Father Tom
In meditation, by sitting long enough, the dust begins to settle and you begin to see more clearly that the deepest self is God-consciousness manifested in our uniqueness as human beings. We are completely united with everyone else in the human species because God is in everyone else. To me, this is one of the great gifts of evolutionary cosmology and of science today and why religion has to listen to science. It’s giving up-to-date revelations of who God is and developing a cosmology that can support deep union with God.
What is being revealed is that everything is interconnected and interrelated in the material universe and functions in collaboration and communion with other creatures. As you go up the levels of consciousness, the presence and action of God are in everything that happens: not just God’s presence, but God’s presence and action. That action is healing the conscious and unconscious wounds of growing up and childhood traumas, and at the same time activating all the capacities of grace – which are, in the Christian scheme of things, the fruits and gifts of the Spirit. In this perspective, death is not the end. It is the completion of the human journey that prepares us to move beyond human support systems and all forms of possessiveness, just to be who we are and to be content and happy with that immense gift.
- Thomas Keating
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One book resonates with the above voice!
ReplyDelete"Belonging to the Universe".
It is a conversation between Fritjof Capra , David Steindl-Rast and Thomas Matus.
David is called 'a contemporary Thomas Merton'!
Jacob Needleman,author of The Heart of Philosophy, about the book says, 'A refreshing glimpse of serious people opening to each other, suggesting that perhaps the most important message of 'new paradigm' thinking is that truth is rooted in our capacity to listen - both to our neighbour and to that which calls to us from within.'
A calm reading of it generates confidence and hope for the future, that a 'turn around' is possible for the good of all.
I like that new paradigm. As I get older I am beginning to see that this "turn around" involves something much more than having the "right answer". Truth itself is rooted in a very broad understanding and experience. LISTENING gets to the heart of the matter better than just about anything else.
DeleteIt is with great pain we read about The Pennsylvania Report. It compels a reformation is becoming clear, this being one segment.
ReplyDelete"The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis' by Lynn White, Jr. published in the book "The Shadow within" is another call for deep review, which was published in the year 1973. The author ends his essay saying, "I propose francis as a patron saint for ecologists." A paradigm shift suggested by such articles, when neglected,ignored comes up to the surface in other form and that seems to be the Pennsylvania Report. It is at such time the thoughts of persons like thomas Merton, David Steindl-Rast, Bede Griffiths, Mathew Fox and many such more probably have to sweep the Christian world. Because, their hush-hush voice would not reach the world as easily as the news about Bishop Lawrence Persico's apology reaches. The corrosive damage to the image would have to be addressed with the 'new paradigm thinking' being thought about, as mentioned earlier, with the 'up-to-date revelations of who God is' as the foundation. Thoughtfully.
also more room for women's voices. They are not so easily found.
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