The Vulnerability of God
A moving article by Ron Rolheiser on what the vulnerability of God really means.
April 10, 2009
A moving article by Ron Rolheiser on what the vulnerability of God really means.
Be still. Listen to the stones of the wall. Be silent, they try to speak your name. Listen to the living walls. Who are you? Who are you? Whose silence are you? Who (be quiet) are you (as these stones are quiet). Do not think of what you are still less of what you may one day be. Rather be what you are (but who?) be the unthinkable one you do not know. O be still, while you are still alive, and all things live around you speaking (I do not hear) to your own being, speaking by the unknown
The high priests brought many charges against him. Pilate again questioned him, saying, “Have you no answers? Look how much you are accused of.” But Jesus still said nothing. Pilate was amazed. -Mark 15:3-5 Always the beautiful answer. Who asks a more beautiful question? -ee cummings I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given
Last week I had the joy of going to hear Michael Meade speak. He is a mythologist who weaves folktales, myths, drumming, and singing into his wise talks about navigating complex times. As always, as I listened to his words much stirred in me, some of which I am sure will appear in this space. One story he shared was extraordinarily simple but has been living inside of me in surprising ways: A woman once had a goldfish bowl and she enjoyed watching the fish swim around in its small space. One day the goldfish bowl needed to be cleaned
The last couple of days my body has asked for rest and so I have listened rather than pushed forward. And in the quiet spaces I have been listening. Lent is doing its work on me. Shadows are being illumined, layers of myself are being peeled back to reveal the depths of who I am, my grip is being loosened on unhealthy patterns. Amazing work, often unnerving work, is moving within me. I have had many moments of profound grace this season as well, and as a result I am being invited into some external and internal places I was quite certain
When we stand in the light, we cast a shadow. Light and shade are to each other as breathing in is to breathing out. Some aspects of ourselves are in the light, visible to us and others. Other aspects, positive and negative, are in the shadow, unseen by us, even when seen by others. These are parts of ourselves that have been neglected, disowned, forgotten, judged, unrecognized or undeveloped. Some of the ways we can glimpse what is in the psychological shade include noting what we idealize or denigrate in others; recognizing our uneasiness about others’ perceptions about us (good
Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. -from Amiel’s Journal, translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward The Novena of Grace is coming to an end today. This was my first year coordinating this event and so I was unsure of what to expect. I am
