Fr Rohr
The spiritual teacher who has shaped me most in the last few years is Father Richard Rohr. His books have been a lifeline to a living, mysterious, non-dual reality that has been largely missing from my faith. Evangelical Christianity has many wonderful strengths that have shaped me profoundly, but it also has some profound blind spots. And for some reason, this Franciscan Mystic has opened my eyes to a wider and deeper experience of my Christian faith. I’m deeply, profoundly thankful for Fr Richard and his work.
If you’re interested in learning more, might I recommend a couple ways…
(1) Sign up for his Daily Meditation Email. I can’t tell you how important and helpful it’s been to have a short thought from Fr Rohr show up in my email list every day. In the middle of all my work craziness, I just pause and read his words, re-center, pray for a moment, and then dive back into work with a new groundedness. Such a gift!
(2) Read his books. My three favorites are “Falling Upward”, “Everything Belongs”, and “The Naked Now”. His books aren’t very long, but read them slowly and let the teaching sink deeply in.
(3) His blog, etc. You can visit his new blog Here, follow on Twitter Here, and visit his Facebook page Here.
Finally, I’ll leave you with yesterday’s “Daily Meditation”…
LIVING A WHOLE LIFE
How does one transition from the survival dance to the sacred dance? Let me tell you how it starts. Did you know the first half of life has to fail you? In fact, if you do not recognize an eventual and necessary dissatisfaction (in the form of sadness, restlessness, emptiness, intellectual conflict, spiritual boredom, even loss of faith, etc.), you will not move on to maturity. You see, faith really is about moving outside your comfort zone, trusting God’s lead, instead of just forever shoring up home base. Too often early religious “conditioning” largely substitutes for any real faith.
Usually, without growth being forced on us, few of us go willingly on the spiritual journey. Why would we? The rug has to be pulled out from beneath our game, so we redefine what balance really is. More than anything else, this falling/rising cycle is what moves us into the second half of our own lives. There is a “necessary suffering” to human life, and if we avoid its cycles we remain immature forever. It can take the form of failed relationships, facing our own shadow self, conflicts and contradictions, disappointments, moral lapses, or depression in any number of forms.
All of these have the potential to either edge us forward in life or to dig in our heels even deeper, producing narcissistic and adolescent responses that everybody can see except ourselves. We either “fall upward,” or we just keep falling.
(Adapted from Loving the Two Halves of Life: The Further Journey)
