Richard Rohr
The Center for Action and Contemplation, which Richard Rohr founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1987, stands as a defining institutional expression of his career as a Catholic priest, religious writer, and spiritual teacher. In 2011, PBS described him as "one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world," a characterization that reflects the reach of his work across both written and spoken formats.
Rohr was born on March 20, 1943, in Topeka, and is a citizen of the United States. He received his education at the University of Dayton and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1970. The year following his ordination, he founded the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati in 1971, an early organizational effort that preceded his later work as a motivational speaker and writer. He has since been based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Center for Action and Contemplation remains the primary institutional home of his activity. His use of Midland American English reflects the regional background he carries from his origins in Topeka through his years of ministry and writing.
Among the recognitions Rohr has received is the Thomas Merton Award, granted in acknowledgment of his contributions as a religious writer. His founding of two distinct communities — the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati in 1971 and the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque in 1987 — marks the trajectory of his work from local pastoral engagement to an institution with a national and international audience, as evidenced by PBS's 2011 assessment of his standing among spirituality authors and speakers.
Quotes by Richard Rohr
Richard Rohr's insights on:
The people who know God well—mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator.
The two Virtues of Equanimity and Compassion become more available to the person whose ego shell has been smashed either by great suffering or by great love or by both.
Without transformation, you can assume you're at a high moral, spiritual level just because you call yourself Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic. I think my great disappointment as a priest has been to see how little actual spiritual curiosity there is in so many people.
The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.
Having looked at the objects of the universe, I find there is no one, nor any particle of one, but has reference to the Soul. – Walt Whitman.
You never become humble except through fully accepting humiliations – usually many times.
The Holy Spirit is God desiring in you and through you – until it becomes your desiring too.
Your concern is not so much to have what you love anymore, but to love what you have – right now.
It seems that in the spiritual world, we do not really find something until we first lose it, ignore it, miss it, long for it, choose it, and personally find it again – but now on a new level.