Richard Rohr’s Meditation: You Are What You Seek

God is saying in all incarnations that “I am not totally Other; in fact I am the transcendent within everything here.” Pause and think about that. “I have planted some of myself in all things which forever long for reunion.” If God is perceived as absolute otherness, it eventually creates absolute alienation, which is most of Western civilization today. Add to that any notion of God as petty, angry, or torturing, and the mystical journey comes to a standstill. So God created similarity and compassion, which become visible in the human Jesus to overcome this tragic gap–in a way that we could see, touch, and understand (1 John 1:1). God-in-you seeks and loves God beyond, like an implanted homing device. It works!

A Fountain Fullness of Love

Bonaventure taught that there are three books from which we learn wisdom: The Book of Creation, The Book of Jesus and Scripture, and The Book of Experience. He also taught that there are three pairs of eyes. The first pair sees all things as a fingerprint or footprint of God (vestigia Dei), which evokes foundational respect and teachability. The second pair of eyes is the hard work of honest self-knowledge—awareness of how you are processing your reality moment by moment. This is necessary to keep your own lens clean and open, and it is the work of your entire lifetime. The third pair is the eyes of contemplation, which allow you to see things in their essence and in their core meaning. Only then can you receive the transmitted image of God on your soul.

.. Bonaventure says we must begin “at the bottom, presenting to ourselves the whole material world as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the Supreme [Artisan].”

.. Everything comes from God, exemplifies God, and then returns to God.  Bonaventure says that sums up all his teaching.

Benedict Option In The Flood

Ryan Booth — a straight, Southern Baptist conservative — had inadvertently invited a female-to-male transgender and his boyfriend into his home. Did that give Ryan pause?

.. Brother Ignatius in the Benedict Option book says that when we take somebody in, we see Christ in them. They bear the image of God. Again, it’s just like Jesus said in Matthew: when you take in someone who has nowhere to go, you are taking Him in.”

How do we determine the hour of dawn, when night ends and day begins?

I want to share a quote from a Hasidic Rabbi who asked his students “how do we determine the hour of dawn, when night ends and day begins?” One replied “When you can distinguish a sheep from a dog.” No said the Rabbi. “When you can distinguish a fig tree from a grapevine.” No, said the Rabbi. “Then tell us”. “It is when you can look into the face of human beings and have enough light to recognize them as your sisters and brothers.

Until then, it is night and darkness is still with us,” said the Rabbi.