- Christianity is an Incarnational faith — body, mind, spirit
- The kingdom of God is both within and among you.
- Mystery offered as a pure gift from God
- Inner work and outer work cannot be separated.
- Christian practice moves us into non-dual consciousness, which is not about absolutes, our preferences, who is right and who is wrong, what is a threat to our way of thinking, our religion, what we like or don’t like, our culture, etc. Christian practice strips the ego and hyper-critical mindset.
- Always beginner mindset, all novices, and students.
- Christian practice is centering and de-centering, disruptive, and peacemaking.
- It is attainable for everyone. It is free. Not about perfection in the accomplishment or achievement sense but descent and death that opens us to the awareness of already having everything we need. Everything belongs. Simple but not easy.
- Christian practice is nonviolent and not self-righteous. It is downward, earthy, and life-giving. Union with Christ in love always moves us deeper i love with all of life, small and big, relational and personal. Christian contemplative life is often simple, mundane, and human, rather than ecstatic, otherworldly, and transcendent. Practices are not ends in themselves.
Values curiosity and engagement with the other, moving towards inclusion, love, unity in diversity of creation. Values gratitude, confession, and forgiveness — Rooted in Jesus’ Jewish spirituality and his subversion of it.
Perfection in Christian life is not found in denying or gaining something, but experienced in loving service to others.
“A Christian is someone who has met one.” -Rohr
Thomas Merton… “Contemplation is the highest expression of humanity’s intellectual and spiritual life.”
To point of practice… Life itself — fully awake — fully aware — fully alive. | about the game not practice
— Prayer: Apophatic and Cataphatic, knowing and unknowing | e.g. Centering Prayer, Prayer of Examen, Taizé Prayer
— Contemplation - e.g. stations of the cross / deep knowing and unknowing - raveling and unraveling - trinity as waterwheel of always outpouring love - meditation e.g. breathing, body, chanting
— Simplicity, poverty, chastity
— Charity: service to others/generosity/finding God in the poor, oppressed, and marginalized
— Stability/Community/Liturgy
— Practice of being in community as the practice of Church: “A spirituality that works for me cannot save me.”
— Lectionary - the rhythm of the seasons and rhythm of the church - similar to Jewish annual rhythms.
