Weekly Pause & Ponder

The oldest religions on our planet are not the “great world religions” of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, but the religions of the native people of the Americas, Africa, Ancient Europe, Australia, Polynesia and Asia. In these religions one finds deep memories of what essayist Frederick Turner calls “aboriginal mother love.” These religions arose in cultural periods that were matrifocal. They reverenced Mother Earth and her fruitfulness: they were nondualistic in their celebration of their celebration of the “sacred hoop” that binds all creatures of the earth together – the rock people, the cloud people, the tree people, the finned ones, the winged ones, and the two-legged ones. By following the cycles of seasons and harmonizing with the wisdom of Mother Earth they shared in the family of creation.

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ by Matthew Fox, p. 24

Weekly Pause & Ponder

The quest for the meaning of life, the search for our true essence, or – as we Christians usually say – for God, is part of the basic principle of evolution. Actually it isn’t a search at all. Rather the Divine is unfolding in us and through us. The Divine comes to consciousness in us. We think that as human beings we are on a quest for God. But we’re not the ones searching for the Ultimate Reality. Rather it is the Ultimate Reality that causes the dissatisfied yearning and the search in us. God is the seeker. God awakens in us. We ourselves can’t do anything; we can only let go so the Divine can unfold itself. We can only "get out of God’s way," as Eckhart says. The essential nature reveals itself if only we don’t prevent it. And if there is a redemption, then we are redeemed from being possessed by our ego so that our real selves scan spread their wings.

Search for the Meaning of Life by Willigis Jager, p. 13.

A Christmas Season Pause & Ponder

No matter which gospel text we take to consider the life of Jesus, we are confronted with one who consistently manifests the love to which he calls others. He breaks down all partitions that divide humans from each other; he embodies a love that is just, and a love that therefore variously exhibits judgement, affirmation, service, sharing, depending upon the context of love.  But this is the life that reveals the nature of God for us; this is the life that offers a concrete vision of the reality to which God calls us. This is the revelation of God to us for the sake of conforming us to the divine image. If we see in Jesus a revelation of God for us, then the way Jesus loves is the way God loves.

Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, God, Christ, Church, pp. 97-98.

A Christmas Season Pause & Ponder

The celebration of the Word made Flesh, is also the celebration of all women and men who have incarnated the message of Jesus in their lives. We tell the stories of prophets, liberators, and martyrs of not so long ago whose lives challenge us to hold to our commitment to God and to be open to the spirit who frees us from the bondage of our addictions and fears. Remembering Jesus, we make him part of our lives. Remembering those who have followed him unites us with them.

Elizabeth Meluch, OCD, People’s Companion to the Breviary, p. 203.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Christmas celebrates more than a single event, more than just the birth of a child in a Bethlehem cave long ago: Christmas celebrates a presence that continues to this day and for all time. That presence is experienced in every moment of compassion we extend and experience, every moment of comfort and consolation we offer and receive, every moment of forgiveness we seek and give.

"Emmanuel" – "God is with us." In Christ’s birth, God touches human history: hope reigns, justice takes root, peace becomes possible. The challenge to each one of us is to take on the work of "Emmanuel" – to make God’s presence tangible by being [God’s] arms for the hurting, [God’s] hands for the fallen, [God’s] heart for the grieving.

Daily Reflections for Advent and Christmas

by Jay Cormier, p. 72.