Richard Rohr OFM (b. 1943) hardly needs any introduction. He is an American Franciscan priest and communicator. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he was the founding director and academic dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation, founded in 2013. In 2023 he retired and is now Faculty Emeritus. Having published over 30 books (17 in print at the time of writing through SPCK) – most notably, perhaps, The Universal Christ and Falling Upward – he is undoubtedly one of the most popular authors and speakers on spirituality in the world.
Silent Compassion was published first by Franciscan Media in the USA back in 2014. It came on the heels of the City of Louisville’s occasional Festival of Faiths, attended by Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims, including Richard Rohr and the Dalai Lama. Nearby, in Kentucky, is the Roman Catholic monastery of Gethsemani whence Thomas Merton travelled across the world to South-East Asia for another interfaith event some fifty years previously, where he met the younger Dalai Lama. Again, not far away, is the corner of Fourth and Muhammad Ali Boulevard where Merton had a mystical experience concerning the oneness of humanity.
The book has a Preface by John Feister, Editor in Chief of St Anthony Messenger magazine, an Introduction focusing on the Perennial tradition (‘affirm[ing] that there are some constant themes, truths, and recurrences in all the world religions’ (xi)), five short chapters, a really helpful Appendix listing an interfaith timeline of mystics, Notes, and Sources for the chapters. The chapters are headed (1) Finding God in the Depths of Silence, (2) Sacred Silence, Pathway to Compassion, (3) The True Self is Compassion, Love Itself, (4) Looking Out in Prayer with Contemplative Eyes, and (5) The Path to Non-Dual Thinking. Each is sourced either from the talks given by Richard Rohr, together with their Q and A sessions, at the conference, or from interviews given by Fr Richard published in the St Anthony Messenger magazine. Chapters that assuredly feed our minds – and our hearts.
SPCK, 2022. Paperback ISBN 978 0 281 08660 3. Price £8.99.
Luke Penkett