No images? Click here Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation Week Twelve The Path of Descent Crisis Contemplation Tuesday, March 24, 2020 The curtailing of individual freedom to live, move, and work may be a new experience for some of us—but is familiar to communities who have suffered from oppression for centuries. By necessity, they have developed ways of coping with fear and uncertainty on an individual and communal level. During the CONSPIRE 2018 conference, Living School faculty member Dr. Barbara Holmes shared some of her experience working with the path of descent. During crisis, individuals put to sleep the light of rationality, and descend during dark nights of the soul. As William Shannon puts it, "We darken and blind the exterior self and awaken to the inner self as we grow closer to God." [1] But crisis doesn't just happen to individuals. . . . It also happens to communities, particularly when a community shatters on the anvil of injustice. Crisis contemplation . . . is [the] point of spiritual and psychic dissolution. Shattering events that create the crisis displace the ordinary until the suffering reaches the point of no return. We are bereft. We are unable to articulate the extent of our suffering or even to reintegrate our fractured meaning structures. And so, the descent begins, and we are in free fall toward the center of our being. . . . In my book Joy Unspeakable, I use the black community's experience of slavery as an extreme example of crisis contemplation, a breaking of extraordinary magnitude. When the crisis is communal, communities may be victimized by systems because of immutable traits like race, gender, ethnicity, sexual identity or fluidity, class, political or social differences, real or imagined, and more. When communities are in crisis, first comes the fear. Perhaps you're Harriet Tubman hiding and trying to make it to Canada with your community, or you're a person of color today, wondering when the powers that be will decide to put you in the same foil blankets and cages that they're currently using for Mexican babies. After the fear comes the cruelty and the oppression along with the wondering, “Where is God?” Here's the rub: even as a member of an oppressed community, you're always an individual, but during a crisis of this magnitude, you do not have the luxury of responding as an individual. Suffering [of community in crisis] cannot be absorbed by individuals, no matter how tenuous and invisible the bonds of community are. Individuals cannot respond. You must do it as community, for safety, for comfort, and for survival. I want to echo her final point here: We cannot face large-scale crises as individuals; we cannot carry the pain of this reality on our own, nor can we only look out for ourselves. The pain is communal and so too must be the response. Gateway to Action & Contemplation: What word or phrase resonates with or challenges me? What sensations do I notice in my body? What is mine to do? Prayer for Our Community: O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen. Listen to Fr. Richard read the prayer. Story from Our Community: [In] mid-February my husband passed away. Ten days later, his sister passed. Grieving has been chipping away for several years as I cared for and watched them suffer. I did not anticipate that grief would arrive with a new face via the coronavirus. For now I take comfort in the words of Henri Nouwen: “Hope frees us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us.” I think what God is asking of me is to trust and take one day at a time. Not always easy, but there it is. –A. Byrne Share your own story with us. [1] William H. Shannon, Thomas Merton’s Paradise Journey: Writings on Contemplation (St. Anthony Messenger Press: 2000), 136. See Barbara A. Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, 2nd ed. (Augsburg Fortress Publications: 2017), 7. Text used in Daily Meditation is author’s paraphrase. Adapted from a presentation by Barbara Holmes at CONSPIRE 2018. Image credit: Agitated Sea at Étretat, Claude Monet, 1883, Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon, France. Forward to a Friend → Forward this email to a friend or family member that may find it meaningful. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up for the daily, weekly, or monthly meditations. Sign Up → News from the CAC What Does It Mean to Be a Cosmic Being? “Social constructs can neither confine nor define the human spirit.” CAC Living School teacher Barbara Holmes explores our connection to spirit and each other in this new, updated edition of Race and the Cosmos. The Divine Exchange Cynthia Bourgeault leads you on a path of discovery in The Divine Exchange, a 14-week online course for intermediate and advanced students of the path. Learn to give and receive in a framework that embraces everything. Course runs May 11-Aug 6, 2020. Tales of Transformation Share a meaningful story about your experience with Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations. If you are open to it, sharing your #TalesofTransformation can bring hope to those longing for a deeper sense of connection. Action & Contemplation 2020 Daily Meditations ThemeWhat does God ask of us? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. —Micah 6:8 Franciscan Richard Rohr founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in 1987 because he saw a deep need for the integration of both action and contemplation. If we pray but don’t act justly, our faith won’t bear fruit. And without contemplation, activists burn out and even well-intended actions can cause more harm than good. In today’s religious, environmental, and political climate our compassionate engagement is urgent and vital. In this year’s Daily Meditations, Father Richard helps us learn the dance of action and contemplation. 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 reflections you may have missed. Click here to 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. Visit cac.org to explore other ways to connect with the Center for Action and Contemplation. Use the “Forward” button above to share this email. Explore Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations archive at cac.org. Visit CAC on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to connect with others and explore more ideas about contemplation. Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations are made possible through the generosity of CAC's donors. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. If you would like to change how often you receive emails from CAC, click here. If you would like to change your email address, click here. Visit our Email Subscription FAQ page for more information. Submit an inquiry here for additional assistance. Inspiration for this week's banner image: The “cross,” rightly understood, always reveals various kinds of resurrection. It’s as if God were holding up the crucifixion as a cosmic object lesson, saying: “I know this is what you’re experiencing. Don’t run from it. Learn from it, as I did. Hang there for a while, as I did. It will be your teacher. Rather than losing life, you will be gaining a larger life. It is the way through.” As impossible as that might feel right now, I absolutely believe that it’s true. —Richard Rohr © 2020 | Center for Action and Contemplation 1823 Five Points Road SW Albuquerque, New Mexico 87105 USA Like Tweet Forward Unsubscribe |