Creation: Week 2
Summary: Sunday, February 18-Friday, February 23, 2018
The Divine Presence is happening in, through, and amidst every detail of life . . . [It] penetrates all that exists. Everything in virtue of coming into existence is in relationship to this Source. —Thomas Keating (Sunday)
In the model of the universe as God’s body, not only does postmodern science help us understand the unity and diversity of the body in liberating ways, but divine embodiment makes sacred all embodiment: neither perspective alone is as rich as both together. —Sallie McFague (Monday)
The divinity is so intimately present in the world that the world can be regarded as an incarnate expression of the Trinity, as creative, as expansive, as conscious, as self-realizing and self-sharing. —Beatrice Bruteau (Tuesday)
During the last several decades, a new story has indeed emerged, a new cosmology that brings matters of science and matters of faith into a space where they no longer need collide, but can complement each other and render a fuller picture of what is true. —Judy Cannato (Wednesday)
The created realm is not an artifact but an instrument through which the divine life becomes perceptible to itself. —Cynthia Bourgeault (Thursday)
God’s ecstasy creates the world, and the world’s ecstasy realizes God. —Beatrice Bruteau (Friday)
Practice: Reflecting On Our Stories
Today I share this invitation to reflection from Judy Cannato to deepen your understanding and experience of this week’s meditations:
Settle into a quiet inner space, take a few deep relaxing breaths, and then, when you are ready, enter into the following exercises:
- I consider insights within me that have arisen throughout this [week]. Where is there resonance? Where is there resistance? Where is there realignment?
- What are the stories that shape and fashion my life—the bones on which I hang the flesh of my life? What are the archetypal or universal stories that guide my vision and choices? What are the uniquely personal stories that also weave themselves into my life and influence who I am? I invite what is unconscious to become conscious, and do not resist, so that I may know myself more fully and more truthfully.
- What are the images that guide my journey, draw my attention, and fashion my awareness? Do I see images that are not helpful because they interfere with my desire to become whole? What image do I choose to hold in my awareness so that I may move toward it and manifest it tangibly in my daily life? I remember that my mind takes whatever I focus on as an invitation to make it happen.
A Prayer:
Holy One, you have given us the gift of story in our lives, ways of understanding who we are, ways of making sense of our world, of finding meaning and knowing how to respond to all that happens in our lives. Please show us where our stories fall short or are too narrow, where they exclude rather than include, where they divide rather than unite. Help us to see where a story we live out of may go amiss of what is real, where it allows us to escape becoming whole, where it lets us live comfortably in fear. Fill us with your story, the story of unity and compassion and love. Fill us with images that energize us and give us hope and lead us to the fundamental truth that you have tried to teach us all along: we are all one. Amen.
Reference:
Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life (Sorin Books: 2010), 22-23.
For Further Study:
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart (Jossey-Bass: 2003)
Beatrice Bruteau, God’s Ecstasy: The Creation of a Self-Creating World, (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2016, © 1997)
Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life (Sorin Books: 2010)
Sallie McFague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (Fortress Press: 1993)
Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Journey of the Universe (Yale University Press: 2011)
