This week’s Corner comes from parishioner and MMOC Contemplative Core Team member Carolyn Hebenstreit: St. Teresa when asked what contemplative prayer is answered, 'Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means...
Saralou Hendrickson reflects: Father Richard Rohr, OFM, founded the Center for Action and Contemplation out of the need he saw for the integration of action and contemplation. When asked which word is the more important, he will say...
In his post-Resurrection appearances, Jesus clearly demonstrates that he is alive. However, as has been noted by a great number of scripture scholars, theologians, faithful people, and casual observers over the centuries, there is a new quality to Jesus's life after he is raised, as evidenced by disciples’ inability to ...
Spiritual director and contemplative Kelly Chripczuk discuses tides as an image of contemplative surrender during this Eastertide. I’ve not lived close enough to a large body of water to know much about tides, but something feels right about this pairing. An incoming tide lifts everything...
Fr. Thomas Keating continues to demonstrate how Mary Magdalene’s initial encounter with the risen Jesus served as a guide and catalyst to lead her through the contemplative journey. … Mary [Magdalene] is sent to be the apostle of the apostles. What makes an apostle is divine love, nothing else. “You, my brothers [and sisters],” Jesus says through...
In the Christian scheme of things, the movement from the human condition to divine transformation requires the mediation of a personal relationship with God. The personal love of Jesus facilitates the growth of this relationship… The simple utterance of one word, “Mary!” brought to focus ...
Christ as a Gardener Andrew Hudgins The boxwoods planted in the park spell LIVE. I never noticed it until they died. Before, the entwined green had smudged the word unreadable. And when they take their own advice....
New contributor Joy Kleucker offers this poem from contemplative Elizabeth Rooney for our practice on this Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord: Hurting Only pierced hands Are gentle enough To touch some wounds. The quivering flesh....
[Ed note: In the coming weeks, Contemplative Corner will be adding some new voices to our regular contributors. This week, Saralou Hendrickson joins the fold!] “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states…. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” This contemplative writer, in...
All of life’s struggles have something to teach us. Note that after each of the temptations endured by Jesus during his desert exile (Mt 4:1-11), he comes away with new insight on God, and on his own relationship with the Father. This was certainly part of the wisdom of the desert experience, that it persisted ...
Lent is our laboratory! To understand what we mean by this, consider the connection made by Franciscan priest Richard Rohr between the scientific method and spiritual practice: The common scientific method relies on hypothesis, experiment, trial, and error. We might even call this “practice,” just like many of us have prayer practices. Yes, much of ...
The purpose of our Lenten disciplines is to deepen our conscious awareness of and responsiveness to Divine Presence. One of these disciplines is, of course, prayer. In her reflection on the Jesuit mystic ...
Lent is, in many ways, a purposeful embrace of loss, of letting go. With this in mind, though spring draws near, we harken back to autumn with this excerpt from...
Contemplative Corner #189 When, during Advent, we ask for God to “show [God’s] face” (Ps 80), or proclaim vision clear enough to recognize that “Here is your God” (Is 40:9), we are clearly pointing to a way of seeing beyond usual, dualistic perception. Richard Rohr explains the eyes we need to “see” God, and their importance: Hugh of St. Victor (1078-1141) and Richard of St. Victor (1123-1173) wrote that humanity was given three different sets of eyes, each building on the previous one. The first eye was the eye of the flesh (thought or sight), the second was the eye of reason (meditation or reflection), and the third was the intuitive eye of true understanding (contemplation). I describe this third eye [contemplation] as knowing something simply by being calmly present to it (no processing needed!) . . . One wonders how far spiritual and political leaders can genuinely lead us without some degree of contemplative seeing and action. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that “us-and-them” seeing, and the dualistic thinking that results, is the foundation of almost all discontent and violence in the world . . . We need all three sets of eyes in both a healthy culture and a healthy religion. As we prepare for a “rebirth” of faith this Advent, let us pray for such clear vision!