Tallman: Seven spiritual ideas for the holidays, new year

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For the past 50 or so years, Richard Rohr has impacted Christian spirituality in North America and worldwide. He has published 37 books on spirituality, is loved by Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics, and has hundreds of thousands of followers who receive his meditations in their email every day.

Those who know him acknowledge him as one of the world’s wisest teachers.

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Rohr is an American Franciscan priest, and his main influences, besides Jesus, have been Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, and Saint Francis of Assisi. He is 81 and lives in Albuquerque, N.M., where he founded the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in 1987, which will carry on his legacy.

Recently, the staff of CAC asked him to identify the key themes, values, principles or overarching ideas in his work so they could use them to guide the center when he is gone. After several months, he taught them seven key themes, which I will paraphrase.

A Benevolent universe. If Jesus is God incarnate, he repeatedly shows us by his words and deeds that God is purely good, loving and merciful. This being so, God has created a universe which is geared to help human beings, and all creatures, to thrive. Although it may seem otherwise on the surface, we can trust that things are fundamentally “very good,” as it says in the first chapter of the Bible (Genesis 1:1-31).

Everything is sacred. There is no secular-sacred split. Religions often have taught that only the synagogue, church, temple or mosque are sacred places, and the rabbi, priest, minister, guru, imam or saint are the only sacred people. Nature is sacred, or, as Matthew Fox, an Episcopal priest and another great interpreter of Christianity, says, “Nature is grace.” Rohr, Fox and Indigenous Peoples would agree, if nature is grace, we must not abuse it. Not emphasizing the sacredness of nature has caused our present climate crisis.

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Everything and everyone belongs. The title of Rohr’s most popular book says it all: Everything Belongs. It follows from the second theme that if everything is sacred, then there is nothing and no one people should exclude from their lives. All people of all countries, races, genders, sexual orientations and financial levels should be welcomed in all political, health care, educational and religious organizations.

Individualism is a problem. All world religions recognize that the ego, the small, false self that thinks it is separate from everyone else, superior to everyone, and wants to lord it over others, is problematic. We are, by nature, communal, social beings; we all need love, and social justice is the proper distribution of love in society. Therefore, community and social justice are integral to the spiritual life, not an afterthought.

Personal experience must be checked against scripture and tradition. Experience is the front wheel of Rohr’s tricycle analogy. You first must ask, “Does this teaching make sense to me, given my life experience so far?” If yes, you need to check it against the back wheels of communal wisdom. “Is it congruent with my tradition’s sacred writings and history?”

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Descent, not ascent, is the way of transformation. When we run into problems, obstacles, and suffering, we grow the most spiritually. When everything is sunny, believing is easy. However, when you are like the prophet Job, who lost everything – his family, health, and wealth – or like Jesus on the cross, you find out if you really have faith or not. Another popular Rohr book, Falling Upward, goes into depth about this.

Nondual consciousness is the goal. Realizing everything is one and interconnected ties together all the other themes. The goal is to be fully united in love with God, your true self, others and nature.

Let us all try living these themes, values, and principles at Christmas and in 2025!

Bruce Tallman is a spiritual director and educator of adults in religion. brucetallman.com

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