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We are a center for experiential education, rooted in the Gospels, encouraging the transformation of human consciousness through contemplation, and equipping people to be instruments of peaceful change in the world.
The Path of Descent
CD/ DVD (NTSC)/ DVD (PAL)/ MP3
What Richard Rohr calls "the language of descent" is the "theme of themes" of the Bible. Call it powerlessness, the bias from the bottom, the way of the cross or vulnerability, human beings have to be taught how to win by losing. Life itself is a series of necessary losses. Religion has tended to prefer the way of "ascent," attainment, which is much more to the liking of the human ego, even though it always defeats us.
The Jewish prophets and self-critical thinking are represented most fully in Jesus, who tries to train his disciples in a path of descent and ego stripping instead of ego attainment. Jesus tells us to love more, rather than to idealize anything except God. It is in suffering and the mystery of contradictions, our own and the world's, that we move to consciousness and holiness.
The study guide for The Path of Descent is designed for small groups to explore and share their understanding and experience of what Fr. Richard Rohr calls “the language of descent”—the theme of themes in the Bible.
To access the study guide for
The Path of Descent
please click here for a PDF version
