making room

nara, japan                                                     © erin dunigan 2012

“….any happiness that is demanded from life never becomes happiness because it is too narcissistically and self-consciously pursued. The ‘joy that the world cannot give’ always comes as a gift to those who wait for it, expect it and make room for it inside themselves.”

-Richard Rohr, Preparing for Christmas Day 2

advent: waiting

waiting                                                                                   © erin dunigan 2009

 

“Perfect fullness is always to come, and we do not need to demand it now. This keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to grace and to a future created by God rather than ourselves. This is exactly what it means to be ‘awake’ as the Gospel urges us.”

-Richard Rohr, Preparing for Christmas, Day 1

photo: franciscans peace

“Up to now, we have been more driven by outer authority (“it is a sin if you don’t” or “the church says…”) than drawn in by the calm and loving inner authority (the in-dwelling Holy Spirit) of prayer, practice, and inner experience… For all practical purposes, this change of identity is the major – almost seismic – shift in motivation and consciousness itself that mature religion rightly calls conversion. It is the very heart of all religious transformation (“changing forms”). Without it, religion is mostly a mere belonging system or a mere belief system, but it does not radically change your consciousness or motivation.

Christianity is much more about living and doing than thinking.”

-Richard Rohr, the Immortal Diamond

franciscans peace
© erin dunigan 2013

photo: malibu sky

You are the Eternal Mystery that enables
and holds and enlivens all things
—even us and even me.
Every name falls short of Your goodness and Your greatness.
We can only see who You are in what is.
In the beginning, now, and always.
Amen.

-Richard Rohr

malibu sky
© erin dunigan 2013