Our Mission
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.
September 30, 2011
CAC Cottonwood: autumn, winter, spring, summer. CAC archives.
To Everything a Season:
A time to throw away and a time to keep-
Feast of St. Jerome
The shadow self is not the evil self; it is the unacceptable self. It is the side of us we don’t want to show to the world, or even to ourselves. But we need to understand that our more desirable qualities are invariably accompanied by their opposites, which live in the unconscious or “shadow” self. We need to do some “shadow boxing,” or we will lack any honest self knowledge or truth.
The shadow contains all the parts of the self that we have scorned and sent into exile. Yet we must eventually welcome them home because they have essential lessons to teach us. Very often, the “stones” we rejected in the building of our heroic tower—in the first half of life—become the greatest lessons we need for the next part of the journey. Or as Jesus puts it, “The stone that the builders reject becomes the cornerstone” (Mark 12:10). St. Jerome was supposed to be a very determined man, and it allowed him to be the foremost translator and interpreter of the whole Bible for the early church; yet he had to go off to the desert to face the “lion of anger” that he saw was underneath that very determination (thus he is usually pictured with a lion). You usually cannot have one without the other, but the important thing is to know your shadow self and face it honestly.
From On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men, p. 205
Starter Prayer:
Teach me the wisdom of the seasons.
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