Tag Archives: Action
Contemplation and Action Summary: Weekly Summary
Contemplation and Action Summary Saturday, January 2, 2021 Summary: Sunday, December 27, 2020—Friday, January 1, 2021 When we experience the reality of our oneness with God, others, and creation, actions of justice and healing naturally follow. If we’re working to create a more whole world, contemplation will give our actions nonviolent, loving power for the… Continue Reading Contemplation and Action Summary: Weekly Summary
The Second Gaze
Contemplation and Action Summary The Second Gaze Friday, January 1, 2021 New Year’s Day Contemplation happens to everyone. It happens in moments when we are open, undefended, and immediately present. —Gerald May Even after fifty years of practicing contemplation, my immediate response to most situations includes attachment, defensiveness, judgment, control, and analysis. I am better at… Continue Reading The Second Gaze
Changing Ourselves, Not the Other
Contemplation and Action Summary Changing Ourselves, Not the Other Thursday, December 31, 2020 New Year’s Eve In 1998, I spent three days immersed in the life, spirit, and ministries of Mother (now Saint) Teresa’s (1910‒1997) community at the motherhouse in Calcutta—a year after her death. Our work together ended on October 1, the feast day… Continue Reading Changing Ourselves, Not the Other
Models of Integration
Contemplation and Action Summary Models of Integration Wednesday, December 30, 2020 Sister Simone Campbell, SSS is someone who truly lives out her commitment to the contemplative path by her actions in the world. She has served as the executive director of NETWORK, the Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, since 2004. You may know her as… Continue Reading Models of Integration
Standing Still, Moving the World
Contemplation and Action Summary Standing Still, Moving the World Tuesday, December 29, 2020 Give me a place to stand, and I will move the whole earth with a lever. —Archimedes Archimedes (c. 287–c. 212 BCE), a Greek philosopher and mathematician, noticed that if a lever was balanced in the correct place, on the correct fulcrum,… Continue Reading Standing Still, Moving the World
The Politics of Prayer
Contemplation and Action Summary The Politics of Prayer Monday, December 28, 2020 I’ve often said that we founded the Center for Action and Contemplation to be a place of integration between action and contemplation. I envisioned a place where we could teach activists in social movements to pray—and encourage people who pray to live lives… Continue Reading The Politics of Prayer
Grounding Compassionate Action
Contemplation and Action Summary Grounding Compassionate Action Sunday, December 27, 2020 Our theme for the Daily Meditations in 2020 has been Contemplation and Action. We hope that you, our larger CAC community, have found some sort of regular contemplative practice to be sustaining in these challenging times. We hope contemplation has helped you discern what… Continue Reading Grounding Compassionate Action
Revolutionary Love
The Transforming Power of Love Revolutionary Love Thursday, November 12, 2020 Is this the darkness of the tomb, or of the womb? I don’t know. All I know is that the only way we will endure is if each of us shows up to the labor. —Valarie Kaur In this liminal space we find ourselves… Continue Reading Revolutionary Love
A Love Ethic
The Transforming Power of Love A Love Ethic Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Because of my background, my language about love is often biblical, theological, psychological, and personal. While these are necessary and helpful frames, they certainly aren’t the only ones we should use. bell hooks (sic), a Black feminist scholar and activist, suggests how truly… Continue Reading A Love Ethic
God’s Dream for Creation
Order, Disorder, Reorder: Part Three God’s Dream for Creation Wednesday, August 26, 2020 In times of Disorder and deconstruction, we long for Reorder on a personal level—to be made new and whole again. But the Scriptures tell us that restoration will also happen on a communal, planetary, and even universal level! Jim Antal, a climate… Continue Reading God’s Dream for Creation