Good Friends,
I am alone for this month of Lent, and in a beautiful cove on the California shore, where I am trying to write a book on Resurrection and the True Self. It will be called IMMORTAL DIAMOND. Today the inspiration flowed naturally and freely, as grace offered me a strong and loving tailwind. Pray for me. I have every hour and full desire to place YOUR deepest desires before the Great Mercy that we call God. The pounding surf outside my window feels like the pleas of the world placing themselves in my heart and on my mind.
Thank you for caring. It is such caring that is the very caring of Christ saving the world.
Peace to you this season, Richard.
May you remain profoundly , helplessly vulnerable to the Spirit in your solitude.
Blessings to you in the birthing of your new book. May you overflow with creativity, inspiration and revelation into deeper and deeper wisdom with effortless ease and grace, with limited labor pains!
My deepest desire is for the end of separation, division and judgment in the world for all beings. May all humanity awaken to the truth of their divine nature and oneness with the Father.
Gracious God, please give Richard true peace, true grace and true inspiration that he may bless us again with his prophetic teachings. Immortal Diamond, I am already enthralled.
“Do or do not… there is no try” – Yoda
Fr. Richard, what news!!! I am at once elated and overwhelmed for you!!! We have never met. Yet, I can imagine you praying, striving to make every word count. I already know that the end result will be something that challenges me, cares about me, and helps my endeavor to be present in every moment. You remain in my prayers. Janis
Richard,
i am a soul who gives thanks to God for your ministry. Although we have not met, and may never, i thank you for being a soul friend. May the winds of grace continue to move in you and through you during this time of solitude, creativity, and prayer…
Your friend in Christ,
marc
Richard, thank you for your presence in this world.
God bless you on your Lenten retreat, Richard. I will be praying for you, and specifically that you continue to receive that tail-wind of inspiration! You are such an inspiration to me and I know to many all over the world. Thank you for your wisdom, your insight, and your courage in challenging our dualistic thinking, and guiding us to a better way, which is of course Christ’s Way!
Dear Richard,
How wonderful to be by the sea with the pounding surf. You are changing the world one reader at a time. Thank you for your heart and soul work. Something you said on one of your videos had really stuck to me . How does one do the moment in their lives. It’s not about deciding if I agree or not to what a person is saying, rather it is an opportunity for me to tune into my own divine presence, indwelling Spirit and ask the question, What does God want me to do in this moment? I’ll tell you, I am perplexed now most of the time. Saying nothing comes to mind a lot. What if I just say nothing until I really feel the calm knowing deep down inside me before I speak?It’s so hard and yet it is starting to change me. It’s actually liberating. I don’t have to know all the answers. Blessings to you on your new book. The world needs to heal one person at a time.
Gratefully,
Lisa Horner/M.Div. student @Marylhurst University OR
you are in my prayers, I look forward with great anticipation to your next offering, I’m currently on my Lenten Journey with “Wondrous Encounters”, thank you
Richard, these last two years have been such loss, my sister, Mother, sister-in-law and even my dog. My daughter-in-law has a life-threatening genetic brain disorder. Tonight, my friend and co-worker lost her Mother after losing her Dad the same time I lost my Mother.last year. May the real resurrection come to us all. I will pray your writing inspires and may you be blessed.
My heart goes out to you in this season of loss. May you be enveloped in a warm, nurturing embrace by the arms of everlasting Love; comforted, strengthened and filled with the peace that passes all understanding.
Bless you in return. I never expected a reply and it warmed my heart. I’m down in Hazard dealing with my sister’s estate and my managerial mode sometimes gets in the way of proper grieving. Thank you so much for your kind words.
I am praying for you Richard!
I’m looking forward to this, Fr. Richard!
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Richard…Thank you for the great conference in Las Vegas with Dr. Brian Swimme. You were a great team. I’m looking forward to the gathering in Dana Point on 3/17 on “Breathing Under Water.” Prayers to you on your hermitage…Warmly…DON
A blessing for you, Richard, as you write for us by the sea:
Deep peace of the running waves to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the shades of night to you
Moon and stars always giving light to you
Ginny,
Thank you.
Can’t wait.
Thank you for caring, Fr. Richard. I participated in a twelve step group for the second week.
I am Catholic. Thank you for your writings and recordings. With prayers.
Prayers for you Matt, as you continue with the twelve steps.
Richard, I will pray. Your tireless ministry is a marvel, and true grace, and God surely is more authentically known because of it. May this book bring more of the same, to more people.
Richard, Help me. Where is Jesus for those who can Not afford to go to chruch or get on the internet or buy a book.
Help me. I want to help those who are lonely here in Colorado where I live. They are out here wanting words of hope, needing to know they are an intregal part of Gods Creation. These are the people who live in nature. These are the people who are freezing at night. These are the people who are really in touch with god in nature. How can they get the message of hope.
Mother Teresa reached out and touched the poor on the streets with her concern for their physical wellbeing as well as their spiritual health.
Richaard, I hope these people I come in contact with, that have not means of attending your seminars or reading your books, etc. will somehow get the message that our Lord Jesus the Christ came to give them hope.
Please, Can you help me?
Mikhail Bakhtin’s believes that it is our interactions with each other, in dialog and response, that can change us as well. What we believe, hope, etc. mean nothing until we ACT. It our actions that reveal the concrete reality of those abstract ideas and ourselves. I argue (and others in his “fan club”), that it is in those ways we become the means through which God can act; we become a kind of living sacrament for others as we make (what we hope) is God’s Grace in us, real to others to change them. Others in turn can act as a mirror, showing us how we have newly defined ourselves by our actions. This is from Bakhtin’s aesthetics. Deborah Haynes wrote a wonderful book on this.
Write on!
When you have those moments of insight into the current events of the world, shift over to your blog and spread your word. It keeps a lot of us going.
Fr. Richard,
It wasn’t until I got into recovery that I was able to see beyond my own world. We will pray for you. We do share your journey. We begin to feel your words before they are written. You have let us into your life to share in our great faith mystery and for that we can be forever changed. God Bless and Keep you safe and faith filled during this Lenten season. Thank You.
Dear Richard,
I am praying for you, as always. May you continue to be inspired, to be present to the Lord, to be present to humanity as an instrument of the Good News. I am sitting here looking out my home office window in the stillness of the morning, enjoying the beauty of a colorful sunrise, and thinking of the beautiful ocean surf outside of your window. God is good all the time!
God be with you, my friend!
Donna
You are in my thoughts and prayers. And thank you again, for giving me the courage to continually pursue my relationship with the GOD OF GREAT MERCY.
In the stillness of solitude and where grace abounds, be filled the Spirit of God, the Diamond of contemplation, the Gate of the Eternal.
prayers from across the oceans and gratitude for wisdom that so often resonates, a deep remembering.
In Christ and with love
Ali in ENgland
Blessings on your writing dear Father. I look forward to reading your new book. By the way, I am finding Wondrous Encounters to be my Lenten inspiration. You have been such a spiritual guide in the last nine years of my life…I thank God for leading me to you.
I will pray for you Richard. You have been such a help to me guiding me with your strong and loving mystical voice. You have helped me to see that I can let go and believe that I will be safe. You have taught me to open my heart to every experience and everyone. You wisdom had guided me to the source of all wisdom. I am so grateful. So I will pray for you, it is the least and the most I can do.
Richard,
It seems so natural to pray for you, your life and current endeavor as you guide me and so many others on a rich and meaningful journey to the center of the universe! Blessings and unexpected joys….
Diane
I’m certain many of us will be praying for you out there during the writing process – I am glad the ocean waves “spoke” to you! And, thank-you, Richard.
“…grace offered me a strong and loving tailwind.” (sigh. beautiful.)
Thank you.
I will hold you to the Light of my Higher Power’s Love…
xox
Blessings Richard and my gratitude to our great God.
Fr. Richard, you are in my prayer as you write. Your books are such an oasis to my journey! Peace and all good!
Pray for those who have no heart. It’s difficult to love without a heart. It’s difficult to love even with a heart. If instead of heart a person has a void, a stone, or a script,carefully veiled, then love becomes a cold external ritual rather than a warm internal grace. Pray for those who have lost their heart.
snowy blessings to you from the north Fr Richard — may your writing these days enrich your life as well as the lives of your readers.
Wow Richard, good for you and good for us. I’ve been there (CA coast); it’s one of the quickest ways for me to know there is a God…which is different from knowing God through a one-on-one relationship…that only came after the fall. I love the ocean and its beautiful power even more now. I respect what you’re doing and look forward to your return.
Dear Richard,
I am grateful for this opportunity to offer blessings on your new book and to pray for profound inspiration in your heart and mind. The way you are beginning touches my heart. First of all by your invocation of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and then by the Bodhisattva experience of ocean waves bringing the whole world into your heart as you write. Plus that, I keep thinking you might be close to the same California cove visited by Thomas Merton–the one he considered for a hermitage–just before he died. At least when I visualize you, writing, I’m planning to place you there.
My husband, author John R Sack, and I so appreciate your work–books, CDs, and podcasts. From them we receive inspiration and insights for our own writing.
We’re looking forward to reading IMMORTAL DIAMOND.
Blessings in the Word,
Christin Lore Weber
http://www.christinloreweber.blogspot.com
I hear the surf Richard, and pray, ‘Godspeed’ for the book . Which with Her, of course, may not necessarily be speedy at all! Bless you for your prayers.
You are always in my prayers Richard. Blessings Robert
Blessings on your journey and I will be looking for this new work.
Namaste
Dear Richard,
You have extraordinary accuracy in your judgment Richard, so please allow yourself the space to remember reality is after all mysterious more perfect than we have conceived it to be.
The following writing is from the Shalom Prayer Center, Mt. Angel, Oregon..
I said to God, “Let me love you.” And He replied “Which part?”
“All of you, all of you.” I said
“Dear,” God spoke, “you are a mouse wanting to impregnate a tiger which is not even in heat. It is a feat way beyond your courage and strength. You would run from me if I removed my mask.”
I said to God again, “Beloved I need to love you – every aspect, every pore.”
And this time God said, “There is a hideous blemish on my body, though it is such and infinitesimal part of my Being – could you kiss that if it were revealed?”
“I will try Lord, I will try.”
And then God said, “That blemish is all the hatred and cruelty in this world.”
Thomas Aquinas
You are in my prayers and trusting in your wisdom arising in you this moment.
Syd
Richard, relax and just enjoy being Richard, which is enough!!! Thank you for showing us all we are treasured children of this wonderful God!! We love you and will always have you in our hearts!
Fred & Mary Carol
May God’s Grace pour into you as you begin this endeavor. I will anxiously await the results.
My prayers are with you.
Fr. Richardfrom a friend who admires you and follows you everywhere, Fr. Sabine in Contemplation in Montezuma.
May this Lenten season reveal to you the great mysteries of the Resurretion
All Blessings Fr Rohr! Resurrection is the true story of a life lived through faith, transcending the many selves we shed (hopefully!) along the way. Reading Falling Upward at the moment.
Michael Hallett
St Augustine, FL
Many blessings to you, Richard, as you begin your new writing. I look forward to reading it in the future. I thank you for your wonderful words of such great wisdom that have helped me and so many others for so many years.
God bless you always,
Jenny
Blessings on your work. Those of us who have created books know how often they take on a life of their own, going where they want and need to go. It is a good thing. I have no doubt that whatever words come forth from this current process will be inspired and inspiring, will touch many people exactly where they need grace — as is true for all the books you have already completed. Thank you for all you give the world.
Dear Richard
Thank you. You have been my soul friend for many years and your wisdom and guidance have seen me through many difficult times. You are one of the great prophets of our time. May the Spirit of God totally invade your time in the cove. May the sound of the sea always fill you with awe at the greatness of our God. I am al;ready placing my order for your new book!!
Brendan in Ireland
Dear Richard
Knowing you are praying for me fills me with hope. . .you are a light to the waves of souls rushing to your shore. . .I bring prayers for you as my spirit joins yours in being Christ for each other. Blessings on this new work of your soul!
Thank you, thank you. You have taught me much about the Great Mercy. Our prayers are with you and the Great Intercessor as you write your book. Hope that I am an immortal diamond. Gloria
Richard,
I have read a good number of your books a good number of times each, because they are packed with so much simple wisdom and depth. I pray that during this Lent and during this time you enter into the great mystery that speaks so eloquently in and through you.
Dennis
Richard,
your writings keep me sane. You name some of the paradoxes I find so hard to fathom.
Knowing that I’m not the only person contemplating these things is a great help to me. You make Catholicism a place where I can still find a home.
I have a strong mental image of where you are right now and can almost hear the waves as they come crashing in – how inspiring it must be.
Blessings to you,
Nic
Will be praying for you.
I will pray for you and for the desire to desire. While we have never met face to face, you are a profound influence in my journey. Shalom.
Father Richard,
You will be in my prayers, prayers of thanks for the inspiration you’ve given me.
Wow, talk about a lot of meaning in a few words! “As grace offered me a long and loving tailwind.” Love the metaphor of grace as a tailwind moving us along in our journey. Nothing like the movement of the ocean to allow your creativity to birth itself. I was sharing with a group of Theresian women last night in Richmond, Texas that being in a bonded community of women gives us the opportunity to become one in our feminine spirituality – to become the tailwind that moves us forward in our spiritual journey. You surely have my thoughts and prayer as you hermit throughout Lent. May your time be filled with richness and beauty and deeply reaching your core.
You are so awesome and such a gift to the world!
What a beautiful comment, thank you! I have come to realize that the Feminine is movement, flow, motion, form, fullness, immanence, wildness, wave-like movement and Masculine is empty, transcendent, still, silent, formless, like the depths of the sea. May we all encompass the entire ocean of being and find wholeness. Blessings and love to you vickss718
I am overawed by the magnitude of your task but confident that your wonderful teaching ministry is again to find an outlet.. I thank you for allowing the spirit to work through you and thus reach me. I am too trapped in stuff to be able to find truth without people like you to inspire me. Please know that I, and others like me, are holding you up to God. I write this with much gratitude to you and God. Blessings and grace enfold you.
MY deepest desires!! Thank you. Simply thank you. My deepest known desire – to be a Godly woman.
We are waiting to see what comes of this wonderful lenten experience. You may be physically alone, but the prayers and ears of many are there with you and will share your blessings. God’s love be with you.
I have found that alone is all one with God and I cherish the all-onement with the Beloved Adonai. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know. Be still. Be all one.
Suerte, Padre!
Can’t wait to read your book. Our book!
Fr. Richard,
May you be filled with many graces and blessings, as you write this book..and always.
I pray that you will be an instrument of God’s Light, Love and Wisdom…and Courage as you write. I will pray for you daily.
Thank you so much for really touching my heart and soul with your writings and other works.
I look forward with anticipation to your new book..God Bless! Mary
Richard you are a very good companion as I travel through this beautiful and mystical life. My prayers are with you. From a recovered alcoholic of nearly 12 years. In my weaknesses (and I have many) are my greatest strengths.
Truly beautiful graces you are experiencing and sharing with the world. My prayers are with you.
Richard…the vulnerability in your message gives me strength. I have said for years that vulnerability is another word for incarnation and we are all called to be incarnate. You are not “trying” to write a book; it may feel like “trying” but I have followed your ministry for many years and it has always been filled with “willingness.” My wish for you is this: Bring that “trying” to the foot of the cross. There you will discover Abba standing beside you, gazing at the fully-human Jesus, the Jesus who is feeling like he has been abandoned. Abba is suffering; yes, suffering in the reality that S/He can do nothing because perfect love can only flow/manifest through a “willing” and “vulnerable” instrument (Matthew 5:48). Be still and know your willingness. It permeates every word in your post.
Thanks Richard for the note. I will indeed pray for inspiration and wisdom. I am working with the sick and dying these days and am so taken by human suffering as an important part of seeing with different eyes. I hope you include a chapter on suffering and how important it is to move into it. It’s scarry for me these days to see so much suffering both in what I do and in the world. I struggle to move through the fear.
Blessings and Love
Denny Davis
Dear Denny,
I also visit the sick and suffering and I invite you to stop struggling, let go, Let God and surrender into the arms of Divine Love. “Perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4: Love, Love, Love). “Do not fear” is repeated over and over in the Word of Light. The darkness is passing away and ALREADY the true Light is shining. Just look for the Light in the midst of the suffering; it is there already! Blessings and Love to you in your ministry.
My dearest Pastor and companion, Fr. Richard –
there are no words…
How precious you are to be given to the world at this time,
and to this soul in particular…
*Yes!* Amen.
May inspiration delight in dancing with you in this time of your own Lenten journey. I am looking out over the rim of Canyon de Chelly near my home in the Navajo Nation. The wind is blowing so that it sounds like the beating of the surf. In this beautiful desert place I hold you in my prayers and give thanks to the Holy One for all that is being done through you. Blessings, dear one, Khan
Wishing you inspiration. Though you’re so in tune with the Spirit that I know you’re breathing in and out with Her.
Ah, your book title just made me smile, Zen master in brown robes…subtitle in my mind: “Diamond Sutra for the West”.
May an angel sit on each corner of your bed as you dream this night.
Glory and Praise to Our God who alone gives Light to Our days. Many are the Blessings He bears to Those who Trust in His Ways. Many Blessings Richard.
I’m just rereading “Falling Upward” and picked up on the “Immortal Diamond” phrase in the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem “That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection.” It is jaw-dropping that we are transformed into what Christ is.
Richard,
Good luck with your book! I am sure it will be wonderful. I am in India and spent a couple of months at Shantivanam where your CD’s were being passed around and very popular. I gave a set to Brother Martin as his teachings are so complementary to yours.
Met Father Raniero from Big Sur and he told me you often retreat there.
Prayers ensuing, Richard.
I’m still reading your book *Falling Upward*… sipping slowly and savouring.
Maybe the waves outside your window are chanting “trust….trust…trust…”
That will be my mantra prayer for you.
Blessings, June
Good luck Richard. You may be interested in this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on writing and inspiration: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html.
Dear Father Richard,
I was blessed to spend time with you last summer at the Daylesford Abbey in Pennsylvania. I move from sacred space to your website in my daily prayer. My friends at the Abbey all feel as I do in that your insight is compelling. I am stealing the word “eucharisteo” from author Ann Voskamp in her book one thousand gifts to describe in a word my experience with your readings and teachings. Your words help me suffer in my struggle to live as practicing Catholic.
Blessings,
Maureen
Dear Richard:
Blessing be with you as you write. The universe smiles!
Good sleeping and clear dreaming… : )
Blessings from Australia!
As a writer myself Father, I understand what an amazing gift time alone to write can be. You’ll be in my prayers. May your inspiration continue! Your wisdom is a blessing to me.
My thought and prayer. In the light of strong and loving tailwind. Thank you for sharing these beautiful thoughts.
I am like one of the many others giving you my support and prayers! Blessings Fr Richard…
Blessings and prayers as your creative gifts are blown through the sounds of the surf and the whispers of the wind. May your hands and thoughts be gently guided by the Spirit,, as you simply sit and allow this of so wonderful God of Love, to flow through you and onto the pages of your script.
I look forward to your new book, the others have been a source of gifted inspiration, that only the Spirit can give.
God Bless!
I look forward to learning more about the resurrection life of ‘this Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond . . .’
Wishing you courage and clarity, Fr Richard.
Amen is what I say to Father Richard Rohr’s comments on the issue of the Nuns. What’s been happening lately has had me thinking of leaving the church. But, I’m stubborn & won’t let Rome do that to me. I must remember this isn’t God doing this it is after all the lowly men of Rome!!!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for addressing Rome for the Sisters. It is time for some
major transformation in the Vatacan.
Many blessings to you Richard and for “Venus”