{"id":26992,"date":"2026-05-18T08:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26992"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:40:25","slug":"26992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26992","title":{"rendered":"From Fear-Driven to Love-Drawn"},"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=\"Come And Find The Quiet Center\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KA2MQynGle4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sunday, May 17, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In his book&nbsp;<\/em>Just This<em>, Father Richard Rohr considers how contemplative prayer allows us to release our thoughts, finding deeper wisdom and guidance:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Contemplation is a panoramic, receptive awareness whereby we take in all that a situation, moment, or person offers without judging, eliminating, or labeling anything. It is pure and positive gazing that abandons all negative pushback so we can begin to recognize inherent dignity. It takes much practice and a lot of unlearning of habitual responses.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have to work at contemplation and <strong>develop practices whereby we recognize our compulsive and repetitive patterns.<\/strong> In doing so, we allow ourselves to be freed from the need to \u201ctake control of the situation\u201d\u2014as if we ever really could anyway!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems <strong>we are addicted to our need to make distinctions and judgments, which we mistake for intelligent thinking.<\/strong> Most of us&nbsp;<em>think we are our thinking<\/em>, yet almost all thinking is compulsive, repetitive, and habitual. We are forever writing our inner commentaries on everything, commentaries that always reach the same practiced conclusions. That is why<strong> all forms of meditation and contemplation teach a way of quieting this compulsively driven and unconsciously programmed mind.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The desert fathers and mothers wisely called this process \u201cthe shedding of thoughts.\u201d <strong>We don\u2019t fight, repress, deny, identify with, or even judge them; we merely&nbsp;<em>shed&nbsp;<\/em>them<\/strong>.&nbsp;<em>We are so much more than our thoughts about things,<\/em>and we will feel this more as an&nbsp;<em>unlearning<\/em>&nbsp;than a learning of any new content. [1]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we meditate consistently, a sense of our autonomy and private self-importance\u2014what we think of as our \u201cself\u201d\u2014falls away, little by little, as unnecessary, unimportant, and even unhelpful in many cases. The imperial \u201cI,\u201d the self that we likely experience as our only self, reveals itself as largely a creation of our mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through regular practice of contemplation, we become less and less interested in protecting this self-created, relative identity. We don\u2019t have to attack it; it calmly falls away of its own accord, and we experience a kind of natural humility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If our prayer goes deep, \u201cinvading\u201d our unconscious, as it were, <strong>our whole view of the world will change from fear to connection.<\/strong> We won\u2019t live inside our fragile and encapsulated self anymore, nor will we feel any need to protect it. In meditation,<strong> we move from ego consciousness to soul awareness,&nbsp;<em>from being fear-driven to being love-drawn<\/em>. That\u2019s it in a few words!<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, we only have the courage to do this if Someone Else is holding us, taking away our fear, doing the knowing, and satisfying our desire for a Great Lover.<strong> If we can allow that Someone Else to lead us in this dance, we will live with new vitality, a natural gracefulness, and inside of a Flow that we did not create.<\/strong> It is the life of the Trinity, spinning through us<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Forgiving Our Thoughts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday, May 18, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For Father Richard, true prayer begins with a positive \u201cyes,\u201d a surrender to God and Reality:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I entered the Franciscan seminary in 1961, part of our training was learning to avoid, resist, and oppose all distractions. It was such poor teaching, but it was the only way we thought back then. It was all about willpower: celibacy through willpower, poverty through willpower, community through willpower. But willpower isn\u2019t what we need\u2014or it\u2019s not&nbsp;<em>all&nbsp;<\/em>that we need! <strong>We need the power to surrender the will,&nbsp;<em>to face, and even<\/em>&nbsp;<em>to trust what is<\/em>. Now, that\u2019s heroic! Anything less is a fruitless and futile effort, because if we start with negative energy, a \u201cdon\u2019t,\u201d we won\u2019t get very far<\/strong> (see Romans 7:7\u201311). That was the extent of the teaching I received, and it was really no teaching at all\u2014just \u201cDon\u2019t!\u201d When we hear that, the ego immediately pushes back. Some days we have strong willpower and we succeed, but most days we barely succeed. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know the old shibboleth, \u201cDon\u2019t think of an elephant.\u201d If we try&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;<\/em>to, that dang elephant invariably sneaks back into our minds! Just wait. <strong>To actively oppose something actually engages with it and gives it energy. <\/strong>That\u2019s why so many spiritual teachers say, \u201c<strong>What you resist persists.\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Our first energy has to be \u201cyes\u201d energy, an acceptance of what is<\/strong>. From there we can move, build, and proceed, even if in opposition. <strong>We must choose the positive, which is to choose love, and rest there for a minimum of fifteen conscious seconds.<\/strong> It takes that long for positivity to imprint in the neurons, I\u2019m told. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard advises \u201cneither clinging nor opposing\u201d when it comes to facing distractions in contemplative prayer:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I had told my novice master I wasn\u2019t going to fight my distractions, he would have said, \u201cSo you\u2019re going to entertain lustful or hateful thoughts?\u201d But that would have missed the major point. T<strong>he real learning curve happens when we can admit we\u2019re having a thought or feeling and recognize that it\u2019s empty, passing, and part of a fantasy that has no final reality except as a source of information.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must listen honestly to ourselves. We must listen to whatever thought or feeling arises long enough to ask, \u201cWhy am I thinking this? What is this thought revealing in or about me? Why am I willing to entertain this negative, accusatory, or lustful thought?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t have to hate or condemn ourselves for a thought or feeling, <strong>but we do have to let it yield its wisdom. Then we will realize it is a wounded or needy part of us that creates these unhealthy thoughts. Our true self,&nbsp;our whole self, doesn\u2019t need them, and will not identify with them.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we can<strong> allow our thoughts and feelings to pass through us, neither clinging to them nor opposing them\u2014and without ever expecting perfect success\u2014I promise that we will come to a deeper, wider, and wiser place.<\/strong> Even our inability to fully succeed is, in itself, another wonderful lesson. [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>===============<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Individual Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What in you today is fear-driven rather than love-drawn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Group Discussion \u2014 choose one:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>What does it look like to be &#8220;love-drawn&#8221; rather than &#8220;fear-driven&#8221;?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What thought have you been resisting that might be asking to yield its wisdom?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where might surrender \u2014 not willpower \u2014 be what&#8217;s being asked of you today?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, May 17, 2026 In his book&nbsp;Just This, Father Richard Rohr considers how contemplative prayer allows us to release our thoughts, finding deeper wisdom and guidance:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Contemplation is a panoramic, receptive awareness whereby we take in all that a situation, moment, or person offers without judging, eliminating, or labeling anything. It is pure and positive [&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\/26992"}],"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=26992"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26998,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26992\/revisions\/26998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}