From a Walter Brueggemann prayer:
At the outset of this day,
we place our lives in your strong hands.
Before the end of this day,
do newness among us in the very places where
we are tired in fear,
we are exhausted in guilt,
we are spent in anxiety. Make all things new, we pray in the new-making name of Jesus.
Great line from Gordon Atkinson:
Christianity began as a movement in Palestine, migrated to Greece where it became a philosophy, moved into Europe where it became a form of government, and finally came across the ocean to the United States where it has become a business. With each move it has traveled farther from its roots as it adopts the dominant power structure of the culture. We Christians need to know this about ourselves and seek always to return to our simpler roots.
Great PBS piece on Richard Rohr
Rohr calls himself a “radical traditionalist.”
Me too.
Favorite quote:
It’s not correct to say Jesus is God. Now, don’t run and report me to the bishop, all right? It’s not correct to say that — Jesus is the union of the human and the divine. That’s different. I’ve been a priest 43 years. Most of the Catholics Christians I’ve met would for all practical purposes believe Jesus is God only, and we are human only. We missed the big point. The point is the integration, both in Jesus and ourselves.
A music video version of my minimalist theology:
Most of us don’t pray. We just rehearse our anxieties out loud
Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation
People addicted to their own mind will find contemplation most difficult, if not impossible. Much that is called thinking is simply the ego’s stating of what it prefers and likes—and resistances to what it does not like. Narcissistic reactions to the moment are not worthy of being called thinking. Yet that is much of our public and private discourse. When your mental judgmental grid and all its commentaries are placed aside, God finally has a chance to get through to you, because your pettiness is at last out of the way. — Fr. Richard Rohr
Uh-oh, sounds very familiar. Narcissistic reactions to the moment. Brutal but true.
Favorite line:
The cross does not convert God into loving us; it converts us into receiving God’s judgment as sanctification rather than wrath
Amen
That’s what my Facebook profile currently says under “Recent Activity”
That’s me. I’m a walking contradiction.
Either that or I’m not afraid of contradiction. Yeah, I’m a non-dual kind of guy. Let’s go with that.
Just finished The Naked Now by Father Richard Rohr, one of the best books I have read in a long time. Father Rohr is a Fransciscan friar who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation. He has a way of explaining Christian spirituality that just clicks with me. Here are a couple excerpts from the book:
Two universal and prime paths of transformation have been available to every human being God has created since Adam and Eve and the Stone Age: great love and great suffering. These are offered to all; they level the playing fields of all the world religions. Only love and suffering are strong enough to break down our usual ego defenses, crush our dual thinking, and open us up to Mystery. In my experience, they like nothing else exert the mysterious chemistry that can transmute us from a fear-based life into a love-based life. None of us are exactly sure why. We do know that words, even good words or totally orthodox theology, cannot achieve that by itself. No surprise that the Christian icon of redemption is a man offering love from a crucified position.
That rings 100% true, like something so blindingly obvious I can’t imagine I haven’t heard it before … but I haven’t heard it before. Kind of puts a new perspective on what is important. A few pages later he continues:
Authentic love is of one piece. How you love anything is how you love everything. Jesus commands us to “Love our neighbors as we love ourselves,” and he connects the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor, saying they are “like” one another (Matthew 22:40). So often, we think this means to love our neighbor with the same amount of love — as much as we love ourselves — when it really means that it is the same Source and the same Love that allows me to love myself, and others, and God — at the same time! That is unfortunately not the way most people understand love, compassion, and forgiveness, but it is the only way they ever work. How you love is how you have accessed love ….
In and with God, I can love everything and everyone — even my enemies. Alone and by myself, will power and intellect will seldom be able to love in difficult situations over time. Many sophisticated folks try to love by themselves. They try to obey the second commandment without the first. It usually does not work long-term, and there is no one more cynical than a disillusioned idealist.
The simple theology that is the subtitle of this blog, ”Love God, love people, nothing else matters” is incomplete without an understanding of why trying to obey the second commandment without the first is ultimately hopeless. I think Father Rohr explains this very well.
