The Heart of Matter: Evolution Shows us That Change is Integral to New Life.
Welcome to our first The Heart of Matter, a new contemplative email series from the Center for Christogenesis. Every Tuesday you will receive an email with a passage from one of Ilia’s books to ponder. Our invitation to you will be to read those passages every day to give them time to reveal their deeper and hidden riches.
Too often we live in a dissociated state, where what happens in the head stays in the head, and The Heart of Matter will also attempt to bridge that separation by presenting different incarnational practices to “embody” those weekly readings, using our physical senses to experience the divine presence more directly in moving the text from the head to the body. Read more
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Tuesday, January 4th 2022
“The whole creation, with humanity as its growing tip, emerges from an evolutionary process, exists in evolution, and develops through convergence and complexity. Evolution shows us that change is integral to new life.”
—Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ
An Incarnational Practice: Reading Aloud
“Silence is the think tank of the soul”, says acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. This week’s invitation is to use the sound of silence as a way to listen to this passage. Silence is not the absence of sound but the absence of noise, and we invite you to use your voice to read this passage aloud every day, listening to the pauses, the intonation, the cadence and hear where each word lands. Let your voice resonate in your heart and lift the words meant to touch and guide you.
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What is being revealed? What is being moved? What is being asked?
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I am currently reading Beatrice Bruteau’s “God’s Ecstasy,” where she takes attraction, conversion, complexity and evolution to the molecular level. Evolution is the invitation we receive to “be, in every possible way.” Breathtaking, when you think of it.
Thanka so much for this weekly email; what a nice way to start a new year!
“Change is integral to new life” grabs my attention. It’s the big lesson in which I am immersed these days, having spent many years resisting, fearing change. I am slowly seeing it as hard, but also feeling.
Beautiful. And stealing from Richard Rohr, something is being unveiled.
Thank you! I asked if I were unbalanced, emphasizing joy and not emphasizing, willing to experience suffering enough. I was told, “No, follow JOY.” Our solidarity is being revealed, my.our heart(s) are being moved, I/we are being asked to be Love, share Love, all together in the One.
Thank you Ilia! Looking forward to you’re weekly meditations. I’ve developed a new appreciation for the spirituality of Teilhard de Chardin through you’re spiritual writings! ?❤️?
Is humanity the only growing tip?
This reflection reminds us that God is encountered in the silence and not in the “busy-ness” of our day. It gives my hope to hear His call and to find direction in my life through Him. Thank you, Ilia!
Thanks Ilia for leading this reflective exercise. Thanks for helping us see that the changes happening to humanity on our planet like the pandemic, racial oneness, global warming, the effects of colonialism, etc., are part of our transition into a new human reality. I like the image of homo sapiens being transfigured into homo Christus.
I’m looking forward to receiving The Heart of Matter weekly.
Notes from my reflection:
The thought that for something to be revealed something else needs to be moved has never occurred to me. I imagined a magician with a cloth over his hand revealing it empty at the turn, curtains swiftly moving to each side of the stage to reveal the show, and the veil being gently moved from a bride’s face.
When something is revealed the response is almost as exciting as the revelation. I find myself watching the groom from time to time at weddings when the bride first appears at the end of the isle locked arms with the father.
The ask seems to be immediate and unavoidable upon true revelation; together we are asked to take a breath, a prayer of sorts. An anticipatory gasp and response.
[gasp] how’d you do that?
[gasp] what comes next?
[gasp] you look stunning.
Maybe the ask is –
Will you suspend your judgement?
Will you revel in mystery?
And, will you respond?
In my own life –
What is being revealed – A new path.
What is being moved – An object of desire.
What is being asked – Move forward.
This comment gives me hope, and more faith, not to mention understanding. Thank you.