]
Happy are those servants whom the master finds awake. I tell you he will put on an apron, sit them down at table, and wait on them.[Luke 12:37]
I think grace, arising from God's limitless love, is the central theme of the entire Bible. It is the divine Unmerited Generosity that is everywhere available, totally given, usually undetected as such, and often even undesired. This grace was defined even in the old Baltimore Catechism as "that which confers on our souls a new life, that is, a sharing in the life of God himself [sic]." [1] We always knew it on paper, but much less in experience and conviction.
In the parable of the watchful servants (Luke 12:35-40), God is actually presented as waiting on us--in the middle of the night! In fact, we see God as both our personal servant inside our house and the divine burglar who has to "break through the walls of [our] house." That's really quite extraordinary and not our usual image of God. It shows how much God--the "Hound of Heaven," as Francis Thompson says--wants to get to us and how unrelenting is the work of grace.
Unless and until you understand the biblical concept of God's unmerited favor, God's unaccountable love, most of the biblical text cannot be interpreted or tied together in any positive way. It is, without doubt, the key and the code to everything transformative in the Bible. People who have not experienced the radical character of grace will always misinterpret the meanings and major direction of the Bible. The Bible will become a burden, obligation, and weapon more than a gift.
Grace cannot be understood by any ledger of merits and demerits. It cannot be held to patterns of buying, losing, earning, achieving, or manipulating, which is where, unfortunately, most of us live our lives. Grace is, quite literally, "for the taking." It is God eternally giving away God--for nothing--except the giving itself. I believe grace is the life energy that makes flowers bloom, animals lovingly raise their young, babies smile, and the planets remain in their orbits--for no good reason whatsoever--except love alone.
Gateway to Silence: Open me to grace upon grace upon grace.
References:
[1] The New Baltimore Catechism of yesteryear; the more recent catechisms say essentially the same thing.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality (Franciscan Media: 2007), 155-156.
Authentic Transformation
a live webcast with Richard Rohr
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
4:30-6:00 p.m. US Mountain Standard Time
What does it actually mean to be transformed?
How does true transformation happen?
Fr. Richard shares three key steps along the path toward authentic conversion, including a contemplative practice to help us stay open to God's continued work in our lives.
Register for as little as $1 at cac.org.
Registration includes access to the replay, which will be available throughSunday, March 27, 2016.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
-------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "God Is Eternally Giving Away God" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Monday, 25 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
National September 11 South pool, New York, New York, April 2012. Photograph by NormanB.
"Grace: Week 1"
"God Is Eternally Giving Away God" for Monday, January 25, 2016
(Feast of St. Paul, the Apostle of Grace)
It is by grace that you are saved, through faith, not by anything of your own, but by a pure gift from God, and not by anything you have achieved. Nobody can claim the credit. You are God's work of art.[Ephesians 2:8]
By grace you notice, nothing to do with good deeds, or grace would not be grace at all.[Romans 11:6]
Happy are those servants whom the master finds awake. I tell you he will put on an apron, sit them down at table, and wait on them.[Luke 12:37]
I think grace, arising from God's limitless love, is the central theme of the entire Bible. It is the divine Unmerited Generosity that is everywhere available, totally given, usually undetected as such, and often even undesired. This grace was defined even in the old Baltimore Catechism as "that which confers on our souls a new life, that is, a sharing in the life of God himself [sic]." [1] We always knew it on paper, but much less in experience and conviction.
In the parable of the watchful servants (Luke 12:35-40), God is actually presented as waiting on us--in the middle of the night! In fact, we see God as both our personal servant inside our house and the divine burglar who has to "break through the walls of [our] house." That's really quite extraordinary and not our usual image of God. It shows how much God--the "Hound of Heaven," as Francis Thompson says--wants to get to us and how unrelenting is the work of grace.
Unless and until you understand the biblical concept of God's unmerited favor, God's unaccountable love, most of the biblical text cannot be interpreted or tied together in any positive way. It is, without doubt, the key and the code to everything transformative in the Bible. People who have not experienced the radical character of grace will always misinterpret the meanings and major direction of the Bible. The Bible will become a burden, obligation, and weapon more than a gift.
Grace cannot be understood by any ledger of merits and demerits. It cannot be held to patterns of buying, losing, earning, achieving, or manipulating, which is where, unfortunately, most of us live our lives. Grace is, quite literally, "for the taking." It is God eternally giving away God--for nothing--except the giving itself. I believe grace is the life energy that makes flowers bloom, animals lovingly raise their young, babies smile, and the planets remain in their orbits--for no good reason whatsoever--except love alone.
Gateway to Silence: Open me to grace upon grace upon grace.
References:
[1] The New Baltimore Catechism of yesteryear; the more recent catechisms say essentially the same thing.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality (Franciscan Media: 2007), 155-156.
Authentic Transformation
a live webcast with Richard Rohr
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
4:30-6:00 p.m. US Mountain Standard Time
What does it actually mean to be transformed?
How does true transformation happen?
Fr. Richard shares three key steps along the path toward authentic conversion, including a contemplative practice to help us stay open to God's continued work in our lives.
Register for as little as $1 at cac.org.
Registration includes access to the replay, which will be available throughSunday, March 27, 2016.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "The Face of the Other" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 15 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Incarnation: Week 1"
"The Face of the Other" for Friday, January 15, 2016
It was probably St. Francis who first brought attention to the humanity of Jesus. Paintings of Jesus, prior to the life of St. Francis, largely emphasized Jesus' divinity, as they still do in most Eastern icons. Francis is said to have created the first live nativity. Before the thirteenth century, Christmas was no big deal. The emphasis was entirely on the high holy days of Easter, as it seems it should be. But for Francis, incarnation was already redemption. For God to become a human being among the poor, born in a stable among the animals, meant that it's good to be a human being, that flesh is good, and that the world is good--in its most simple and humble forms.
In Jesus, God was given a face and a heart. God became someone we could love. While God can be described as a moral force, as consciousness, and as high vibrational energy, the truth is, we don't (or can't?) fall in love with abstractions. So God became a person "that we could hear, see with our eyes, look at, and touch with our hands" (1 John 1:1). The brilliant Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas says the only thing that really converts people is "the face of the other." He develops this at great length and with great persuasion. When the face of the other (especially the suffering face) is received and empathized with, it leads to transformation of our whole being. It creates a moral demand on our heart that is far more compelling than the Ten Commandments. Just giving people commandments on tablets of stone doesn't change the heart. It may steel the will, but it doesn't soften the heart like an I-Thou encounter can. So many Christian mystics talk about seeing the divine face or falling in love with the face of Jesus. There is no doubt that was the experience of Francis and Clare. I think that's why Clare uses the word "mirroring" so often. We are mirrored not by concepts, but by faces delighting in us, giving us the face we can't give to ourselves. It is the gaze that does us in!
Jesus taught us what God is like through his words, his actions, his very being, making it clear that "God is love" (I John 4:8). If God is Trinity and Jesus is the face of God, then it is a benevolent universe. God is not someone to be afraid of, but is the Ground of Being and is on our side. [1]
Gateway to Silence: God is not "out there."
References:
[1] This is the second of seven themes that form the basis of the Living School curriculum and CAC's annual CONSPIRE conferences. Learn more at cac.org/living-school/program-details/lineage-and-themes/.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), discs 2-3 (CD, MP3 download).
Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent
Richard Rohr invites readers to be fully known by God and to participate in a "wondrous loop of divine disclosure." This small book leads us through Lent with daily Scripture passages, meditations by Fr. Richard, and prayers to deepen intimacy with our "Source and Ground."
Available at store.cac.org.
Order by January 27, 2016, to receive shipments to the United States (or January 20 for shipments to other countries) by the beginning of Lent on February 10.
Center for Action and Contemplation--------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "The Face of the Other" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 15 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Incarnation: Week 1"
"The Face of the Other" for Friday, January 15, 2016
It was probably St. Francis who first brought attention to the humanity of Jesus. Paintings of Jesus, prior to the life of St. Francis, largely emphasized Jesus' divinity, as they still do in most Eastern icons. Francis is said to have created the first live nativity. Before the thirteenth century, Christmas was no big deal. The emphasis was entirely on the high holy days of Easter, as it seems it should be. But for Francis, incarnation was already redemption. For God to become a human being among the poor, born in a stable among the animals, meant that it's good to be a human being, that flesh is good, and that the world is good--in its most simple and humble forms.
In Jesus, God was given a face and a heart. God became someone we could love. While God can be described as a moral force, as consciousness, and as high vibrational energy, the truth is, we don't (or can't?) fall in love with abstractions. So God became a person "that we could hear, see with our eyes, look at, and touch with our hands" (1 John 1:1). The brilliant Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas says the only thing that really converts people is "the face of the other." He develops this at great length and with great persuasion. When the face of the other (especially the suffering face) is received and empathized with, it leads to transformation of our whole being. It creates a moral demand on our heart that is far more compelling than the Ten Commandments. Just giving people commandments on tablets of stone doesn't change the heart. It may steel the will, but it doesn't soften the heart like an I-Thou encounter can. So many Christian mystics talk about seeing the divine face or falling in love with the face of Jesus. There is no doubt that was the experience of Francis and Clare. I think that's why Clare uses the word "mirroring" so often. We are mirrored not by concepts, but by faces delighting in us, giving us the face we can't give to ourselves. It is the gaze that does us in!
Jesus taught us what God is like through his words, his actions, his very being, making it clear that "God is love" (I John 4:8). If God is Trinity and Jesus is the face of God, then it is a benevolent universe. God is not someone to be afraid of, but is the Ground of Being and is on our side. [1]
Gateway to Silence: God is not "out there."
References:
[1] This is the second of seven themes that form the basis of the Living School curriculum and CAC's annual CONSPIRE conferences. Learn more at cac.org/living-school/program-details/lineage-and-themes/.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), discs 2-3 (CD, MP3 download).
Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent
Richard Rohr invites readers to be fully known by God and to participate in a "wondrous loop of divine disclosure." This small book leads us through Lent with daily Scripture passages, meditations by Fr. Richard, and prayers to deepen intimacy with our "Source and Ground."
Available at store.cac.org.
Order by January 27, 2016, to receive shipments to the United States (or January 20 for shipments to other countries) by the beginning of Lent on February 10.
Center for Action and Contemplation--------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Reflecting God" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Thursday, 14 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Incarnation: Week 1"
"Reflecting God" for Thursday, January 14, 2016
We have created a terrible kind of dualism between the spiritual and the so-called non-spiritual. This dualism is precisely what Jesus came to reveal as a lie. The principle of incarnation proclaims that matter and spirit have never been separate. Jesus came to tell us that these two seemingly different worlds are and always have been one. We just couldn't see it until God put them together in his one body (see Ephesians 2:11-20). "In [Christ Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians2:22). [1]
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) said, "Creation is the primary and most perfect revelation of the Divine." The original incarnation actually happened about 13.8 billion years ago with the moment we now call "The Big Bang." That is when God decided to materialize and to self-expose. This was the "Cosmic Christ" through which God has "let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made from the beginning in Christ as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 1:9-10). [2]
Jesus the Christ is the very concrete truth revealing and standing in for the universal truth. I think this is precisely what he is referring to when he constantly calls himself "The Son of the Human." Paul writes, "The fullness is founded in him . . . everything in heaven and everything on earth" (Colossians 1:19-20). Franciscan philosopher John Duns Scotus (1265/66-1308) says Christ was the very "first idea" in the mind of God, and God has never stopped thinking, dreaming, and creating the Christ. "The immense diversity and pluriformity of this creation more perfectly represents God than any one creature alone or by itself," adds Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica (47:1). [3] Each manifestation is revealing a different part of the eternal mystery of God and therefore inherently deserves respect and reverence. [4]
This includes you too! Being human is just a little less than God (Psalm 8:6). To trust this gives us an extraordinary dignity that we have in our very human nature, because we are in fact "sons and daughters of God." We are created in the image of God, we come forth from God, and we will return to God. We each uniquely reflect part of the mystery of God in between! We must find out what part of the mystery is ours to reflect. All I can give back to God is what God has uniquely given to me--nothing more and nothing less. [5]
Gateway to Silence: God is not "out there."
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality(Franciscan Media: 2010), 17.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Creation as the Body of God," Radical Grace, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: April-June 2010), 3, 22.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 3 (CD,MP3 download).
[5] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2003), 96-97.
Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent
Richard Rohr invites readers to be fully known by God and to participate in a "wondrous loop of divine disclosure." This small book leads us through Lent with daily Scripture passages, meditations by Fr. Richard, and prayers to deepen intimacy with our "Source and Ground."
Available at store.cac.org.
Order by January 27, 2016, to receive shipments to the United States (or January 20 for shipments to other countries) by the beginning of Lent on February 10.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Reflecting God" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Thursday, 14 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Incarnation: Week 1"
"Reflecting God" for Thursday, January 14, 2016
We have created a terrible kind of dualism between the spiritual and the so-called non-spiritual. This dualism is precisely what Jesus came to reveal as a lie. The principle of incarnation proclaims that matter and spirit have never been separate. Jesus came to tell us that these two seemingly different worlds are and always have been one. We just couldn't see it until God put them together in his one body (see Ephesians 2:11-20). "In [Christ Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians2:22). [1]
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) said, "Creation is the primary and most perfect revelation of the Divine." The original incarnation actually happened about 13.8 billion years ago with the moment we now call "The Big Bang." That is when God decided to materialize and to self-expose. This was the "Cosmic Christ" through which God has "let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made from the beginning in Christ as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 1:9-10). [2]
Jesus the Christ is the very concrete truth revealing and standing in for the universal truth. I think this is precisely what he is referring to when he constantly calls himself "The Son of the Human." Paul writes, "The fullness is founded in him . . . everything in heaven and everything on earth" (Colossians 1:19-20). Franciscan philosopher John Duns Scotus (1265/66-1308) says Christ was the very "first idea" in the mind of God, and God has never stopped thinking, dreaming, and creating the Christ. "The immense diversity and pluriformity of this creation more perfectly represents God than any one creature alone or by itself," adds Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica (47:1). [3] Each manifestation is revealing a different part of the eternal mystery of God and therefore inherently deserves respect and reverence. [4]
This includes you too! Being human is just a little less than God (Psalm 8:6). To trust this gives us an extraordinary dignity that we have in our very human nature, because we are in fact "sons and daughters of God." We are created in the image of God, we come forth from God, and we will return to God. We each uniquely reflect part of the mystery of God in between! We must find out what part of the mystery is ours to reflect. All I can give back to God is what God has uniquely given to me--nothing more and nothing less. [5]
Gateway to Silence: God is not "out there."
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality(Franciscan Media: 2010), 17.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Creation as the Body of God," Radical Grace, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: April-June 2010), 3, 22.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 3 (CD,MP3 download).
[5] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2003), 96-97.
Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent
Richard Rohr invites readers to be fully known by God and to participate in a "wondrous loop of divine disclosure." This small book leads us through Lent with daily Scripture passages, meditations by Fr. Richard, and prayers to deepen intimacy with our "Source and Ground."
Available at store.cac.org.
Order by January 27, 2016, to receive shipments to the United States (or January 20 for shipments to other countries) by the beginning of Lent on February 10.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "God Is Not 'Out There'" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Sunday, 10 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Incarnation: Week 1"
"God Is Not 'Out There'" for Sunday, January 10, 2016
I often say that incarnation is the Christian trump card. It is the overcoming of the gap between God and everything else. It is the synthesis of matter and spirit. Without incarnation, God remains separate from us and from creation. Because of incarnation, we can say, "God is with us!"In fact, God is in us, and in everything else that God created. We all have the divine DNA; everything bears the divine fingerprint, if the mystery of embodiment is true.
God, who is Love, incarnates as the universe beginning with the Big Bang approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Then 2,000 years ago, God incarnates as Jesus of Nazareth, when humanity was ready for what Martin Buber would call the "I-Thou" relationship and to personally comprehend that this mystery could be met, engaged with, and even loved. So matter and spirit have always been one, ever since God decided to manifest God's self in the first act of creation (Ephesians 1:3-10; Colossians 1:15-20).
It is crucial that we understand the importance of incarnation. This became so clear to me in a chance encounter with a recluse near the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, when I did a retreat at Thomas Merton's hermitage in 1985. A recluse is a hermit's hermit. Recluses come into the community only for Christmas and Easter. The rest of the time, they stay in the forest alone with God and themselves.
I was walking down a little trail when I saw this recluse coming toward me. Not wanting to interfere, I bowed my head and moved to the side of the path, intending to walk past him. But as we neared each other, he said, "Richard!" That surprised me. He was supposed to be a recluse. How did he know I was there? Or who I was?
He said, "Richard, you get chances to preach and I don't. When you're preaching, just tell the people one thing: God is not 'out there'! God bless you." And he abruptly continued down the path. Now I have just told you what he ordered me to do. God is not out there!
The belief that God is "out there" is the basic dualism that is tearing us all apart. Our view of God as separate and distant has harmed our understandings of our sexuality; of our relationship to food, possessions, and money; and of our relationship to animals, nature, and our own incarnate selves. This loss is foundational as to why we live such distraught and divided lives. Jesus came precisely to put it all together for us and in us. He was saying, in effect, "To be human is good! The material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This world is the hiding place of God and the revelation of God!"
The final stage of incarnation is resurrection! This is no exceptional miracle only done once in the body of Jesus. It is the final and fulfilled state of all embodiment. Now even the new physics tells us that matter itself is a manifestation of spirit, and spirit or shared consciousness is the real thing. [1] Matter also seems to be eternal. We do say in the Creed that we believe in "the resurrection of the body," whereas many of us--still followers of Plato more than Jesus--only believe in the eternal nature of the soul.
Gateway to Silence: God is not "out there."
References:
[1] For more on quantum physics and incarnation, see Diarmuid O'Murchu, Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics(The Crossroad Publishing Company: 1997, 2004).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2003), 117-119.
Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent
Richard Rohr invites readers to be fully known by God and to participate in a "wondrous loop of divine disclosure." This small book leads us through Lent with daily Scripture passages, meditations by Fr. Richard, and prayers to deepen intimacy with our "Source and Ground."
Available at store.cac.org.
God for Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter
This daily Lenten devotional features thought-provoking reflections from Richard Rohr, Kathleen Norris, Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, and others. Full-color artwork complements the text.
Limited copies are available at store.cac.org.
Order by January 27, 2016, to receive shipments to the United States (or January 20 for shipments to other countries) by the beginning of Lent on February 10.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
--------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "God Is Not 'Out There'" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Sunday, 10 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
"Incarnation: Week 1"
"God Is Not 'Out There'" for Sunday, January 10, 2016
I often say that incarnation is the Christian trump card. It is the overcoming of the gap between God and everything else. It is the synthesis of matter and spirit. Without incarnation, God remains separate from us and from creation. Because of incarnation, we can say, "God is with us!"In fact, God is in us, and in everything else that God created. We all have the divine DNA; everything bears the divine fingerprint, if the mystery of embodiment is true.
God, who is Love, incarnates as the universe beginning with the Big Bang approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Then 2,000 years ago, God incarnates as Jesus of Nazareth, when humanity was ready for what Martin Buber would call the "I-Thou" relationship and to personally comprehend that this mystery could be met, engaged with, and even loved. So matter and spirit have always been one, ever since God decided to manifest God's self in the first act of creation (Ephesians 1:3-10; Colossians 1:15-20).
It is crucial that we understand the importance of incarnation. This became so clear to me in a chance encounter with a recluse near the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, when I did a retreat at Thomas Merton's hermitage in 1985. A recluse is a hermit's hermit. Recluses come into the community only for Christmas and Easter. The rest of the time, they stay in the forest alone with God and themselves.
I was walking down a little trail when I saw this recluse coming toward me. Not wanting to interfere, I bowed my head and moved to the side of the path, intending to walk past him. But as we neared each other, he said, "Richard!" That surprised me. He was supposed to be a recluse. How did he know I was there? Or who I was?
He said, "Richard, you get chances to preach and I don't. When you're preaching, just tell the people one thing: God is not 'out there'! God bless you." And he abruptly continued down the path. Now I have just told you what he ordered me to do. God is not out there!
The belief that God is "out there" is the basic dualism that is tearing us all apart. Our view of God as separate and distant has harmed our understandings of our sexuality; of our relationship to food, possessions, and money; and of our relationship to animals, nature, and our own incarnate selves. This loss is foundational as to why we live such distraught and divided lives. Jesus came precisely to put it all together for us and in us. He was saying, in effect, "To be human is good! The material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This world is the hiding place of God and the revelation of God!"
The final stage of incarnation is resurrection! This is no exceptional miracle only done once in the body of Jesus. It is the final and fulfilled state of all embodiment. Now even the new physics tells us that matter itself is a manifestation of spirit, and spirit or shared consciousness is the real thing. [1] Matter also seems to be eternal. We do say in the Creed that we believe in "the resurrection of the body," whereas many of us--still followers of Plato more than Jesus--only believe in the eternal nature of the soul.
Gateway to Silence: God is not "out there."
References:
[1] For more on quantum physics and incarnation, see Diarmuid O'Murchu, Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics(The Crossroad Publishing Company: 1997, 2004).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2003), 117-119.
Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent
Richard Rohr invites readers to be fully known by God and to participate in a "wondrous loop of divine disclosure." This small book leads us through Lent with daily Scripture passages, meditations by Fr. Richard, and prayers to deepen intimacy with our "Source and Ground."
Available at store.cac.org.
God for Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter
This daily Lenten devotional features thought-provoking reflections from Richard Rohr, Kathleen Norris, Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, and others. Full-color artwork complements the text.
Limited copies are available at store.cac.org.
Order by January 27, 2016, to receive shipments to the United States (or January 20 for shipments to other countries) by the beginning of Lent on February 10.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
---------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Love: Week 2 Summary" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Saturday, 9 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Pomegranates, Majorca (detail) by John Singer Sargent, 1908. Private Collection.
"Love: Week 2"
"Summary: Sunday, January 3-Friday, January 8, 2016"
What you seek is what you are. (Sunday)
The inner knowledge of God's love is itself the Indwelling Presence. (Monday)
"Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God . . . for God is love."[1 John 4:7-8](Tuesday)
Intimacy (mutual vulnerability) is the only gateway into the temple of human or divine love. (Wednesday)
Love is both who you are and who you are still becoming. (Thursday)
Love alone, and our deep need for love, recognizes love everywhere else. (Friday)
"Practice: Lectio Divina"
Lectio Divina is a contemplative way to read short passages of sacred text. With the first reading, listen with your heart's ear for a phrase or word that stands out for you. During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps speaking that response aloud or writing in a journal. After reading the passage a third time, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced and what it calls you to. Finally,rest in silence after a fourth reading.
I invite you to practice lectio divina with this ancient love song:
LOVER:
My dove is my only one,
perfect and mine.
She is the darling of her mother,
the favourite of the one who bore her.
Girls have seen her and proclaimed her blessed,
queens and concubines have sung her praises,
"Who is this arising like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
resplendent as the sun,
formidable as an army?"
I went down to the nut orchard
to see the fresh shoots in the valley,
to see if the vines were budding
and the pomegranate trees in flower.
Before I knew . . . my desire had hurled me
onto the chariots of Amminadib!BELOVED:
[Y]our palate [is] like sweet wine
[f]lowing down the throat of my love,
as it runs on the lips of those who sleep.
I belong to my love,
and his desire is for me.
Come, my love,
let us go to the fields.
We will spend the night in the villages,
and in the early morning we will go to the vineyards.
We will see if the vines are budding,
if their blossoms are opening,
if the pomegranate trees are in flower.
Then I shall give you
the gift of my love.
The mandrakes yield their fragrance,
the most exquisite fruits are at our doors;
the new as well as the old,
I have stored them for you, my love.
Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
For love is strong as Death,
passion as relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of fire,
a flame of Yahweh himself.
Love no flood can quench,
no torrents drown.[Song of Songs 6:9-12, 7:10-14, 8:6-7, (New Jerusalem Bible)]
Gateway to Silence: "There is nothing better or more necessary than love."[St. John of the Cross]
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self
Last chance to register!
Immortal Diamond: A Study in Search of the True Self
January 27-April 6, 2016
A self-paced, online course * No application required * Scholarships available
Learn more and register at cac.org.
Registration closes January 13, 2016, or when the course reaches capacity,
whichever comes first.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico | 87195, United States
---------------------
---------------------
Richard Rohr's Meditation: "Love: Week 2 Summary" Center for Action and Contemplation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Saturday, 9 January 2016
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Pomegranates, Majorca (detail) by John Singer Sargent, 1908. Private Collection.
"Love: Week 2"
"Summary: Sunday, January 3-Friday, January 8, 2016"
What you seek is what you are. (Sunday)
The inner knowledge of God's love is itself the Indwelling Presence. (Monday)
"Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God . . . for God is love."[1 John 4:7-8](Tuesday)
Intimacy (mutual vulnerability) is the only gateway into the temple of human or divine love. (Wednesday)
Love is both who you are and who you are still becoming. (Thursday)
Love alone, and our deep need for love, recognizes love everywhere else. (Friday)
"Practice: Lectio Divina"
Lectio Divina is a contemplative way to read short passages of sacred text. With the first reading, listen with your heart's ear for a phrase or word that stands out for you. During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps speaking that response aloud or writing in a journal. After reading the passage a third time, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced and what it calls you to. Finally,rest in silence after a fourth reading.
I invite you to practice lectio divina with this ancient love song:
LOVER:
My dove is my only one,
perfect and mine.
She is the darling of her mother,
the favourite of the one who bore her.
Girls have seen her and proclaimed her blessed,
queens and concubines have sung her praises,
"Who is this arising like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
resplendent as the sun,
formidable as an army?"
I went down to the nut orchard
to see the fresh shoots in the valley,
to see if the vines were budding
and the pomegranate trees in flower.
Before I knew . . . my desire had hurled me
onto the chariots of Amminadib!BELOVED:
[Y]our palate [is] like sweet wine
[f]lowing down the throat of my love,
as it runs on the lips of those who sleep.
I belong to my love,
and his desire is for me.
Come, my love,
let us go to the fields.
We will spend the night in the villages,
and in the early morning we will go to the vineyards.
We will see if the vines are budding,
if their blossoms are opening,
if the pomegranate trees are in flower.
Then I shall give you
the gift of my love.
The mandrakes yield their fragrance,
the most exquisite fruits are at our doors;
the new as well as the old,
I have stored them for you, my love.
Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
For love is strong as Death,
passion as relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of fire,
a flame of Yahweh himself.
Love no flood can quench,
no torrents drown.[Song of Songs 6:9-12, 7:10-14, 8:6-7, (New Jerusalem Bible)]
Gateway to Silence: "There is nothing better or more necessary than love."[St. John of the Cross]
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self
Last chance to register!
Immortal Diamond: A Study in Search of the True Self
January 27-April 6, 2016
A self-paced, online course * No application required * Scholarships available
Learn more and register at cac.org.
Registration closes January 13, 2016, or when the course reaches capacity,
whichever comes first.
Center for Action and Contemplation
---------------------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SW (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico | 87195, United States
---------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment