URBANarmy

I can't imagine there are many that don't enjoy sitting and marveling at what the BBC serve up on a Sunday evening with the amazing Sir David Attenborough! Octopus is definitely my new favourite cephalopod! But the spider crabs on this week were equally as stunning. Their gathering in extreme numbers to molt their shells struck me as being a rather pertinent lesson. Thousands merging together to support and protect one another as they lost their shell and the soft shell beneath hardened. Support for one another at a time of extreme vulnerability. I didn't think too much more about this until my daily dose of Rohr popped into my inbox today. I read how Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer referred to 'recurring periods of upheaval in the church as giant “rummage sales” in which the church rids itself of what is no longer needed and rediscovers treasures it had forgotten'. Rohr continues by quoting Phyllis Tickle who suggested in the process of building necessary structur...

We used this prayer this morning written by Gary Kowalski Gracious Spirit, Who makes the first to be last and the last to be first, Who makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine upon all, Help us to understand that life is not an contest Where having the most toys is the point of the game, To realize that the victor’s circle can be the loneliest spot on earth, To recognize that the greatest rewards don’t come from winning but from relationships where both triumphs and tears can be celebrated and shared. Powerful Spirit, Infuse us with your lifegiving strength And grant us the inward security of knowing our own goodness without needing to prove it to the world; Lift us above both envy and pride -- the need to feel superior to others and feelings of inadequacy alike -- Enabling us to walk together as equals, At home in the great community of life. Wise Spirit, We know that life is not a race to be won But a journey to be savoured. Grant us the faith to live ea...

A bit of today's daily dose of Rohr... "Prophets, by their very nature, cannot be at the center of any social structure. Rather, they are “on the edge of the inside.” They cannot be fully insiders, but they cannot throw rocks from outside either. They must be educated inside the system, knowing and living the rules, before they can critique what is non- essential or not so important. Jesus did this masterfully (see Matthew 5:17-48). This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. taught the United States, what Gandhi taught British-occupied India, and what Nelson Mandela taught South Africa. Only with great respect for and understanding of the rules can a prophet know how to properly break those very same rules—for the sake of a greater purpose and value. A prophet critiques a system by quoting its own documents, constitutions, heroes, and Scriptures against its present practice. This is their secret: systems are best unlocked from inside." One of the most common complaints I h...

Richard Rohr points out "Simone Weil and others have said that the very nature of spiritual truth is that it is paradoxical. Christianity should have known this ... [however] ... The church has taught people doctrines, but has not always taught the proper mind with which to understand them."  "...many people who formerly called themselves Christians have “thrown out the baby with the bathwater,” rejecting Christianity with the same dualistic, all-or-nothing thinking that immature religion taught them in the first place." Richard Rohr

Interesting words from Brian Morgen from the Centre for Action and Contemplation. "We are living in times when many of the institutions in which we’ve found our identities and placed our trust are revealing their unworkability and brokenness. Unless we are grounded in a Bigger Story and Truth, the falling apart of the system could also be our own undoing." Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. —Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Rohr calls the Franciscan Tradition in which he was been formed is an “alternative orthodoxy” or heterodoxy.  "The early Franciscan friars and Poor Clares wanted to be Gospel practitioners instead of merely “word police,” “inspectors,” or “museum curators” as Pope Francis calls some clergy. Both Francis and Clare offered their rules as a forma vitae, or form of life. They saw orthopraxy (correct practice) as a necessary parallel, and maybe even precedent, to verbal orthodoxy (correct teaching)."

Interesting in the light of 1 John 4:12... "In the first instance, you have just experienced a religious high. Through prayer or some other religious or human experience, you have a strong, imaginative sense of God’s reality. At that particular moment, you feel sure of God’s existence and have an indubitable sense that God is real. Your faith feels strong. You could walk on water!  Then imagine different moment: You are lying in your bed, restless, agitated, feeling chaos around you, staring holes into the darkness, unable to imagine the existence of God, and unable to think of yourself as having faith. Try as you might, you cannot conjure up any feeling that God exists. You feel you are an atheist.  Does this mean that in one instance you have a strong faith and in the other you have a weak one? No. What it means is that in one instance you have a strong imagination and in the other you have a weak imagination. Faith in God is not to be confused with the capacity or inc...

At our low points, we are one step away from either enlightenment or despair. Without faith that there is a Bigger Pattern, and the grace to surrender to that Bigger Pattern, most people will move into despair, negativity, or cynicism. We need a promise, a hopeful direction, or it is very hard not to give up. When you have not yet learned what transformation feels or looks like, someone—perhaps some loving human or simply God’s own embrace—needs to hold you now because you cannot hold yourself. When we experience this radical holding, and even deep loving, this is salvation! Rohr