Father Richard shares about an important time of discernment in his life:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two spiritual disciplines that keep me honest and growing: contemplative prayer and the perspective from the bottom. In 1985, I was freed for a year to pursue the contemplative part of my vocation. It was a major turning point. Father William McNamara\u2019s definition of contemplation\u2014\u201ca long loving look at the real\u201d\u2014became transformative. [1] The world, my own issues and hurts, all goals and desires gradually dissolved into proper perspective. God became obvious and everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, we do not earn or find God. We just get ourselves out of the way. We let go of illusions and the preoccupations of our smaller selves. As the cheap scaffolding falls away, the soul stands revealed. The soul, or True Self, cannot be created or achieved by our work. It just is, and it is already. The soul is God\u2019s \u201cI AM\u201d continued in me. That part of me already knows, desires, and truly seeks God. Discernment of God\u2019s will comes naturally to the True Self because here \u201cI\u201d and God seem to be one \u201cI.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard reflects on how this extended time of contemplation brought him to a point of decisive action: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n After my sabbatical year, I found my way to the conviction that I should open the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico. I wanted to help people get thoroughly involved in the issues and goals of social justice, to help people work in solidarity with those on the margins, but from the right point of departure. It is possible to do the right thing for the wrong reasons! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Contemplation is a way to hear with the Spirit and not just with the head. Contemplation is the search for a wide-open space, a space broad enough for the head, the heart, the feelings, the gut, the subconscious, our memories, our intuitions, our whole body. We need a holistic place for discerning wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The effect of contemplation is authentic action; if contemplation doesn\u2019t lead to genuine action, then it remains only navel-gazing and self-preoccupation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m convinced that if we stick with it, if we practice contemplation regularly, then we will come to an inner place of compassion\u2014for ourselves and for others. In this place, we notice how much\u00a0the suffering of the world is our suffering<\/em>. We become committed to this world, not cerebrally, but from the much deeper perspective of our soul. At this point, we\u2019re indestructible, because in that place we find the peace that the world cannot give. We don\u2019t need to win anymore;\u00a0we just need to do what we have to do,<\/em>\u00a0as naive and simplistic as that might sound. That\u2019s why Augustine could make such an outrageous statement as \u201cLove [God] and do what you will\u201d! [2] People who are living from a truly God-centered place instead of a self-centered place are dangerously free precisely because they are tethered at the center.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n