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Image credit: Doves and Pear Blossoms after Rain (detail) 1266-1300, Qian Xuan (1235-1305), Cincinnati Art Museum."Love Summary for the Year: Week 2"
On this Christmas day, all of us at the Center for Action and Contemplation pray you may know the deep love of God that surpasses understanding. The story of Jesus’ birth reveals what is too simple and profound for us to comprehend: God is with us, even in our pain. Click here to watch an 8-minute video in which I explore the revolutionary message of God-All-Vulnerable.
"The Continual Incarnation"
Sunday, December 25, 2016
(Christmas, Feast of the Incarnation)The full and participatory meaning of Christmas is that this one universal mystery of Divine Incarnation is also intended for us and continuing in us! It is not just about trusting the truth of the body of Jesus, but trusting its extension through the ongoing Body of Christ—which is even a bigger act of faith, hope, and charity and which alone has the power to change history, society, and all relationships. To only hold a mental belief in Jesus as the “Child of God” has little or no effect in the real world; it has largely remained something to argue about.
That is so much to comprehend or even imagine, and you have so much to enjoy and experience on this day, let’s just stop at that!
Gateway to Silence: Be the change you wish to see in the world.[Gandhi]
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CAC’s online bookstore, store.cac.org, is open year-round! Between December 24 and January 1, due to the holidays and our annual inventory process, fulfillment of orders may be delayed; please allow additional time to receive your purchase.-------
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Image credit: Fatzael Springs and ancient and modern water system in Fatzael Valley in the west side of Jordan Valley (detail). Photograph by Hanay.
"Love Summary for the Year: Week 1"
Summary: Sunday, December 18-Friday, December 23, 2016
(Christmas Eve)The True Self—where you and God are one—does not choose to love as much as it is love itself already (see Colossians 3:3-4). The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it is compassion. (Sunday)
Love is caught more than it is taught. You cannot learn how to love through concepts, ideas, and commandments. You need to see and feel a living, loving incarnation. “She is doing it. He exemplifies it. It is therefore possible for me, too.” (Monday)
Love is not what you do; it’s how you do it. When you stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, you live inside of a different energy. (Tuesday)
If you get love here, you have found the eternal home base and you will easily and naturally live forever. Life is not about being correct but about being connected. (Wednesday)
The simple and pure motivation for all morality and religion is simply the imitation of God who is love. (Thursday)
So by all means, every day, and in every way, we must choose to live in love—it is mostly a decision—and even be eager to learn the ever deeper ways of love—which is the unearned grace that follows from the decision! (Friday)
"Practice: Love Upwelling"
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39), not “as much as you love yourself.” We are to love our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves. “We love because God has first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When we accept the unconditional love and undeserved mercy that God offers us—knowing that we are not worthy of it—then we can allow God to love others through us in the same way. It’s God in you loving you, warts and all, and God in you loving others as they are. This is why the love you have available to give away is limitless. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “The water that I shall give you will turn into a spring inside of you, welling up into limitless life” (John 4:14).
The following exercise is based on a teaching from Friar Francisco de Osuna, OFM (1492-1542), the spiritual “master” of Teresa of Ávila. Here is what he taught his students, in my words:
Dam up the fountain of your soul, where love is always springing forth.
It will be forced to rise.
Yet it will remain quiet and at rest within you; wait for that quiet.
You will see the image of God reflected in your own clear waters, more resplendent than in any other thing—provided the disturbing turmoil of thoughts dies down.
Below is a simple commentary and aid on this teaching, so that you can experience it for yourself. It is quite similar to what the Hindus discovered in tantra, where you hold the powerful gift so that it can be deepened and refined before being expressed.
Try to stay beneath your thoughts, neither fighting them nor thinking them. Hold yourself at a deeper level than your mind, perhaps in your chest, solar plexus, or breath; stay in your body self. Resist any desire to repress or express; allow animal contentment. It will feel like nothing or darkness. Stay “crouched” there at the cellular level without shame, long enough for Another Source to begin to flow and well up as light or joy.
This is the “super-essential life.” From this place you become seeing, and the love flows through you from the Source as an energy more than as an idea. You cannot “think” God. God is never an “object” of consciousness like any other thing, person, or event that you “know.” God is always and forever the subject, the doer, the initiator, “the Prevenient Grace.” You have then “become” what you hope to see. Subject and object are one. God in you and through you sees and loves God—in yourself and in others, too.
Gateway to Silence: Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Reference:Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations (CAC: 2016), 367-368.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014)
Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1996)-------
The contemplative-active journey can be a lonely one.
CAC offers self-paced, online courses to connect seekers from around the world through Father Richard Rohr’s teachings.
IMMORTAL DIAMOND: A Study in Search of the True Self
February 1–April 12, 2017
THE FRANCISCAN WAY: Beyond the Bird Bath
March 1–April 19, 2017
Scholarships are available. Learn more and register at cac.org/online-ed.
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Holiday Hours
The Center for Action and Contemplation offices and visitor center are closed December 24 through January 2. CAC’s online bookstore, store.cac.org, is open year-round! Between December 24 and January 1, due to the holidays and our annual inventory process, fulfillment of orders may be delayed; please allow additional time to receive your purchase.-------
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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Richard Rohr Daily Meditation: "Love Summary for the Year: Week 1 Summary" Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Saturday, 24 December 2016 Try to stay beneath your thoughts, neither fighting them nor thinking them.1823 Five Points Road South West (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
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Image credit: Fatzael Springs and ancient and modern water system in Fatzael Valley in the west side of Jordan Valley (detail). Photograph by Hanay."Love Summary for the Year: Week 1"
Summary: Sunday, December 18-Friday, December 23, 2016
(Christmas Eve)The True Self—where you and God are one—does not choose to love as much as it is love itself already (see Colossians 3:3-4). The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it is compassion. (Sunday)
Love is caught more than it is taught. You cannot learn how to love through concepts, ideas, and commandments. You need to see and feel a living, loving incarnation. “She is doing it. He exemplifies it. It is therefore possible for me, too.” (Monday)
Love is not what you do; it’s how you do it. When you stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, you live inside of a different energy. (Tuesday)
If you get love here, you have found the eternal home base and you will easily and naturally live forever. Life is not about being correct but about being connected. (Wednesday)
The simple and pure motivation for all morality and religion is simply the imitation of God who is love. (Thursday)
So by all means, every day, and in every way, we must choose to live in love—it is mostly a decision—and even be eager to learn the ever deeper ways of love—which is the unearned grace that follows from the decision! (Friday)
"Practice: Love Upwelling"
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39), not “as much as you love yourself.” We are to love our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves. “We love because God has first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When we accept the unconditional love and undeserved mercy that God offers us—knowing that we are not worthy of it—then we can allow God to love others through us in the same way. It’s God in you loving you, warts and all, and God in you loving others as they are. This is why the love you have available to give away is limitless. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “The water that I shall give you will turn into a spring inside of you, welling up into limitless life” (John 4:14).
The following exercise is based on a teaching from Friar Francisco de Osuna, OFM (1492-1542), the spiritual “master” of Teresa of Ávila. Here is what he taught his students, in my words:
Dam up the fountain of your soul, where love is always springing forth.
It will be forced to rise.
Yet it will remain quiet and at rest within you; wait for that quiet.
You will see the image of God reflected in your own clear waters, more resplendent than in any other thing—provided the disturbing turmoil of thoughts dies down.
Below is a simple commentary and aid on this teaching, so that you can experience it for yourself. It is quite similar to what the Hindus discovered in tantra, where you hold the powerful gift so that it can be deepened and refined before being expressed.
Try to stay beneath your thoughts, neither fighting them nor thinking them. Hold yourself at a deeper level than your mind, perhaps in your chest, solar plexus, or breath; stay in your body self. Resist any desire to repress or express; allow animal contentment. It will feel like nothing or darkness. Stay “crouched” there at the cellular level without shame, long enough for Another Source to begin to flow and well up as light or joy.
This is the “super-essential life.” From this place you become seeing, and the love flows through you from the Source as an energy more than as an idea. You cannot “think” God. God is never an “object” of consciousness like any other thing, person, or event that you “know.” God is always and forever the subject, the doer, the initiator, “the Prevenient Grace.” You have then “become” what you hope to see. Subject and object are one. God in you and through you sees and loves God—in yourself and in others, too.
Gateway to Silence: Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Reference:Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations (CAC: 2016), 367-368.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014)
Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1996)-------
The contemplative-active journey can be a lonely one.
CAC offers self-paced, online courses to connect seekers from around the world through Father Richard Rohr’s teachings.
IMMORTAL DIAMOND: A Study in Search of the True Self
February 1–April 12, 2017
THE FRANCISCAN WAY: Beyond the Bird Bath
March 1–April 19, 2017
Scholarships are available. Learn more and register at cac.org/online-ed.
-------
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road South West (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
-------
1823 Five Points Road South West (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
-------
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