
American Franciscan priest, ecumenical contemplative teacher, and founder (1987) of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque — one of the most widely-read contemplative Christian voices of the twenty-first century, with daily meditations reaching more than half a million readers. Born 1943 in Topeka, Kansas, Rohr was ordained Franciscan in 1970 and has become a bridge figure for readers across Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and secular contemplative streams: drawing on the Desert Mothers and Fathers, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and the perennial tradition. His best-known books — Falling Upward, The Universal Christ, Immortal Diamond, Everything Belongs, Breathing Under Water — reframe Christian doctrine through the lens of contemplative experience and the second half of life.
quotes in library
“Practice the art of letting go.”
“There is a part of you that has always said yes to God.”
“Find that part of yourself, and live there.”
“Francis was a fully practical mystic.”
“Mysticism does not mean being weird.”
“It means being grounded in your own experience of the divine.”
“All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.”
“If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.”
“Pain that is not transformed is transmitted.”
“To pass on our pain to others, we don't have to do anything; we just have to do nothing about it.”
“Most religion has been about transferring blame and not about absorbing pain.”
“True religion is about absorbing pain, not avoiding it.”
“Suffering is the price you pay for being awake.”
“The path you find under your feet is your path.”
“Don't compare it to anyone else's.”
“You only know what you really believe by what you actually do.”
“Breathing under water is a choice and an art that we must learn.”
“You learn to live again — wet, dependent, and not in control.”
“There is no precise scientific way to access this truth.”
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