In cooperation with Bishop Geoffrey Robinson and his publisher, John Garratt Publishing, we have pleasure in presenting the end chapter meditations from his book which has created so much interest around the world. Today the reflection comes from Chapter Two: The Two Books of God.

The Two Books of God

"Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you." Is.49:15

We can learn this truth about God from the bible, but only because we have first learned from the world around and within us the depth of a mother's love for her child.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Jn.3:16

This phrase speaks to our depths only because we have some understanding of the sacrifice that parents must make in giving their only child to some cause.

It is only through a dialogue between the bible and the world around us that we are led into a deeper understanding of both.

Without the world around and within us, the bible could not exist, for it would have no words to use, no images to express, no experiences to call on. We cannot separate what we learn from the bible from what we learn from the world around and within us.

• Our first task is to immerse ourselves in the world of the bible and the story it tells, allowing our experience gained from the bible and our experience gained from the world around us to speak to each other.
• Our second task is to use the collective intelligence, feelings and instinct for the spiritual of all people in discerning the truths for the sake of our salvation that God wishes to tell us through the story of the journey contained in the bible.
• Our third task is to make this story part of our own story, so that our journey follows the same paths to the same goals.
• Our fourth task is to allow the thoughts, images and stories of the bible to so permeate us that they become fundamental, not just to what we do or say, but also to who we are, our very being.

Credit: These meditations are taken from the end of chapter reflections in Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church — Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus, published by John Garratt Publishing. We thank Bishop Robinson and John Garratt Publishing for permission to reproduce these meditations on Catholica Australia.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson who has degrees in Philosophy, Theology and Church Law, was Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Sydney from 1984 until his retirement in 2004. In 1994 he was elected by the Australian Bishops to the National Committee for Professional Standards, coordinating the response of the Catholic Church in Australia to revelations of sexual abuse, and from 1997 until 2003 he was co-chairman of this committee..

We welcome your thoughts in response to Bishop Robinson's reflection in our forum.

©2007 Geoffrey Robinson

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