CAC faculty emerita Cynthia Bourgeault describes hope as a quality of God’s mercy, fully available to us:
Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness. It does not come at the end, as the feeling that results from a happy outcome. Rather, it lies at the beginning, as a pulse of truth that sends us forth. When our innermost being is attuned to this pulse it will send us forth in hope, regardless of the physical circumstances of our lives. Hope fills us with the strength to stay present, to abide in the flow of the Mercy no matter what outer storms assail us. It is entered always and only through surrender; that is, through the willingness to let go of everything we are presently clinging to. And yet when we enter it, it enters us and fills us with its own life—a quiet strength beyond anything we have ever known.
And since that strength is, in fact, a piece of God’s purposiveness coursing like sap through our own being, it will lead us in the right way. It sweeps us along in the greater flow of divine life as God moves … toward the fulfillment of divine purpose which is the deeper, more intense, more subtle, more intimate revelation of the heart of God. [1]
Through contemplative practice and surrender, Bourgeault believes we can experience God’s mystical hope and become a healing presence in the world:
In the contemplative journey, as we swim down into those deeper waters toward the wellsprings of hope, we begin to experience and trust what it means to lay down self, to let go of ordinary awareness and surrender ourselves to the mercy of God. And as hope, the hidden spring of mercy deep within us, is released in that touch and flows out from the center, filling us with the fullness of God’s own purpose living itself into action, then we discover within ourselves the mysterious plentitude to live into action what our ordinary hearts and minds could not possibly sustain. In plumbing deeply the hidden rootedness of the whole, where all things are held together in the Mercy, we are released from the grip of personal fear and set free to minister with skillful means and true compassion to a world desperately in need of reconnection.
Hope is not imaginary or illusory. It is that sonar by which the body of Christ holds together and finds its way. If we, as living members of the body of Christ, can surrender our hearts … and listen for that sonar with all we are worth, it will again guide us, both individually and corporately, to the future for which we are intended. And the body of Christ will live, and thrive, and hold us tenderly in belonging. [2]
References:
[1] Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope: Trusting in the Mercy of God (Cowley Publications, 2001), 86–87.
[2] Bourgeault, Mystical Hope, 98–99.
Image credit and inspiration: Dyu Ha, untitled (detail), 2019, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. We reach out with a deep desire to connect to hope and a sense of timing beyond our own.
Story from Our Community:
The Center for Action and Contemplation inspired my path to the contemplative life a few years ago. However, a recent Daily Meditation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher resulted in a breakthrough unlike anything I have experienced before. I began to sing the prayer “Be still and know that I am God” to a tune that flowed from my heart. I was transported beyond my thoughts and into a state of utter peace for the first time. Thank you, CAC, and thank you, Carmen.
—Debbie J.
