Cultivating Inner Freedom

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Richard Rohr considers how we might, like the desert mystics, develop inner freedom through practice and solitude:   

The desert fathers and mothers withdrew from cities to the desert to live freely, apart from the economic, cultural, and political structure of the Roman Empire. The abbas and ammas knew, as should we, that the empire would be an unreliable partner. They recognized that they had to find inner freedom from the system before they could return to it with true love, wisdom, and helpfulness. This is the continuing dynamic to this day, otherwise, “Culture eats Christianity for breakfast” to use a modern turn of phrase, and our deep transformative power is largely lost. 

How do we find inner freedom? Notice that whenever we suffer pain, the mind is always quick to identify with the negative aspects of things and replay them over and over again, wounding us deeply. Almost all humans have a compulsion to fixate almost entirely on what’s wrong, which is why so many people become fearful, hate-filled, and wrapped around their negative commentaries. This pattern must be recognized early and definitively. Peace of mind is an oxymoron. When we’re in our mind, we’re hardly ever at peace; when we’re at peace, we’re never only in our mind. The early Christian abbas and ammas knew this and first insisted on finding the inner rest and quiet necessary to tame the obsessive mind.  

In a story from Benedicta Ward’s The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: “A brother came to Scetis to visit Abba Moses and asked him for a word. The old man said to him, ‘Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.’” [1] But we don’t have to have a cell, and we don’t have to run away from the responsibilities of an active life, to experience solitude and silence. Amma Syncletica said, “There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in the town, and they are wasting their time. It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of [their] own thoughts.” [2]  

By solitude, the desert mystics didn’t mean mere privacy or protected space, although there is a need for that too. The desert mystics saw solitude, in Henri Nouwen’s words, as “the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs.” [3] Solitude is a courageous encounter with our naked, most raw and real self, in the presence of pure love. Quite often this can happen right in the midst of human relationships and busy lives.  

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Jesus Calling – April 10th, 2025

Jesus Calling: April 10th

     Trust Me in every detail of your life. Nothing is random in My kingdom. Everything that happens fits into a pattern for good, to those who love Me. Instead of trying to analyze the intricacies of the pattern, focus your energy on trusting Me and thanking Me at all times. Nothing is wasted when you walk close to Me. Even your mistakes and sins can be recycled into something good, through My transforming grace.
     While you were still living in darkness, I began to shine the Light of My Presence into your sin-stained life. Finally, I lifted you up out of the mire into My marvelous Light. Having sacrificed My very Life for you, I can be trusted in every facet of your life.

RECOMMENDED BIBLE VERSES:

Joshua 10:14-15 NLT
14 There has never been a day like this one before or since, when the LORD answered such a prayer. Surely the LORD fought for Israel that day! 15 Then Joshua and the Israelite army returned to their camp at Gilgal. (Related scriptures = Exodus 14:4, Deuteronomy 1:30, Joshua 10:6, Joshua 43)

Romans 8:28 NLT
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Related scriptures = Ephesians 1:11 & 3:11, 2nd Timothy 1:9)

Additional insight regarding Romans 8:28: God works in “everything” – not just isolated incidents – for our good. This does not mean that all that happens to us is good. Evil is prevalent in our fallen world, but God is able to turn every circumstance around for our long-term good. Not that God is not working to make us happy but to fulfill his purpose. Note also that this promise is not for everybody. It can be claimed only by those who love God and are called by Him, that is, those whom the Holy Spirit convinces to receive Christ. Such people have a new perspective, a new mindset. They trust in God, not in worldly treasures; their security is in Heaven, not on earth. Their faith in God does not waver in pain and persecution because they know God is with them.

Psalm 40:2 NLT
2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. (Related scriptures = Psalm 27:5 & 69:1-2, Jeremiah 38:6)

Additional insight regarding Psalm 40:1-3: Waiting for God to help us is not easy, but David received four benefits from waiting:
1) God lifted him out of despair
2) God set his feet on solid ground
3) God steadies him as he walked
4) God put a new song of praise in his mouth.
Often blessings cannot be received unless we go through the trial of waiting.

1st Peter 2:9 NLT
9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. (Related scriptures = Exodus 19:5-6, Deuteronomy 7:6 & 10:15, Isaiah 43:20-21, 1st Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:6)

Additional insight regarding 1st Peter 2:9: Christians sometimes speak of “the priesthood of all believers.” In Old Testament times, people did not approach God directly. A priest acted as an intermediary between God and sinful human beings. With Christ’s victory on the cross, that pattern changed. Now we can come directly into God’s presence without fear (Hebrews 4:16), and we are given the responsibility of bringing others to him also (2nd Corinthians 5:18-21). When we are united with Christ as members of his body, we join in his priestly work of reconciling God and people.

Additional insight regarding 1st Peter 2:9-10: People often base their self-concept on their accomplishments. But our relationship with Christ is far more important than our jobs, successes, wealth, or knowledge. We have been chosen by God as his very own, and we have been called to represent him to others. Remember that your value comes from being one of God’s children, not from what you can achieve. You have worth because of what God does, not because of what you do. 

Today’s Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I trust You with every aspect of my life. I know nothing is random in Your kingdom, and You work all things for good for those who love You. Instead of analyzing out of a desire to be in control, I choose to focus on trusting and thanking You always in all circumstances.

Thank You for lifting me out of darkness and transforming my mistakes into something good. Help me to live out Your purpose for me and to show Your goodness to others.

Amen.

In a teaching for CAC’s Living School, contemplative theologian Belden Lane shares the countercultural stance of the desert abbas and ammas:  

Three important things set the desert monks apart from the world they had left behind: simplicity of language, radical forgiveness, and the hiddenness of the self.  

The first was a simplicity of language. When you put a priority on silence and scarcity as taught by the land itself, the language you use will be very sparse. People out in the desert don’t tend to talk much. Having left behind the noise and clutter of city life, the monks placed a premium on brevity of speech. They knew that words too easily got in the way of what matters most….  

The monks’ leanness of speech even affected the way they spoke of God. The vast expanse of the desert had done a job on the mindset of these early Christians. It broke up their dependence on glib answers and theological explanations. They found themselves running out of language very easily. They knew that in God’s own being was a vast expanse beyond their ability to comprehend, not unlike the desert itself. God is ultimately beyond anything that can be put into words…. 

A second major theme in the theological grounding of these desert Christians was their emphasis on radical forgiveness. They were very demanding in the discipline they embraced, but the hardness was always anchored in love. They were deeply sensitive to the wounds that the brothers and sisters invariably brought with them into the desert. Amma Syncletica emphasized that assuming a desert life as a monk didn’t automatically make anybody holy. She knew that everyone came into the monastery with a whole lot of interior baggage. So wound work, healing within the broken places they carried inside, was incredibly important…. 

The abbas and ammas knew that this inner work was crucial in one’s spiritual growth. It’s essential to the discipline of the heart. But as resolute as they were in demanding this soul work, they were just as resolute in practicing a radical forgiveness. They were always slow to judge others, seeing the best in the younger and weaker brothers and sisters, putting the finest possible interpretation on their behavior…. 

A third and last theme in the theological grounding of the desert Christians is their emphasis on the hiddenness of the self. They were keenly aware of the operation of the true and false self as Thomas Merton has pointed out. While they were tempted to always make themselves look good, practicing impression management, they kept reminding themselves that God was most pleased when their goodness was hidden altogether from others…. 

Amma Theodora said that in the monastic life, the hardest world you have to leave behind is the one you carry right inside your heart. The monks knew that the false self projects a polished public face in order to cultivate the admiration of others, but the true self is content to remain hidden in Christ. 

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APR 9, 2025 Missing God’s Message in Ministry

Click Here for Audio 1 Kings 6 is one of those chapters we usually skip when reading through the Bible. It explains how Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem with details that are mind-numbing to modern readers. There are a lot of measurements in cubits, descriptions of inlaid this and carved that, and specifics about what kind of wood was used for which doors—olive, cedar, or juniper. Honestly, it can get tedious and often seems irrelevant to those seeking to follow the way of Jesus today. But if we look closely, we will find gold in this chapter, and not just the kind used inside the Temple. The entire chapter is written to make it sound like Solomon built the Temple by himself, which is ridiculous because the construction took seven years and required thousands of workers (see 1 Kings 6:38). Here are just a few examples:“ The temple that King Solomon built for YHWH was sixty cubits long…” (6:2) “He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls.” (6:4) “He lined its interior walls with cedar boards…” (6:15) “On the walls all around the temple…he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers.” (6:29)There are dozens of verses like these. No one other than Solomon is mentioned because the writer wants the king to receive full credit for every detail of the project. Unlike the Tabernacle, even God is not mentioned in the design or construction of the Temple. The message of 1 Kings 6 is loud and clear: Solomon built the Temple for God.The complete absence of God from the process of building the Temple makes the one time he does speak in the chapter jump out. Sandwiched between all of the design and construction details, the Lord says to Solomon. “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel” (1 Kings 6:12-13).Notice that God doesn’t say anything about the Temple itself. Nothing about its magnificent scale. Not a word about all of the gold, or the grandeur of the bronze pillars, or the enormous altar and basin. And the Lord never says a word about all that Solomon is doing for him. Remember, that is the overwhelming drumbeat of the chapter, but God doesn’t seem to care one bit. Instead, God ignores the Temple and Solomon’s work to remind the king what matters more—following his commandments.Unfortunately, the message didn’t appear to get through. Solomon didn’t respond to God with a reflection on his laws or promises. Instead, the very next verse says, “So Solomon built the temple and completed it,” and it’s followed by 23 more verses of construction details. If this chapter were visualized, it would show Solomon hard at work building the Temple. I imagine him wearing a hardhat, pencil behind his ear, studying the blueprints, as he’s directing crews of workmen. Then God taps Solomon on the shoulder and says, “Hey, Solomon, don’t forget that what I really care about isn’t this massive project you’re doing for me. I want you to obey my laws. I want you to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with me.” But rather than receiving God’s message, Solomon just brushes him aside because he’s consumed by his important work for God. After all, if he doesn’t build a house for God, who will?Therefore, when we read 1 Kings 6 in this light, we discover that the chapter isn’t really celebrating Solomon’s work for God. Instead, the chapter is a warning that Solomon had given his attention to the wrong priority—and that warning is just as relevant today. We can become so focused on our work for God that we completely miss our true calling from God. We can easily assume that the ministry we are building, the organization we are constructing, or the mission we are accomplishing is what matters most. Like Solomon, we can make our goals for God more important than our life with God and advancing a mission more critical than obeying his commands. When this happens, we will even excuse evil or cover up abuse because doing otherwise might get in the way of accomplishing our work for God. Character and obedience are often the first things sacrificed on the altar of ministry. DAILY SCRIPTURE 1 KINGS 6:10-15 MATTHEW 7:21-23 WEEKLY PRAYER From an unknown source (16th Century) O Lord, the Scripture says, “There is a time for silence and a time for speech.” Savior, teach me the silence of humility, the silence of wisdom, the silence of love, the silence of perfection, the silence that speaks without words, the silence of faith. Lord teach me to silence my own heart that I may listen to the gentle movement of the Holy Spirit within me and sense the depths which are of God. Amen.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. —Mark 1:35 

Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes (1943–2024) reflects on the desert experiences of Jesus and the early Christians:  

Jesus’s ministry modeled the interplay between prophetic utterance, public theology, and intense spiritual renewal. He launches his three-year ministry from the desert wilderness, a place that will be the home of latter-day desert mothers and fathers. After an intense time of fasting, testing, and submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit, Jesus returns ready to fulfill his calling. These rhythms of activism and contemplation, engagement and withdrawal resonate throughout his life…. 

When Christianity began, it was small and intense, communal and set apart, until it found favor with the state. Those adherents who witnessed Rome’s public affirmation of Christianity in the fourth century realized that the contemplative aspects of the faith could not be nurtured under the largesse of the state. And so, in the fifth century, monasticism flourished in the desert as Christian converts retreated for respite and spiritual clarity. Although the desert mothers and fathers sought harsh and isolated sites, they soon found that they were not alone. The decision to retreat drew others to them. Communities formed as city dwellers came out to seek advice and solace. The historical model of contemplation offers the rhythm of retreat and return. It was in the wilderness that African contemplatives carved out unique spiritual boundaries.  

Holmes describes how we can live out this desert legacy and wisdom today: 

If the desert is a place of renewal, transformation, and freedom, and if the heat and isolation served as a nurturing incubator …, one wonders if a desert experience is necessary to reclaim this legacy.  

One need not wonder long when there are so many deserts within reach. Today’s wilderness can be found in bustling suburban and urban centers, on death row, in homeless shelters in the middle of the night, in the eyes of a hospice patient, and in the desperation of AIDS orphans in Africa and around the world. Perhaps these are the postmodern desert mothers and fathers. Perhaps contemplative spaces can be found wherever people skirt the margins of inclusion. Perhaps those whom we value least have the most to teach. 

We are in need of those values central to African [desert] monasticism and early Christian hospitality; they include communal relationships, humility, and compassion. Laura Swan sums up these virtues in the word apatheia, defined as “a mature mindfulness, a grounded sensitivity, and a keen attention to one’s inner world as well as to the world in which one has journeyed.” [1] Inevitably, the journey takes each of us in different directions; however, by virtue of circumstances or choice, each of us will at some point in our lives find ourselves on the outskirts of society listening to the silence coming from within. During these times, we realize that contemplation is a destination as well as a practice. The monastics knew this and valued both.  

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From our friend, Brad Jersak. BTW this is from his newsletter. You can sign up for it if you like

A social media friend, Luke Brunskill, was preparing a homily on the parable of the Prodigal Son (manuscript here) and contacted me ask whether there’s any of the early church fathers or mothers had noticed a death and resurrection in Jesus’ story. Not that I know of, but that’s speaking from gaps in my research. 

Luke messaged me, saying, “I have been battling with the thought and feeling that there is repentance after death. That is how we ALL get to the Telos of God. I am tasked with speaking on the Prodigal Son this Sunday at church and this eschatological idea is popping up because the father twice calls the younger son ‘dead.’ Is my theology of the afterlife going crazy to imagine the shedding of sin and return to the Father in the afterlife?

Twice. That stopped me. Repetition in the Scriptures invites a second glance. So I double- and triple-checked Luke 15. Then I noticed:

• ¹⁷ But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 
• ²³ And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’
• ³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

Had the prodigal literally died and come back to life? Well, it’s a parable, no nothing is read literally. But the fictional aspect of parables are nevertheless saturated with truth. As my friend Paul reminded me, some truth is so big—so universal—that only a myth can carry it. So the parable does not describe a particular Galilean family in first century space and time. We know it’s a story about everyone and about each of us. It’s about departure and waywardness, about getting hopelessly lost and finally dead. Why would we limit the parable to a this-life ultimatum when Jesus uses the language of death and dying three times and the reality of resurrection is mentioned twice? 

We might say, “But of course he’s speaking metaphorically of our spiritual death through sin and our spiritual resurrection through repentance in this life.” Of course he is. But only now? Not after? Why not?

C.S. Lewis’ greatest book (in my opinion), The Great Divorce explores this very possibility. He imagines and names the place of the dead and damned “Grey Town,” from which people may yet board a bus and make their journey of repentance to “the High Countries.” The parallel in the parable becomes more obvious: Lewis’ Grey Town is for Jesus the Distant Country and the High Countries are called the Father’s House. 

I suppose Luke (my friend) can conceive of the possibility that if the language of death and resurrection can point back to repentance and return in this life, then the reverse might be true as well: the practice of death and resurrection in this life might also point to the reality of repentance and return in the next. Of course, the sooner the better—better now than later (unless we’re as deluded as the younger brother when he headed out). 

P.S. If we play with this idea enough to imagine redemption beyond death, then the resentment of the older brother only grows more obvious. His own confession is that he had wasted his piety on a lifetime of sacrificial ‘slaving’ outside the father’s house. He did not know the eternal life of fellowship with God. He was unplugged from intimacy and communion. How dare God welcome the hedonist home without punishment or payment?! 

Even worse if he did so if his younger sibling had died of starvation first? It’s bad enough to let him in just before he died! How much worse if he were resurrected prior to his repentance! So much for Tertullian’s cruel schadenfreude (pain-joy) of the elect!

“At that greatest of all spectacles, that last and eternal judgment, how shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates liquefying in fiercer flames than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sages philosophers blushing in red-hot fires with their deluded pupils; so many tragedians more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers tripping more nimbly for the flames than ever before for the stage.” (Tertullian, De Spectaculis)

So much better to rejoice in the Father’s assurance, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” and his call to celebrate and rejoice. How much more beautiful (and therefore true and just!) to align with the heart of the father who “saw him and was filled with compassion; ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”

I’ve not yet found the depths of the parable with ever more careful visits to this ‘gospel in a nutshell.’ More to say next time!

Buddhist teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo offers an embodied meditation to calm our nervous systems in times of stress and unknowing:  

In a sense, our culture, our society is dissolving. We are collectively entering the chrysalis, and structures we have come to rely on and identify with are breaking down. We are in the cocoon and we don’t know what the next phase will be like. Learning to surrender to the unknown in our own lives is essential to our collective learning to move through this time of faster and faster change, disruption, and breakdown. 

To begin the practice, find a comfortable position, sitting, standing, or lying. Connect with your body and how it’s making contact with the chair or the floor. Allow yourself to rest back in some way and really feel the support of whatever is holding you.… Every time you breathe out, let your body rest even more into the support of the Earth. 

Allow your face to soften, releasing the forehead, the muscles around the eyes, the jaw … 
Let the tongue rest in the mouth … 
Be aware of the shoulders and as you breathe out, let the shoulders soften … 
Bring attention to the chest and belly, allow them to release and soften on the next exhale … 
Notice your arms and hands, with the next exhale let them grow a little heavier, releasing tension … 
Feel your legs and feet, as you exhale release, soften, and let go … 
Feel your whole body now as you inhale and exhale, allowing the whole body to soften and release its weight even more onto the Earth.… 

You can bring this quality of resting back into your daily life. When you notice yourself leaning into the future, tensing up, trying to predict what will happen, straining to figure out what to do, whether on your own or with others, see if you can actually physically rest back. Open up the front of your chest, let your arms hang by your sides, and lean backwards slightly. This can support your mind to rest back, release, and let be, even for a short moment and to whatever degree you are able. 

A Change in Consciousness

Richard Rohr emphasizes how the desert mystics were not just seeking a change in lifestyle but a change in consciousness:  

The desert fathers and mothers emerged in the early centuries after Jesus. Despite their seeming primitiveness and asceticism, they often demonstrated an amazing awareness of the connection between the one seeing and what is seen. In this regard, they are similar to Zen Buddhists in their simplicity, stories, and insight. The Syrian deacon Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–399), who is sometimes called the grandfather of what became the Enneagram, says that “When the passions are aroused in the non-rational part of our nature, they do not allow the intellect to function properly.” [1] He and many others make this insight foundational to their understanding of the science of prayer.  

The seeking of “dispassion” or apatheia for ancient solitary monastics referred to the inner peace and contentment that they discovered through their profound experience of what they often called “prayer of quiet,” building on Jesus’ talk of “going to your inner room” and “not babbling on like the pagans do” (see Matthew 6:6–8). In this early period, “prayer” didn’t refer to some kind of problem-solving transaction between humans and God, nor was it about saying words to God. It was quite literally “putting on a different thinking cap,” as the nuns used to say to us. It seems that it wasn’t “thinking” at all, as we now understand it, because such thinking is too often just reacting to or writing repetitive commentaries on the moment.  

For these desert mothers and fathers, prayer was understood not as a transaction that somehow pleased God (the problem-solving understanding of prayer that emerged much later), but as a transformation of the consciousness of the one who was doing the praying. Prayer was the awakening of an inner dialogue that, from God’s side, had never stopped. That’s why the Apostle Paul could speak so often of praying “always” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). In simple words, prayer is not changing God’s mind about us or anything else but allowing God to change our mind about the reality right in front of us—which we are usually avoiding or distorting.   

“Dispassion” was the desert mothers’ and fathers’ notion of freedom and salvation, long before we devolved into the much-later notion of salvation as being transported to another realm. For many today, God is seen—and used—as a partner in our private evacuation plan more than any Love Encountered that transforms mind or liberates heart. This is revealed in the little, if any, concern that many Christians show for justice, the earth, or the poor. The fruits of love are often not apparent in them, and not even of much interest to many of them.  

I now believe that the other reality we are rightly seeking is not elsewhere or in the future but right in our own hearts and heads! If we put on an entirely different mind, then heaven takes care of itself and, in fact, begins now.  

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Learning from the Mystics: St. Francis of Assisi

Quote of the Week:  “‘I did not come to be served but to serve,’ says the Lord.  Those who are placed over others should glory in such an office only as much as they would were they assigned the task of washing the feet of the brothers.  And the more they are upset about their office being taken from them than they would be over the loss of the office of washing feet, so much the more do they story up treasure to the peril of their souls.”- From The Admonitions Ch. 4: Let No One Appropriate to Himself the Role of Being Over Others Reflection  As St. Francis was beginning his order, he was tasked with writing the rules and boundaries of what it meant to be a Franciscan. You may have noticed that when a Franciscan writes their name there is an OFM at the end. This is short for, “Order of (the) Friars Minor.” “Friars” means “brothers” and “minor” means “small or opposite of major.” There are no “majors” in St. Francis’ worldview. St. Francis was so beholden to the idea of Christlikeness that all who might join the order of the Franciscans were to join an order of servants, not leaders.  Humility was to be the mark of those following in Christ’s footsteps.  It is fascinating to note that in the quote above, a member of the OFM was not to rejoice or weep for a role of leadership any more or less than the role of being a foot-washer.  To rejoice more over a role of leadership than over a role of servanthood would be inordinate or inappropriate and would highlight something within a person that might need to be checked. And so that leads us to the same thought, those of us who are not formal Franciscans.  Are we more interested in leading than in serving?  And, if we are in a position of leadership, do we only understand it in the context of servanthood? The world has seen enough of church leadership that leads for the sake of ego, pride, or superiority.  It seems as though it was an issue back in St. Francis’ day as well.  This is actually why Franciscans wear brown robes instead of the white robes of the Catholic Clerics or even the black professorial robes of Reformed Protestants. The brown robes are a visual, intentional representation of the importance of humility in all things, especially in leadership. Prayer  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enable us to emulate your humility.  Allow us the proper detachment to leadership, so that we might never lead from a place of pride, ego, or superiority.  Help us to understand leadership from the perspective of servanthood, and help us to grieve when we are not able to serve.  Amen and amen.

Life Overview:  Who is He: Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone  When: Born in AD 1181, died on October 3rd, 1226.  Why He is Important: GK Chesterton claimed that he was the most Christlike person since Jesus himself, that everyone has attempted to walk in the footsteps of Jesus but that Francis actually did it.  Most Known For: Being the founder of Franciscans, one of the mendicant religious orders of Catholicism.  He is also attributed as the originator of the first Nativity scene in AD 1223.  And, famously received the stigmata toward the end of his life.  He was canonized as a saint within 5 years of his death. Notable Works to Check Out: Francis and Clare: The Complete Works  Books About Francis: The Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure | St. Francis of Assisi by GK Chesterton | Eager to Love by Richard Rohr

A Deep Well Within

Friday, April 4, 2025

There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too.  

Dear God, these are anxious times… We must help You to help ourselves. And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves. 
—Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life 

Father Richard turns to Scripture and contemplation in the face of collective suffering.   

In the wisdom of the Psalms, we read: 

In God alone is my soul at rest. 
God is the source of my hope. 
In God I find shelter, my rock, and my safety. 
—Psalm 62:5–6 

What could it mean to find rest like this in a world such as ours? Every day more and more people face the catastrophe of extreme weather. The neurotic news cycle is increasingly driven by words and deeds that incite hatred, sow discord, and amplify chaos. There is no guarantee of the future in an economy designed to protect the rich and powerful at the expense of far too many people subsisting at society’s margins.  

It’s no wonder the mental and emotional health of so many people in the USA is in tangible decline! We have wholesale abandoned any sense of truth, objectivity, science, or religion in civil conversation; we now recognize we’re living with the catastrophic results of several centuries of what philosophers call nihilism (nothing means anything; no universal patterns exist). 

Somehow our occupation and vocation as believers must be to first restore the Divine Center by holding it and fully occupying it ourselves. If contemplation means anything, it means that we can “safeguard that little piece of You, God,” as Etty Hillesum describes. What other power do we have now? All else is tearing us apart, inside and out. We cannot abide in such a place for any length of time or it will become our prison. 

God cannot abide with us in a place of fear. 
God cannot abide with us in a place of ill will or hatred. 
God cannot abide with us inside a nonstop volley of claim and counterclaim. 
God cannot abide with us in an endless flow of online punditry and analysis. 
God cannot speak inside of so much angry noise and conscious deceit. 
God cannot be born except in a womb of Love. 
So offer God that womb. 

Contemplation can help stand watch at the door of your senses, so chaos cannot make its way into your soul. If we allow it for too long, it will become who we are, and we’ll no longer have natural access to the life-giving “really deep well” that Etty Hillesum returned to so often to find freedom. 

In this time, I suggest some form of public service, volunteerism, mystical reading from the masters, prayer—or, preferably, all of the above. 

        You have much to gain now and nothing to lose. Nothing at all.  
        And the world—with you as a stable center—has nothing to lose. 
        And everything to gain.  

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John Chaffee 5 On Friday

1.

“[The Prophets] introduced a completely novel role into ancient religion: an officially licensed critic, a devil’s advocate who names and exposes their own group’s shadow side.”

– Fr. Richard Rohr, Fransiscan Founder of the CAC

The Hebrew Prophets have been wildly misunderstood in conventional Western Christianity.

Prophets are commonly understood to be fortune-tellers for the faithful and doom-casters for the heathens.  However, some diminish them even further and say that the only thing they did that mattered was to utter a few odd prophecies that the Messiah was coming.

Instead, the Prophets were religious and political critics of their people.  They did not tell those outside the faith they were doomed as much as they called out their own kings and priests when they lost sight of true justice, mercy for the vulnerable, and conviction for those who commit evil “on our behalf” or “in our stead.”  It was mainly AFTER the coming of the Messiah that the first generation of the Church looked back and saw that some of their words could be seen as referring to the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Prophets were and continue to be like anti-viruses within the religious culture, who are fighting against corruption, immorality, greed, malice, scapegoating, and so many other things that the rest of us are content to let be unless they negatively affect us.

2.

“εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ κοπιῶμεν καὶ ὀνειδιζόμεθα, ὅτι ἠλπίκαμεν ἐπὶ θεῷ ζῶντι, ὅς ἐστιν σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, μάλιστα πιστῶν.

(That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially those who believe.)”

– 1 Timothy 4:10

Μάλιστα, transliterated is malista.

It is sometimes translated into English as “chiefly.”  However, most translations will say “especially.”

Toward the end of his life, this single verse called out to Billy Graham more and more.  In fact, it rather haunted him.  As a famous American Baptist Evangelist, he later in life wished he had gone to seminary.  There were particular mysteries of the faith that he could never fully resolve, and as I mentioned, this passage was one of them.

In a famous interview, Billy Graham said that he believed there were Christ-followers in other religious traditions, even if they didn’t know it. The interview was a bit scandalous because it sounded as though Graham was enlarging the circle of who God might save beyond those who fit a particular category of “Christian.”

After all, Christ is the savior of all people, especially those who believe.  It’s almost as if they are in on a secret…

3.

“The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.”

– Flannery O’Connor, American Novelist

In my most recent book, The Way of Holy Foolishness, I wrote about the need to be a part of a community.  It was a turning point for me because I was finally able to articulate some of my own healing and growth.  A subsection in that chapter says, “If a community hurt you, it will take a community to heal you.”

Seeing the line above from Flannery O’Connor made me think I should write a book about my ecclesiology (my theological understanding of the church community) at some point.

I have long understood the Church as a collective that witnesses each other’s successes and failures together in full view of the teachings of Jesus, the Word, the Sacraments, and this ineffable mystery we call God.  The collective is not held together by a building or a charismatic leader but more around a conscious decision to love all neighbors and enemies because they have chosen to give up on the old way of exclusive, merit-based affection.

4.

“When we speak of divine things, we have to stammer, because we have to express them in words.”

– Meister Eckhart, 13th Century German Preacher

This is known as “apophatic theology,” which seeks to “move away from what can be positively stated.”

We all better slow down, show more reverence for this mystery we call God and recognize that our limited languages can never fully describe God’s infinity.

5.

“However beautiful and adorned Christianity can be and however useful it is by its works, all this still remains imperfect.”

– Meister Eckhart, 13th Century German Preacher

Yeah, I know.

Two Meister Eckhart quotes in a row.

Well, I am still reading a book of his sermons, and there are so many good liners!

This last quote, especially, simultaneously affirms and negates Christianity.

Faith and how it is expressed will always be limited, with faults or cracks, and constantly dealing with unhealthy things within itself.  However, it is still beautiful and adorned even if people practice it in fractured ways.

The Foundation Is Contemplation

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Reverend Liz Walker is the founder of the Can We Talk… network, which creates safe spaces for people to connect through sharing their stories. She describes the importance of contemplative, healing practices to support the work of social justice:  

[In contemplative practice] we are fully claiming the space and community we are in. We are seeking help in tending to our suffering. We are honoring our ancestors who testified, danced, and sang their way to transcendence in the midst of chaos and pain. In celebrating those past practices, we gently hold this community in hope and possibility. We trust that whatever needs to be healed will be healed by the Spirit of a creative God who works in and through us…. 

Dr. [Barbara] Holmes writes that the civil rights movement was born through the contemplative spirit of the Black church.  

The spark that ignited the justice movements did not come from the hierarchical institutional black church. Rather, it was the quixotic and limber heart of that institution, its flexible, spiritually open, and mystical center, that ignited first the young people and then their elders to move their symbolic initiatives from ritual ring shouts to processional and contemplative marches. [1] 

The contemplative practices of Can We Talk… are no less important than those of the civil rights movement. By lovingly joining our neighbors and sharing our painful stories in the interest of finding peace within our own souls, we are taking seriously the interior work necessary for our collective healing. 

Some people would not consider a healing community like ours to be part of a social justice movement. They’d argue that our work is anemic—not the “on the ground” activism necessary to catalyze social change. But such critics may not be aware of the centrality of contemplative action in the work of social movements across history. 

They may not be aware of the contemplation that sat at the center of the work of interracial groups of students who, in 1964, protested segregated Presbyterian churches in Memphis, Tennessee, by kneeling in public prayer….  

The exterior work of social justice is only as strong as the interior work that births and fuels it. We can’t heal as a community if we do not concern ourselves with healing our inner lives. Storytelling, listening, movement, and music all represent the gentle, interior healing necessary to empower the hard work of social change. During the civil rights movement, Howard Thurman came under criticism for not taking a lead in the marches and protest and activism. But his writing and thinking and contemplative commitments helped the movement remain rooted and grounded in nonviolent resistance.  

The people who come to our events may not lead marches or protest efforts against institutional racism. But they participate as truth seekers, unashamed to process their own pain. They show us that authentic joy is reached through a healing process. We help solve our community’s problems when each of us faces our own sorrow, authentically and creatively.  

______________________________________________________
Sara Young Jesus Calling

In Me you have everything. In Me you are complete. Your capacity to experience Me is increasing, through My removal of debris and clutter from your heart. As your yearning for Me increases, other desires are gradually lessening. Since I am infinite and abundantly accessible to you, desiring Me above all else is the best way to live.
    It is impossible for you to have a need that I cannot meet. After all, I created you and everything that is. The world is still at My beck and call, though it often appears otherwise. Do not be fooled by appearances. Things that are visible are brief and fleeting, while things that are invisible are everlasting.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
2nd Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Today’s Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

In You, I find completeness. As You remove clutter from my heart, my longing for You grows, diminishing worldly desires. You are infinite, able to fulfill every need I could ever have.

Please grant me the wisdom to prioritize my yearning for You above all else. Help me to see beyond the fleeting appearances of this world and fix my eyes on the eternal, which is You and only You.

Thank You for Your immeasurable power at work within me, exceeding all I can ask or imagine. May I always seek You above all else. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Gospel Instructions

Episcopal priest Adam Bucko offers encouragement for action and contemplation amid circumstances of systemic injustice:  

That is the heart of the challenge—what do we believe? What is our ground? What narratives have shaped us and are shaping us? We must have the clarity to name evil for what it is, yet without losing ourselves in othering, understanding that in some way or form, we are part of what we are naming. We must engage not just with what’s out there but with what’s within us as well. History is filled with revolutions that promised liberation only to replicate the cruelty they overthrew. Justice movements have struggled against the pull of ego. Institutions built to resist oppression have, over time, become oppressive themselves. 

Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of people—to be caught up in love and drawn out of the world’s illusions. Have we been caught? Have we been pulled out of a system that thrives on violence, on stepping over others to climb higher? Or are we still trapped in it, confused and disoriented? 

If we have been pulled out, then we must see clearly. We must commit to both inner and outer work. We must say no to violence, no to greed, no to power that exploits and destroys. And we must do it even when it costs us—because that is what it means to live in truth. That is what it means to allow ourselves to be caught in the net of love.   

Returning to the gospel and tending to our spiritual lives are essential practices in times of crisis and unknowing:   

It may not be in our power to determine how things will unfold, but it is in our power to decide how we respond. It is in our power to hold on to the practices that nourish us, inform us, and give us courage. It is in our power to remain in integrity, to choose nonviolence and noncooperation in the face of all the violence we are already seeing. 

Jesus was clear: Love always. Bless those who persecute you. Forgive even the unforgivable. Turn the other cheek, not in surrender but in defiance of violence. Do not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. This may not change the world, but sometimes it is important to do things simply because they are the right things to do. In the end, all we have is our integrity. So let us stand in it, grounded in the One who renews us each moment and calls us to a nonviolent witness of love—one that is big enough to hold both our friends and our oppressors, knowing that love endures beyond violence.  

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Nonviolent Resistance of the Saints

MARK LONGHURST MAR 30

In the Oscar-winning film “I’m Still Here,” we witness the resilience and endurance of Eunice Paiva, the wife of a disappeared politician under Brazil’s military dictatorship. Rubens Paiva was a Congressman when the military overthrew the government in 1964. He returned to his previous career as an engineer but helped smuggle letters to relatives of regime opponents. Members of the Brazilian military descended upon his home in Rio de Janeiro and imprisoned him, along with Eunice Paiva. And, like so many people taken and killed by the military dictatorship—he disappeared. Eunice was released after several days, returning to her shaken family, but Rubens was never heard from again, nor was any official information provided about his whereabouts or fate. Whispers from a journalist friend pointed to the obvious—that the state murdered Rubens. Eunice held her family together, advocated for twenty-five years until after the eventual re-emergence of democracy, until she finally received the official death certificate. It’s a harrowing and simultaneously beautiful movie about the story of one woman’s slow and persistent resistance and one family’s loving endurance amid authoritarian rule.

The Brazilian military initiated a coup d’etat after President Goulart introduced sweeping reforms aimed at helping the poor. Policies like land reform that redistributed unused rural land to peasants were deemed by the Brazilian right-wing as “communist-inspired,” and the military took action. The United States was right there, ready to aid the military coup, with a mission that would have lent U.S. Navy and Air Force officers to the cause named “Operation Brother Sam.” The military takeover was not opposed, and the U.S. did not implement its secret operation.

I’m thinking these days about the United States’s long collusion with dictators in Latin America, from its readiness to participate in the Brazilian coup to the CIA-involved Chilean overthrow, friendly relations with dictator Augusto Pinochet, and many more. The disappearances that happened in Brazil and elsewhere are now starting in my own country. Instead of the scapegoating category of communism and the “red scare,” it is now terrorism, “support for Hamas,” and an imagined immigrant crime problem. 

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Kahlil is a legal resident of the United States with a green card who led nonviolent actions opposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza at Columbia University. Now he sits in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. The list is growing.

Coverage in Democracy Now and The New York Times tells me the following. Georgetown professor Badar Khan Suri—who studies and teaches about religion and peace—is not an activist. Still, Homeland Security agents raided his home in Virginia, arrested him without cause, and now he, too, sits in a (different) Louisiana ICE detention center. Momodou Taul is a PhD student at Cornell University and a pro-Palestinian activist facing deportation. This week, Homeland Security agents apprehended Tufts student Rumeysa Oztur. She is a Turkish citizen in the United States on a student visa who was on her way to a dinner to break her Ramadan fast. She signed an op-ed that criticized Tufts for failing to acknowledge the Palestinian genocide. The reason Homeland Security provided for terminating her visa? That she had engaged in activities in support of Hamas.

Here is a call for the nonviolent resistance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus. —Revelation 14:12

The readers of John’s apocalyptic vision lived under an imperial state: the Roman Empire. They were very familiar with the imperial tactics of disappearances, erosion of civil liberties, persecution, and imprisonment. The South African theologian Allan Boesak considers Revelation a subversive book—the critique of unjust power in the book is so symbolically incisive that it became underground literature:

Because of their political perception and challenge in such dangerous times, these [apocalyptic] books could not be written in the “normal” way. Any person who has ever lived under political oppression, where every move is watched and every word carefully weighed and where every other person could be an informer, knows this.… These books were, in the real sense of the word, underground protest literature.

John uses a word to encourage his readers-hearers to continue in faithful resilience: hypomone. It’s often translated as “patient endurance.” But a commentator I trust named Brian Blount says that the Greek is much more active and determined than passive waiting. He renders it instead as “nonviolent resistance.”

In the cascade of visions in Revelation, here’s a quick summary of where we’ve been around chapter 14. In chapter 13, readers witness beastly monsters: a dragon, a sea beast, and a land beast, all symbolizing structures of evil and oppressive imperial power. Rome is writ large in metaphor and archetype. 

The beast’s followers even have their bodily brand of 666, a tricky linguistic way to refer to the Roman emperor. At the beginning of chapter 14, we see the Christ-Lamb standing on the sacred mountain of Zion. The followers of Christ-Lamb, too, have their own brand, with God’s name written on their foreheads. 

Then, John gives us three angels flying and heralding the good news (14:6) of divine love and justice, which is always true, and the terrible news that divine judgment is coming. (Much more on this in future weeks). John lists some of the horrible things that will happen—fire, sulfur, and the like—and then provides his pastoral clarity: Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.

The endurance John calls Revelation readers to is not passive withdrawal. It is faith-filled nonviolent resistance. When John uses the word hypomone, he links it to faith. The faith he has in mind is inherently political. It is faith that God holds reality with love, justice, and peace, even when we can’t perceive it. It is faith that the realm of Jesus Christ will last and the rule of empires and power-hungry leaders will pass away. But this resistance is fiercely embodied and, to quote Blount quoting another scholar, involves “unbending determination, an iron will, the capacity to endure persecution, torture, and death without yielding one’s faith. It is one of the fundamental attributes of nonviolent resistance.” This resistance is revealed in the tenacious patience and courage of Eunice and Ruebens Paiva, the determined resolve of civil rights organizers like Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin, climate organizers like Greta Thunberg and the Sunrise Movement, democracy-defenders in courts and communities across the United States, and those decrying the genocide in Gaza like Mahmoud Kahlil.

There is the fierce side of “nonviolent resistance,” but there is also the patient side of enduring. The endurance John of Patmos counsels is not only for activists. It is for those who, in small and large, ordinary and extraordinary actions, live their lives with the faith that oppression and evil do not have the last word. I often experience my meditation sits as “patient endurance.” I’m not solving anything when I sit in silence, nor am I succeeding at anything. Contemplative prayer is an exercise in failure by any measurable standards. But it’s also the place where I bring my powerlessness, my cries, and my personal and political pain to God. Like the cyclist or runner, I’m training. Somehow, the act of prayer day in and day out trains me to remember and participate in a deeper reality. Contemplative practice sustains me in a trust that reality is far more expansive and truth far more piercing than authoritarians would have us believe. 

It’s time to cry out to God, to our legislators and to anyone who will listen. I recommend reading this thoughtful Substack post by Cameron Bellm about the necessity of crying out prayerfully at this time. All of us are asked to do what we can to edge us collectively toward greater love, compassion, liberation, peace, and community. The diversity of our actions will mirror the diversity of who we are.

Not Joining the Crowd

Religion scholar Diana Butler Bass ponders the crowd’s outrage after Jesus’ first sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4:18–30)—and the courage required to resist it:  

A preacher gets up, quotes scripture, and reminds the gathered congregation that God loves the outcast—those in fear for their lives—the poor, prisoners, the disabled, and the oppressed. 

In response, an outraged mob tries to kill the preacher…. 

Jesus spoke directly to the congregation saying that God loved widows and those stricken with leprosy—implying that his neighbors had not treated widows and lepers justly. They praised God’s words about justice but were not acting on God’s command to enact mercy toward outcasts. 

That’s when they “all” got angry and turned into a mob. At least, the majority of them didn’t want to hear this. They flew into a rage. 

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. [Luke 4:28–30] 

… What do you do when the mob turns ugly? When widows and lepers, when LGBTQ people and immigrants, are afraid and treated cruelly—and when a brave prophet calls out the self-righteous? What do you do when there’s a lynch mob or a cross-burning? 

I suspect the unnamed heroes of this story stepped outside of the “all,” not willing to be part of the totality, and made a way for the intended victim to pass safely. Did they spot one another in the angry throng? A furtive glance, seeing another hesitant face across the room? Maybe they moved toward one another, hoping to keep each other safe. Did a few others notice the two and the small band then began to multiply? The “all” was furious; the few didn’t understand how it had come to this. 

It was frightening for them; it must have been hard to go against their family, friends, and neighbors. As they followed the mob to the bluff, they must have worried that if they spoke up they could be thrown off, too. But instead of submitting to the tyranny of the “all,” maybe they formed a little alternative community in solidarity with each other. When Jesus was herded to the cliff, perhaps it was they who saw an opening—made an opening—and helped him escape. He passed through the midst of them and went on his way. 

That is, indeed, a miracle. The bystanders find the courage to do something. 

If Jesus needed that, so do we…. We must form squads of love and make a path through together … no matter how fearsome the mob. 

And that’s the overlooked miracle of Luke 4: Only a community—even one that goes unnoticed in the crowd—the band that refuses to join the rabble—can keep us from going completely over the edge. 

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Untangling Twisted Teachings: 

A Journey to Joy and Identity

by Jennifer Cochrane. (@Life Model Works)

At 45, I began the painful but freeing process of learning to live from the heart Jesus gave me. Ironically, it was “church hurt” that became the catalyst for discovering true healing and identity. 

I was raised in environments steeped in legalism and performance-based Christianity—a rigid home, a fundamentalist school, and a denomination more focused on theology than genuine connection. Joy—the deep assurance that God and others delighted in me—was missing. 

I internalized damaging messages: 

• God’s acceptance was conditional. 
• I was inherently worthless. 
• My emotions and needs were dangerous and needed to be suppressed. 

After becoming a believer at 32, these lies only deepened as I absorbed teachings on biblical womanhood: that my primary role was to serve men, that my discernment was inherently flawed, and that forgiveness meant unconditional relationship—regardless of harm. 

These teachings fractured my sense of self and left me with no voice, no confidence, and a deep ache I couldn’t name. When my suppressed emotions of grief and anger finally surfaced, I felt overwhelmed and lost. 

But in that painful season, I began to hear God’s voice for myself. 

One night, in the midst of my confusion, I heard Him whisper: 
“You have value to Me. And I’m not okay with the way you’re being treated.” 

It was a turning point. 

God gently began dismantling the lies that had bound me. I slowly reclaimed my agency and began trusting my own discernment again. Though I wrestled with triggers—tightening in my chest, swirling anxious thoughts, and a sense of dread when stepping into traditional church environments—they gradually lost their power as I allowed God to meet me in my pain. 

God’s promises of “hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11) and “wide open spaces” (Psalm 18:19) began to manifest. He provided a life-giving, multi-generational community at work and supportive friendships that mirrored my true identity. Healthy men in my life challenged my distorted view of masculinity, showing me compassion and kindness. These people held space for my grief and didn’t rush my healing process. Over time, I began to see myself through heaven’s eyes and experience the joy and freedom I had longed for. 

I also began learning about attachment, relational circuits, and fear/love bonds, which brought clarity to my past and healing to my present. 

Looking back, I’m amazed at God’s faithfulness to redeem what was broken. 

If you’re walking through the pain of “church hurt,” know this: 
God’s commitment to your healing is deeper than your own. 

Courageously face the pain. 
Let Him untangle the lies. 
And ask Him to bring even a few safe, like-hearted people who will walk with you toward wholeness. 

From Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You, p.20:  

“Central to the Christian experience is an unchanging belief that God is at work in all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), and that means all things. He is particularly at work when we are stuck in pain that seems to be endless and meaningless. The time-honored Christian approach to pain and wholeness involves our activity as well as God’s: His work in us is to bring redemption to all of the traumas that have broken us, and our work is to strive for maturity as we progress to wholeness. The word ‘redemption’ is sometimes difficult to understand, simply because it is used in so many contexts. Here is the way it is used in the Life Model: Redemption is God bringing good out of bad, leading us to wholeness, and the experience of God’s amazing power. Redemption means that out of our greatest pain can come our most profound personal mission in life.”  

Richard Rohr explores the nature of evil—and our collective complicity in it. 

After all our religion, higher education, reformations, and revolutions, it seems we’re still quite capable of full complicity in deeds of death. Religions, governments, corporations, and organizations are all highly capable of evil while not recognizing it as such, because it profits us for them to be immoral. Evil finds its almost perfect camouflage in the silent agreements of the group when it appears personally advantageous.  

Such deadness continues to show itself in every age. This is what the multifaceted word “sin” is trying to reveal. If we don’t see the shape of evil or recognize how we are fully complicit in it, it will fully control us, while not looking the least like sin. Would “agreed-upon delusion” be a better description? We cannot recognize it or overcome it as isolated individuals, mostly because it’s held together by group consensus. We need to be in solidarity with alternative communities and minority groups to see it. The dominant group normally cannot see its lies—in any country or context. It’s the air we’re breathing, reaffirmed at every gathering of like-minded people. 

The beginning of a way out is to honestly see what we are doing. The price we’ll pay is that we will no longer comfortably fit in the dominant group! Mature religion must train us to recognize the many camouflages of evil, or everyone’s future will always be dominated by some form of denied deadness, and not just for the oppressed group; the oppressor dies too, just in much more subtle ways. [1]  

Brian McLaren writes about contemplation as a way of sustaining our spirits and minds while suffering under systems of domination:  

Solitary contemplation becomes the doorway into communion—communion with the Spirit in whom we find a new relationship with ourselves, with others, with history, and with the cosmos…. 

Contemplation may start in silence and solitude, but it never stops there. Especially in times of crisis, when truth is drowning …, we are drawn from contemplative solitude into contemplative community. We find ourselves hungry for communion with others who are also seeking to live examined, mindful lives, to pull aside with even two or three mindful people for deep, honest fellowship. We might come together to sit in silence for a period of time or take a walk together, letting the shushing of our feet passing through autumn leaves hush the noise of a million monkey-minds clacking to the beat of a million keyboards, hankering for our attention…. 

When even two or three of us gather in the name of truth, honesty, and love, in the name of courage, compassion, and kindness, we find ourselves feeling joined by another presence—the presence of Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. We listen to one another with compassion and curiosity. We speak to one another with wisdom and wonder. We turn together toward the light. And that helps us create islands of sanity in a world that is losing its mind. 

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Protecting Our Own Light

Brian McLaren considers how authoritarian systems seek conformity. He highlights practices of contemplation and community that can strengthen our resolve and enable us to remain “salt and light” under difficult circumstances. 

An expert in authoritarian regimes, Sarah Kendzior captures the danger like this:  

Authoritarianism is not merely a matter of state control, it is something that eats away at who you are. It makes you afraid, and fear can make you cruel. It compels you to conform and to comply and accept things that you would never accept, to do things you never thought you would do.   

No wonder, in a time of authoritarian Caesar-worship, the early Christian leader Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewal of your minds” (Romans 12:2). Kendzior addresses this very need for inner renewal and transformation. Authoritarian regimes, she says,  

… can take everything from you in material terms—your house, your job, your ability to speak and move freely. They cannot take away who you truly are. They can never truly know you, and that is your power. But to protect and wield this power, you need to know yourself—right now, before their methods permeate, before you accept the obscene and unthinkable as normal.   

Although she doesn’t use the word contemplation, Kendzior points to the importance of knowing who we are, centering into what Howard Thurman called “the sound of the genuine” inside us. She continues,  

We are heading into dark times, and you need to be your own light. Do not accept brutality and cruelty as normal even if it is sanctioned. Protect the vulnerable and encourage the afraid. If you are brave, stand up for others. If you cannot be brave—and it is often hard to be brave—be kind. But most of all, never lose sight of who you are and what you value. [1]  

I am thinking about these authoritarian patterns not only to better understand what’s happening now in my country. I’m also trying to understand my own country’s history—how millions of so-called Christians in [the United States] consented to the genocide of Indigenous peoples and then consented to the enslavement of kidnapped and trafficked Africans and then consented to American apartheid in the Jim Crow era and then resisted the civil rights movement.   

Studying biases and authoritarianism is also helping me understand in a deeper way why contemplative practices, and especially contemplative practices in community, are so important right now.  

Contemplative practices are many things. Our Christian tradition teaches us that they are pathways into the direct experience of divine presence and love. Contemporary neuroscience adds that they are also pathways into self-regulation…. Contemplative practices—both solitary and communal—help us resist conformity with wisdom and courage.  

John Chaffee Learning from the Mystics: St. Francis of Assisi

Quote of the Week: “Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,grant us in our misery the grace to do for You alone what we know You want us to do,and alwaysto desire what pleases You.Thus,inwardly cleansed,interiorly enlightened,and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit,may we be able to followin the footprints of Your beloved Son,out Lord Jesus Christ.And,by Your grace alone,may we make our way to You, Most High, Who live and rulein perfect Trinity and simple Unity,and are glorified God all-powerful forever and ever.Amen.”- From A Letter to the Entire (Franciscan) Order Reflection  St. Francis of Assisi was a remarkable figure.  During the 13th century in Italy, the Catholic church was in increasing need for reform.  Obviously, this reached its apex in the 16th century when Luther kickstarted the Protestant Reformation, but in the 13th century, God called and sent St. Francis. There is a fascinating characteristic about St. Francis, and it is that every religion seems to look favorably upon him.  Christian or not, his life and lifestyle was as impressive as it was humble. It should be no surprise that he then created a whole order within Catholicism that came to be known as Franciscanism. And that is what many people miss.  Many people believe that he was a simple man that inspired reform, which is true, but his simplicity is not to be confused with a simplicity of faith. St. Francis was deeply devoted to his own faith, and his letters and writings are proof that he was also deeply theological.  If anyone takes the time to read what we have from his own hand, they will see references to the Trinity, doctrines of the church, a high ecclesiology (view of the church), the need to be a servant in the world, and so much more. Do not let his simplicity lead you to think that he was a simpleton.  He lived humbly, but that was actually the ground and foundation of his massive influence. He wrote poetry and prayers.  Letters and admonitions.  We actually have more from his own hand than people realize. Early on in his religious life, after he had denounced his family’s merchant business, St. Francis was out walking in the woods.  As he walked he came upon the ruins of an old church and heard the voice of God say to him, “Rebuild my church.”  So Francis got on his hands and knees and proceeded to literally rebuild the physical ruins right in front of him, only to eventually realize that his life’s purpose was to rebuild the Church, not the church ruins before him. His life is one that helped to rebuild people’s understanding of and faith in the Church. May we all live lives that help others to do the same today. Prayer  God, who lives and rules in perfect Trinity and simple Unity, helps us to rebuild the Church.  We recognize that some cracks and repairs must be made.  If you see fit, grant us a humble and devoted faith, that we can follow in the footsteps of St. Francis who walked in the footsteps of Your Son, Jesus of Nazareth.  Help us to take the words of Christ seriously, and to to live them faithfully.  Amen and amen.

Life Overview of St. Francis of Assisi:  Who is He: Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone When: Born in 1181 AD, died on October 3rd, 1226. Why He is Important: GK Chesterton claimed that he was the most Christlike person since Jesus himself, that everyone has attempted to walk in the footsteps of Jesus but that Francis actually did it. Most Known For: Being the founder of Franciscans, one of the mendicant religious orders of Catholicism.  He is also attributed as the originator of the first Nativity scene in 1223 AD.  And, famously received the stigmata toward the end of his life.  He was canonized as a saint within 5 years of his death. Notable Works to Check Out: Francis and Clare: The Complete Works Books About Francis: The Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure | St. Francis of Assisi by GK Chesterton | Eager to Love by Richard Rohr

Contemplation: A Path to Compassion

Father Richard reminds us that regular contemplative practice is not an end in itself, but for the sake of solidarity with the suffering of the world:   

One of the main works of contemplation is detaching from the ego, from the self, from impure motivations of success or power, money or control. That will never stop, but it isn’t really that meaningful unless that detachment is accompanied by an attachment. What do we find after all the months and years we’ve been practicing some form of contemplation or meditation? Do we have an increased attachment, sympathy, empathy, and compassion for what I call in The Tears of Things the suffering of the world? For the women of Gaza, the children of Ukraine, the starving people of Africa, the poorest of the poor, and all those marginalized in the United States and around the world? If the emptiness of “letting go” is not pretty soon filled up by “holding on” to some kind of deep solidarity with the suffering of the world, I don’t know that it’s Christian contemplation or even meaningful contemplation at all. It seems we’re simply back into private spirituality again.   

We’ve spent much of our history of contemplation seeking individually pure motivation. That’s a real temptation, but are we really going to spend the years ahead seeking only to be motivated to love Jesus on some private level? What does it even mean to love Jesus? What is the positive act of love? When we are in silent meditation or prayer, that’s what we’re praying is growing inside of us. As we let go of false motivations, and false, ego-based concerns, we’ve got to pray, hope, and desire for an increase in compassion, in caring, in solidarity with human suffering.   

I believe that’s what the cross means. The raised arms of Jesus are an act of solidarity and compassion with the human situation. So, as we sit in silence this morning and every morning, let’s pray that’s what we’re praying for: an increase in compassion by letting go of false purity codes and agendas, which we think make us holy or worthy of God’s love. It doesn’t matter if we have perfect motivation or a perfect practice. What is motivating us? Instead of perfection, let’s look for growth. Ultimately, we only see that growth over time as we grow in communion with those who suffer, grow in solidarity with human and beyond-human pain, and with the tears of things.  

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1.

“Nobody at any time is cut off from God.”

– Meister Eckhart, 13th Century German Preacher

This is a directly challenging statement, especially to Western Christianity.

I have found that there are two main approaches to thinking about God.

1. An Emphasis on Separation
2. An Emphasis on Union

It seems that whole systematic theologies reinforce the idea of separation. Sermons, books, and Bible studies hammer home the idea that God is the “Wholly Other.”  These theologies’ underlying statements are: “Don’t become separated from God,” “Become reunited with God,” etc.

But didn’t St. Paul say that “Nothing can separate us from the love of God”? (Romans 8)  Or before that, didn’t King David ask, “Where can I flee from Your Presence?” (Psalm 139)

It is a complete paradigm shift to center the faith around the ever-consistent presence and union with God.  We are in God, and God is in us.  There is a perichoretic, mutual in-dwelling that always has been and always will be.  It has taken time, but I now agree with Meister Eckhart.  No one is ever cut off from God.  It is in God whom we “live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

What is unfortunate is that this interpretation of Christianity is the minority view, but it feels as though the tide is turning.

2.

“Many praise and bless Jesus as long as they receive some consolation from Him, but if He hide Himself and leave them for a little while, they fall either into complaining or into excessive dejection.”

– St. John of the Cross, 16th Century Spanish Carmelite Monk

It is one thing to be in love with God, and it is another thing entirely to be in love with the benefits of God.

For this reason, God forces some people to experience the Dark Night of the Soul.  It is not so much that it is a season of depression or sadness; it is a matter of God “weaning” us off of the “sweetness” of loving God to reveal to us our addiction to the “sweetness” rather than loving God directly.

About a year ago, I made a video explaining this experience.

Perhaps it will speak to you at this point in your journey.

3.

“Some of us believe that God is almighty, and can do everything; and that he is all wise, and may do everything; but that he is all love, and will do everything— there we draw back.”

– Julian of Norwich, 14th Century English Anchoress

One thing that I enjoy about the Christian mystics is their courage.

They have the gumption to make statements that challenge the status quo.

And it is not that they do it just because they want to.  No, it is because they allowed themselves to be vulnerable before this mystery we call God and were then able to experience the Ineffable, from which they had to re-evaluate everything.

No Christian mystic ever came back from an experience of the Divine and said, “We are all screwed.”

Every Christian mystic returned and proclaimed, “It is true; I have seen it; God is infinite, unconditional love!”

4.

“The one who wills anything other than the Good will become divided.”

– Soren Kierkegaard, 19th Centurty Danish Philosopher

Nearly 15 years ago, a group of friends and I read Soren Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.

It kickstarted our little friend group of seminarians to read everything we could from Kierkegaard, but I still consider Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing my favorite.

In it, Kierkegaard evaluates what it means to have divided interests from every angle possible.  We often avoid doing evil for mixed reasons, and we do charitable things for mixed reasons, and these things can lead to us having a “split-soul.”  As a philosopher and ethicist, Kierkegaard emphasizes the need to love the Good and to devote one’s life to enacting the Good at every opportunity.

5.

“I no longer you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

– John 15:15, 1st Century Mystical Text

I have been thinking a fair amount about “obedience.”

It is a form of early faith that frames everything about the Christian faith through obedience and disobedience.  And I am not necessarily saying that this is bad.  We should curtail our desires and submit to what Love requires of us in a particular moment.

However,

Even Jesus seems to frame the faith differently at the end of his time with the disciples.  For him, he had to invite them into friendship while they perhaps wanted to stay servants.  The Greek word for “servant” is the same as “slave.”  I find it enormously uplifting for Jesus to tell his disciples that he no longer considers them as servants/slaves but as loving friends.

Obedience does not exactly fit within the framework of “loving friends.”

I just wanted to let you know that I have no further thought beyond this.  I am still mulling over this topic…