Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Think on These Things

"For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door."  - Rabindranath Tagore
The most recent postings from Fr. Rohr at CAC have been gifts to me. Here, I pass those gifts on to you:
"I think what modern men and women lack is a deep sense of belonging. That sense of belonging is given to you by God from your very birth, and then it is mirrored to you in the natural world—if you are looking and listening. In nature you can overcome your sense of separateness or alienation—and know you are a part of the whole...Franciscan spirituality...is founded on a very positive image of human nature and all of creation, “original blessing” instead of original sin.
"There is a kind of therapy that I’d like to call 'proactive' therapy, in which you don’t try to heal your wounds afterwards. Instead, you rely on your inherent connection with everything and are healed ahead of time into a kind of 'hidden wholeness,' as Thomas Merton called it...you find that it is a good world and you also are inherently good, not because you are independently perfect (you never will be!), but because you belong to the Whole—that is always and deeply good and perfect in its Wholeness (the pleroma, or “fullness” of Colossians 1:19-20)..."
"We all have to be mirrors...not just for nature, but for one another—and especially for those who cannot see the bud of possibility within them, those who hate themselves, those who’ve been abused, those who’ve been imprisoned, those who think they are no good, those who’ve been discriminated against—anyone who feels unworthy in one way or another.
"Those are the ones that we have to positively mirror like Francis mirrored the sow. We must 're-teach all things their loveliness.' That could be your one and only life calling!"

What a calling that is! It can be done from home, from a hospital bed, a wheelchair, a corporate boardroom, an airplane, the street, a shopping mall, a hiking trail, a courtroom, a retirement home, a pulpit - it can be practiced anywhere.

"Brothers and sisters:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you." - 2 Phil. 4:6-9

Photo: view towards Olympic Mountains and Washington State from Sooke, B.C.

5 comments:

Pam said...

Beautiful scripture thoughts today. Thank you...much needed! : )

Elizabeth said...

Yes. Beautiful. Have you read Katie Alison Granju's work? She is a mom blogger who lost her 18-year old son Henry to a drug overdose last year. She writes beautifully about him and her grief and love and God. I read this yesterday -- a piece that the band Wilco posted on their website. It sort of goes along with many of the things Fr. Rohr speaks of: http://wilcoworld.net/#!/henry-wilco-and-the-whole-love/

AnnDeO said...

I concur... Beautiful!

Najia said...

Karen,

You are just such a lovely human. It is humbling that you take time to share these thoughts and quotes with us.

Last week I watched the video at work and I shouldn't have. My tears wouldn't stop. I had to pause it and return to it at home. Ed and I watched it again together. It is unimaginable to us how someone endures the loss of a child. Ed thought that when we lose an elder loved one, we do grieve for sure. However, there isn't a sense of 'being cheated' to the death. (his words, not mine)

We grieve and cry for the loss of an elder, but when we hear of the loss of a child, there is most definitely a sense of a life having been cheated. Of everything...memories, experiences, school, love, travel, change, work, and ageing.

Therefore, it truly is an uplift and an elevation of our spirits when we know of people like you and the Townes...who through that grief and that anger of being cheated, you create and do something so powerful and generous. That power and generosity may be in the form of you sitting at your computer and sharing God's words, or in the form of presenting a million dollars for cancer research.

Amazing.

Busy Bee Suz said...

Food for thought....lovely.
xoxoxox