Unveiling the Daily Meditations
In September 2021, we “pulled back the veil” to show readers that Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations (or “DMs,” as we call them) are a team effort. As always, Fr. Richard provides the inspiration—through his fifty-one years of teaching ministry and the countless books, CDs, and MP3s that are its astonishing fruits. Still today, he reviews and edits every single meditation. But there have always been faithful CAC staff and/or volunteers who collect and edit quotes, organize themes, place paragraphs and photos in email platforms, and ensure that the emails make it to our equally faithful audience each day at midnight Mountain Time. Even more, in addition to Fr. Richard, we now feature multiple CAC teachers: Barbara Holmes, James Finley, Brian McLaren, and Living School “emeritus teacher” Cynthia Bourgeault. The DM team regularly works with sources from these faculty and a plenitude of diverse authors to present each week of meditations.
One thing we talk about at the CAC is making the transition from being an organization about Fr. Richard to being an organization about the things that Fr. Richard is about. After all, Fr. Richard himself is not about Fr. Richard—he’s about the gospel and transformation! To wax theological for a moment, it brings to mind another Richard, the twelfth-century mystic and prior of the famous Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris. That Richard, known as Richard of St. Victor (who died in 1173), used the concept of the Trinity to teach that God’s loving delight is most vibrant when it is shared and other-directed. That’s a lofty way of saying that the Daily Meditations are not ultimately about Richard Rohr, but about sharing with the world the love of God as it is expressed through the Christian contemplative traditions.
In September, we also launched a subtle shift in the DMs: a new editorial voice. On one hand, the change was small—the treasured content of Fr. Richard’s teaching, alongside the rotation of other voices, remained the same. On the other hand, the change contained an important nuance of presentation: Fr. Richard himself is no longer the introductory “voice” of the DMs. That function now is in the hands of the team—which includes Fr. Richard, along with those of us who help create the DMs. The DM editorial team has always been there in the background. We simply took the “unveiling” step letting you see our work in action.
We plan to continue nourishing a global spiritual community through this digital DM space for many years to come, with and beyond Fr. Richard. We want the Daily Meditations to be about what Fr. Richard is about—and for each of us to encounter the loving Divine Presence at the heart of Reality. In this way, the remarkable impact that Fr. Richard has had on so many of us also becomes the story of God’s unfolding grace in our lives—and it doesn’t stop there. The quest of transformation is always about what we will do with the Holy Gift that we have found within, and how we will pass it on.
MARK LONGHURST is the CAC’s Managing Editor of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations and a graduate of the inaugural 2015 Living School cohort. Prior to joining the CAC, Mark worked at social justice nonprofits in Boston and served United Church of Christ churches. His great joy is to help recover the transformative power of the Christian mystical tradition for today.
This reflection appears in the Spring 2022 issue of the Mendicant, our quarterly donor newsletter.