Confirming What I Already Knew to Be True

Malise O’Banion, a former high school English teacher, has been married for forty-nine years and is the mother of five children and grandmother to eighteen grandchildren. She enjoys walking, reading, and writing; is a constant crocheter; and considers herself an aspiring yogi. Malise and her husband make their home in East Texas but will never shed their Louisiana roots.

I wish I could remember how I first “met” Fr. Richard Rohr. It very well could have been through Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, which I have read and shared many times, or maybe a reflection in another publication. I wish I could remember, because that unintentional meeting has had a profound influence on the direction of my life—both spiritual and otherwise.

The authenticity of Fr. Richard’s writing style and his voice—so personal and so clear—drew me toward more of his teachings. When his words and ideas challenged me, I felt secure in the knowledge that Fr. Richard was a priest of the same loving Franciscan order with which I grew up.

I discovered the CAC, the online classes, and the amazing faculty, including James Finley and guest teacher Mirabai Starr. I marveled at these beautiful truth-seeking souls and at God’s grace for allowing me to “bump” into them. But it was Fr. Richard’s book The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation that changed me and helped me to see the love of God in everything, everyone, everywhere.

I have learned that the Trinity is a constant flow of love—a perpetual giving and receiving of love. I can either go with this flow of love, which always includes me, or I can choose to be the boulder that blocks it.

From soaking in the words of Richard Rohr and interacting with the CAC, I have learned that contemplation is a practice that involves showing up and waiting for God, through patience and stillness.

I have learned that the only reality is the now, this moment, the place where God is present. This Presence is constant and real in each of God’s creatures, no matter how hard that may be for us to understand.

I have learned the paradox of being empty—by making space in my own heart so that God can fill that space with light, love, and “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

I have learned that after order comes disorder, which leads to reorder and a deeper relationship with God. This pattern is cyclical and certain.

So, my initial “meeting” with Richard Rohr now reminds me of the jolt of recognition I received each time I looked into the eyes of my newest newborn and saw someone I already knew. Fr. Richard’s teachings, for me, are not so much about learning something new as confirming what I already knew to be true.

This reflection appears in the Spring 2023 issue of the Mendicant, our quarterly donor newsletter.