Everything Belongs

The Gift of Contemplative Prayer

by Richard Rohr

Review posted January 22, 2025.
Crossroad, 2003. 186 pages.
Review written January 8, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com.
Starred Review

I always have trouble summing up Richard Rohr books. I've decided that's because they're written more for our heart than our head. Someone in my small group had suggested studying contemplative prayer with our next book. So when I saw this book existed, I bought myself a copy to preview it. Well, it isn't a how-to guide to contemplative prayer, so I didn't feel like it was exactly what we were looking for. This gives more of the why of contemplative prayer than the how.

And I'm more of a head person than a heart person! Though I would like to grow in that. So I'm not even sure how to pitch this book. It's worth reading, and I marked out many quotations to post over on my Sonderquotes blog. Let me give a couple of them here, to give you the idea.

The following of Jesus is not a "salvation scheme" or a means of creating social order (which appears to be what most folks want religion for), as much as it is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the world. Jesus did not come to create a spiritual elite or an exclusionary system for people who "like" religion, but he invited people to "follow" him in bearing the mystery of human death and resurrection (an almost nonreligious task, but one that can be done only "through, with, and in" God.)

We should not be surprised or scandalized by the sinful and the tragic. Do what you can to be peace and to do justice, but never expect or demand perfection on this earth. It usually leads to a false moral outrage, a negative identity, intolerance, paranoia, and self-serving crusades against "the contaminating element," instead of "becoming a new creation" ourselves (Gal. 6:15).

And here's a part that shows where the title comes from:

Everything belongs; God uses everything. There are no dead-ends. There is no wasted energy. Everything is recycled. Sin history and salvation history are two sides of one coin. I believe with all my heart that the Gospel is all about the mystery of forgiveness. When you "get" forgiveness, you get it. We use the phrase "falling in love." I think forgiveness is almost the same thing. It's a mystery we fall into: the mystery is God. God forgives all things for being imperfect, broken, and poor. Not only Jesus but all the great people who pray that I have met in my life say the same thing. That's the conclusion they come to. The people who know God well - the mystics, the hermits, those who risk everything to find God - always meet a lover, not a dictator. God is never found to be an abusive father or a tyrannical mother, but always a lover who is more than we dared hope for. How different than the "account manager" that most people seem to worship.

So I always recommend Richard Rohr. But pick up this book if you're ready for some meditative writing that is not about thinking, but that will nevertheless challenge your thinking and will uplift your heart.