Download CHRISTIAN LIFE IN EVOLUTION

Carmelite Federation Meeting
June 3, 2009
platonic concept of
order whereby
cosmos seen as:
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- perfect
- immutable
- hierarchical
- geocentric
- anthropocentric
New transcendent
relation to nature
Lifting up from earth
to heaven.
Lex orandi,
Lex credendi
Lex vivendi
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Law
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Order
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World as machine
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God of Gaps
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world-machine was designed by an
intelligent Creator and expressed God’s
purposes.
a clockwork universe constructed by
Creator out of basic components created
out of nothing.
Creator kept this world mechanism in good
repair by preventing it from a too early
unwinding through repeated interventions.
“A mistake about creation
is a mistake about God.”
T. Aquinas
EVOLUTION:
COSMOLOGICAL AND
BIOLOGICAL
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The word evolution, to unfold or open out,
derives from the Latin evolvere, which applied
to the “unrolling of a book.
The idea that life unfolds from simple to
complex structures or that nature is marked
by a twofold movement of convergence and
divergence now holds true not only on the
level of biology but on just about every level
of life in the universe.
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Old
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Large
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Dynamic
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Interconnected
“It does not matter what country you
Look at. We are all Earth’s children,
And we should treat her as our
Mother.”
Aleksandr Aleksandrov
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We are one of 100 billion galaxies
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a midsize galaxy consisting of 100 billion stars,
and stretching about 100,000 light years in
diameter.
The galaxies are often grouped into
clusters—some having as many as 2,000
galaxies together.
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E. Hubble telescope (1924) – saw that ours was not
the only galaxy- many others with large empty
spaces between them; red shift
G. Lemaitre (d. 1966) - Big Bang - dense, red hot
universe – exploded
A. Penzias and R. Wilson (1965) – cosmic
background radiation
Universe is dynamic and expanding
According to the Big Bang model,
the universe developed from an
extremely dense and hot state.
Space itself has been subsequently
expanding, carrying galaxies
(and all other matter) with it.
72% of the universe, is composed of
"dark energy", that acts as a sort of
an anti-gravity. This energy, distinct
from dark matter, is responsible for
the present-day acceleration of the
universal expansion.
Cosmological redshift
If the universe were
contracting instead of
expanding, we would see
distant galaxies blue
shifted by an amount
proportional to their
distance instead of
red-shifted.
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A graphical representation of the
gravitational redshift due to a neutron
star.
The initial energy balance of universe and many
other details were so right that it seemed that
universe had been expressly designed to produce
intelligent, sentient beings.
weak principle - In a universe that is large or
infinite in space/time, conditions necessary for life
will be met only in certain regions that are limited
in space and time.
strong principle - reason we are here is that it
is only universe (out of infinite number) in which
conditions are just right for emergence of humans.
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A trillionth of a
trillionth of a
trillionth of one
percent faster, the
cosmic material
would have been
flung too far apart
for anything
significant to
happen
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Three hundred
million years after
the Big Bang, the
first stars and
galaxies emerged,
forming clusters as
the universe
continued to
expand.
The embodied person that you are at this
very moment—all the constituents that would
eventually come together into the person that
is you—was present in the Big Bang.
Radically amazing!
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Einstein - 1905 -- No absolute space or time
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time does not flow at a fixed rate
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Gravity = curvature of space-time by matter, not
only stretches or shrinks distances (depending on
their direction with respect to the gravitational
field) but also will appear to slow down or "dilate"
the flow of time.
If you are not confused or
shocked by Quantum Physics,
then you have not really
understood it.
Niels Bohr
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Energy is not continuous, but comes in small
discrete units.
The elementary particles behave both like particles
and like waves.
The movement of these particles is inherently
random.
It is physically impossible to know both the
position and the momentum of a particle at the
same time. The more precisely one is known, the
less precise the measurement of the other is.
The atomic world is nothing like the world we live
in.
Light has a dual nature; in some cases it
behaves as a wave, and in other cases it
behaves as a photon. So which is it?
When it looks like a particle, it is a particle.
When it looks like a wave, it is a wave. It is
meaningless to ascribe any properties or
even existence to anything that has not
been measured.
Nothing is real unless it is observed.
"The more precisely
the POSITION is determined
the less precisely
the MOMENTUM is known“
(Uncertainty paper, 1927)
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No deterministic universe. Cannot predict future events.
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What cannot be measured cannot take place exactly. Only what
can be observed can be known.
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No distinction between process of observed and what is observed.
No line between subject and object
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The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it. T he
act of observation produces physical reality.
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We are actors rather than spectators
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Anything that cannot be observed does not exist.
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Matter is not composed of basic building
blocks but complicated web of relations
no objective reality outside observer.
observer constitutes final link in chain of
observational processes and properties of
any atomic object can be understood only
in terms of objects interaction with
observer.
THE
Universe
Is
INTERCONNECTED
Ludwig von Bertalanffy credited with theory
of “open systems.”
Open systems – feed on a continual flux of
matter and energy from their environment.
Remain far from equilibrium.
Self-regulation became key property of
open systems.
Second law of thermodynamics (Sadi Carnot)
-trend from order to disorder. Any closed
system will proceed spontaneously in
direction of increasing disorder.
- Open systems proceed spontaneously to new
order.
To understand phenomenon of selforganization, must first understand
importance of pattern -- i.e., relationships
E. Lorenz (1961) discovered that small
changes in initial conditions produced large
changes in the long-term outcome.
chaos theory is about finding the underlying
order in apparently random data.
complex and unpredictable results can and
will occur in systems that are sensitive to
their initial condition  non-linear
systems
Turbulence in the tip vortex
from an airplane wing.
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Sensitivity to initial conditions - an arbitrarily small
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Strange attractors – basins of attraction within
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Fractals – geometric shape that is similar to itself
perturbation of the current trajectory may lead to
significantly different future behaviour 
“Butterfly Effect”
system that can lure the system into a new pattern
of order over time.
at different scales
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Arise from interactions and relationships
among parts.
Properties of parts can be understood only
from organization of whole.
Concentrates not on building blocks but on
principles of organization.
Thinking is "contextual" not analytic.
B. Swimme - everything in universe is
''genetically'' related. The universe is bound
together in communion, each thing w/all
the rest.
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We live in interwoven layers of bondedness.
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Interconnectedness lies at core of all that
exists.
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Participatory universe
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From mechanistic worldview  holistic /ecological
view.
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World is an integrated whole rather than parts.
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Network of phenomena that are fundamentally
interconnected and interdependent.
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Recognizes intrinsic value of all living beings and
views humans as one particular strand in the web
of life.
THE UNIVERSE
IS IN
EVOLUTION
Each volume has 450 pages.
Each page = 1 million years
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
1 = Big Bang
21 = Earth
22 = Life
29 = Cambrian period
30 = Dinosaurs which go extinct on p. 385
30 = Mammals on p. 390
30 = p. 450 last line, human beings
In 1859 C. Darwin (1809-1882) wrote "On the
Origin of Species" -- saw process of creation
strictly from point of evolution
an ascending process of development from simple
to complex forms aided by natural selection.
The modern theory of evolution (= the “neoDarwinian Synthesis”) says that the great
diversity of life can be naturally explained by
the combination of chance, law, and deep time:
1. Chance: accidental, chance events or contingencies:
 a genetic mutation that lead to new characteristics in an
organism
 a natural disaster that changes the environment that an
organism must adapt to
2. Law: the deterministic laws of natural selection
(nature “selects” as survivors organism who best
adapt to the environment; all others perish),
chemistry, and physics
3. Deep Time: enormous depths of time
Evolution tells us human beings are the result
of billions of years of a meandering process
of “natural selection,” a journey marked by
untold pain and suffering, loss, waste, and in
the end, extinction for most species.
More than 99% of all species born in the crucible of
evolution have died out under the relentless
jackboot of natural selection.
"Most anthropologist believe that between
about 400,000 & 300,000 years ago, Homo
erectus evolved into a new species called
Homo sapiens."
The modern human physique first appeared
in Africa about 150,000 years ago, and then
spread into the rest of the Old World,
replacing existing populations of archaic
human forms."
“Emergent properties are those that arise out
of some subsystem but are not reducible to
that system. Emergence is about more than
but not altogether other than. . . .Emergence
means that the world exhibits a recurrent
pattern of novelty and irreducibility.”
P. Clayton, Mind and Emergence, 39.
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OLD
DYNAMIC
INTERCONNECTED
EVOLUTIONARY
EMERGENT
PARTICIPATORY
HOLISTIC
OPEN
FUTURE ORIENTED
Fixed Order
Change =rearranged
Teleological
deterministic
Substantive
Hierarchical
Dualistic
(spirit/matter)
Kingdom
atomistic
evolutionary
historical
Future oriented
relational
reductionistic
systems/wholes
dualistic
(mind/body)
multi-leveled
non-dualistic
machine
community
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Who is the God of this universe?
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How is your image of God expanding?
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How are you expanding your heart to include
all creation?
How committed are you to the process of
emergence?
Cosmic Consciousness
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“The Governor of Mental Life” which functions as
the meaning-maker and manager in Science,
Culture, and Religion.
constructing meaning, and asserting autonomous
intermediate-term control over one’s thought
process.
"consciousness" is derived from Latin conscientia
which primarily means moral conscience. In the
literal sense, "conscientia" (or "con scientia")
means knowledge-with.
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Consciousness seems to be an emergent
process, since the mind is an emergent
process. How it emerges, however, is
unknown.
Consciousness as a result of emergence
depends not just on the size of the region
involved but also on the degree of complexity
of the system.
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Every level of interior consciousness is
accompanied by a level of exterior physical
complexity.
K. Wilbur
The greater the consciousness, the more
complex the system housing it.
For example, the reptilian brain stem is
accompanied by a rudimentary interior
consciousness of basic drives such as food and
hunger; the more complex mammalian limbic
system includes complex feelings, desires,
emotional-sexual impulses and needs.
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At the foundation of physical reality, the nature of
material things reveals itself as nonmaterial [quantum
virtual states]. Entities with mindlike properties are
found. At the level of elementary particles, idea-like
states (quantum states) become matter-like.
The nature of reality is that of an indivisible
wholeness.
Because our consciousness has emerged from this
wholeness and is part of it, it is possible to conclude
that an element of consciousness is active in the
universe.
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For Teilhard, consciousness is active at all levels of
reality. The mental enters material reality in a
natural way.
He considered matter and consciousness not as
two substances or two different modes of
existence. . .but as two aspects of the same cosmic
stuff.
The within is the mental aspect and the without is
the physical aspect of the same stuff.
Evolution is towards greater withinness and
withoutness.
Matter
Mind
Light/
Mind
Quantum Big Bang
Insights from science suggest that
consciousness and light may be the same:
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Both are pervasive in universe from beginning
Both are independent of space and time
Neither have shape or place
Nothing can be seen or recognized w/o them.
You are the “consciousness” of the world.
Lothar Schaefer writes: “The universe looks
more like a great thought than a great
machine. Mind no longer appears as an
accident intruder into the realm of matter;
…. Mind may be the creator and governor of
the realm of matter. . . .The quantum
phenomena make it possible to propose that
the background of the universe is mindlike.”
HUMAN
CONSCIOUSNESS
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As evolution proceeds to even more complex
structures such as the triune brain with its
neocortex, consciousness expands to a
worldcentric awareness of “all of us” and a
transcendent awareness of a divine other.
The greater the exterior levels of physical
complexity, the greater the interior levels of
consciousness.
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Antonio Damasio warns us that it is a mistake to
think of a single consciousness center.
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suggests instead that there is a parallel
simultaneous activation of different structures.
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The most important one is the familiar cingulate
cortex (especially its anterior sector. Other
structures responsible for core consciousness are
the thalamus and the superior colliculi (a tiny
structure near the brain stem, sometimes
regarded as the seat of consciousness).
AM
A Strange
Loop
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Ego – Consciousness – normal “awake”, operational,
day-to-day consciousness
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Psychodynamic – dreams, memories, suppressed
feelings
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Mythic – level of symbolic awareness, level at which
individual relates to myths and archetypes which give
meaning to whole existence. Jung’s ‘collective
unconsciousness.’
Mysterium – ineffable “mystical” experience of union
with the cosmos. Higher level, sense of integration.
The human mind, which alone reaches out to
grasp the cosmic process from which it has
emerged, clearly holds a special, frontier
position in evolution.
With the human person occurs the passage of
conscious evolution toward self-reflection.
The human person occupies the crest of the
evolutionary wave.
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You can sit and read these words as a result of
13.7 billion years of development
The water in your body contains primordial
hydrogen formed in the first seconds of Big Bang.
Carbon atoms that form you came together as a
result of the explosion of a supernova
Your cells are direct descendents of unicellular
organisms that developed billions of years ago.
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Evolutionary
Emergent
Holistic
Accompanied by levels of increased
complexity
Related to but different from the physical
brain
Consciousness and
Relatedness
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Rupert Sheldrake – Morphogenetic Fields
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Quantum Entanglement
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David Bohm – Implicate Order
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Ken Wilbur – Holons
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a morphogenetic field carries information only, not
energy, and is available throughout time and space
without any loss of intensity after it has been
created.
Unseen forces that preserve the form of selforganizing systems which maintain order from
within.
a newly forming system "tunes into" a previous
system by having within it a "seed" that resonates
with a similar seed in the earlier form.
Rupert Sheldrake postulates a field of habitual
patterns that links all people, which influences
and is influenced by the habits of all people.
The more people have a habit pattern -- whether
of knowledge, perception or behavior -- the
stronger it is in the field, and the more easily it
replicates in a new person (or entity).
Rupert Sheldrake took three short, similar Japanese
rhymes - one a meaningless jumble of
disconnected Japanese words, the second a newlycomposed verse and the third a traditional rhyme
known by millions of Japanese.
Neither Sheldrake nor the English schoolchildren he
got to memorize these verses knew which was
which, nor did they know any Japanese.
The most easily-learned rhyme turned out to be
the one well-known to Japanese.
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Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) experiment
Take two particles whose spins cancel each
other out to zero. Separate particles by distance.
If measure particle A as “up” particle B is
measured “down.”
The measurement on A does not merely reveal an
already established state of B: It actually
produces that state  entangled.
The essence of nonlocality is unmediated
action at a distance . . .a nonlocal interaction
links up one location with another without
crossing space, without decay, and without
delay.
Ex. Archie and Betty are deeply in love.
However, a deep transpersonal connection is
connected between Archie and Petra when
they pray or meditate. When Archie and
Petra enter a meditative state, the thought or
image Petra has been concentrating on
vanishes from her mind and reappears in the
mind of Betty.
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Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement
Rather than starting with the parts and
explaining the whole in terms of the parts,
Bohm’s point of view is just the opposite: he
starts with a notion of undivided wholeness and
derives the parts as abstractions from the whole.
Implicate order and the holomovement imply a
way of looking at reality not merely in terms of
external interactions between things, but in
terms of the internal (enfolded) relationships
among things.
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As human beings and societies we seem
separate, but in our roots we are part of an
indivisible whole and share in the same
cosmic process.
To acknowledge the presence of Mind in the
universe is to recognize one’s own
consciousness – an intrinsic inner aspect of
all things in space and time [world soul?].
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Movement is what is primary; and what seem like
permanent structures are only relatively
autonomous sub-entities which emerge out of the
whole of flowing movement and then dissolve back
into it an unceasing process of becoming.
What ‘carries’ an implicate order is the
holomovement, which is an unbroken and
undivided totality.
A holon is a whole that is part of other wholes.
For example, a whole atom is art of a whole
molecule; a whole molecule of part of a whole
cell; a whole cell is part of a whole organism.
. . Reality is composed of neither wholes nor
parts, but of whole/parts, or holons.
Ken Wilbur
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Morphogenetic fields
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Quantum entanglement
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Implicate Order
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Holons
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What aspects of consciousness and
relatedness are important to you?
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What do you find helpful?
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What challenges you?
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How can you begin to incorporate these new
insights in your life?
“Ours is a unique and urgent time in which we
are challenged to make the transition from
Homo sapiens (wise ones) to Homo
universalis (universal ones).” B. Hubbard
“When the level of our awareness changes, we
start attracting a new reality.”
Gaston St. Pierre
CHRIST AND
CONSCIOUSNESS
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John Cobb – with Jesus emerges a new
structure of existence; a new consciousness.
In Jesus we find the Hebraic ethically
responsible individual and the intense
experience of God’s immediacy.
Faith in God liberates individual to accept the
full implications of one’s freedom and
responsibility.
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Jesus enters the evolutionary trajectory bringing
all newness in himself, bringing the needed
transformation.
the event of Christ brings a new directionality
into evolution, at its culmination in the human
person.
A power of newness comes into the human
person, into the heart and mind: a new creativity
that is divine and human at once.
new ‘centration’ emerges, a lateral convergence.
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Breakthrough to a new level of individuated
consciousness. . .a new basis from which to
understand human destiny.
Emergence of an increasingly spiritual and
transcendent view of selfhood.
XN found oneself able to confront every obstacle
to human existence. Led to a heightened
freedom.
New sense of what it means to belong to cosmos.
Jesus is an evolutionary step forward in the
development of humankind.
But evolution does not stop. It is an ongoing
process, symbolized by the Christ event:
“Amen, I say to you, the one who believes in
men will also do the works I do and, fact, will
do greater works than these, because I am
going to the Father” (John 14:12).
Jesus is brought into being through community
and participates in the co-creation of it. . .
Hence what is truly Christological, that is
truly revealing of divine incarnation and
salvific power in human, must reside in
connectedness and not in single individuals.
Rita Nakashima Brock
Creation is not so much the place of
salvation, as salvation belongs to creation.
The Holy One is:
utterly compassionate
Inclusive
Healing
Forgiving
Vulnerable
Just
merciful
Biological evolution has not ended with us.
We are part of an ongoing cosmic process
that demands our commitment to it. Our
salvation is necessary for fullness of Christ.
Christogenesis/ Technogenesis –
Christ, the Living One
the Frontier of the Future,
the One who is coming to be.
PRAYER,
THE GROWING TIP
OF
EVOLUTION
“It is imperative that we ‘evolve’ ourselves,
integrating everything that allows us to
become whole, more relational, and aware of
our global community. Our task is to take in
and utilize light so we may merge with our
true selves and our destiny, thus facilitating
the healing of our planet.”
Joseph Liberman, Light: Medicine of the Future.
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Prayer harnesses the energy of consciousness
for the expansion of being.
Prayer is organic, an opening up to New
Being.
Prayer is an evolution of consciousness when
it is accompanied by intellectual, moral and
religious conversion.
Prayer is that openness to grace that holds
one in the silence of love’s fountain fullness.
Prayer is the ongoing creation of self and
hence of Christ in evolution.
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To live from a new heart is to live from a new
level of consciousness.
It is an evolution of self whereby we live from
a new level of expanded being.
Contemplation expands and complexifies
being because it leads to a greater depth of
consciousness (light) that connects.
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REALIZATION OF NEW BEING
FREEDOM TO GROW
DEEPENING OF UNION
OVERCOMING DUALISM
OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO UNITY
INTEGRAL VISION
REALIZING A EUCHARISTIC PLANET
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Openness: to new relationships, knowledge,
insight, ideas
Abandoning messianic expectations.
Accepting incompleteness as a constant
movement toward peace
Living from the chaos of the interior
Recovering the capacity of wonder and awe
Living in the primacy of love
We are on the cusp of an evolutionary
breakthrough, one that requires our
conscious participation as co-creative agents
of Love – to be Christ anew.
To come to a new level of personhood within
an interconnected universe is to contemplate
Christ, to penetrate the truth of the Christ
mystery within ourselves, in other persons
and non-human creatures as well.
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We are called to divinize the world by
becoming human.
We are called to make our way to heaven
through earth.
Heaven is not an other-worldly world but this
world clearly seen. Heaven and earth are
two “sides” of the same divine creative love.
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Contemplative prayer requires that we
recognize the connectedness that is a basic
reality of our existence.
We are holons within holons within holons.
All we do affects all the other wholes of which
we are apart and all the other parts that make
us whole.
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We are always becoming part of a greater
whole, trusting that the Creator is continuing
to create.
Prayer rooted in freedom means being
content to be incomplete and unfinished.
Living in freedom means not judging
ourselves and others, for everything is
incomplete.
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The Freedom of any part is connected to and
influences the whole.
The way we value and take care of each part
equals the way we value and take care of
ourselves.
Christian Life – to become part of a greater
whole. To live with attentiveness to the
intricate connectedness to all that is.
The Christian is one who is connected through
the heart to the whole of life, attuned to the
deeper intelligence of nature, and called forth
irresistibly by spirit to creatively express his
or her gifts in the evolution of self and the
world.
Barbara Hubbard
Christianity is intended to be life
on the leading edge
of an evolutionary universe
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Most of energy is dark energy– absorbs light.
Darkness – time of expansion and growth
The more we refuse death in the universe, the
more we refuse life.
Dark night – calls us to stay inward; to
contemplate silence and darkness as the
birthing of new life.
The new science of quantum physics tells us that we live in a
participatory universe.
There is no fixed pattern or method.
Rather you and I make it up as we go along.
Reality changes shape and meaning because of our activity.
And it is constantly new.
We are required to be there, as active participants.
It can’t happen without us and nobody can do it for us.