Richard Rohr
Fr. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province. He founded the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1971, and the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1986, where he presently serves as Founding Director.
Richard was born in Kansas in 1943, and entered the Franciscans in 1961. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1970 and received his Master’s Degree in Theology from Dayton that same year. Richard lives in a hermitage behind his Franciscan community in Albuquerque.
An internationally recognized speaker, Richard has travelled to Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand teaching on such themes as male spirituality, adult Christianity, politics and spirituality, and non-dual thinking. He has partnered with such esteemed teachers as Thomas Keating, Ron Rolheiser, Cynthia Bourgeault, Joan Chittister, Jim Wallis and James Finley, to name a few. In preparation for a more contemplative and centralized focus at the CAC, Fr. Richard will culminate his travels both domestically and internationally by March of 2013.
Richard is probably best known for his numerous recorded teachings, and through the Center’s quarterly publication, Radical Grace. He is a regular contributing writer for Sojourners, Tikkun, and The Huffington Post. His most recent recorded teachings include Creation as the Body of God; Loving the Two Halves of Life: The Further Journey; and God As Us! the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine.
Some of his best known books are Everything Belongs, Adam’s Return, Hope Against Darkness, From Wild Men to Wise Men: Reflections on Male Spirituality, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, The Naked Now: Learning to See As the Mystics See and Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps, his most recent book.
Richard has been a featured essayist on NPR’s “This I Believe” and a guest of Dr. Mehmet Oz on the “Oprah and Friends” radio show. He appears in the 2006 documentary, ONE, featuring spiritual teachers from around the world.
Constant Presence With What Is
How do you face the “wounds and suffering of the human heart”? Perhaps the greatest gift from Saint Francis of Assisi was this insight: that we learn the mystery of ourselves only at the price of our own innocence. The word “innocent,” teaches Father Richard Rohr, literally means “unwounded.” Producer Mitchell Clute chose this audio passage from the audio program The Art of Letting Go for Father Rohr’s clarity in expressing Saint Francis’ understanding that falling upward always begins not by pushing away the darkness, but by embracing it. Hear Richard Rohr in this podcast compliments of Sounds True.
