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Center for Action and Contemplation
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Old and New: An Evolving Faith

As you witness so much division, fear, and suffering in our world, you may wonder what path—if any—there is toward healing and hope. Perhaps your church or faith has been important to you, but now you may be questioning if it is still a trustworthy or relevant guide. Does Christianity have anything of value left to offer?

Franciscan Richard Rohr suggests that there are good, beautiful, and true gems worth holding on to. At the same time, there are many unhelpful and even harmful parts of what has passed for Christianity that we need to move beyond.

In his Daily Meditations, Father Richard helps us mine the depths of this tradition, discerning what to keep and what to transcend.

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Watch a short introduction and continue learning about this year’s theme (or read the unedited transcript):

Thankfully, the church—just like our own faith—is living and evolving. While Christianity has stood the test of time, it’s not static. Drawing from his own study and experience, as well as other trusted teachers, poetry, politics, psychology, science, and faiths, Richard offers fresh insights to ancient wisdom. He’s like the householder Jesus described who “brings out of their storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Matthew 13:52).

One of Richard’s foundational convictions is that God—who is Love—is with and in us and all of creation. But we’ve been conditioned or taught to see ourselves as separate from God and each other. Contemplation opens our hearts to experience this union and become an embodied presence of healing and creativity in our world. As Quaker author and elder Parker Palmer suggests, ask these important questions: “What do we want to let go of? What do we desire to give ourselves to?”

Whether or not you identify as a Christian, Richard invites you to see the Christ—the unifying principle of wholeness at the core of the universe—in everything and everyone. What does it mean to be the Body of Christ, the cosmic and coming Christ, now and for the future?

Richard dives deep into this theme with 1-2-week segments over a full year (see an outline below). Every Saturday includes a summary of the previous week’s meditations and an invitation to contemplative practice. “Gateway to Presence” (at the bottom of each meditation) is an invitation to deepen your experience of reading that day’s reflection.

Please join our growing community of people finding support from these meditations in their daily lives. We offer them with our hearts full of hope that they will meet you where you are and provide a contemplative experience. Learn about contemplative prayer and other forms of meditation. 

Find previous years’ meditations in the web archive. See 2019 topics linked below.

2019 Outline:

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