Fr Richard Rohr's Message for the Day!

The Path of Descent God Chooses the Little Ones Monday, March 31, 2014

From the very beginning, God is able to use unlikely figures, and in one way or another, they are always unable, inept, unprepared, and incapable. The biblical text often shows them to be “powerless” in various ways: Sarah and Abraham, Moses, Rachel and Rebecca, David, Jeremiah, Job, and Jesus himself are some of the clearest examples. God didn’t pick the Egyptians; God picked the Israelites, an enslaved people in Egypt. In each case, there needs to be a discovery of a new kind of power by people who do not have power. The bottom, the edge, the outsider, as we see in the Bible, is the privileged spiritual position. In a word, that is why the biblical revelation is revolutionary and even subversive. It is clearly disestablishment literature, yet has largely been used by establishments, which is at the heart of our interpretative problem. The so-called “little ones” (Matthew 18:6) or the “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), as Jesus calls them, are the only teachable and “growable” ones according to him. It seems to be God’s starting place, as it is in the Twelve-Step program, because until we admit “that we are powerless,” the Real Power will not be recognized, accepted or even sought. Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, pp. 89-90 Gateway to Silence: When I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

GOD'S GRACE IN VIA NEGATIVA SPIRITUALITY

First Century steps leading [from] the Upper City [of Jerusalem] (detail). Photo by © Ferrell Jenkins.

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation The Path of Descent The Theme of Themes Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Path of Descent is the theme of themes, the metanarrative of the Bible. It is so obvious and so consistent and so constant that it’s hidden in plain sight. Yet we’ve overlooked this overwhelmingly obvious message by focusing on other things. Why did that happen? How were we that capable of missing what appears to be the major point? I think it has to do with the Spirit working in history and growing us up historically; I think it has to do with maturity and readiness; and I think it has to do with ego. Once Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire (around the year 313), and the clergy and the nobility banded together to protect the top, it became all about ascent, not descent. That suits the ego just fine; it much prefers winning to losing. God isn’t really the great theme of the Bible. God isn’t really taught in the Bible; God is assumed. There’s never any question that there is a Transcendent Other. The problem is how to remain in contact with this Transcendence. That becomes what I call the Way of Descent. Just think: Exodus and Exile. There’s the entire Hebrew Scripture in two words. It’s all about a people in exodus; and then, when they get over exodus and try to settle down, God leads them into exile. Because those are the two places where you are taught, not in being settled. Christians call it the Way of the Cross. The Desert Fathers and Mothers called it the Way of the Desert. In Philippians Paul called it kenosis, the way of self-emptying: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Adapted from The Path of Descent (CD, MP3 download) Gateway to Silence: When I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

GOD'S GRACE

There's nothing YOU have to do!

There's nothing you HAVE to do!

There's nothing you have to DO!

Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words

Gratefulness

FEELING VERY GRATEFUL!

FEELING GRATITUDE AND NOT EXPRESSING IT

IS LIKE WRAPPING A PRESENT

AND NOT GIVING IT. 
-WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD-

Have we thanked God today?

"Fear not, for I am with you!"

As we begin the liturgical season of Lent,

let us be reminded of the Church's invitation for us

"to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel."

May our acts of penance, meditation & ascetism 

prime God's grace more fully into our lives

 and make us more deeply grounded

in our embracing the poor, the suffering and the needy

in our midst! 

GOD'S BLESSINGS ON US ALL!