BB: All right, it’s just more to come on this conversation brought to you from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Just… I don’t know. I don’t know what to say, really. Just so important to me. And I’m grateful to be able to share it with y’all because y’all are important to me, too. You can find the podcast on brenebrown.com and you can find links to all of Richard’s books. As someone who’s been sober for a long time and hopes to be so tomorrow, Breathing Under Water is a really important book for me. So stay awkward, brave, and kind and open yourself up to some unrelenting grace. RR: I don’t know, you would normally wouldn’t call that a friend, would you? Who’s whomping you on the side of the head. The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation with Mike Morrell (Whitaker, 2016) ISBN 978-1629117294 [26] Rohr and Morrell have given us a liberating and yet totally orthodox invitation into the life of God. This book is a celebration of the Trinity, not as bad math (1+1+1=3), and not as baffling mystery to avoid, but as the divine movement of love. The Divine Dance is an example of why Rohr has had such a profound influence on so many Christians seeking to balance reason and mystery, action and contemplation, not to mention faith and real life. - Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastor, House for All Sinners and Saints, Author, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People BB: And the fragility of that ego and the self-protection around it, can lead to really dangerous things.

Richard Rohr - Wikipedia Richard Rohr - Wikipedia

In the second half of life we discover that it is no longer sufficient to find meaning in being successful or healthy. We need a deeper source of purpose. According to Jung, “Meaning makes a great many things endurable—perhaps everything. No science will ever replace myth [the communicator of meaning], and a myth cannot be made out of any science. . . . [Myth] is the revelation of a divine life in man. It is not we who invent myth, rather it speaks to us as a Word of God.” [4] Science gives us explanations, and that is a good start, but myth and religion give us meaning which alone satisfies the soul. Short review: This is a book about embracing maturity. Age is not maturity, we all know immature people that are advanced in years. Rohr believes that we need to embrace the different parts of life. Our younger years are concerned with identity (what we do, who we marry, etc.). Our older years should be concerned with meaning. So if we properly understand how to mature, we live inside the structures of of life in our younger years and then we learn when to leave the structures of live in our older years. Longhurst, Mark (September 19, 2014). "Learning Action and Contemplation at Richard Rohr's Living School Living School". Patheos Emerging Voices.

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C. G. Jung, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, translated by Richard and Clara Winston, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Vintage Books: 1989), 297.[4] Ibid., 340.

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

RR: We’re missing something major. That’s so true, Brené. When I was helping Francis MacNutt, he was a Dominican priest who restarted the healing ministry in the Catholic Church in the 1970s, and I served on his team several times. And he used to say often in an opening talk, “Most Catholics don’t even know the word healing applies to the gospel. The gospel is much more about, ‘Forgive me.’” I can get away with saying it because I’m a priest. I guess I can. It’s about punishing, not healing. And everything according to the depth of the sin deserves a greater and greater punishment. Now, when you’re concentrating on reward, punishment, you never get to healing. BB: That’s strong. That’s a serious word that you’re using there. Undeserved. Like, just mercy, grace? RR: That’s right, it is talked about in a number of books. People have had great experiences there. And it’s like the work of art. We have a lot of art around the place that’s sent to us, but this one was here already and gathered us, I think.After completing the mission we return to where he started, but improved with the “boon”, the gift for those to whom we are returning. Letting Go of Our Ego Falling upward means, quite simply, casting off the excitement and cravings of youth, as Paul of Tarsus enjoins all those who are commencing the New Life. With that removal of extra gravity pull, we commence our "fall" (relaxing of our cares and attachments), "upwards" - into the Grace which is specific to the Second Phase of Life.

The Two Halves of Life — Center for Action and Contemplation

RR: Yes. It should be preached twice a year in every American church because we don’t believe it, we don’t like it, it’s wrong. It’s wrong. And I’ve had people tell me that in the vestibule. In my opinion, that parable is precisely to undo the quid pro quo worldview. And precisely. And that means nothing to God is what Jesus is saying. BB: I don’t want it, because I don’t want to give it to people when that happens. And yet again, my prayer, I’m trapped in certain grace. I mean, I cannot get out of God’s grace if I try. It seems unrelenting.

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Fr. Richard is author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adam’s Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, Eager to Love, and The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (with Mike Morrell). BB: So, this is a continuation, “When religion does not give people an inner life or a real prayer life, it is missing its primary vocation. Let me sum up, then, the foundational ways that I believe Jesus and the 12 steps of AA are saying the same thing but with different vocabulary.” Woo, here we go. This is big. “We suffer to get well. We surrender to win.” More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense.” – Ken Keyes The second mountain is a concept that we all have two big purposes in life. The first is becoming self-reliant. This means seeking after a career, happiness, and general well-being. The second mountain is something more profound, one focused more on the impact one can have on the world, and on achieving joy in true enlightenment.