Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week One Summary

The Prophetic Path

January 1 - January 6, 2023

Sunday
Most of us were trained to think of Christianity not as a prophetic path, but as a contest, which immediately frames reality in terms of win-lose, winners and losers. The prophetic path says there’s a way of moving toward winning that includes losing. It doesn’t exclude it. —Richard Rohr

Monday
The prophets kept the word of God earthy. They kept it whole. They kept it real. They would not let us divide earth from heaven. They put heaven and earth together and they said, “It’s all one.” —Richard Rohr

Tuesday
It is interesting to me that Paul lists prophecy as the second most important of the gifts of the Spirit. Yet I think it’s safe to say that most of us grew up thinking that prophecy was something that existed in the past, but it had no contemporary significance or meaning. We really didn’t expect to meet any prophets. —Richard Rohr

Wednesday
Although many of the prophets in the Bible are presented as single carriers of God’s word, often there was a community of other prophets that they came from or were associated with. And so, who is your community?
—Barbara A. Holmes

Thursday
Do you believe that life is really dynamic? That it isn’t quite finished yet? That not only are you involved always in a circling series of potentials, but that you are potential. You, potential. Do you believe that? —Howard Thurman

Friday
The prophetic stream supports learning, the evolution of life toward greater consciousness, and every movement toward justice and communal well-being. —Nahum Ward-Lev

Week One Practice

Send Us Prophets

“I will send them prophets,” the Wisdom of God says, “but they will kill them and afterwards build monuments to them.” —based on Luke 11:47, 49.

Together, we ask for the courage for each of us to approach the prophetic path, today and in the days to come:

God of the Great Gaze,
We humans prefer satisfying un-truth to 
The Truth that is usually unsatisfying. 
Truth is always too big for us, 
And we are so small and afraid. 

So You send us prophets and Truth speakers
To open our eyes and ears to Your Big Picture. 
Show us how to hear them, how to support them, 
And how to interpret their wisdom. 

Help us to trust that Your prophetic voice
May also be communicated through our words and actions. 
May we practice a spirit of discernment
And a stance of humility, 
So that Your Truth be spoken, not our own. 

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Prophet, 
Whom we also killed and will always kill
In the name of our little truths. 
Help us, for we desire to share in Your Great Gaze. Amen. 

“God of the Great Gaze,” prayer from Prophets Then, Prophets Now, conference, July 2006 Center for Action and Contemplation. Conference teachings by Joan Chittister and Richard Rohr available as MP3 download.

Image: Jenna Keiper, Untitled Bosque (detail), New Mexico, photograph, used with permission. Benjamin Yazza, Untitled 10 (detail), New Mexico, photograph, used with permission. This year’s images are inspired in form by the 2023 Daily Meditation theme. This week’s main photo takes up most of the image, but we also see a sliver of the image for next week: the next step on our journey. Click here to enlarge image.

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