Richard Rohr – The Wisdom Way (Part Twelve)

About this sermon

“The Wisdom Way: Scripture, Tradition, and Experience” was a week-long retreat held at the Center for Action and Contemplation for students from Fuller Seminary in April and May 2013. The week of teaching was designed with the goal of “understand[ing] scripture and tradition and experience in a critical way.” Ultimately, Father Richard Rohr and the Fuller students sought to develop a working definition of wisdom for those seeking contemplative spirituality. In this second session of day 4, Fr. Richard Rohr reads through two handouts he has developed on spiral dynamics and how it can be applied to the Christian faith. He uses Jesus’ words in John 14:6 to explain how a person might interpret the gospel at each of the nine levels of consciousness. Fr. Richard ultimately concludes that the goal of a pastor or minister is to recognize that every person in the congregation will interpret information and experiences from their present stage of consciousness, and that growing in faith means always gradually being stretched and moved forward to the next stage. He relates this to “exemplary causality,” noting the importance of allowing people who speak and act out of higher stages of consciousness to inspire us. Fr. Richard cautions that this schema of the levels of consciousness is purely pedagogical, and that in the spiritual life it is often unnecessary to try and figure out what level we are at. “The goal,” he concludes, “is to keep people moving deeper into faith.” CENTER FOR ACTION AND CONTEMPLATION The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is an educational nonprofit introducing seekers to the contemplative Christian path of transformation. Founded by Richard Rohr in 1987, our programs and resources are designed to help deepen prayer practice and strengthen compassionate engagement in the world. https://cac.org Subscribe: https://bit.ly/3QypRgu Learn more about Who We Are: https://bit.ly/3D8TtdU Learn more about What We Do: https://bit.ly/3qrYFGc Learn more about Richard Rohr: https://bit.ly/3ozYdmP Learn more about Contemplation: https://bit.ly/3wNojGF

Topics

• Wisdom