Richard Rohr Meditation: "Growing in the Divine Likeness" Week Fifty-two: "Image and Likeness: Summary" from The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 28 December 2018
Richard Rohr Meditation: "Growing in the Divine Likeness" Week Fifty-two: "Image and Likeness: Summary" from The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States for Friday, 28 December 2018
My interpretation of the early Christian desert elders’ over-encouragement of allowing the mind to sink into the heart is that the mind needs to bathe in the contemplative heart’s more naked availability to the gracious Presence, from whence the mind’s fundamental spiritual insights emerge.
As our spiritual journey proceeds in grace, yearning, and willingness, we find our egos and our thinking, imaging, and subconscious minds, along with our bodily senses, more and more free to be vessels of the communing, loving Light shown us in our contemplative hearts, albeit never completely in this life. . . .
The flow of this liberating, living Light slowly melts away many of the attachments in us that divide us from our true being in God. In our awareness of forgetful, agitated, and willful/sinful times, we become more accepting of the forgiving and encouraging love and image-of-God dignity that is ours as we turn to the gracious Presence. That dignity still lives in our core being right through every physical and mental disability that we might endure in life. . . .
The widespread contemplative re-awakening in recent decades . . . is, I believe, a Spirit-inspired response to the wide scale shrinkage of our identity and capacity to ego, mind, and feelings alone in what has been taught about our human nature in both Western religious bodies and secular culture over the past 500 years. Awareness and cultivation of the contemplative heart as a profound faculty for knowing deep reality has been unrecognized or marginalized. Many . . . yearn for something more than they’ve normally been given in terms of understanding the mutually indwelling intimacy of human and divine nature and the path to its incarnate fullness. It’s an intrinsic God-given longing to realize the hidden divine radiance shining in us and all creation.
The rise of contemplative practice today stems . . . from the desire to grow more fully into who we really are. We need to cultivate spiritual communities . . . where there is mutual support, challenge, and practices to foster the lifetime journey from the image to the likeness of God. . . . Listening and responding together from the contemplative heart in all societal settings can further the maturing of human relationships, purpose, and inclusive societal well-being: the ripening of the communal kin-dom of heaven.
Image credit: Venus (detail), 2008
We wish you a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
The Center for Action and Contemplation offices and visitor center are closed December 24 through January 1.
CAC’s online bookstore, store.cac.org, is open year-round! Due to the holidays and our annual inventory process, fulfillment of orders may be delayed; please allow additional time to receive your purchase.
If giving is part of your year-end tradition, please consider donating to the Center for Action and Contemplation (contributions are tax-deductible in the United States).
Join us this spring:
"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time! Click the video to learn more about the theme and to find meditations you may have missed.
We hope that reading these messages is a contemplative, spiritual practice for you. Learn about contemplative prayer and other forms of meditation. For frequently asked questions—such as what versions of the Bible Father Richard recommends or how to ensure you receive every meditation—please see our email FAQ.
Feel free to share meditations on social media. Go to CAC’s Facebook page or Twitter feed and find today’s post. Or use the “Forward” button above to send via email.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations are made possible through the generosity of CAC's donors. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation.
Inspiration for this week's banner image: The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize and recover the divine image in everything. (Richard Rohr)
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Fifty-two: "Image and Likeness: Summary" "Growing in the Divine Likeness" for Friday, 28 December 2018
Today I share more from Tilden Edwards as he emphasizes the importance of lowering the mind into the heart in order to grow in likeness to God.My interpretation of the early Christian desert elders’ over-encouragement of allowing the mind to sink into the heart is that the mind needs to bathe in the contemplative heart’s more naked availability to the gracious Presence, from whence the mind’s fundamental spiritual insights emerge.
As our spiritual journey proceeds in grace, yearning, and willingness, we find our egos and our thinking, imaging, and subconscious minds, along with our bodily senses, more and more free to be vessels of the communing, loving Light shown us in our contemplative hearts, albeit never completely in this life. . . .
The flow of this liberating, living Light slowly melts away many of the attachments in us that divide us from our true being in God. In our awareness of forgetful, agitated, and willful/sinful times, we become more accepting of the forgiving and encouraging love and image-of-God dignity that is ours as we turn to the gracious Presence. That dignity still lives in our core being right through every physical and mental disability that we might endure in life. . . .
The widespread contemplative re-awakening in recent decades . . . is, I believe, a Spirit-inspired response to the wide scale shrinkage of our identity and capacity to ego, mind, and feelings alone in what has been taught about our human nature in both Western religious bodies and secular culture over the past 500 years. Awareness and cultivation of the contemplative heart as a profound faculty for knowing deep reality has been unrecognized or marginalized. Many . . . yearn for something more than they’ve normally been given in terms of understanding the mutually indwelling intimacy of human and divine nature and the path to its incarnate fullness. It’s an intrinsic God-given longing to realize the hidden divine radiance shining in us and all creation.
The rise of contemplative practice today stems . . . from the desire to grow more fully into who we really are. We need to cultivate spiritual communities . . . where there is mutual support, challenge, and practices to foster the lifetime journey from the image to the likeness of God. . . . Listening and responding together from the contemplative heart in all societal settings can further the maturing of human relationships, purpose, and inclusive societal well-being: the ripening of the communal kin-dom of heaven.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
1. Tilden Edwards, “Aging from the Contemplative Heart,” “Ripening,” Oneing, vol. 1, no. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2013), 50-52.Image credit: Venus (detail), 2008
Thank you for being part of CAC’s contemplative community. You are one of 311,575 readers worldwide (as of December 2018).
News from the CACWe wish you a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
The Center for Action and Contemplation offices and visitor center are closed December 24 through January 1.
CAC’s online bookstore, store.cac.org, is open year-round! Due to the holidays and our annual inventory process, fulfillment of orders may be delayed; please allow additional time to receive your purchase.
If giving is part of your year-end tradition, please consider donating to the Center for Action and Contemplation (contributions are tax-deductible in the United States).
Join us this spring:
The Universal Christ: Another Name for Every Thing
March 28–31, 2019
Albuquerque, New Mexico (and online webcast)
Gather with other spiritual seekers, presenters Richard Rohr, Jacqui Lewis, and John Dominic Crossan, and artist Janet McKenzie for a contemplative and active conference. Learn more about the event and register soon!"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time! Click the video to learn more about the theme and to find meditations you may have missed.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations are made possible through the generosity of CAC's donors. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation.
Inspiration for this week's banner image: The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize and recover the divine image in everything. (Richard Rohr)
© 2018 | Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road SouthWest
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
_______
Fight insomnia.
ReplyDeleteNight and sleep are a mirror of the state of your mind throughout the day. By staying in a relaxed-alert state, falling asleep will be much easier, enjoying more rest and feeling full of energy when you wake up.