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Turn around and believe the good news!
— Jesus’ first preached words,
Mark 1:15
The authentic religious life is a matter of becoming who we already are, and all that we truly are! Can you imagine that? Is the seed already within you—of all that God wants you to be? Do you already know at some level who you authentically are? Are you willing to pay the price, even the mistrust of others? Could that be what we mean by having a unique “soul”? Most saints thus described the path as much more unlearning than learning. There are so many illusions and lies that we must all unlearn. And one of the last illusions to die is that we are all that different or that separate. Finally we are all one and amazingly the same. Differentiation seems to precede union and communion, for some strange reason.
This growing illumination is not just one “decision for Jesus.” It is a whole journey of letting go and developing an ongoing practice of letting go, and turning around one more time, until it becomes a way of life. As the old Shakers used to sing and dance, “. . . To turn, turn / will be our delight, / ’Till by turning, turning / we come round right.” To be authentically human is to change, and to be a whole human is to change many times—away from my smallness and toward an Unspeakable Greatness—which itself is never fully attained.
— From unpublished notes
The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .
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“The spiritual gift of discernment is when seemingly good things can be recognized as sometimes bad things, and seemingly bad things can also be seen to bear some good fruit…. It invites people into what I call ‘Yes/And’ thinking, rather than simplistic either/or thinking.”
— Richard Rohr,
Yes, And: Daily Meditations
Join Fr. Richard for a teaching on Sic et Non,
the ancient practice of “Yes and No.”
Live Webcast
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. (MDT)
Register today and get a signed copy of the book at cac.org.
Note that the webcast will be available for replay for 90 days after the live event;
pre-registration required by Monday, August 5, 2013.
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