Father Richard describes the importance of Tradition, which includes a legacy of wisdom, beliefs, practices, prayers, and rituals: <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t believe that God expects all human beings to start from zero and to reinvent the wheel of life in our own small lifetimes. We must build on the common \u201ccommunion of saints\u201d throughout the ages. This is the inherited fruit and gift, which is sometimes called the \u201cWisdom Tradition.\u201d<\/strong> It is not always inherited simply by belonging to one group or religion. It largely depends on how informed, mature, and experienced our particular teachers are.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most seminaries, I\u2019m afraid, have merely exposed ministers to their own denomination\u2019s conclusions and don\u2019t offer space or time for much Indigenous, interfaith, or ecumenical education, which broadens the field from \u201cmy religion, which has the whole truth,\u201d <\/strong>to some sense of \u201cuniversal wisdom, which my religion teaches in this way.\u201d If it is true, then it has to be true everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There have been countless generations of sincere seekers who\u2019ve gone through the same human journey and there is plenty of collective and common wisdom to be had. There is ongoing wisdom that keeps recurring in different world religions with different metaphors and vocabulary. The foundational wisdom is much the same, although never\u00a0exactly\u00a0<\/em>the same. As in the Trinity,\u00a0spiritual unity is diversity loved and united<\/em>, never mere uniformity. [1]\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is my succinct summary of this deep and recurring Wisdom Tradition: <\/p>\n\n\n\n I trust and hope that my writing and teaching contain more than my own little bit of experience and truth, precisely because I have found some serious validation in both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures, along with the testimonies of many other witnesses along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMarried to the Land<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
No other place I know speaks simultaneously of meadows and desert<\/h3>\n\n\n\n