The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Everything Belongs by Hopeful Universalist Richard Rohr

I’ve been reading a revised and updated version of the Franciscan Friar and priest Richard Rohr’s book “Everything Belongs”. Very good book that talks of non-duality and surrendered trust with gratitude. In the chapter “Ego and Soul” he gives some fantastic information about poverty or being poor in spirit and living in the present moment.

This is the example Jesus gave us to follow when He emptied Himself and became nothing:

This has been my experience as well. The chapter also talks of the priority of contemplation. I’m going through it at the moment and will keep you updated. It’s great so far.

I like Richard Rohr a lot. And I receive his daily email reflections from cac.org/ I’ll have to check out that book sometime. :smiley:

It’s fantastic Zombie. Easy to understand and grasp.

Big https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRxRyF_ctVJyUtEH9FTHSdIW5Fk_SD8_mGuq1KjKKKMp0tUhR0_IQ on Richard Rohr :smiley: Check out some of his talks/sermons…

Here’s an article on the true self/false self by Rohr. He quotes Marianne Williamson from “A Course In Miracles” in her book "Return to love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles” . He’s a partner and fan of Williamson. The kind of power they are referring to is the power of love. Not worldly power. It’s like the scripture when I am week then I’m strong. I’ve read the book by Williamson “Return to Love” that Rohr references in the article and can say it has some good insights.

cac.org/you-are-the-imago-dei-2016-07-31/

Michael talks in this thread, about Roman Catholic priest - Fr. Richard Rohr - as a universalist. I chiefly like him, for his contemplation and mystical theological email reflections at cac.org/. But I did dig up, an old Pathoes article on him:

Three Reasons I Am a Christian Universalist

But the article does express his ideas, which are food for thought:

But just a brief clarification. Rohr is a hopeful universalist:

Thanks Zombie. I thought he was a universalist.

“Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps” is a real good one by Rohr. It’s on the “Twelve Steps” of A.A. Richard believes that Bill Wilson was inspired by God and he takes the reader through each of the steps showing how the Jesus of the Bible taught the exact same principles. Rohr is correct in this. The principles of the steps that were designed to deflate the ego or false self had their origin in an underground Christian group called "The Oxford Group. Bill did leave it open though to all so that they could choose their own higher power. Nonetheless this is another excellent book by Rohr. Here’s the review from Amazon:

Richard Rohr – Surrendering in Stillness

stjohnsquamish.ca/richard-rohr-surrendering-in-stillness/

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation

Luminous Darkness

Surrendering in Stillness

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Mirabai Starr, who will be joining us for CONSPIRE 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, writes of the dark night as one who has gone through it herself, like John of the Cross:

“The dark night descends on a soul only when everything else has failed. When you are no longer the best meditator in the class because your meditation produces absolutely nothing. When prayer evaporates on your tongue and you have nothing left to say to God. When you are not even tempted to return to a life of worldly pleasures because the world has proven empty and yet taking another step through the void of the spiritual life feels futile because you are no good at it and it seems that God has given up on you, anyway.

“This, says John, is the beginning of blessedness! This is the choiceless choice when the soul can do nothing but surrender. Because even if you cannot sense a shred of the Beloved’s love for you, even if you can scarcely conjure up your old passion for him, it has become perfectly clear that you are incapable of doing anything on your own to remedy your spiritual brokenness. All efforts to purge your unspiritual inclinations have only honed the laser of attention on the false self. Unwilling to keep struggling, the soul finds itself surrendering to its deepest inner wound and breathing in the stillness there.

“The only action left to the soul, ultimately, is to put down its self-importance and cultivate a simple loving attention toward the Beloved. That’s when the Beloved takes over and all our holy intentions vaporize. That’s when the soul, says John, is infused passively with his love. Though his radiance is imperceptible to the faculty of the senses and invisible to the faculty of the intellect, the soul that has allowed itself to be empty can at last be filled and overflow with him.”

From Mirbai Starr’s introduction to her translation of Dark Night of the Soul
by John of the Cross

Gateway to Silence:
“Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover.” – John of the Cross

[tag]Holy-Fool-P-Zombie[/tag] I just found out I’m a “holy fool” according to Richard Rohr in “Everything Belongs”

No fooling? Now there’s 2???

Excellent. We should dedicate a song to this. :laughing:

You two fools… :laughing:

And here’s some Holy Fool humor today, from Sunil Bali at sunilbali.com/2017/12/giorgio-armani-on-being-remembered/

Pre-rinse :laughing: