Weekly Pause & Ponder

Spirituality is written into the weaving and unweaving tapestry of evolution and creation. Our prehistoric ancestors behaved spiritually because they remained connected to the cosmic womb of life, which itself is innately spiritual. And it is only in reconnecting with the primordial source – as millions are striving to do today (often in confusing and contradictory ways) – that we can hope to regain our spiritual, planetary and cosmic dignity as a human species. The divine meaning of creation is not derived from us, humans, creation itself is the source and wellspring; we, humans, are the derivative species.

Reclaiming Spirituality by Diarmuid O’Murchu, p. 60.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Today, the idea of evolution, the basic notion of process, change, and development over time, is affecting much more than biology. It is affecting everything, from our perceptions of politics, economics, psychology, and ecology to our understanding of the most basic constituents of reality. It is helping to give birth to new philosophies and, I will argue, is the source of a new kind of spiritual revelation. Evolution is the cornerstone of a rich, novel way of understanding the development of everything from the complex corridors of the human psyche to the outer reaches of the universe. Evolution is certainly about the birds and the bees, but its also about culture, consciousness and the cosmos.

From the Blog entry in the Huffington Post, Sept. 11, 2014, "Are You An Evolutionary?", by Carter Phipps.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

In our day ... love of neighbor needs to take a form that goes beyond the realm of private, individual relationships. Given our knowledge of how systems affect the individual, love today must be expressed also in Christian responsibility for the social sphere. Acting in this way is more than a humanitarian undertaking, noble as that would be. In a time of growing solidarity on a global scale, work for justice is stimulated by the Spirit of Jesus, for whom the neighbors’ good has an incomprehensible value, commensurate with the love of God poured out upon them.

Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Quest for God, by Elizabeth Johnson, p. 46.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Love energy marks the history of the universe. It is present from the Big Bang onward, though indistinguishable from molecular forces. It amplifies itself by way of union because it “is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces....The physical structure of the universe is love.” It draws together and unites; in uniting it differentiates. Love is the core energy of evolution and its goal.

The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love, by Ilia Delio, p. 44.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Somewhere deep down we are all filled with a mystical longing, with a longing for ultimate meaningfulness, and therefore we need to see all of our world in that context.  To attain this in today’s climate, we need a new theology of the cosmos–one that is grounded in the best science of our day. It will be a theology in which God is very present precisely in all the dynamism and patterns of the created order. A theology of evolution sees God as deeply involved in the evolutionary process of the world. God is making the world by means of evolution. And the evolutionary process in its turn is seen as striving toward God. So, you see, God is Self-expressing and Self-realizing in evolution.

An interview with Beatrice Bruteau, An article from Enlightenext. First appeared in Issue 21, “The Future of God.”