Rites of Passage
Rites of Passage Though initiation was forgotten in the West for a long time, more and more people are rediscovering its power as a catalyst to help us pass from life ...
Yes
Yes All prayer is seconding the motion. God is the initial motion, the initiative. In contemplation, we become aware of God’s movement and surrender to it. We begin with “yes,” ready ...
Love’s Reconciliation and Transformation
Love’s Reconciliation and Transformation Each week we offer an invitation to contemplative practice, though I hope you’re finding quiet, contemplative moments every day. There are many different ways to meditate or ...
Agape Feast
Agape Feast The early Christians shared agape (love) feasts in their small communities. Somehow eating together creates a space where we can be vulnerable and present. By sharing our food, or by coming ...
Concrete Participation
Concrete Participation As we turn toward participation we now can see that most of religious and church history has been largely preoccupied with religious ideas, about which you could be wrong ...
The YHWH Prayer
The YHWH Prayer A rabbi taught this prayer to Richard Rohr many years ago. He writes about it in the second chapter of his book The Naked Now. The Jews did not ...
Prayer of Quiet
Prayer of Quiet I believe it’s especially important for those of us who are comfortable and privileged—whether we are white, financially secure, male, or have some other social “advantage”—to nurture a ...
Self-Emptying
Self-Emptying Make my joy complete by being of a single mind, one in love, one in heart and one in mind. Nothing is to be done out of jealousy or vanity; ...
Staying Open
Staying Open Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. —1 Corinthians 13:7, NASB This love—whose source is God’s very self—is an open-heartedness. You can tell when ...
Praying through Art
Praying through Art Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians is a favorite succinct statement of his wisdom, and it is a prayer for you, as well: I bow my ...
Midrash
Midrash The Jewish practice of midrash is a way of interpreting Scripture that asks questions more than seeks always certain and unchanging answers. It allows many possibilities, many levels of faith-filled meaning—meaning that ...
Reading Scripture with the Mind of Christ
Reading Scripture with the Mind of Christ Looking at which Scripture passages Jesus emphasizes (remember, the Hebrew Bible was his only Bible!) shows he clearly understands how to connect the “three ...
Letting Go into God
Letting Go into God It is said that Francis’ great prayer, which he would spend whole nights praying, is “Who are you, God? And who am I?” Contemplative prayer helps us ...
Bodily Knowing
Bodily Knowing St. Francis objectively experienced mutual indwelling with Jesus and with all of God’s creatures. We see this most clearly late in his life when the cruciform shape of reality ...
Saying Grace
Saying Grace Many cultures have a beautiful tradition of saying a prayer before or after a meal, expressing gratitude and asking for blessing. If we are accustomed to praying over our ...