A couple weeks ago Mary Gurley and I traveled to Albuquerque for the Center for Action and Contemplation’s (CAC) conference entitiled “ReVision – What do we do with Christianity?” If you are not familiar with the CAC, you can find them at www.cac.org. They have many spiritual, soul-searching courses to help bring you closer to God and you can subscribe to a daily meditation.
The conference was overwhelming! Held in a humongous conference room with a center stage and huge video screens all around the stage and the room so that no matter where the speaker turned, everyone saw him/her speaking directly to them! When there was no speaker, there were beautiful videos of nature set to ethereal music. The audience of over 1600 souls were seated all around at round tables of eight with interactional activities in the center for anyone who needed to use their hands – a zen sand box or tiny Lego sets (I built a mini golden bonzai tree for our table one day).
Father Richard Rohr did come and speak on two days. Even from a wheelchair with his faithful dog Opie, he spoke eloquently on faith, contemplation and right action – recentering Jesus as a prophet in this age of outrage. We need to center ourselves in Christ and act with love for our neighbors.
Different modes of prayer were demonstrated: song; lectio divina- using scripture, poetry or any wise saying; chanting; and silent meditation. All are good ways to get into contemplation and come closer to God while stilling the mind.
One of the speakers that I found especially interesting is Diana Butler Bass, author and historian. She spoke on the effect of stories on our view of the world. All our stories have many sides. The story of Christianity and how it has diverged over the years is a big one. On one hand there is the BIG CHRISTIANITY – Christ ®Constantine (legalized Christianity), ®Christendom (church and state are one), ®Calvin, ®Christian America: conquest, earthly victory through strong leaders, imperial, warrior Christianity of winning and NOT losing. On the other, there is the small c Christianity that also starts with Christ, then continues to community (Jesus dining with sinners), compassion for others, courage to stand up for what is true, contemplation to center the mind, and creativity to change the hearts and minds of civilization. I feel that St. Patrick’s is heartily centered in little c Christianity!