Center for Action and Contemplation

   

Today's passage is not from the lectionary.  It is a very famous passage from Jesus just before he gave us the Lord's Prayer.  I chose this passage because I want to try something different this morning.  When we discussed moving to this worship model, we recognized that member talks and guest preachers might need to be supplemented with talks using other sources.  So this morning I am going to share with you a Daily Meditation from Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation.  I will also share a poem I liked from that same site and some further thoughts from Father Rohr. 

 

Most of us are aware of Father Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation.  Richard Rohr was introduced to us by Cathy who has attended seminars at the Center.   

 

The Center for Action and Contemplation is an educational nonprofit "Introducing seekers to the contemplative Christian path of transformation."   They accomplish their mission through a variety of learning sources.  They generate podcasts on the universal Christ, the mystics and contemplation.  They send out free Daily Meditations.  I get these weekly.  They have online education.  Additionally, they have live events and the 2 year Living School. 

  

The Center was founded by Richard Rohr who is a Franciscan priest.   Father Rohr believes Humans can directly contemplate and know God without the need for Christ's sacrificial death upon the cross.  He writes about the need to be contemplative.  "Contemplative prayer is the way we work out the experiences that words elude, how we learn from them and bravely allow ourselves to be transformed by them."  What is contemplation?  Contemplation is listening with the heart while not relying entirely on the head.   

 

Here are two Daily Meditations. 

So why am I talking to you about this today?  And why Matthew 6: 5-8?  Well, I have been trying to strengthen my prayer practice.  Too often it seems I limit my prayer and contemplation to Sunday mornings.  Too often I find myself repeating learned prayers by rote.  Maybe meditation and quieting the mind will help me hear GOD.  I hope you like these Daily Meditations too.   

 

Thanks for listening 

 

          

 

       

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