Jesus and His Church

The Trinity is supposed to be the central doctrine grounding Christianity, yet we're often told that we shouldn't attempt to understand it because it's a mystery. But what if we breached that mystery? How might it transform our relationship with God?

In retracing the second and third missionary trips of St. Paul, Father Richard Rohr breaks open the life of this saint, recasting him as a mystic and as the first Christian theologian. Rohr presents Paul's revolutionary and all-embracing vision and invites us to enter into the mystery of Christ and be transformed. Rohr breaks new ground by applying up-to-date theories of our universe, integrating them with Paul's revolutionary thinking about sin, saints, and spirituality.

In this first volume in a three-part series, Richard Rohr develops aspects of transformation, a recurring theme in his popular presentations. Talk One: "Jesus: Forgiving Victim, Transforming Savior". If we imitate the way Jesus lived the role of victim, we will be able to live the Christian mystery. Jesus suffers freely but does not pass on the pain. He forgives, which destroys the death that confronts us. He says, “No one else is your problem. You are the locus of conversion and transformation.”

Rohr reprises his best-selling talks on scripture in this powerful new series. He describes the Bible as a text in travail, containing not just conclusions, but a process that mirrors our own journey (three steps forward, two steps backward). In the three steps forward, Scripture always reveals that we are related to something infinite and that ours is an enchanted and trustworthy universe.

In language that Paul might use if he were preaching and writing today, Rohr presents Paul’s all-embracing vision and invites us to enter into the mystery of Christ and be transformed. Rohr breaks new ground by applying up-to-date theories of our universe, integrating them with Paul’s revolutionary thinking about sin, saints and spirituality.

Richard Rohr leads us through the social, political and environmental setting out of which Matthew brought Christ’s radical message of a new world order. He explains Matthew’s challenge to let go of the conventional wisdom that comes with contemporary American culture. Each of seven talks brings us closer to the heart of the Sermon.

In his best-selling book Falling Upward, Richard Rohr talked about ego (or the False Self) and how it gets in the way of spiritual maturity. But if there's a False Self, is there also a True Self? What is it? How is it found? Why does it matter? And what does it have to do with the spiritual journey? This book likens True Self to a diamond, buried deep within us, formed under the intense pressure of our lives, that must be searched for, uncovered, separated from all the debris of ego that surrounds it.

In our culture, the “good life” means getting more. This series of retreat talks challenges listeners to subtract--to release whatever hinders us from siding with the cosmic Christ, whether that be in our inner world or our outer world. Father Rohr offers a daring vision which calls us to surrender, to liberation, to making room for real freedom.

Western civilization is undergoing a crisis of meaning, and the Christian community needs to find new value, identity, and purpose through hope, says Franciscan Father Richard Rohr. In lectures and homilies he describes both the crisis and cure. In the 13th century, he tells us, St. Francis was called by the Lord to “rebuild my Church.” Anguished by the fragmentation in the Church today, Rohr invites us to rebuild the Church in the 21st century.

We often think of saints as rare individuals whose gifts far exceed our own, and St. Francis is no exception. But for Fr. Richard Rohr, a prolific author and renowned speaker, the life and teachings of this beloved figure offer an authentic spirituality we can all embody.

In the first half of life, we are naturally preoccupied with establishing ourselves; climbing, achieving, and performing. But as we grow older and encounter challenges and mistakes, we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-giving way. This message of falling down - that is in fact moving upward - is the most resisted and counterintuitive of messages in the world's religions. Falling Upward offers a new paradigm for understanding one of the most profound of life's mysteries: how those who have fallen down are the only ones who understand "up".

Franciscan priest Richard Rohr feels that there is no more challenging spiritual issue than the “problem of the self". Most of contemporary spiritual teaching, he believes, is still trying to inspire and fortify the private self, the autonomous "I". Even much church work is trying to evangelize and sacramentalize what many would call "the false self." Basic transformation is not expected, but merely a new set of beliefs and practices or loyal membership in a new group.

Join Thomas Merton in exploring one of the most influential figures in the history of spirituality. Born in the fourth century, Saint John Cassian (AD 360-435) lived when tensions between the traditional and innovative peaked. A monk and theologian, Cassian made the Christian tradition relevant for the needs of his day in his spiritual works. Indeed, his spirituality remains essential today; he influenced Saints Benedict and Ignatius of Loyola, and his works continue to be read worldwide.

Two internationally known spiritual guides explore integrating our inner and outer journeys. They challenge us to confront our inner and social violence and bring it to healing and transformation in a sacred and ecumenical context. Rohr and Keating each give insights on awakening to God's friendship, coming to know God and ourselves, growing in love through centering prayer, facing evil around us and our demons within us as well as opening our deep selves to divine therapy which heals our wounds.

From infancy, Father Keating teaches, we accumulate emotional layers, or programs, as a result of traumatic experiences. The practice of Centering Prayer engages directly with the unconscious and loosens old traumas that hinder your spiritual development. This form of divine therapy draws from a contemplative method that has brought profound inner transformation into the lives of thousands of practitioners.