Core Ideas
This Franciscan teacher believes suffering is the primary path to spiritual transformation.
Who is Richard Rohr?
Rohr says these emotional expressions are invitations into deeper compassion.
What are tears ?
This prophet’s early resistance to God’s call has earned him the moniker “The Reluctant Prophet
Who is Jeremiah?
These are the messages that all three Isaiah’s share
A call to God, to pursue justice and believe hope is possible?
Rohr refers to this prophet as not throwing out the message because the messenger is a bit quirky
Who is Ezekiel ?
Rohr contrasts the contemplative mind with this “either/or” way of thinking.
What is dualistic thinking
Rohr calls this kind of suffering “unavoidable and essential.”
What is necessary suffering ?
This prophet challenges 450 of its prophets and priest in a contest on Mount Carmel to determine which deity is the true God of Israel
Who is Elijah?
Second Isaiah speaks to people living in this condition, which Rohr interprets as the fertile ground for spiritual awakening.
What is exile?
Rohr says that this attribute is one of those realities that is everywhere once you stop weighing, counting and deserving.
What is Grace?
Rohr says this “self” must fall apart before true growth can begin.
What is the false self (or ego)?
Tears, Rohr says, soften the heart and open us to this divine presence
What is God’s compassion (or divine love) ?
Rohr call these 3 prophets the Unfinished Prophets
Who are Elijah, Jonah and John the Baptizer?
Rohr often quotes Second Isaiah’s message of comfort, beginning with this famous phrase.
What is “Comfort, comfort my people”?
This book of the Bible, attributed to Jeremiah, is filled with poetic grief that Rohr sees as sacred lament.
What is Lamentations?
Rohr often describes spiritual growth as a movement from order to disorder to this
What is reorder?
Rohr suggests that tears reveal this truth about the human condition.
What is our shared vulnerability?
This prophet was quoted in the Bible stating “I shall betroth you to myself forever, I shall betroth you in uprightness and justice and faithful love and tenderness?
Who is Hosea ?
Second Isaiah reframes suffering not as punishment but as this — a path toward renewal and return
What is redemption ?
Rohr says we must “fall” into God through this kind of surrender
What is letting go?
Rohr wrote in what book about the “first half of life”
What is Falling Upwards?
Rohr says this practice helps us stay present to our grief.
What is contemplation (or contemplative prayer) ?
This prophet said “ I am a mere shepherd and a dresser of fig trees. Yahweh took me and said Go, prophesy to the people of Israel”
Who is Amos?
Second and Third Isaiah proclaim that God will create this…a phrase Rohr uses to describe radical spiritual renewal.
What is a new heaven and new earth?
Rohr teaches that suffering becomes transformative only when we do this with it.
What is integrate it (or hold it consciously)?