{"id":27321,"date":"2026-07-20T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27321"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:43:15","slug":"27321","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=27321","title":{"rendered":"Action and Contemplation"},"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=\"The Porter&#039;s Gate ft. Madison Cunningham - Little Things with Great Love [Lyric]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7aH4nAUerqc?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, July 19, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr explains why both action and contemplation are part of a fully articulated life of faith:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important word in our Center\u2019s name is not Action, nor is it Contemplation;<strong> it\u2019s the word&nbsp;<em>and.&nbsp;<\/em>We need both compassionate action&nbsp;<em>and c<\/em>ontemplative practice for the spiritual journey<\/strong>. Without action, our spirituality becomes lifeless and bears no authentic fruit. <strong>Without contemplation, all our doing comes from ego, even if it looks selfless, and it can cause more harm than good.<\/strong> External behavior must be connected to and supported by spiritual guidance. <strong>It doesn\u2019t matter which comes first; action may lead you to contemplation, and contemplation may lead you to action. But finally, they need and feed each other as components of a healthy dynamic relationship with<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> Reality.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I used to think most of us begin with contemplation and a unitive encounter with God and are then led through that experience to some sort of action that includes awareness of and solidarity with the suffering in the world. I think that\u2019s true for many people, yet as I read the biblical prophets and observe Jesus\u2019s life, <strong>I think the reverse also happens: first action, and then needed contemplation. &nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No life is immune from suffering. When we\u2019re in solidarity with people facing pain, injustice, war, oppression, colonization\u2014the list goes on and on\u2014we face immense pressure to despair, to become angry or dismissive. When reality is split dualistically between good and bad, right and wrong, we too are torn apart. <strong>Yet when we\u2019re broken, we are most open to contemplation, or nondual thinking. <\/strong>W<strong>e\u2019re desperate to resolve our own terror, anger, and disillusionment, and so we allow ourselves to be led into the silence that holds everything together in wholeness. &nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The contemplative, nondual mind is not saying, \u201cEverything is beautiful,\u201d even when it\u2019s not. <strong>However, we may come to \u201cEverything is&nbsp;<em>still&nbsp;<\/em>beautiful\u201d<\/strong> by contemplatively facing the conflict between how reality is and how we wish it could be. We must <strong>face dualistic problems, name good and evil, and differentiate between right and wrong. We can\u2019t be naive about evil, but if we stay focused on this duality, we\u2019ll become unlovable, judgmental, dismissive people.<\/strong> I\u2019ve witnessed this pattern in myself. We must eventually find a bigger field, a wider frame, which is nondual thinking. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beginning with necessary, dualistic action and moving toward contemplation seems to be the more common\u2014and for some, perhaps the more trustworthy\u2014path these days. We see this pattern in Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King, Jr., Saint (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta, and many others.<strong> Such people enter into the pain of society and have to go to God to find rest for their soul, because their souls are so torn by the broken, split nature of almost everything, including themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Saint Teresa of Calcutta:<br>A Mother to Many<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday, July 20, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard shares his deep respect and admiration for the Missionaries of Charity, the community of sisters founded by Mother Teresa (1910\u20131987) in Calcutta, India:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1988, I spent three days immersed in the life, spirit, and ministries of Mother Teresa\u2019s Missionaries of Charity community at the motherhouse in Calcutta\u2014a year after her death. Our work together ended on October 1, the feast day of her patron, Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux (1873\u20131897). All the four hundred plus local community members returned for this day of teaching, praying, and celebrating in the manner of the poor. It was probably the closest I will ever get to what those first idyllic days must have been like for the early Franciscans: utter joy in Jesus and his gospel, poverty that is almost embarrassing but beautiful, and unquestioned belief in what your life means and in what you are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through that experience, I finally met a \u201cconservative\u201d yet fully contemporary form of religious life that I could trust. The sisters were not rigid; rather, they were simply devoted women. They did not need security, answers, and order, as we see in most traditionalist movements in the West. In fact, they were <strong>willing to live without security, with very few answers to their questions of mind and heart, and amid almost total&nbsp;<em>disorder<\/em><\/strong><em>.&nbsp;<\/em>All in union\u2014hour by hour\u2014with God. They lived that amazing and rare combination of utter groundedness and constant risk-taking that always characterizes the true gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sisters <strong>don\u2019t waste time fixing, controlling, or even needing to understand what was wrong with other people. Instead, they put all of their time and energy into letting God change<em>&nbsp;them<\/em>. From that transformed place, they serve and carry the pain of the world, which they are convinced is the pain of God<\/strong>. This is the synthesis on a communal level that I am always seeking. I have encountered it in many individuals, but hardly ever in public and social form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I do not believe that the lifestyle of the Missionaries of Charity answers all questions or that they are holier than many other Christians I have met. Yet there is a radical and utterly clear gift of God that is revealed through them. I even dared to ask one of the leaders about one of the most common criticisms of Mother Teresa: \u201cWhy did Mother not speak out against social injustice? Why did she not point out the evil systems and evil people that are chewing up the poor?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer was calm, immediate, and firsthand. <strong>Mother Teresa felt that if she took sides, or played the firebrand, that she could not be what Jesus had told her to be\u2014<em>love to and for all.\u00a0<\/em>She said that if she started correcting and pointing out \u201csinners\u201d she could no longer be an instrument of love and reconciliation for them. <\/strong>Like her patron Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux, \u201c<strong>her vocation in the church was to\u00a0<em>be love<\/em>.\u201d She knew that her primary message had to be\u00a0<em>her life itself<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Individual Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s one small, unnoticed thing you could do today that would actually cost you something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Group Discussion \u2014 choose one:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Mother Teresa refused to &#8220;take sides&#8221; so she could stay an instrument of love. Where has taking a side cost you your ability to love someone?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rohr says action without contemplation &#8220;comes from ego, even if it looks selfless.&#8221; Where might that be true of you right now?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What would it look like for your own suffering, or solidarity with someone else&#8217;s, to lead you into silence instead of into a cause?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, July 19, 2026 Father Richard Rohr explains why both action and contemplation are part of a fully articulated life of faith:&nbsp; The most important word in our Center\u2019s name is not Action, nor is it Contemplation; it\u2019s the word&nbsp;and.&nbsp;We need both compassionate action&nbsp;and contemplative practice for the spiritual journey. Without action, our spirituality becomes [&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":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27321"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27324,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27321\/revisions\/27324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}