What do Thomas, Rohr and O'Donohue have in common?

In my last post I mentioned that I am doing an on-line retreat with Cynthia Bourgeault on the Gospel of Thomas. Only recently have I even heard of the Gospel of Thomas! And I probably wouldn't have bothered to explore it without the guidance of Bourgeault whom I know to be trusted guide! Essentially The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings of Jesus. Many of them are essentially the same as sayings in the four canonical gospels. A good number are new. Some critics say it isn't really a "gospel" because it contains no narrative of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It's true, it doesn't. But if gospel basically means "good news" I think finding sayings of Jesus old and new is good news! Like all of the synoptic gospels there are translation and interpretation challenges. That's where a good translation and a seasoned guide are invaluable.

Personally I am finding a daily meditation on one saying fruitful and enriching. There's a freshness that can be lost when I am so familiar with the canonical gospels. There's a focus that sharpens as the saying stands alone without surrounding narrative.

Of course discernment and prayerful reflection are just as important as with any of the more familiar scriptures. Today I had a sense of synchronicity as I "just happened" to read today's saying from Thomas, a daily email from Richard Rohr and the piece I was up to in John O'Donahue's book Divine Beauty. Here they are - see what you think!

Gospel of Thomas:

Jesus says,

I am the light 
shining upon all things, 


I am the sum of everything, 

for everything has come forth from me 


and towards me everything unfolds. 


Split a piece of wood 
and there I am, 


pick up a stone 

and you will find me there. 


Part of Richard Rohr's daily email:“The divine, it seems, wants to manifest itself in visible form. (Colossians 1:15-20)

…The Eternal Christ’s role is to forever hold together matter and spirit, divine and human, and to say they always have been one, but you just don’t know it yet. So God is going to hold them together in front of your face until you do.”

And this from John O’Donohue in Divine Beauty

“But the thought of Aquinas is remarkable in its continuous insistence on the real, sensible presence of things. Each stone, tree, place and person was in its depths the expression of a divine idea. … According to him each thing, secretly and profoundly desires to be known.”

"Quiet! I'm on-line..."

I'm halfway through a fascinating book by Susan Cain: Quiet. The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking. I was number 47 on 147 requests for it at the local library! That says something about the number of people who relate to the title.

I have known for a long time that I am high on the introvert side of the Myers Briggs scale. I have trained in MBTI and read a lot about personality type. I find it helpful personally and in my work with people. However, Susan Cain's book goes much deeper than anything I've read before in researching the roots and fruits of introversion.  I highly recommend it!

Synchronistically I am currently experiencing one of the things she talks about. I am immersed in an online retreat with Cynthia Bourgeault on The Gospel of Thomas. (I may say more about that in a subsequent post).
What I'm finding - somewhat to my surprise - is that I am very much enjoying the online forum where participants share their reflections on the sayings of Jesus we meditate on each day. I thought I wouldn't participate in that side of the retreat much. In true introvert style I expected to prefer to "do my own thing" quietly and anonymously at my own desk and at my own pace! But, as Susan Cain alludes to, online communication is perfect for introverts. I'm discovering that I can take my own quiet reflection time before I post my thoughts - much better than being in a group where we are going round the circle "sharing" on the spot. It is also possible to remain as anonymous as one wishes. Some participants post their photos in their profile - others (like me) choose a logo or picture, not their own face! In reading the responses of others I'm aware that we are "hearing" many more people and at much greater depth than is usually possible in group - especially one this big. (I don't know how many people are participating but it is a lot more than you would normally get at a face to face workshop. And of course it is an international group.)

So many thanks to those who run the website Spirituality and Practice. A variety of retreats are available here and at a very low cost. That's another advantage of online retreats!

Wabi Sabi - The Magnificence of Imperfection

Here's a 14 minute TED talk that is truly inspiring.

If you don't know about TED talks at all I recommend exploring the site. Click here.

"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize." From About TED

A flag for the future

My recent blog posts seem to be mainly about passing on inspiring things I've read or heard about. As I reflect on that I've come to the conclusion that that's just fine! Spreading the word about things that are "truly worthwhile and worthy of praise" (see Philippians 4:8 CEV) is something I can do - even if I'm not up to polar expeditions! This is from GreenPeace (pictures added by me). I take my hat off to the courageous young people. Do watch the 2 minute You Tube clip and you'll see what I mean! :

Right now, a small group of young people from around the world are preparing to head north in a historic expedition to the North Pole. They will ski for up to 8 hours a day in temperatures that could drop below -31°F in order to plant a ‘flag for the future’ and tell world leaders and future generations that when the time came to save the Arctic, we were here.

Watch this beautiful trailer for the North Pole expedition to meet the team and find out more! 

An oil spill in freezing Arctic waters would be even worse than the Deepwater Horizon disaster because it is one of the most extreme, fragile, and isolated regions on the planet. Oil companies have publicly admitted they cannot prevent a spill, meaning they’re putting the amazing Arctic landscape and its wonderful creatures like polar bears and Arctic foxes at risk.

Don't lose hope. With hope you can always go on.

The following piece is from the monthly newsletter of Spiritual Directors' International. I think it applies to all of us, not only spiritual directors:

"Teenage feet. Female feet. Muslim feet. Atheist feet. Dark feet. Light feet. The tattooed feet of a prisoner. These are the feet the newly elected Pope Francis chose to wash on Maundy Thursday.

It takes courage and humility to ignore liturgical laws and break with tradition to wash and kiss the feet of twelve juvenile offenders in a detention center instead of washing the feet of twelve priests in the basilica. It’s the kind of courage grounded in love that Jesus modeled throughout his ministry. By turning upside down our staid assumptions about how the world works, we are freed to imagine new ways of being in relationship.

Washing someone’s feet is a tender act. Kissing a stranger’s feet is an intimate act. Seeing photos of Pope Francis compassionately tending to the young prisoners’ feet brought tears for me. Rather than preaching in a basilica about scripture, the poor, and the marginalized, Francis demonstrated with his actions the love and hope that Jesus exhibited.

Francis explained to the young people at the detention center on Maundy Thursday, "This is a symbol, it is a sign; washing your feet means I am at your service. Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service."

Can you imagine being in the shoes of one of those teenagers? Here comes a seventy-something, gray-haired guy—a religious leader which doesn’t mean much to you as an atheist—who offers to wash your feet. You’ve agreed to participate because it might help your probation. The old man kneels on the stone floor in a vulnerable position beneath you. You are comfortably seated on a bench overlooking him.

As you take off your sneakers, it dawns on you that your feet don’t smell very good. No matter. You are perhaps a tough, street-smart, hard-hearted dude. Yet when the old man touches your feet ever so gently and pours warm water over your calloused heals, you notice that it feels good to be cared for. After drying your toes tenderly with a soft clean towel, he bends to kiss your feet. Then searchingly, he looks you in the eye, saying, "Don't lose hope. Understand? With hope you can always go on." He hands you an Easter egg as a gift.

What a beautiful inspiration for April, for Passover, and for Easter season. Every day, opportunities arise for us to be courageously hopeful. As spiritual directors, we are called to be of service in our world, to stand with and for our loving and compassionate God. May we cultivate compassion by companioning seekers with the courage to say, “Don’t lose hope. With hope you can always go on.”"

Resurrection - Cosmic Hope

"Christ crucified is all of the hidden, private, tragic pain of history made public and given over to God.
Christ resurrected is all of that private, un-grieved, un-noted suffering received, loved and transformed by an All-Caring God. How else could we have any kind of cosmic hope? How else would we not die of sadness for what humanity has done to itself and to one another?

Jesus is the blueprint, the plan, the pattern revealed in one body and moment in history to reveal the meaning of all history and each of our lives.

The cross is the banner of what we do to one another and to God.

The resurrection is the banner of what God does to us in return."  

Richard Rohr

Give joy to one person...

Reading this morning's newsletter from the Charter for Compassion (begun after Karen Armstrong's TED talk on Compassion) I saw this quote from their Facebook page which is worth passing on - and acting on!

Last month's most popular quote on the Charter Facebook page?

“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But I try to work one day at a time. If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. That’s enough. When you see you can do that, you continue, and you give two little joys, and you remove two little sufferings, then three, and then four. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now.”
~Sister Chân Không (born 1938), Vietnamese pioneer of socially engaged Buddhism

Did you know?

Thanks to Paul and the Prodigal Kiwi blog here's a 4 minute You Tube link that is really "mind blowing". I don't have an answer for the question at the end: "What does it all mean?"

More from Rollins...

As a Postscript to yesterday's post I include here a link given in the back of the book Insurrection to a video interview between Rob Bell and Peter Rollins. It is an hour long - and well worth making the time to watch! Rollins is an excellent - and hilarious - speaker. For me this interview clarified some of the points I was wondering about after reading the book. So even if I don't get to have a Rohr and Rollins  interview,  Bell and Rollins is an excellent combination - even if Rob Bell doesn't get many words in!

Insurrection and The Immortal Diamond!

I've just read two books which, while very different, are essentially making the same point - at least some of the time! That converging point is that living in light of the Resurrection is not about debating an historical event but participating as co-creators of resurrection in every area of life now.

Pete Rollins does this in a deliberately "incendiary" way. Listen to his own short introduction to his book Insurrection: to believe is human; to doubt, divine.

I found this book very challenging - and thought provoking. I'm still mulling over whether I'd go as far as he did on some points but I plan to read more of his writing.


Richard Rohr's book Immortal Diamond: the search for our true self  is written for a different purpose but returns many times to the theme that resurrection life (life lived from the "true self") is a life of participation. "Some of the most exciting and fruitful theology today is being described as the turn towards participation. ...It constantly recognizes that we are part of something more than we are observing something. The turn towards participation now sees that most of religious and church history has been largely preoccupied with religious ideas, about which you could be wrong or right. When it is all about ideas, you did not have to be part of 'it'; you just needed to talk correctly about 'it'. You never had to dive in and illustrate that spiritual proof is only in the pudding. You never had to go to Russia; you just needed a correct map of Russia and the willingness to say, "My map is better than your map," or more commonly, "Mine is the only true map," without offering any corroborating evidence that your map has in fact gotten you there." p108f (italics in original)

Rohr takes the reader more gently on a journey from familiar territory to challenging places that in many ways are similar to where Rollins arrives. With Rohr's book it may feel more like being coaxed out of an old confining chrysalis than Rollins' radical burning of the bridges you've just walked over! I'd love to hear an interview between Rohr and Rollins. I think they would agree on a great deal - but I'm not sure it would be everything.

Both books are well worth reading - but there's a "right time" for everything!