Are We Ready for Christmas Day? (to receive grace...) Silence and Grace: I borrow this reflection from a man who says that his best teachings have come in and through moments of interior silence—and in the “non-thinking” of actively giving a sermon or presentation or a moment of counsel. Richard Rohr believes that Aldous Huxley described it perfectly (in Who Are We?, 1955): I think we have to prepare the mind in one way or another to accept the great uprush or downrush, whichever you like to call it, of the greater non-self.” --a quite accurate way to describe the very common experience of inspiration and guidance. He says that all GRACE comes precisely from nowhere—from silence and emptiness—which is what makes it grace. It is both you and yet so much greater than you at the same time, which is probably why believers chose both uprushing fountains (John 7:38) and downrushing doves (Matthew 3:16) as metaphors for this universal and grounding experience of spiritual encounter. Whatever it may be to you, GRACE is always from a silence that is larger than you, surrounds you, and finally names the deeper truth of the full moment that is you (a contemplative way of knowing, as Rohr calls it). (The word “prayer” has been so consistently trivialized to refer to something you do, instead of something that is done to you, with you, in you, and as you.) Then, like Mary, you are ready to give birth. You are ready for Christmas. -adapted (see Richard Rohrs Daily Meditation series)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:22:24 +0000
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