A P U B L I CAT I O N O F T H E C E N T E R F O R A C T I O N A N D C O N T E M P L AT I O N
| WINTER 2021, VOL. 11 NO. 1
THE
MENDICANT
The year 2020 has been a deeply challenging time for all of us. We recognize many of you have experienced difficulties and loss. Here at the CAC, we have had to find new ways to imagine our path forward, as have all organizations during this pandemic. When we first envisioned the theme of Order, Disorder, Reorder for the Fall 2020 edition of our literary journal Oneing, little did we know how well it would help to frame our times. As we have continued to work from our separate homes, we have looked deeply into what it means to come together in work and prayer. For this edition of the Mendicant, we decided to share glimpses of how the pattern of order, disorder, and reorder has affected the CAC staff since it was determined that we needed to leave the Center and work remotely from our home offices because of the COVID-19 virus.
Order, Disorder, Reorder : A Time of Unveiling
I
It seems that reality is being unveiled in our moment.
first sat down in my new home office on March 2, 2020 to begin work as the Managing Editor of Richard ’s Daily Meditations. I had hung and stacked everything in place: the Bill McNichols prints of Mary Magdalene and a meditating Jesus; bookshelf contents organized by Fr. Richard’s works, CAC faculty writings, history of mysticism, and more. I propped open my shiny MacBook Air, with a nearby cup of coffee steaming, and jumped in with my whole heart. For an initial two weeks, I stewarded the Daily Meditations team. This team is remarkable, and I name them so you too can know who they are: Program Designer Cliff Berrien creates Saturday contemplative practices; Publications Director Vanessa Guerin proofreads; contractor Therese Terndrup hunts citation sources; contractors Judy Traeger, Leslye Colvin, and Ali Kirkpatrick curate and edit. I remember the flutter of excitement when I pressed “send” to email Fr. Richard my first proposed week of meditations. Then the pandemic spread, the shutdowns started, and the schools closed. My kids crawled on me during the CAC staff’s virtual morning sit. We stumbled and started remote schooling at home, while unimaginable suffering extended across the world and around the country. Many could work at home on our computers; many could not. Reality was revealing something collectively to us—but what? We chose “A Time of Unveiling” for the Richard’s Daily
MARK LONGHURST
1
Meditations 2021 theme because it seems that reality is being unveiled in our moment. Reality has been here the whole time, of course, just as God Is Who God Is (Exodus 3:14). But never—in my lifetime, at least— have interwoven crises forced us to reckon with reality in quite so challenging a way. On the one hand, it may feel like “end times,” not because the world is actually ending, but because our sense of normalcy has been so upended. One key inspiration for the 2021 theme comes from the word “apocalyptic,” which—contrary to popular belief—does not mean destruction or the end of the world. The Greek word for “revelation” is apokálypsis, which means an unveiling or disclosure of deeper truth and meaning. In the United States and elsewhere, the pandemic joined forces with other pandemics, such as racism, poverty, and climate change. This time of disorder has ripped off the band-aid of denial. Once we see, we can’t not see. But it’s not only the difficult truths that are being unveiled; it’s also the hopeful ones. Even while the temptation to despair might be great, Fr. Richard Rohr’s teaching affirms and challenges us to recognize that the universe is still trustworthy and benevolent, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Christ is not Jesus’ last name, Fr. Richard tells us in The Universal Christ; it is the unity of matter and spirit from the very beginning and through time, until the very end. Christ holds our lives
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