[Sundaycommunity] Fwd: We are the universe contemplating itself.
Catherine Walther
catherine.walther at gmail.com
Fri Dec 6 07:12:46 PST 2024
This is so amazing! Just had to share.
Enjoy, Catherine
When life wins there will be no losers. A'Ida Shibli
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Center for Action and Contemplation <meditations at cac.org>
Date: Fri, Dec 6, 2024 at 2:04 AM
Subject: Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation: The Universe Story Is Spiritual
To: Catherine Walther <catherine.walther at gmail.com>
There is reason to hope that the universe is for us rather than against us.
No images? Click here <https://email.cac.org/t/d-e-smuue-tlkrtkhhuj-z/>
Friday, December 6, 2024
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations
>From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Forty-Nine: Contemplation and Science
The Universe Story Is Spiritual
*Philosopher Brian Swimme and historian Mary Evelyn Tucker reflect on the
story of the universe:*
We are the first generation to learn the comprehensive scientific
dimensions of the universe story. We know that the observable universe
emerged 13.7 billion years ago, and we now live on a planet orbiting our
Sun, one of the trillions of stars in one of the billions of galaxies in an
unfolding universe that is profoundly creative and interconnected. With our
empirical observations expanded by modern science, we are now realizing
that our universe is a single immense energy event that began as a tiny
speck that has unfolded over time to become galaxies and stars, palms and
pelicans, the music of Bach, and each of us alive today. The great
discovery of contemporary science is that the universe is not simply a
place, but a story—a story in which we are immersed, to which we belong,
and out of which we arose.
This story has the power to awaken us more deeply to who we are. For just
as the Milky Way is the universe in the form of a galaxy, and an orchid is
the universe in the form of a flower, we are the universe in the form of a
human. And every time we are drawn to look up into the night sky and
reflect on the awesome beauty of the universe, we are actually the universe
reflecting on itself. And this changes everything. [1]
*Author John Philip Newell honors the work of scientist and Catholic priest
Thomas Berry (1914–2009) who witnessed God throughout the cosmos: *
Berry wanted us to be amazed, constantly amazed, by this one, single,
interrelated body of the universe that new science describes as a single
multiform reality, or as “Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement.” [2] It
just keeps flowing and flowing into ever-new form. Four and a half billion
years ago it flowed into the form of a planet of burning molten rock. And
over the course of four billion years this globe of burning rock, Earth as
it was later called, has transformed itself into birds and bees and
butterflies, and into the emergence of human thought and music and love. We
are each a shining flow of sacred energy.
*Homo sapiens, *meaning wise ones, appeared 200,000 years ago. We are
latecomers in this story. The term “wise ones” does not accurately describe
what we have been to one another and to Earth, but it could yet describe
what we will become. As Berry adds, there is good reason to hope that “the
universe is for us rather than against us.” [3] Given the dangerous moments
that have been navigated thus far in the unfolding story of humanity and
Earth, there is good reason to hope. It is now up to us to live from the
wisdom of the Spirit that is deep within us. [4]
Read this meditation on cac.org.
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*Story From Our Community*
*About half a century after leaving the Catholic church, I have begun to
walk an alternative spiritual path, thanks in large part to the CAC. I love
the foundation of Christianity which invites us to treat others the way we
would want to be treated. Science makes up part of a spiritual system as
well. It’s founded on the idea that when opinions conflict, don’t assume
one or the other is correct—work to resolve the conflict. I can see that
some of my spiritual beliefs are grounded in science, while also aspiring
to follow the example that Jesus set.*
—James C.
Share your own story with us.
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[1] Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, *Journey of the Universe*
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011), 1–2.
[2] David Bohm, *Wholeness and the Implicate Order *(New York: Routledge
Classics, 2002, 1980), 14.
[3] Thomas Berry, *The Great Work: Our Way into the Future *(New York: Bell
Tower, 1999), 201.
[4] John Philip Newell, *The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the
Quest for Healing and Home *(New York: HarperOne, 2024), 26.
*Image credit and inspiration*: Greg Rakozy, *Untitled *(detail), 2015,
photo, United States, *Unsplash
<https://email.cac.org/t/d-l-smuue-tlkrtkhhuj-h/>*. Click here to enlarge
image. <https://email.cac.org/t/d-l-smuue-tlkrtkhhuj-k/> *We stand awed by
our contemplation of the cosmos and the science within it.*
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