Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Image description: Whirlpool Galaxy: The crossed pattern within the nucleus of M51 indicating two dust rings around
the black hole at the center of the nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA
"The Cosmic Christ: Week 1"
"Summary: Sunday, October 23-Friday, October 28, 2016"
Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time, and the Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time. (Sunday)
Image description: Whirlpool Galaxy: The crossed pattern within the nucleus of M51 indicating two dust rings aroundthe black hole at the center of the nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA
"The Cosmic Christ: Week 1"
"Summary: Sunday, October 23-Friday, October 28, 2016"
Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time, and the Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit from the beginning of time. (Sunday)
In the beginning was the Blueprint, and the Blueprint was with God, and the Blueprint was God. . . . And all things came to be through this inner plan. The inner reality of God was about to become manifest in the outer world as the Cosmic Christ. (Monday)
Outpouring Love is the inherent shape of the universe, and only when we love do we fully and truthfully exist in this universe and move toward our full purpose. (Tuesday)
God will turn all of our crucifixions into resurrections. Look at it in Jesus, believe it in Jesus, admire it in Jesus, love it in Jesus, and let it take shape in your own soul. (Wednesday)
The Risen Christ is Jesus released from all space/time restrictions. He is beyond space; he is beyond time. He includes all of the spiritual and the physical world, reconciled within himself. (Thursday)
The Christ Mystery gives us significance and a sense of belonging as part of God’s Great Work. We are no longer alienated from God, others, or the universe. Everything belongs. (Friday)
"Practice: Making a Mandala"
Mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle, is a Hindu and Buddhist symbol for the universe. It represents the Whole of which we are a part. In Carl Jung’s words, a mandala is “a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness.” [1]
We might think of Christ as a mandala—a symbol of matter and spirit cohering in and beyond time. Christ is God manifest, both visible and invisible, darkness and light, bringing all things to greater life and love throughout eternity. Christ’s love is the very shape of the universe. Each of us are part of this pattern. Through our conscious participation, we can grow into the fullness of love.
I invite you to create your own mandala as a contemplative practice. Begin by gathering all the materials you’ll need (a large sheet of blank paper, extra paper, scissors, pencil, compass, coloring pencils, markers, paints, etc.). Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for an hour or so.
Bring to heart and mind four areas in your life or the world for which you desire healing and wholing. Record them on a spare piece of paper using words, symbols, or colors.
Cut the large piece of paper into a square. Mark the center of the page with a small dot and use a compass to draw a circle a couple inches from the edge of the paper (if you don’t have a compass, trace a small plate or bowl). Within the circle, draw a square and divide it into four quadrants. In each section, draw an image or design that represents each of your desires.
Beginning at the corners of the square and, moving outward, create concentric circles with shapes or curving lines. Add color if you wish, slowly filling in the design.
When you have finished creating your mandala, consecrate the time, energy, and focus you’ve given to the healing and wholing of self and world. Spend some time simply gazing with non-judgmental eyes at the mandala and surrendering your desires and expectations.
Tibetan and Navajo rituals involve ceremonially destroying their intricate sand mandalas after completion. You might choose to intentionally burn, bury, or somehow let go of your mandala.
Gateway to Silence: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
References:[1] C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Collected Works of C. G. Jung, trans. R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2014), 384.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: Daily Meditations (CAC: 2016), 354.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (MP3 download)
Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ (CD, MP3 download)-------
Richard Rohr's "You are the Body of Christ" Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 28 October 2016 We are no longer alienated from God, others, or the universe.Outpouring Love is the inherent shape of the universe, and only when we love do we fully and truthfully exist in this universe and move toward our full purpose. (Tuesday)
God will turn all of our crucifixions into resurrections. Look at it in Jesus, believe it in Jesus, admire it in Jesus, love it in Jesus, and let it take shape in your own soul. (Wednesday)
The Risen Christ is Jesus released from all space/time restrictions. He is beyond space; he is beyond time. He includes all of the spiritual and the physical world, reconciled within himself. (Thursday)
The Christ Mystery gives us significance and a sense of belonging as part of God’s Great Work. We are no longer alienated from God, others, or the universe. Everything belongs. (Friday)
"Practice: Making a Mandala"
Mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle, is a Hindu and Buddhist symbol for the universe. It represents the Whole of which we are a part. In Carl Jung’s words, a mandala is “a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness.” [1]
We might think of Christ as a mandala—a symbol of matter and spirit cohering in and beyond time. Christ is God manifest, both visible and invisible, darkness and light, bringing all things to greater life and love throughout eternity. Christ’s love is the very shape of the universe. Each of us are part of this pattern. Through our conscious participation, we can grow into the fullness of love.
I invite you to create your own mandala as a contemplative practice. Begin by gathering all the materials you’ll need (a large sheet of blank paper, extra paper, scissors, pencil, compass, coloring pencils, markers, paints, etc.). Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for an hour or so.
Bring to heart and mind four areas in your life or the world for which you desire healing and wholing. Record them on a spare piece of paper using words, symbols, or colors.
Cut the large piece of paper into a square. Mark the center of the page with a small dot and use a compass to draw a circle a couple inches from the edge of the paper (if you don’t have a compass, trace a small plate or bowl). Within the circle, draw a square and divide it into four quadrants. In each section, draw an image or design that represents each of your desires.
Beginning at the corners of the square and, moving outward, create concentric circles with shapes or curving lines. Add color if you wish, slowly filling in the design.
When you have finished creating your mandala, consecrate the time, energy, and focus you’ve given to the healing and wholing of self and world. Spend some time simply gazing with non-judgmental eyes at the mandala and surrendering your desires and expectations.
Tibetan and Navajo rituals involve ceremonially destroying their intricate sand mandalas after completion. You might choose to intentionally burn, bury, or somehow let go of your mandala.
Gateway to Silence: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
References:[1] C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Collected Works of C. G. Jung, trans. R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2014), 384.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: Daily Meditations (CAC: 2016), 354.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (MP3 download)
Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ (CD, MP3 download)-------
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Image description: Whirlpool Galaxy: The crossed pattern within the nucleus of M51 indicating two dust rings around
the black hole at the center of the nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA
"The Cosmic Christ: Week 1"
Image description: Whirlpool Galaxy: The crossed pattern within the nucleus of M51 indicating two dust rings aroundthe black hole at the center of the nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA
"The Cosmic Christ: Week 1"
"You are the Body of Christ"
Friday, October 28, 2016Christ is the eternal amalgam of matter and spirit as one. They hold and reveal one another. Wherever the human and the divine coexist, we have the Christ. Wherever the material and the spiritual coincide, we have the Christ. That includes the material world, the natural world, the animal world (including humans), and moves all the way to the elemental world, symbolized by bread and wine. The Eucharist offers Christians the message in condensed form so we can struggle with it in a very concrete way. You cannot think about such a universal truth logically; you can only slowly digest it! “Eat it and know who you are,” St. Augustine said. [1] You are what you drink and eat, as any good nutritionist will tell you.
Only slowly does the truth become believable. Finally the Body of Christ is not out there or over there; it’s in you—it’s here and now and everywhere. The goal is then to move beyond yourself and recognize that what’s true in you is true in all others too. This was supposed to be a political and social revolution. But we wasted centuries arguing about whether it was true at all! The orthodox insistence on “Real Presence” is merely taking the Mystery of Incarnation to its natural and full and very good conclusion. Here I am quite happy to be fully Catholic. “There is only Christ, he is everything, and he is in everything,” Paul shouts (see Colossians 3:11). This is not pantheism; it is the much more subtle and subversive panentheism, or God in all things.
Friday, October 28, 2016Christ is the eternal amalgam of matter and spirit as one. They hold and reveal one another. Wherever the human and the divine coexist, we have the Christ. Wherever the material and the spiritual coincide, we have the Christ. That includes the material world, the natural world, the animal world (including humans), and moves all the way to the elemental world, symbolized by bread and wine. The Eucharist offers Christians the message in condensed form so we can struggle with it in a very concrete way. You cannot think about such a universal truth logically; you can only slowly digest it! “Eat it and know who you are,” St. Augustine said. [1] You are what you drink and eat, as any good nutritionist will tell you.
Only slowly does the truth become believable. Finally the Body of Christ is not out there or over there; it’s in you—it’s here and now and everywhere. The goal is then to move beyond yourself and recognize that what’s true in you is true in all others too. This was supposed to be a political and social revolution. But we wasted centuries arguing about whether it was true at all! The orthodox insistence on “Real Presence” is merely taking the Mystery of Incarnation to its natural and full and very good conclusion. Here I am quite happy to be fully Catholic. “There is only Christ, he is everything, and he is in everything,” Paul shouts (see Colossians 3:11). This is not pantheism; it is the much more subtle and subversive panentheism, or God in all things.
The widest part at the bottom of the hourglass I call the ever-expanding Christ Mystery. To put it forthrightly, YOU are “the second coming of Christ”! You and I are living here in this ever-expanding universe. You and I are a part of this Christ Mystery without any choice on our part. We just are, whether we like it or not. It’s nothing we have to consciously believe. It’s first of all announcing an objective truth. But if we consciously take this mystery as our worldview, it will create immense joy and peace. It gives us significance and a sense of belonging as part of God’s Great Work. We are no longer alienated from God, others, or the universe. Everything belongs. And it is pure, undeserved gift from the very beginning.
Participating in Christ allows you to know that “I don’t matter at all, and yet I matter intensely—at the same time!” That’s the ultimate therapeutic healing. I’m just a little grain of sand in this giant, giant universe. I’m going to pass in a little while like everyone else will. But I’m also a child of God. I’m connected radically, inherently, intrinsically to the Center and to everything else.
You need never feel lonely again.
Gateway to Silence: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
References:[1] Paraphrasing Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 272, “On the day of Pentecost, to the infantes, concerning the sacrament” in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, pt. 3, vol. 7, trans. Edmund Hill (New City Press: 1993), 300-301.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.-------
“Evolutionary Thinking”
a new issue of Oneing, CAC’s spiritual, literary journal
“Foundational hope demands a foundational belief in a world that is still and always unfolding.”[Richard Rohr]Discover the many ways in which we can consciously contribute to the evolutionary process, both at the universal and personal levels. The story has not yet ended. Have hope!
Featuring Michael Dowd, Tasha Wahl, Micky Scottbey Jones, Mike Morrell, Sally Severino, and others.
This limited edition publication is now available at store.cac.org.
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Center for Action and Contemplation
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road South West (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
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Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road South West (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
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