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Saturday, March 27th, 2021

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Twelve Summary and Practice

Prophetic Imagination

March 21 - March 26, 2021

Sunday
Moses had the prescience and courage to move the place of hearing God outside and at a distance from the court of common religious and civic opinion—this was the original genius that inspired the entire Jewish prophetic tradition.

Monday
The prophet’s path is of descent and is never popular or easy. It is about letting go of illusion and toppling false gods.

Tuesday
The prophets are people who are imbued with God’s love for creation and consequent passion for justice. —Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev

Wednesday
Like a poet, the prophet is endowed with sensibility, enthusiasm, and tenderness, and, above all, with a way of thinking imaginatively. Prophecy is the product of poetic imagination. —Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Thursday
A moral imagination is nothing other than the hope of black faith. Such hope trusts that the arc of God’s universe does in fact bend toward justice. —Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas

Friday
The prophetic tradition sustains the eternal Word of God while the world spins around it, making God’s Word—Love—the center, the axle, the standard of everything the faithful do in the midst of the storm of change that engulfs us as we go. —Sister Joan Chittister

Deepening Our Centering Prayer Practice

David Frenette is a spiritual director and longtime teacher of centering prayer, as well as a longtime friend and advisor of Father Thomas Keating. In today’s practice, we share several of his suggestions to help us deepen our centering prayer practice:

There is a way you can renew the intention behind [your] sacred word so that your motivation for continuing on the spiritual path deepens when your relationship with God changes. Recall how the first of centering prayer’s basic guidelines says that the sacred word is sacred because it expresses your intention to consent to God’s presence and action. When your prayer no longer feels sacred, one thing you can do as a longtime practitioner is utilize the preparatory time before formally beginning centering prayer by taking a moment to renew your intention, the why of your practice. . . .

Here are three possible ways that renewing your intention in centering prayer might take shape for you, depending on the way your contemplative prayer is developing:

I have had many experiences of what the mystics call “dryness” in my prayer life. Like many people, when it first happened in my early journey, I thought I must be doing something wrong, which was very hard for me since I like to do everything right! With time, persistence, and helpful techniques like the ones David Frenette shares above, we come to realize that our feelings are far less important than the ever-deepening commitment we make to God through our practice.

Experience a version of this practice through video and sound.

David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God (Sounds True: 2012), 13-14.

Image credit: Dorothea Lange, Tractored Out (detail), 1938, photograph, public domain.

Image inspiration: A lonely house on barren, tilled earth may tell us hard truths of what has been, what is, and what is to come.sert image inspiration here.

News from the CAC

The Universal Christ—Now in Paperback

Discover how a forgotten reality can transform the way you live in Christ with the paperback edition of The Universal Christ. Enjoy a new afterward from Fr. Richard, and experience the world—with all its joys, triumphs, setbacks and sufferings—through the eyes of Love.

Explore the Prophetic Wisdom of Mary Magdalene

Discover how Mary Magdalene’s teachings can transform our 21st century lives in the online course, “Mary Magdalene: Apostle to Our Own Times.” Join CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault and an online community of spiritual seekers on an exploration of Jesus’ most important apostle. Apply for financial assistance by April 7. Registration ends April 14.

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A Time of Unveiling

Watch Father Richard introduce this year’s Daily Meditations theme to discover what A Time Of Unveiling means—and how God reveals infinite Love by unveiling reality.

Explore Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations archive at cac.org.

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