I attend spiritual direction at The Well Spirituality Center. After my session a few months ago I stopped into the gift shop in the lobby. They have a tremendous selection of books and this is typically not a good idea as I come out with a host of books that I have every intention of reading....
True to form I came out with a few books. One of the books that I came out with is this Richard Rohr book. Initially I thought that this would be a great book for Justin. Then I started reading it myself. I am sure that I will pass it on to him when I am done. Really, I cannot get enough of it. I have been using it as my something extra during Lent.
From the introduction...
How can I see and use my action and my reflections expand and not to contract? How can I listen for God and learn God's voice, more that God's precise name and plan. How can I keep my heart, minde, and soul open...This should be the early form of spiritual teaching: not what to see, nearly as much as how to see.
From Chapter 1: A Lever and a Place to Stand
The fixed point is our place to stand. It is a contemplative stance: steady, centered poised, and rooted. To be contemplative, we have to have a slight distance from the world - we have oto allow time for withdrawal form business as usual, for meditation, for prayer in what Jesus calls "our private room" However, in order for this not to become escapism, we have to remain quite close to the world at the same time, loving it, feeling its pains and it joys as our pains and our joys.
From Chapter 2: Amusing Ourselves to Death
Catholics can defend the doctrine of the Real Presence all we want, and I do, but if we don't teach the children of God how to be present to presence, there is no Real Presence. We Catholics tend to spend much of our time defending the objective end of doctrines and very often neglect the subjective end - which is where everybody actually lives. If we has spent as much time teaching people how to be present, I think we would have had a lot more believers in the Real Presence... Because people had not been taught how to be present themselves, the last five hundred years became futile rational arguments about transubstantiation - the how, the if, and the who could do it - because Encounter itself was no longer the heart of the matter.
From Chapter 3: Living with Paradox
But are thought and judgement necessary? Of course they are at certain levels. Still, it took me a long time to recognize that my need to judge was not really a desire for truth as I had convinced myself. My need to judge was a desire for control: To be in control of the data, to be right. to be in control of the explanations, to define the pecking order. To konw who's up and who's down. Who is in and who is out. Who is right and who is wrong. Who is superior and who is inferior. That's what is taken away from you and that's why many will never go on the inner journey. what wants that power to be taken from you?
I will read on....
What are you doing during this Lent?
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