Word made flesh

Please enjoy this practice from Fr. Richard Rohr’s Action and Contemplation blog.

It uses the Christ Jesus, but it works equally well if you wish to substitute Buddha, Mohammed (PBUH), Vishnu, Quan Yin, Atman, or simply all-present energy.

Practice: Word Becomes Flesh

I invite you to read these Daily Meditations contemplatively, going deeper than the mental comprehension of words, using words to give answers or solve immediate problems and concerns.Contemplation is waiting patiently.It does not insist on quick closure, pat answers, or simplistic judgments, which have more to do with egoic, personal control than with a loving search for truth.

Try reading the following ideas in a contemplative way:

Christ is everywhere.

In him every kind of life has a meaning and a solid connection.

Every life has an influence on every other kind of life.

Jesus Christ came to earth so that “they all may be one” (John 17:21) and “to reconcile all things in himself, everything in heaven and everything on earth” (Colossians 1:20).

Pick one idea and linger with it. Focus on the words until they engage your body, your heart, your awareness of the physical world around you, and most especially your core connection with a larger field. Sit with the idea and, if need be, read it again until you feel its impact, until you can imagine its larger implications for the world, for history, and for you. (In other words, until “the word becomes flesh”!)

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe(Convergent Books: 2019), 4, 7, 8.