Rooted in the Christian contemplative traditions, the Daily Meditations offer reflections from Richard Rohr, CAC faculty and guest teachers to help you deepen your spiritual practice and embody compassion in the world.
Loving Your Neighbor
Thursday 29 October 2026 Love Is the Law
Public theologian Rachel Held Evans (1981–2019) considers how Jesus understood love as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s law:
Jesus made it clear that he did not come to abolish the laws of the Torah, “but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). The life and teachings of Jesus, then, embody all that these laws were intended to be. Jesus is what the living, breathing will of God looks like. This includes compassion for the poor, esteem for women, healing for the sick, and solidarity with the suffering. It means breaking bread with outcasts and embracing little children. It means choosing forgiveness over retribution, the cross over revenge, and cooking breakfast for the friend who betrayed you. As Elton Trueblood put it, “The historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God. It is far more radical than that. It means that God is like Jesus.” [1]
When Jesus was challenged by the experts on the Law to give an answer for what Scripture is all about, he offered a very straightforward, very Jewish response. Quoting Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37–40).
This is the point of every liberation, every wandering through the desert, every law about oxen and yeast and blood. To love is to honor God and keep God’s commandments. Love is the law that liberates slave and slaveholder alike. Love is the ultimate deliverance story, for only love can sustain the sojourner out of Egypt, through the desert, up the mountain, and into the promised land.
The truth is, you can bend Scripture to say just about anything you want it to say…. We all go to the text looking for something, and we all have a tendency to find it. So the question we have to ask ourselves is this: are we reading with the prejudice of love, with Christ as our model, or are we reading with the prejudices of judgment and power, self-interest and greed? Are we seeking to enslave or liberate, burden or set free?…
This is why there are times when the most instructive question to bring to the text is not, What does this say? but, What am I looking for? I suspect Jesus knew this when he said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
If you want to do violence in this world, you will always find the weapons. If you want to heal, you will always find the balm. With Scripture, we’ve been entrusted with some of the most powerful stories ever told. How we harness that power, whether for good or evil, oppression or liberation, changes everything.
Story From Our Community
I am drinking my morning coffee on this cool fall day, watching the river flowing by, and studying all the fall trees. Most have yellow-brown leaves, but one maple tree is full of extraordinary red leaves. The tree is the “extraordinary among the ordinary.” It reminds me to be a better person today, filled with gratitude for myself, my family, my neighbors, and the beauty of creation all around me.
— Robert M.
[1] Elton Trueblood, cited in Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity (HarperCollins, 2010), 114.
Rachel Held Evans, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again (Nelson Books, 2018), 55–57.
Wednesday 28 October 2026 An Obedience to Love
Summarizing the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King reflects on how we define our neighbor:
Who is my neighbor? “I do not know his name,” says Jesus in essence. “He is anyone toward whom you are neighborly. He is anyone who lies in need at life’s roadside. He is neither Jew nor Gentile; he is neither Russian nor American; he is neither Negro nor white. He is a ‘certain man’—any needy man—on one of the numerous Jericho roads of life.” So Jesus defines a neighbor, not in a theological definition, but in a life situation.
What constituted the goodness of the good Samaritan? Why will he always be an inspiring paragon of neighborly virtue? It seems to me that this man’s goodness may be described in one word—altruism. The good Samaritan was altruistic to the core…. The Samaritan was good because he made concern for others the first law of his life.…
Man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love…. The good Samaritan represents the conscience of [humankind] because he also was obedient to that which could not be enforced. No law in the world could have produced such unalloyed compassion, such genuine love, such thorough altruism….
More than ever before, my friends, [people] of all races and nations are today challenged to be neighborly. The call for a worldwide good-neighbor policy is more than an ephemeral shibboleth…. No longer can we afford the luxury of passing by on the other side. Such folly was once called moral failure; today it will lead to universal suicide. We cannot long survive spiritually separated in a world that is geographically together. In the final analysis, I must not ignore the wounded man on life’s Jericho Road, because he is a part of me and I am a part of him. His agony diminishes me and his salvation enlarges me.
In our quest to make neighborly love a reality, we have, in addition to the inspiring example of the good Samaritan, the magnanimous life of our Christ to guide us. His altruism was universal, for he thought of all [people], even publicans and sinners, as brothers. His altruism was dangerous, for he willingly traveled hazardous roads in a cause he knew was right. His altruism was excessive, for he chose to die on Calvary, history’s most magnificent expression of obedience to the unenforceable.
Martin Luther King Jr. “On Being a Good Neighbor,” in Strength to Love (Fortress Press, 2010), 22–23, 28–29, 30.
Tuesday 27 October 2026 Expanding Our Capacity to Love
Richard Rohr maps the expansion from self-love and group love to the gospel call of universal love:
We’re told by developmental psychologists that there’s a staging in our growth in love. We have to start with self-love and respecting the self. If we don’t respect ourselves, we won’t know how to respect anybody else.
Then God moves us to group love, family love, which is basically the love of people who are connected to us or who are like us. A lot of people don’t even get there. They don’t know how to love their family or those close to them or those in their group.
From there, God moves us to the third level, which is universal love. I’m afraid a much smaller number of people get to this place. As we see in politics, in our country, and throughout the world, at best most people just get to the second stage of knowing how to love people who are like them: their race, their nationality, their religion, their political party. When we stay at this second stage of group love, we clearly don’t create a healthy society. We can look at countries and politics the world over to witness how this is true.
In Acts 10, we discover that even Peter had to be taught by the Holy Spirit how to grow in love. Peter was at the stage of group love, believing that God only loved the Jewish people. And then this strange thing happened where the Holy Spirit fell upon gentiles! Peter looked around and said, “Oh my gosh! God seems to be for everybody and not just for the Jewish people!” He understood that it was okay to include gentiles into what eventually became known as the church. In spite of this, most of church history has not really imitated Peter’s insight. We pulled back into group think and group love.
Peter said, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. In any country, whoever fears God and acts uprightly is acceptable” (Acts 10:34–35). At that moment he became both a Jewish and Christian heretic! Peter himself began to recognize that God works with all people of goodwill — not just people in his group. But he had to be pushed there. Little by little, God leads him to universal love.
Story From Our Community
Faith doesn’t save our world. The world is saved by being: being hospitable, being compassionate, and being in community with our neighbors. If religion focused on our actions of hospitality, compassion, and love for our neighbors, could we create a better world?
— Chris L.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Self Love to Group Love to Universal Love,” homily, May 6, 2018.
Monday 26 October 2026 Sacred Service
Interspiritual teacher Mirabai Starr centers Jesus’s teaching to love one’s neighbor as oneself in his Jewish tradition:
The second-century Talmudic master Rabbi Akiva said that the entire essence of the Torah could be summed up by Leviticus 19:18 “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is a famous story in the Talmud about Rabbi Hillel, another spiritual genius of this lineage. A Gentile came to a rabbi named Shammai and said that he would convert to Judaism if Shammai could teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Infuriated, the rabbi chased the man away. Hillel, however, balanced on one leg and said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Now go and study it.” The Gentile converted on the spot.
While Judaism takes it on faith that the ultimate Divine Being transcends all attributes and defies all description, it also affirms that God is intimately concerned with the human predicament. If human beings are made in God’s image and if His nature is one of infinite compassion, then efforts to act with kindness and to defend the persecuted are as vital to spiritual life as are prayer and Torah study. To love God is to love each other and to see each other as having been created in Her image, just as we ourselves have been….
Mercy is the root that blossoms into living acts of chesed (lovingkindness) and tzedakah (righteousness). Tzedakah can be confused with charity. But it is not about grand gestures of beneficence. If we are spiritually attuned, giving becomes a natural outflow of our recognition of the interdependence of all life. To withhold what we have from others is to violate the gifts the Holy One has given to us. Not only that, but acts of tzedakah are said to sanctify God: our righteousness makes the Holy One holy!
Jesus’s teaching invites us to express who we are by how we act:
Jesus reminded his Jewish followers that the most important of all the Holy One’s prescriptions are “to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength” and “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Following these two commandments requires a balance between reaching upward toward the divine mystery and manifesting our commitment to the sacred in each other.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ calls his disciples “the salt of the earth.” By carrying his message of love to all they touch, they will serve to bring out the true flavor of the spiritual life and preserve what is best in the human experience. Sacred service in the name of love, he promises, is worth far more than worldly fame and material fortune. The divine commission is to stand up in our righteousness and radiate our light to the world.
Mirabai Starr, God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Monkfish Book Publishing, 2026), 87–88.
Sunday 25 October 2026 Loving God, Self, and Others
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: … ‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
—Mark 12:28–31
In this homily, Father Richard Rohr considers Jesus’s response to the question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”:
I don’t think any of us really know how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We might want to love like that, but how do we put all the parts of ourselves together and actually do it? It takes our whole lives to figure out what Jesus’s words might even mean. Then Jesus says, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Mark 12:31). Do any of us do that? Do we really love other people? Do we really give them as much attention as we give to ourselves? I don’t think so.
Imagine how different the world would be if we just obeyed that one commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It would be the most mighty political and social upheaval imaginable. The world would be radically different if human beings really treated other people as they would like to be treated. We can take this as a simple rule of thumb: What would I want from that person right now? What would be helpful for me to receive? Well, there’s the commandment—our obligation to do for others!
It’s so simple that we can see why we put all our attention on the Ten Commandments, or the hundreds of other regulations culture and religion place on us. It’s much easier to worry about things that keep us “pure,” so to speak, but are of little consequence.
I think the scribe is asking a very good question. After all is said and done, it comes down to loving God and loving our neighbor—and that implies loving ourselves. If I said this without quoting Jesus, I could be accused of oversimplifying or ignoring some of the important commandments. Thank God, Jesus said it first. He taught that it’s all about love. In the end, that’s all we’re all going to be judged for. Did we love? Did we love life? Did we love ourselves? Did we love God? Did we love our neighbor? Concentrating on love takes just about our whole lifetime, so we won’t have much time left over to worry about what other people are doing or not doing. Our job is to love God, love ourselves, and love our neighbor.
Story From Our Community
I believe that the teachings of Christ are not for the purpose of getting us into Heaven, but to show us the way to live here and now. If it were possible to love our neighbors the way we love ourselves, we wouldn’t harm them, steal from them, ignore them, or let them starve. It is the simplest and the hardest proposition in our world, but it is the only real hope for a good or kind world.
— JC E.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “613 Commandments Reduced to Two,” homily, November 3, 2012.
Image credit and inspiration: Samuel Oakes, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Broadway, UK. Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like bread offered to someone beyond the frame, we are invited to reach out to an unseen neighbor, both giving and receiving blessing.
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Turning to the Mystics
James Finley offers a modern take on the timeless wisdom of the Christian mystics through meditation and practice. This podcast is for people searching for something more meaningful, intimate, and richly present in the divine gift of their lives.
Randy Woodley on How Western Christianity Got It Wrong
Indigenous theologian Randy Woodley reflects on how we can replace a god of fear with a spirituality of healing.
What Do Women Do with Christianity? Live on September 11 + Replay Included
How might Christianity be renewed when women’s voices, bodies, experiences, and wisdom are centered rather than pushed to the margins?
Mutual Listening and Embodied Spirituality
Through the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) books and resources, your exploration of contemplative wisdom may invite deeper ways of seeing the spiritual journey.
We invite you to continue that exploration at our next live online gathering on September 11 as we enter a tender conversation about how women can contribute to the renewal of Christianity.
WHAT DO WOMEN DO WITH CHRISTIANITY?
Featuring: Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, and Christine Valters Paintner
Date and Time: Friday, September 11, 10:00-11:30 a.m. Pacific Time
Location: Online via Zoom with a recorded replay for one year.
A Space for Honest Questions
If you’ve ever wondered how women navigate faith inside structures that have often pushed aside their voices, this online event will offer wisdom and create a space for bold and honest inquiry.
What You Will Explore
- What more expansive expressions of faith might look like today
- Empowerment and spiritual renewal within the Christian tradition
- Mutual listening
- Embodied spirituality
Questions?
Please review the event page for What Do Women Do with Christianity? If you need additional support, respond to this email to contact our Community Support Team.
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CAC Faculty Chair Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, reflects on how singing and the practice of Lectio Divina have carried her through trauma.
How can we Reclaim Jesus from Empire?
(click the picture to access)
Kat Armas on Liturgies for Resisting Empire
Kat Armas explores how liturgy, community, and the liberating message of the Bible can help us heal from systems of violence that hurt ourselves, each other, and the earth.
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Can Ancient Wisdom Help Us Face These Challenging Times Together?
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Diana Butler Bass on A Beautiful Year
Diana Butler Bass explores the meaning of Lent, the origins of the liturgical calendar, and the role of Mary Magdalene as the “Apostle to the Apostles.”
CAC faculty member Brian McLaren shares the theme for the 2026 Daily Meditations.Watch the video.
Story From Our Community
James Finley says, “God sustains us in all things while protecting us from nothing.” I’ve come to believe that it’s only through seeing God in our suffering that we can truly be free from the fear that causes us to choose ways of being that are not loving. Even in our fear, when we choose not to love, God is there. God has not, could not, and will not ever forsake us. God is not safe, but God is good. It’s the same thing to say that reality is not safe, but reality is good.
—Heather C.
[1] Adapted from Brian D. McLaren, 2026 Daily Meditations Theme: Good News for a Fractured World, Center for Action and Contemplation, video, 6:38.
[2] Brian D. McLaren, Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2022), 138, 139–140.
Image credit and inspiration: Paul Macallan, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like this bright flower, the gift of contemplation and action brings us hope in the midst of painful reality.
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Christine Valters Paintner on Seeking a Word
Author Christine Valters Paintner shares how the desert mystics have wisdom for us today.
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Click the image for the latest from ‘News from New Mexico’.
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