Here\u2019s a little Richard Rohr for your Sunday Morning:<\/p>\n
\u201cContemplation,\u201d or meditation as it is called by some, became more popular in contemporary times through the writings of Thomas Merton. The word most Christians were more familiar with was simply \u201cprayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, in the West prayer became something functional; something you did to achieve a desired effect\u2014which puts you back in charge. As soon as you make prayer a way to get something, you\u2019re not moving into a new state of consciousness. It\u2019s the same old consciousness. \u201cHow can I get God to do what I want God to do?\u201d It\u2019s the egocentric self still deciding what it needs, but now often trying to manipulate God too.<\/p>\n
This is one reason religion is in such desperate straits today. It really isn\u2019t transforming people, but leaving them in their separated and egocentric state. It pulls God inside of my agenda instead of letting God pull me inside of his. This is still the small old self at work. What the Gospel is talking about is the emergence of \u201ca whole new creation\u201d and a \u201cnew mind,\u201d as Paul variously calls it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Another thought from Rohr on how subversive this kind of prayer life is to the rest of our secular culture:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe contemplative mind is the most absolute assault on the secular world view, because it really is an altogether different mind. The ego cannot rely upon it to do its bidding. The calculating mind of the \u201csmall self\u201d reads everything in terms of personal advantage, short-term effort, and \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d\u2014\u201cHow\u00a0will I look?\u201d, \u201cHow can I look good?\u201d.\u00a0It cannot see things in a new, imaginative, or disinterested way.\u00a0It is still \u201call about me.\u201d All the great religions have taught that we need an utterly different perspective, a different vantage point, and a different starting point to see things as God sees them. It cannot start with \u201cme,\u201d or it will end with \u201cme,\u201d too. (Richard Rohr \u2013 The Gospel Call to Compassionate Action)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s a little Richard Rohr for your Sunday Morning: \u201cContemplation,\u201d or meditation as it is called by some, became more popular in contemporary times through the writings of Thomas Merton. The word most Christians were more familiar with was simply \u201cprayer.\u201d Unfortunately, in the West prayer became something functional; something you did to achieve a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[85,13],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-contemplation","tag-richard-rohr"],"yoast_head":"\n
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