1.  PRAYER

Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:32 NLT

Lord, I often find it challenging to be kind to those who have wounded me. I struggle to be friendly, let alone to forgive. Please help me find comfort in knowing I do not have to rely on my strength for things like this. Instead, it is You who I get to rely on, so please soften my heart and help me to forgive. Amen.

2.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/H_uc-uQ3Nkc?si=nLYHR90_UZyO6Vqo

3.  SONG

https://youtu.be/km9FkMAf4kk?si=uxeDYP3C6pbcbLcl

4. NARRATIVE

Franciscan friar and author Richard Rohr teaches that forgiveness is "the religious word for letting go" and the very heartbeat of the Gospel. He emphasizes that it is a radical, rule-breaking practice of letting go of the hope for a different or better past. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Rohr’s core teachings on forgiveness include:

Accepting Reality: Forgiveness is not just about isolated offenses, but forgiving reality and the present moment for being broken, imperfect, and messy. [1, 2]
Transcending Victimhood: Clinging to the pain of the past creates an abused consciousness that offers a false sense of moral superiority but ultimately destroys trust and love. [1]
No "Heavenly Garbage Dump": In Rohr's view (drawing from his book Everything Belongs), forgiveness does not mean the pain simply disappears; rather, "we forgive it for being there". [1]
A Divine Technology: In Breathing Under Water, Rohr describes forgiveness as the "beginning, the middle, and the end" of the Gospel's transformative message. It breaks down the meritocracy of earning grace and opens us up to unmerited Divine love. [1, 2]

To explore more of his daily meditations and resources on this topic, visit the Center for Action and Contemplation. [1, 2]

The Power of Forgiveness

Friday, September 16, 2022

Father Richard Rohr writes of the power of Jesus’ teachings and lived example of forgiveness:

Among the most powerful of human experiences is to give or to receive forgiveness. I am told that two-thirds of the teaching of Jesus is directly or indirectly about this mystery of forgiveness: God’s breaking of God’s own rules. That’s not surprising, because forgiveness is probably the only human action that reveals three goodnesses simultaneously! When we forgive, we choose the goodness of the other over their faults, we experience God’s goodness flowing through ourselves, and we also experience our own goodness in a way that surprises us. That is an awesome coming together of power, both human and divine.

Eventually, I believe, we will all forgive one another because we have been forgiven, but let’s do it now and not wait until later. Let’s ask for the grace to let go of those grudges and hurts to which we cling. How else will we ever be free?

If we don’t “get” forgiveness, we’re missing the whole mystery. We are still living in a world of meritocracy, of quid-pro-quo thinking, of performance and behavior that earns an award. Forgiveness is the great thawing of all logic, reason, and worthiness. It is a melting into the mystery of God as unearned love, unmerited grace, the humility and powerlessness of a Divine Lover.

Without radical and rule-breaking forgiveness—received and given—there will be no reconstruction of anything. It alone breaks down our worldview of trying to buy and sell grace. Grace is certainly the one gift that must always be free, perfectly free, in order for it to work. Without forgiveness, there will be no future. We have hurt one another in too many historically documented and remembered ways. The only way out of the present justified hatreds of the world is grace.

An eagerness and readiness to love is the ultimate freedom and future. When we’ve been included in the spaciousness of divine love, there is just no room for human punishment, vengeance, rash judgment, or calls for retribution. We certainly see none of this small-mindedness in the Risen Christ after his own rejection, betrayal, and cruel death; we don’t see it even from his inner circle, or in the whole New Testament. I really cannot imagine a larger and more spacious way to live. Jesus’ death and resurrection event was a game changer for history.

The Crucified and Risen Christ uses the mistakes of the past to create a positive future, a future of redemption instead of retribution. He does not eliminate or punish mistakes. He uses them for transformative purposes.

People formed by such love are indestructible.

Forgiveness might just be the very best description of what God’s goodness engenders in humanity.

References:

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2001, 2020), 155, 158–159, 162; and

5.MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/RNeLU-5yR04?si=GDx-QYMkbeJ1JZh_

6.  SHARING

Happy birthday 

https://youtu.be/_QfXpQqRRW8?si=6W8gfbkR4Wi1JlMB

 7. PRAYER AND INTENTIONS

So watch yourselves! “If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.” – Luke 17:3-4 NLT

Lord, it is so hard at times to put aside my hurt and anger toward those who sin against me. I ask that You please help me to remember that Your Word says I should forgive seventy times seven times, as You have done for me. I strive to be more like You every day and ask that You give me the strength to forgive even under these painful circumstances so I may show Your love to others. Amen.

8.  SONG

https://youtu.be/PIyVReHUC3s?si=naU5H5ck9A1Q8Gi2

Patience

 

1.  PRAYER

Lord, grant me the strength to embrace patience in moments of waiting and uncertainty. Calm my heart when frustrations arise, and help me to trust in Your perfect timing rather than my own. Fill me with Your grace so I may respond to others with kindness, understanding, and love. Amen. [1, 2, 3]

2,  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/RLFQG_syi9I?si=cyoT3eeXEHdYLtn3

3.  SONG

https://youtu.be/jKj7J9nzRKg?si=Ot7zduka3komdttg

4. NARRATIVE

Fr. Richard Rohr defines patience not as passive waiting, but as the "shape of love" itself. Rather than struggling to fend off irritability, true patience is enduring life's brokenness, mystery, and dualistic tension with quiet resolve, trusting that both humanity and history grow slowly. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Rohr’s core teachings on patience center around a few key perspectives:

The Shape of Love: In The Universal Christ, Rohr argues that without patience, religion devolves into merely enforcing rules. Patience is how we actually embody love for ourselves, others, and God. [1, 2]
"The Suffering of Reality": Patience derives from the Latin patior, meaning to suffer or endure. It is the practice of holding together an always-mixed reality without falling into perfectionism, judgment, or resentment. [1, 2]
Accepting the Pace of Growth: Humans change slowly and often move "three steps forward, two steps back". Rohr believes we must respect this evolutionary pace and wait patiently rather than expecting people to show up fully transformed overnight. [1]
Embracing Chaos: Patience is essential for spiritual transformation. When we encounter the "dark night" or chaos, patience allows us to let go of control and trust that the trajectory is moving somewhere ultimately better. [1, 2]

You can read more about his thoughts in the Center for Action and Contemplation Daily Meditation or check out his book, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder. [1, 2, 3]

Would you like to explore how Rohr applies patience to specific concepts like forgiveness, the "dark night of the soul," or transformation?

Waiting with Patience
Friday, July 21, 2017

If you are to live on this earth, you cannot bypass the necessary tension of holding contraries and inconsistencies together. Daily ordinary experiences will teach you nonduality in a way that is no longer theoretical or abstract. It becomes obvious in everything and everybody, every idea and every event, almost hidden in plain sight. Everything created is mortal and limited and, if you look long enough, paradoxical. By paradox, I mean something that initially looks contradictory or impossible, but in a different frame or at a different level is in fact deeply true.

I am talking about just holding the tension, not necessarily finding a resolution or closure to paradox. We must agree to live without resolution, at least for a while. This is very difficult for most people, largely because we have not been taught how to do this mentally or emotionally. We didn’t know we could—or even should. As Paul seems to say (and I paraphrase), hope would not be the virtue that it is if it led us to quick closure and we did not have to “wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25).

I think this “opening and holding pattern” is the very name and description of faith. Unfortunately, faith largely became believing things to be true or false (intellectual assent) instead of giving people concrete practices so they could themselves know how to open up (faith), hold on (hope), and allow an infilling from another source (love). We share a contemplative practice each Saturday in the Daily Meditations so that these virtues can be “practiced.” But God gives us real practices every day of our lives, such as irritable people, long stop lights, and our own inconsistencies.

We must move from a belief-based spirituality to a practice-based spirituality, or little will change in religion, politics, and the world. We will merely continue to argue about what we are supposed to believe and who the unbelievers are.

Consider the wisdom taught in the ancient aphorisms and stories of Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sufism, Zen, Buddhism, the Jewish prophets, Jesus, Paul, and the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Much of their teaching feels abstruse, naïve, or irrelevant to us today. With only rational, dualistic thought available to most of us, we are unable to decipher koans, proverbs, and parables. For example, the man coming at the last hour receives the same reward as the one who worked all day. This makes no sense at all to a dualistic mind or to anyone who rushes toward a quick judgment. So we reject the story and merely forget that Jesus said it.

We need contemplative practices to loosen our egoic attachment to certainty and retrain our minds to understand the wisdom of paradox.

Gateway to Silence:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. —Proverbs 3:5

Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2009), 107-108.

5.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/Mr2LnZOkxRs?si=qged8_RVPs85eWMu

6. SHARING

7.  INTENTIONS AND PRAYER

A Prayer for Patience

Patient Father, there are many things I do that would justify an impatient response. Thank you for choosing to show me grace. Help me notice when I have the opportunity to do the same to others. Remind me of your love for the person I’m interacting with and how my words reflect you. Give me the wisdom to have conversations with others about my frustrations, and help me grow in my ability to be patient, knowing I would want the same in return. Amen.

8.  SONG

https://youtu.be/UaC-n6Mxckk?si=5efthW1COGItXTJ9

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