The Heart of Matter: The Key to Evolution is Openness to the Environment.
Welcome to The Heart of Matter, a new contemplative email series from the Center for Christogenesis. Our invitation to you is to read those passages every day to give them time to expand and use an incarnational practice to deepen their understanding.
Knowledge without practice can remain “heady” and far from becoming transformative. The practices introduced here can also be used to read Scriptures, poetry, even secular texts as a way to counterbalance our propensity to read quickly and remain at the surface of things.
Become a seer. “The seer sees something that does not yet exist; knows something is seeking to exist; and acts to making something exist in a new way.” says Ilia Delio.
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Tuesday, January 11th 2022
“The key to evolution is openness to the environment. Open systems can be influenced by the environment and change in relation to the environment. Closed systems cannot evolve, because they cannot be influenced by the environment; thus they seek to preserve their resources within.” —Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ
In Spanish:
“La clave de la evolución es la apertura al medio ambiente. Los sistemas abiertos pueden ser influenciados por el medio ambiente y el medio ambiente los hace cambiar. En cambio, los sistemas cerrados no pueden evolucionar, porque estos no pueden ser influenciados por el medio ambiente; precisamente por pretender preservar sus recursos internos.” —Ilia Delio, The Emergent Christ
An Incarnational Practice: Entering and Leaving
There are many ways to enter a room, a space, a conversation. It is very common to go from room to room, activity to activity, without batting an eyelash or taking a breath. The invitation this week is to pause at the threshold of the text, to create a quiet space devoid of noise and movement before letting the words in. Breathe in deeply, breathe out intentionally, light a candle, remove your shoes, turn that space into a welcoming and open space ready to receive the fullness of the text.
And as you leave, pause at that threshold once again before leaving that space with the insights you might have gained, or the questions that might have arisen.
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What is being revealed? What is being moved? What is being asked?
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“For Teilhard, Omega is the most intensely personal center that makes beings personal and centered because it is the attractive center of love that empowers every center to love.” Ilia…
Thank you, Ilia and staff, for this insight and invitation to be part of deepening, desiring and living the gift of our “incarnational dignity” and falling in love with our God, all peoples and the cosmos more and more everyday!!! Blessings of all goodness & peace! Jacquie
I teach high school and today right when I arrived I felt called to light a candle in my classroom – then I read this reflection and it mentioned doing this to make the space holy and create space for possibilities – so I wrote on my desk blotter to remember every day to pause, breathe deeply, and allow the classroom experience to be transformed into an open space. Thank you!
In these days of ever growing pessimism, it is a blessing to be reminded that change (disorder) must precede new order. My confidence in God’s plan keeps me from desolation.
Could someone give an example of a closed system?
Thank you for this new daily meditation series! It will spiritually help my daily contemplative spiritual journey.
I really like the format of the new and contemplative “Heart of Matter” email series.
Having “An Incarnational Practice” connected with Mystical Insight allows me to move beyond thought and to be integrated in heart/mind/body/spirit. Such coherence allows Divine energy to move/flow in us, with us and around us! It will help us to move beyond fear/survival thinking and actions to BECOME active and inspired co-creators of our daily lives.
Without Incarnational Practices, it is so challenging for me to move beyond “heady” thoughts and perspectives. I will never forget an experience with Richard Rohr (one of many) that reminded me of the need for incarnational and mystical practices and dimensions to flow freely with us, in us, through us.
After attending a Men’s Rite of Passage (MROP) at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico in 2001, the CAC (Center for Action and Contemplation) called and asked if I could pick up Richard at the Philly airport and take him to Villanova for a presentation he was delivering. At dinner that evening a good friend of mine asked Richard this question…
If you could sum up all of your teachings in a few words or a sentence…, what would it be? Richard’s response…. “Incarnational/Mysticism”.
I look forward to the many incarnational and mystical gifts that this series “Heart of Matter” will reveal to all of us!
Kevin Barr
God of love is revealed and my heart is moved to reach out in love and compassion.
Thank you for your daily meditations. On my contemplative spiritual journey, I try to be open to God’s Loving Spirit in the sacredness and creative newness of the Present Moment….
Thank you for this new series, Heart of the Matter! I feel it will be beneficial to me and so manybothers!
The word “intentionally” strikes a chord with me today. It moves my mindset into a position of acceptance and presence to reality in a totally different way from normal reading so that I am ready to absorb and be moved into better observance and understanding of all I see and hear, even if for a little while. Everything can give me growth in understanding and the more I learn the more I realise the the gift of my being today is a participation with all that is.