Re-Evaluating Everything....A prayer of/for/about: Grace!

Friends,

This prayer of Fr. Richard Rohr's (copied below) speaks wildly to my heart today. I extend it prayerfully to you and to your own circumstances....

Some questions from my own contemplative space:

What does it mean to re-evaluate everything?
Where do we find solid ground?
Is there stability of any kind?
What is this journey all about?
How do I pause long enough - and breathe deeply and slowly enough - to ward off aggression?
How do I embrace this second, this moment, and know joy and happiness - in the midst of all that is unknown and scary?
How many times will I ask, can I ask, these questions!?
Is laughing during prayer okay? Ha!

..........................

I love Rohr's three examples from his life that invite re-evaluation of everything for him:

- Visiting The Third World;
- Becoming a Franciscan;
- (Working at/co-founding) New Jerusalem.

I point directly to my own corresponding life-changing experiences (and invite you do so as well, right?):
-Winning a State Championship the day my best friend killed himself;
-Working as an Inner-City, Public School Teacher in and through the Arts;
-Traveling to South Africa.

Hmmm......
In each of these experiences, there is some deep and Divine encounter with Love.

I have a lot more to think about and write on.

I just wanted to send you all a prayerful thought today. And extend Love and Peace, amidst the questions!

Enjoy Rohr's words below. I hope you are able to celebrate your own thoughts with patience and compassion!

Yes, Peace,
Melissa

"Near Occasions of Grace"

We want to plant ourselves in near occasions of grace, yet we spend all our life avoiding near occasions of sin. Can there be situations that we allow ourselves to enter which will force us to reevaluate everything? That is certainly what the Third World did for me. That's what joining the Franciscans as a young man did for me, thats what New Jerusalem did for me. You have to find those situations and contexts and ways of looking out at the world, so you will feel and think differently about reality. It won't come just from sermons and books. We are converted through new circumstances. Grace best gets at us when our guard is down.

Richard Rohr in A Mans Approach to God

http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/dailyreflection.html