Holding the Tension

We were never taught to stop, to savour and to hold our feelings
of fear, anger grief or loneliness. We were taught to get rid of our
pain before we learned its lessons. Maybe that is why wisdom is so
hard to find in our culture.
Fr. Richard is joined by Sr. Mary Beth Ingham in unpacking, on a practical
level, the way to hold the tension and learn wisdom from our lives.
Disc 1: Living inside of what is.
Disc 2: How you get there determines where you arrive.
Disc 3: Mystery: Abyss and Ground.
Disc 4: The Holy Spirit as the stable witness.
Disc 5: The pearl of great price.
Disc 6: It’s all about love: relationship and abundance.
Disc 7: Q&A // Liturgy Homily // Closing

The Biblical vision consistently teaches that the truth is more likely found at the edges and the bottom of society, while institutional theology has largely been written by people at the top and the centre.
Fr. Richard explains how this change in perspective has distorted our hearing of the Scriptures and our understanding of what Jesus is saying at every turn in Christian history.

One cannot really look at life and society from an egoless position except through the lens of prayer, particularly the emptying form of prayer that we call contemplation. Fr. Richard gives an overview of both the theory and practice of what he calls "the contemplative stance toward life."

"In You, a thousand years are a single day,
and a single day is a thousand years." 2 Peter 3:8
In this exciting, extended weekend conference, spiritual masters Fr. Thomas Keating and Fr. Richard Rohr put together in specific and practical ways the ancient, perennial, and Christian tradition of "now" teaching. Each in their gifted style help listeners connect the dots between Scripture, the desert Mystics, the Benedictine and Franciscan traditions, the Buddhist masters, and other contemporary teachers.
Disc 1: Introduction
Disc 2: Balancing Time, Space and God
Disc 3: Jesus' Incarnation: Eternal Now Meets Time and Space
Disc 4: Centring Prayer: Accessing the Present Moment
Disc 5: The Great Doorway: An Intersection of Timelessness and Time
Disc 6: Question and Answer Session
Disc 7: Integrating Action and Contemplation: The Task of the Present Moment

Fr. Richard uses insightful theology, moving poetry, and life experiences of other wisdom teachers to lead the listener into the
unitive space of living in the Now.  People imagine that God is elsewhere, but when people really experience that something’ that is really present, then the obstacle, the mind, can be overcome. This allows us to live in the present. The only time when Jesus talks about the future is when he says, ‘don’t worry about it.’ The past language Jesus uses is ‘forget it’, the past is forgiven. Let go of who we think we are, and live now.  This profound talk shows how we can observe the obstacles within that keep us from living in the present, and Richard offers suggestions on how we might allow ourselves to be led to live in this presence.  Richard says that “This is the most helpful teaching I have ever given in my 30 years of active ministry, but I can barely describe it… You have to experience it. … You can’t get there; you can only be there.”

Richard suggests that a beginner’s mind is crucial for correct understanding of religion.
Ignorance does not result from what we don’t know but from what we think we do know. Great spiritual teachers balance knowing with now knowing – and know that they don’t know.
Being willing not to know, because God knows, is a great gift.

1 DVD £7.50

An addiction is a condition in which we feel we need more and
more of what doesn't work. It's an attachment, and if we are honest
, we all have lots of them.
In this series, Fr. Richard offers hope and practical suggestions from many sources including Bill Wilson's Big Book and Scripture. Listen and grow!
Themes of Talks:
1. The Big Book and the Gospel
2. Addictive Thinking
3. Wounds as Trophies
4. Rituals and Life Summary

2 DVD's £15.00

Be nourished by two modern voices on an ancient and important
topic- the Trinity. Cynthia Bourgeault and Richard Rohr presented this conference as a follow-up to Richard’s well received set on the Trinity, The Divine Dance. Together they breathe life into this topic by offering alternative perspectives grounded in Biblical and mystical traditions as well as a brilliant and clear feminine voice.
“Everything makes sense when God is communion instead of domination.”  Don’t be surprised if you feel the energy, prayer, and movement that stirred within the attendees at this event.
The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault is a well-known retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer, writer on the spiritual life, and Episcopal priest.

3 DVD's £25.00

What Richard Rohr calls "the language of descent" is the "theme
of themes" of the Bible. Call it powerlessness, the bias from the
bottom, the way of the cross or vulnerability, human beings have
to be taught how to win by losing.
Life itself is a series of necessary losses. Religion has tended to prefer the way of "ascent," attainment, which is much more to the liking of the human ego, even though it always defeats us.
The Jewish prophets and self-critical thinking are represented most fully in Jesus, who tries to train his disciples in a path of descent and ego stripping instead of ego attainment. Jesus tells us to love more, rather than to idealize anything except God. It is in suffering and the mystery of contradictions, our own and the world's, that we move to consciousness and holiness.

2 DVD's £20.00

Fr. Richard tries to open doors of understanding regarding the
traditionally labelled sources of evil: the world, the flesh, and the
devil. Evil needs to appear in the disguise of being something good, moral, and righteous, which allows us to do evil actions without having guilt feelings or self-doubt. If we don’t recognize and stop evil in “the world” (that is, systemic evil) it will bubble up with great force through the spiral of violence into personal actions of evil.

1 DVD £7.50

The 2006 Summer Conference brought together two of the finest
spiritual thinkers of our time: Sr. Joan Chittister OSB and Fr.
Richard Rohr OFM.
Sr. Joan challenges us by asking, "WHO ARE YOU?"
Fr. Richard dares us to CHANGE NOW.
We are all called to be a prophetic voice in our time: called to a Third
Way, as in the words of Jeremiah, "a heart of flesh," in contrast to the righteousness so common in Western society today.
Seven Sessions including these topics:
Opening Remarks - Chittister & Rohr
Prophetic Spirit for Today - Chittister
Order vs. Charism - Rohr
Dialogue - Chittister & Rohr
Women, Religion and War - Chittister
The Third Way - Heart of Flesh vs. Righteousness - Rohr

4 DVDs - £30.00

In January 2006, this significant conference took place in Washington, D.C. led by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM of the Centre for Action
and Contemplation; Jim Wallis, author and founder of the Sojourners
community and editor of its magazine; and highly acclaimed
author Anne Lamott.
The main topics and presenters:
The Political Trump Card of Western Spirituality:
The Doctrine of the Body of Christ – Richard Rohr, OFM
The Face of Religion and Politics: Revival vs. Renewal – Jim Wallis
Thoughts from a Loud Mouth Left Wing Crabby Christian – Anne Lamott
The Thomas Mass and Closing Remarks – Richard Rohr and Jim Wallis

Much personal and pastoral confusion results when we do not realize
that in the first half of life we have to master self control, and in the second half of life we must give up control.  Those are two very different journeys, and we need guides to pass from one to the others. This talk given at the 2004 Religious Education Congress
serves as a perfect intro to the Two Halves of Life.

The Enneagram is an ancient spiritual tool for teaching discrimination
between good and evil, between sin and virtue.
It has foundations in all three of the monotheistic religions of Judaism,
Christianity, and Sufi Islam, because the wisdom is universal, deep and life changing for all searching peoples. "Grace first creates the void and then Grace fills the void."
This set contains the complete 7-hour workshop Fr. Richard gave on the Enneagram in 2004. It is a very practical guide to the 9 Enneagram types, their inter-relationships, and both the redeeming and negative aspects of each type. For the serious learner of the Enneagram, this workshop offers clear, practical, and deep teaching.

Richard shares his years of first-hand experience with male initiation
in traditional cultures around the world, where he heard the
elders say, “You’d better teach your boys well or your boys won’t
become men.”
Listen to what this means for men, women, and children today.
He presents an in-depth view of the major points from his acclaimed book
(2004), Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation.

Both men and women will benefit from Fr. Richard's explanation
of how men process grief. "Men naturally block pain and need to
be taught to feel what they don't want to feel."
Listen as Fr. Richard communicates the wisdom of other cultures and of
the Gospels in dealing with grief.

Fr. Richard opens up the central and hidden mystery of the Trinity
to show its very practical and pastoral implications for community
, family, politics, sexuality, and spirituality.
He says, " Don't start with One and try to make it Three, but start with Three, and know that is the very nature of the One -- and Everything there is." Listen to this teaching and see if your universe takes on a new shape.