{"id":19658,"date":"2020-12-28T09:56:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19658"},"modified":"2020-12-28T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T14:56:11","slug":"the-politics-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19658","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Contemplation and Action<br>\nSummary<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nPolitics of Prayer<\/strong><br>\nMonday, \u202fDecember 28,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f6CHjnQtu7E\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve often said that we founded the Center for Action and\nContemplation to be a place of integration between action <em>and<\/em>&nbsp;contemplation. I\nenvisioned a place where we could teach activists in social movements to\npray\u2014and encourage people who pray to live lives of solidarity and justice. As\nwe explained in our Center\u2019s <em>Radical Grace <\/em>publication in 1999:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We believed that\naction and contemplation, once thought of as mutually exclusive, must be\nbrought together or neither one would make sense. We wanted to be radical in\nboth senses of the word, simultaneously rooted in Tradition and boldly\nexperimental. We believed . . . that the power to be truly radical comes from\ntrusting entirely in God\u2019s grace and that such trust is the most radical action\npossible. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To\npray is to practice that posture of radical trust in God\u2019s grace\u2014and to\nparticipate in perhaps the most radical movement of all, which is the movement\nof God\u2019s Love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contemplative\nprayer allows us to build our own house. To pray is to discover that Someone\nelse is within our house and to recognize that it is not our house at all. To\nkeeping praying is to have no house to protect because there is only One House.\nAnd that One House is Everybody\u2019s Home. In other words, those who pray from the\nheart actually live in a very different world. I like to say it\u2019s a\nChrist-soaked world, a world where matter is inspirited and spirit is embodied.\nIn this world, everything is sacred; and the word \u201cReal\u201d takes on a new\nmeaning. The world is wary of such house builders, for our loyalties will lie\nin very different directions. We will be very different kinds of citizens, and\nthe state will not so easily depend on our salute. That is the politics of\nprayer. And that is probably why truly spiritual people are always a threat to\npoliticians of any sort. They want our allegiance, and we can no longer give\nit. Our house is too big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If\nreligion and religious people are to have any moral credibility in the face of\nthe massive death-dealing and denial of this era, we need to move with great\nhaste toward lives of <em>political\nholiness<\/em>. This is my\ntheology and my politics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nappears that God loves life\u2014the creating never stops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nwill love and create and maintain life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nappears that God is love\u2014an enduring, patient kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nwill seek and trust love in all its humanizing (and therefore <em>divinizing<\/em>&nbsp;forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nappears that God loves the variety of multiple features, faces, and forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nwill not be afraid of the other, the not-me, the stranger at the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nappears that God loves\u2014<em>is<\/em>\u2014beauty: Look at this world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who pray\nalready know this. Their passion will be for beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contemplation and Action<br> Summary<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Grounding\nCompassionate Action<\/strong><br>\nSunday, \u202fDecember 27,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our theme for the Daily Meditations in 2020 has been\nContemplation and Action. We hope that you, our larger CAC community, have\nfound some sort of regular contemplative practice to be sustaining in these\nchallenging times. We hope contemplation has helped you discern what actions\nhave been yours to do to confront systemic injustices and to help those most\naffected by the pandemic. Looking ahead, we trust that our contemplative\npractices will support us as we seek a path forward for healing, respect for\nthose with whom we differ, and pursuit of unity in our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At\nthe Center for Action and Contemplation, we seek to ground compassionate action\nin contemplative, nondual consciousness. When we experience the reality of our\noneness with God, others, and creation, actions of justice and healing\nnaturally follow. If we\u2019re working to create a more whole world, contemplation\nwill give our actions nonviolent, loving power for the long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ncivil rights leader John Lewis (1940\u20132020) has been an inspiration to many of\nus this year. How did this saintly public man avoid deeper recognition for so\nlong? His words read like a prayer for contemplative action:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Study the path of others to make your\nway easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart,\ndiscover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Know that the truth\nalways leads to love and the perpetuation of peace. Its products are never\nbitterness and strife. Clothe yourself in the work of love, in the\nrevolutionary work of nonviolent resistance against evil. Anchor the eternity\nof love in your own soul and embed this planet with goodness. Release the need\nto hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all\nbitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle\nof good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when\nit is your time don\u2019t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against\ninjustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the\naffirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry\nof all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a\nworld community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.<\/em>&nbsp;[1]\n\nIn\nan interview several years ago, I offered the following words, which are still\napplicable now: \u201cSome form of contemplative practice is the only way (apart\nfrom great love and great suffering) to rewire people\u2019s minds and hearts. It is\nthe only form of prayer that dips into the unconscious and changes people at\ndeep levels\u2014where all of the wounds, angers, and recognitions lie hidden. Only\nsome form of prayer of quiet changes people for good and for others in any\nlong-term way. It sustains and deepens the short-term wisdom we learn in great\nlove and great suffering.\u201d \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contemplation and Action Summary The Politics of Prayer Monday, \u202fDecember 28, 2020 I\u2019ve often said that we founded the Center for Action and Contemplation to be a place of integration between action and&nbsp;contemplation. I envisioned a place where we could teach activists in social movements to pray\u2014and encourage people who pray to live lives of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19658"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19659,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19658\/revisions\/19659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}