In Yoke

To what do you pay attention? Can you see your inner and outer attention as an investment in your own Reality?  Are others drawn to you because you do focus your attention their way?  Do you “pay” attention to people? To their biographical identity?  The chit chat, surface level conversations—is usually based on another person’s biographical identity. “ Where are you from? where did you grow up? where did you go to school? for which team do you pull for? what do you do for a living? Who’s your daddy?” ( ad infinitum) As life proceeds, and the scroll of the present continues to be advanced into our view,  we hardly ever get the option as friends/observers who are learning from one another—of moving past the issues and identifications of our biographical identity to focus on the higher and nobler causes of identification and attention.  This is what Helminski calls our Functional Role in life.  I am convicted today that -First, The Cre...

From "Living Presence":  Identification with other humans, issues, causes or beliefs, is an intentional, focused, concerted way of giving/or paying attention to another.  In our inner world we can begin to notice our own identification—the involuntary and unconscious absorption of our attention in inner processes.  At one moment, we consciously tell ourselves to be patient, kind, generous, and then in another moment, we forget that intention and become immersed in a desire or a frustration that has so captured us that we have lost our observing attention and are racing out of control in just that state we were seemingly determined to avoid. We lose ourselves, through identification. Perhaps we have a choice. When do I choose to identify? What are the results? I was once a singer in an ensemble we named, “Choose Joy”. It was taken from a Larnelle Harris song of that name. One could insert “Choose Love”. These are quite appropriate mantras. If you haven’t c...

Helminski has once again captured my interest. For the fourth time, I am re-reading the book he wrote, “Living Presence”. He focuses on the concept of voluntary attention.  Helminski poses,”Life requires so much of us that none of us can afford to be without our full attention”.  The saying, “pay attention” subtly explains that attention itself is of great value. “Pay” is to give something of value to another who is selling something. To 'pay attention' is to agree to being fully present in that moment. It gives credence to the military command, “Attention!” It is time to receive orders, or to pay respect.( Respect: another thing for which we must pay. But that is for another post.) Have you ever noticed that you can be in the midst of telling a story to another and in the midst of that story, the listener loses attention and obviously is not listening to the story anymore?(Perhaps this illustrates that my own stories are not very interesting!) What strikes me...

From Living Presence, Helminski, p.117 :  The more our sense of identity and well-being is determined by extrinsic factors, by things we possess or by what people think of us, the more we are unaware of our own intrinsic worth and the more we are enslaved to the fear of loss. [We may begin observing this fear, from the impartial observer cultivated by “presence”.] We may begin by noticing the small fears that control us. We have fears- of being criticized and rejected, of being alone and separate- --------unconscious and nagging fears that drain us, because we are not conscious of them.  They have power because we deny their existence.  Once they are recognized and examined, they lost much of their power over us. One way to overcome those fears that have a paralyzing effect on us is to be decisive and challenging.  Too often we cover our eyes and ears, when what we need to do is squarely face our fears. We might, for instance, tell the subc...

" For the word of God  is alive  and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart". .."it does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do"...from Hebrews and Isaiah... Awake, o sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.. (Ephesians 4:12) From Father Richard Rohr. Thank you Fr. Richard for articulating  this overview for us. It is Hope! Wednesday, February 24, 2016 The Israelites gradually learned the transformative power of God's action in their lives, as we see often in Isaiah and so many of the prophets. What formed a prophet was their ability to really trust that Yahweh was actively and pra...

Father Rohr--he makes a very good point.  Jesus is: Fully Human, Fully Divine Francis emphasized an imitation and love of the humanity of Jesus, and not just the proving or worshiping of his divinity. Even Christian art changed after Francis; take a look at paintings before and after Francis' life (1182-1226) or Medieval Art from the 5th century through the 15th century. Francis fell in love with the humanity and humility of Jesus, which made Jesus imitable. But in most of Christian history we have emphasized the divinity, omnipotence, omniscience, and "almightiness" of Jesus, which makes actually following him--or loving him--seem unrealistic. We are on two utterly different planes. A God who is "totally other" alienates totally.   I hope this doesn't upset some of my Christian friends, but an awful lot of Christians are not really Christian. That's not a moral judgment; it...

"To be afraid of change is to be afraid of growing up. Change and growth are finally the same thing. Unfortunately, the church has trained many people in not growing up..."---Fr. Richard Rohr I am a Baylor alumnus. The university itself is not a church, however, as an institution, it acts like a church sometimes. The advent of "diversity" as a concept on campus has caused a bit of "a typical BU tempest in a teapot" about what this change in hiring and operating philosophy could mean for a bedrock evangelical institution that supposedly takes it values from its constituents(churches). The recently hired Provost resigned out of protest when a campus group--professors-- stood in the way of change like hiring and operating within a culture of diversity could bring about... ....so, why are we as Christ followers so afraid of change? Father Richard Rohr explains it so well: The "alternative orthodoxy" of Francis of Assisi is of crucial importance...