Theologian Randy Woodley tells of being invited by a friend to a contemplative prayer gathering:  I came one time and they sat around in a room that was completely closed with orange shag carpeting. There were no windows. You could tell the carpet was old, and the idea was to sit there and listen to the Spirit. I sat through the gathering and a lot of silence. Afterwards my friend was smiling and asked, “How did you like it?” I said, “Well, to be honest, I didn’t like it…. Why weren’t you guys sitting outside? It’s a beautiful day out. You’re in this dark room.”    Of course, there ..read more

David Denny and Tessa Bielecki direct the Desert Foundation, an informal circle of friends who share a love for desert land, people, and spirituality. Bielecki shares how she fell in love with the spaciousness of the desert:   I grew up in New England, a countryside of lush green hills, singing streams, and verdant forests of oak and maple. In springtime I picked bouquets of wildflowers and in summer romped through the tall grasses full of daisies. When the trees turned crimson and gold in autumn, I gathered bundles of leaves and pressed them between the pages of my beloved books. I ..read more

Earth Day Theologian Tony Jones writes of the gifts available when we encounter God in “wild places”:   The God of wild places offers peace. In a modern world that’s frenetic and busy—always connected, always on—finding peace is getting more difficult… To receive the peace offered by the God of wild places, we’ll have to retrograde to old technologies: canoe and paddle; hiking boots and walking stick; bow and arrow and fishing pole. We also have to remember that the peace we long for is within, a spark of the divine that resides within each of us. To bring that spark to a flame can ..read more

Let us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, presenting to ourselves the whole material world as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Artisan. —Bonaventure, The Soul’s Journey into God 1.9  Father Richard locates his deep respect for the natural world in his Franciscan tradition.    Stories of the life of Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) describe him talking to animals and natural elements. He doesn’t speak to them just as birds or wolves, but as mutual spiritual beings who are worthy of being addressed. He was always telling them who they a ..read more

Sunday  The Divine takes the lead in changing places. Maybe artists have easier access to this Mystery than many theologians.   —Richard Rohr  Monday Too often, art is considered decorative, and it is significantly more than that. Engaging with art means we have to slow down to allow a new experience to enter which perhaps cannot be accessed in another way.   —Lourdes Bernard  Tuesday Art also carves pathways toward our inner isles of spirituality. When we decide to live in our heads only, we become isolated from the God who is closer than our next breath. T ..read more

Father Richard describes how reading poetry contemplatively can be a sacred practice:  Great art and great myth try to evoke an epiphany in us. They want to give us an inherent and original sense of the holy. They make us want to kneel and kiss the ground. Robert Frost said, “A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or a love-sickness.” [1] If a poem doesn’t give us a lump in the throat, is it really great poetry? My final theological conclusion is that there’s only one world and that it’s all sacred. However, we have to be prepared to know what we’re saying when we say t ..read more

To make art is to make love with the sacred. —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy  Mirabai Starr considers the leap of faith required to accept the invitation to creativity:    A miraculous event unfolds when we throw the lead of our personal story into the transformative flames of creativity. Our hardship is transmuted into something golden. With that gold we heal ourselves and redeem the world. As with any spiritual practice, this creative alchemy requires a leap of faith. When we show up to make art, we need to first get still enough to hear what wants to be expressed through us, and then ..read more

Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff witnesses the presence of the Holy Spirit in the creativity of the arts.   [The Spirit] is present wherever people live by love, witness to the truth, act in solidarity, and practice compassion. Wherever such realities are manifest in human beings, anywhere in the world, it is a sign that the Spirit has come upon them and is active within them.    It is by the inspiration of the Spirit that poets and writers redraw life with all its lights and shadows, its dramas and achievements. They are seized by an inner light, and by energies t ..read more

Jazz helps us be sensitive to the whole range of existence. Far from offering us rose-colored glasses … it realistically speaks of sorrow and pain…. Jazz stimulates us to feel deeply and truthfully…. Jazz thunders a mighty “yes.” —Alvin L. Kershaw, “Religion and Jazz”   CAC teacher Barbara A. Holmes writes of the spirit of possibility that is present in those creating and listening to jazz:    When Miles Davis blows the cacophony that can barely be contained by the word song, we come closest to the unimaginable, the potential of the future, and the source of our being. Yet, jaz ..read more

Father Richard shares his contemplative practice of visiting art museums:  I believe good art has the power to evoke an epiphany. Sometimes, when we can’t take our eyes off a picture or work of art, an epiphany is happening. We don’t yet know what we’re knowing while the wisdom of the unconscious is being ferried across to the conscious mind. Carl Jung said great art presents an “archetypal image.” [1] On one of my very first speaking trips away from Cincinnati, I visited the St. Louis Art Museum. They had an exhibit of Claude Monet’s water lilies; some paintings took up the whole wall ..read more