Religious And Spiritual Leaders Offer Hope For 2013

‘If I am to imitate God, then God is surely the Great Allower and the Great Forgiver of Reality. I hope our supreme capacity is to accept and love this always imperfect world. Then we will know what we must do. We religious folks have wasted too much time insisting on some kind of ideal and perfect order which has never existed anyway, and which has been more about our preferences than God’s perfection. God’s perfection appears to be an immense capacity to include, use, and thus forgive all seeming imperfection. One wonders if is then “imperfection”?

— Fr. Richard Rohr, Author

Todays Quotation is one of 40 greetings presented in Huffington Post

Follow the link above and read through the many greetings and set your viewer to full screen for best viewing of the quotations or look into this space from day to day to see them one at a time.

The universe is an exuberant expression of existence itself.

‘The human venture depends absolutely on this quality of awe and reverence and joy in the Earth and all that lives an grows upon the Earth….In the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration. It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself….A way is opening for each person to receive the total spiritual heritage of the human community as well as the total spiritual heritage of the universe. Within this context the religious antaganisms of the past can be overcome, the particular traditions can be vitalized, and the feelllng of presence to a sacred universe can appear once more to dynamize and sustain human affairs.

We must fee that we are supported by that same power that brought the Earth into being, that power that spun galaxies into space, that tilt the sun and brought the moon into its orbit.’

— Thomas Berry

”the perfection of the universe”

‘If Saint John and Saint Paul could think of the Christ form of the universe, if Aquinas could say that the whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly and represents it better than any single creature whatever, and if Teilhard could insist that the human gives to the entire cosmos its most sublime form of being, then it should not be difficult to accept the universe itself as the primordial sacred community, the macrophase mode of every religious tradition, the context in which the divine reality is revealed to itself in that diversity which in a special manner is ”the perfection of the universe.” ‘

— Thomas Berry

If Creativity Fails!

‘In our present context, failure in creativity would be an absolute failure. A present failure at this order of magnitude cannot be remedied by a larger success. In this context a completely new type of creativity is needed. This creativity must have as its primary concern the survival of the earth in its functional integrity. Concern for the well-being of the planet is the one concern that, it is hoped, will bring the nations of the world into an international community.’

— Thomas Berry

Mystique of the universe

‘The evolutionary process is neither random nor determined, but creative. It follows the general pattern of all creativity….We can also understand the governing principles of evolution in terms of its three movements toward differentiation, inner spontaneity, and comprehensive bonding.

With this understanding it would be difficult to overemphasize the magnificence of this evolutionary doctrine. It provides grandeur in our view of the universe and our human role in it that is so overwhelming. Indeed, in its human expression the universe is able to reflect on itself and enjoy its grandeur in a special mode of conscious self-awareness. The evolutionary vision provides the most profound mystique of the universe.’

— Thomas Berry

Primary Sacred Reality

‘We will recover our sense of wonder and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us.’

— Thomas Berry

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ, do we also celebrate that the”universe is the primary central reality” or has the teaching we have received put Jesus and the Cosmos in opposition?

Cultural Resources Have Lost Integrity

‘In relation to the earth, we have been autistic for centuries. Only now we have begun to listen with some intention and with a willingness to respond to the earth’s demands that we cease our industrial assaults, that we abandon our inner rage against the conditions of our earthly existence, that we renew our human participation in the grand liturgy of the universe…. None of our existing cultures can deal with this situation out of its own resources. We must invent, or reinvent, a sustainable human culture by a descent into our pre-rational, our instinctive, resources. Our cultural resources have lost their integrity. They cannot be trusted.’

— Thomas Berry