{"id":23251,"date":"2024-01-01T10:29:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23251"},"modified":"2024-01-01T10:40:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T15:40:50","slug":"23251","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23251","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Unspoken - Start a Fire - with lyrics (2014)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FXHYykW28SA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC Dean of Faculty Brian McLaren introduces Radical Resilience as the 2024 Daily Meditations theme<strong>.<\/strong>\u202f&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each quarter this year we will examine this theme through a different metaphor of fire:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/daily-meditations\/2024-daily-meditations-theme-radical-resilience\/?utm_source=referral&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=DM&amp;utm_content=Explore+Further#h-engaging-with-a-world-on-fire\">Engaging With a World on Fire<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan\u2013Mar)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tending the Inner Fire (Apr\u2013Jun)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dancing With the Divine Fire (Jul\u2013Sep)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Embracing the Fire of Transformation (Oct\u2013Dec)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Radical Resilience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The annual Daily Meditations theme arises from several months of shared conversation and discernment among members of the CAC faculty and staff. CAC Dean of Faculty Brian McLaren introduces our 2024 theme: &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve been invited to share with you all what our theme for 2024 will be: Radical Resilience. Each of those words is important. The word <strong>\u201cradical\u201d means going to the root, going to the depths<\/strong>, going beneath the surface.\u2026 In fact, that\u2019s what contemplation really is: it\u2019s paying deep attention to the deep dimensions of life. So,<strong> radical resilience means radical, deep attention to the deepest roots of resilience. Resilience is the capacity to withstand and recover from hardship or difficulty. It has to do with the ability to spring back into shape after you\u2019ve been beaten down or knocked over or bent over.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I live in Florida, famous for hurricanes, and I\u2019m a lover of trees. Many of our trees in Florida survive hurricanes by being flexible. They\u2019re able to bend an amazing amount and spring back into shape. One of my favorite trees has a slightly different strategy. It\u2019s called the \u201cgumbo-limbo\u201d tree, and the way it survives a hurricane is that when the wind starts to blow, it just lets branches break off. It knows that <strong>if you can keep the trunk solid and stable, and you don\u2019t get overturned by the wind, you can bounce back <\/strong>after the storm. And that\u2019s what the gumbo-limbo tree does. I<strong>t travels light through the storm. It lets go of everything that\u2019s not essential to focus on for life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Brian connects Radical Resilience to the work of the prophets: &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prophets are insiders who love a community enough to critique it in love<\/strong>. They don\u2019t simply defend the community they love. They love it way too much for that. But neither do they attack it from the outside mercilessly and seize upon every imperfection to shame it and hurt it. As Richard Rohr often says, <strong>they critique with love from the edge of the inside.\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we\u2019re going to help people take wise action and imagine a better future amid coming troubles, then we will have to <strong>help people find that better future within themselves, so they can live that better future out into the world.<\/strong> And that\u2019s what we hope to do together in 2024. We know that we are in hard and dangerous times. We, as a global civilization, are living destructively with our planet. We are living dangerously and divisively with one another. And we\u2019re living often delusionally within ourselves. This year, we are going to seek to explore together radical resilience so we can become <strong>thermostats rather than thermometers in our world, setting the temperature, setting an example of contemplative depth and wisdom and love and peace\u2014rather than just sinking into the fury and fear and denial and despair of so many of our times.<\/strong> Welcome, brothers and sisters, to a year of Radical Resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>=================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">To Live Is to Change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In his New Year\u2019s homily from 2020, Father Richard Rohr preached on the biblical call to change:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Greek word for \u201crepent\u201d (<em>metanoia<\/em>) means to change your mind. I\u2019d like to emphasize change, because that\u2019s\u00a0<em>not\u00a0<\/em>something we humans as a species are attracted to. We\u2019re much like animals in this regard. Animals are creatures of habit. Those of us with a dog or a cat know their behavior is predictable. If we change some daily routine, they\u2019ll get upset. I\u2019m afraid to say that we\u2019re much the same. We like things the way we like things. And yet the<strong> first words out of Jesus\u2019 mouth tell us that he\u2019s come to give us a philosophy of change: \u201cRepent,\u201d\u2014<em>change your mind<\/em>\u2014\u201cfor the kingdom of heaven has come near\u201d<\/strong> (Matthew 3:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Psychologist Robert Wicks suggests part of resilience is making a decision to remain open to ongoing growth and change:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Each of us has a range of resilience (the ability to meet, learn from, and not be crushed by the challenges and stresses of life)<\/strong>\u2026. Of even more import than the different resiliency ranges people have is their <strong>conscious decision to maximize the ways in which they can become as hardy as possible. They may not call this resilience, but it is their ability to be open to life\u2019s experiences, and so to learn. <\/strong>[1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard continues:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>St. John Henry Newman (1801\u20131890) said, \u201c<strong>Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.\u201d <\/strong>[2] That\u2019s a very different philosophy than most of us have. Our natural approach is to keep in cruise control. The way we do it is the way we do it, and any change is considered dangerous, heretical, and new. But here in this Gospel we were given a program of change and growth from the beginning. If we don\u2019t grow, if we don\u2019t change, we end up the same at 70 as we were at 17. We all know people like that, and we may even be one of them. Such people aren\u2019t very fun to live with. They want to pick and win fights. It\u2019s what a lot of politics is today. The important thing is not the truth or what\u2019s good for the whole, but what\u2019s good for the small part of which I\u2019m a part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If people refuse to change, what my mother used to call \u201cbull-headedness,\u201d the world will only get worse. We have to learn how to dialogue, how to forgive, and how to trust, and how to give people the benefit of the doubt. In the United States, our country has become very cynical about truth and love. We hear politicians take oaths to be fair and just leaders and we all know it doesn\u2019t mean anything. We expect everybody to be for the truth of their group and their \u201ckingdoms.<strong>\u201d But Jesus tells us to change our minds and accept the kingdom of God, which is what\u2019s good for the whole.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>===================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8220;Begin Again.<\/strong><strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=7brA&amp;m=hLU20cKFp90RJVk&amp;b=pXFWQzQYatSzsjrDXAl5ew\"><strong>St. Teresa of Avila, Spanish Mystic and Nun<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When St. Teresa of Avila finished hearing the confessions of her fellow nuns under her care, she would hug them, place each of her hands on their shoulders, and say, &#8220;Begin again.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The day any of us believe we have mastered what it means to be human is the day we are most likely to mess it all up. \u00a0May we <strong>only ever believe ourselves to be beginners and always be willing to learn and grow.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAC Dean of Faculty Brian McLaren introduces Radical Resilience as the 2024 Daily Meditations theme.\u202f&nbsp; Each quarter this year we will examine this theme through a different metaphor of fire:&nbsp;&nbsp; Radical Resilience The annual Daily Meditations theme arises from several months of shared conversation and discernment among members of the CAC faculty and staff. CAC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/23251"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23253,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23251\/revisions\/23253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}