A Lever and a Place to Stand: The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer

by Richard Rohr

Explores the challenges, the rewards, the call, and the possibilities of integrating a sincere inner life with an active life of engagement with the pain of the world.

Genres: Spirituality, Prayer, Theology, Nonfiction, Religion

111 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy—practices of contemplation and expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.

Fr. Richard is author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adam’s Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, Eager to Love, and The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (with Mike Morrell).

Fr. Richard is academic Dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. Drawing upon Christianity's place within the Perennial Tradition, the mission of the Living School is to produce compassionate and powerfully learned individuals who will work for positive change in the world based on awareness of our common union with God and all beings. Visit cac.org for more information.

Reviews

[Randall Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve spent most of my life dancing around being identified with any one religious group. I am uncomfortable with the term Christian and yet am one at least in part. At a minimum, I’d like to think of myself as a seeker. I am interested in multiple faith traditions but I must admit my unwillingness to identify with any one particular faith has prevented me from ever going very deeply into any one of them. My reluctance has kept me peering in from the outside and sadly from the outside it easy to primarily see all the junk and clutter in nearly every tradition but especially so with Christianity.

There’s something particularly rewarding to read the works of a Franciscan friar who has called himself a Christian for over 40 years and is honest about all the same problems with the church and so many of those who easily label themselves Christians that you cannot help but see. Rohr illuminates these problems while rarely being outright critical. In offering thoughtful and gentle explanations of why and where things have went wrong he has given me a better set of tools than the easy distancing criticism I’ve had up until now. Rohr has been in the house longer than I’ve been alive and is trying to clean it up and has been making paths for others to walk through the clutter.

“A lever and a place to stand” is a short (roughly 100 pages) introduction to the thoughts, ideas, and personality of Richard Rohr. It’s largely an overview and published from a lecture, so by no means a complete picture of his thinking, however like most of his writings there is wisdom everywhere. If you’ve read multiple books by Rohr this may not be for you, but for me it was exactly what I needed. Short and sweet and a helpful reminder that that which you seek may be on the other side of a very cluttered room.

[Leslie Klingensmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this a lot. I felt validated I some of my own prayer practices, and also got inspiration for the next steps of my contemplative life. Rohr is someone I would like to sit and shoot the breeze with - he is amazingly engaging and honest without being hopeless or judgmental

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short book and more like a Richard-Rohr Greatest-Hits Tour than a book with a clear thesis and a direction. Certainly, Rohr commends here the 'contemplative stance' for the ways it enables us to move beyond religion, into paradox, toward transformation, to disentangle from unjust systems, to understand our own vocation and charisms and experience hope. And of course it is Rohr so he drops some wise stuff in there (along with the incomprehensible). But mostly this book just points to other books by Rohr and ideas he's developed more elsewhere. This is not a 'how to' book but a one that attempts to answer 'why we should be contemplative.' And it is a little ramble-y.

This book came together as talks for the John Main seminar of the World Community for Christian Meditation. John Main, OSB was a mystic who's approach to contemplation was like Centering Prayer, but more mantra-y. Rohr likes him a lot, which dovetails with his approach to integral spirituality/the perennial mystical tradition. And always Rohr is hard to pin down, his language bouncing between creative engagement with the Christian tradition, and vague spiritual musings.

If you are a Rohr fan, you can find the substance of this book elsewhere. I didn't find this wonderful, though admittedly I underlined several sections. Rohr does turn a good phrase and has insights worth sharing.

[Jacque Kelnhofer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If it seems...that I have been overly hard on Catholicism, Christianity, organized religion, or even my country of America, I want to point out that it was these very institutions that gave me the criteria and held me inside the crucible long enough to say these things. It is by our public values, from our documents and Scriptures, and by our own criteria that I dare to critique. If I had not been held inside the crucible of Catholicism, butted up against its inconsistencies and my own inconsistencies, I don't think I would know anything."

This is everything, and just the beginning of Rohr's conversation.

[Cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

More deep, dense, paradoxically simple wisdom from Father Rohr.

[Luke H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes a book just comes along that sums up exactly where you're at in that point in time. It puts into words so many of the thoughts and feelings that you couldn't really articulate. I've read Richard Rohr before, but this book put things together for me in a new way. I didn't plan to buy this book, it just sort of came to me. And for some reason from the first few lines I knew that this was an important book for me. This isn't any kind of objective review, but very personal. This book ended up speaking to me in so many ways. One of the more important books I've read in some time. Maybe it would be for you as well.

[Larry Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I've been reading Richard Rohr's book a chapter at a time, and it's helped me through the days...all that you can ask of a book really. It makes solid sense and takes us out to the edge where we can look back and see the city. The city here being the spiritual life that is in each and all of us. He's a reasonable writer who has vision yet talks straight with you about the problems of religion and the great love and grace that is there for us all. I thank him for his many books, but I find this one essential to my life.

[Kj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Richard Rhor from the bottom of my heart, but this one seemed to be something he tossed together in two hours to make a publishers deadline. There are some great points and ideas on the union of the contemplative and practical, but these points are explained in better ways in other Rhor books. I closed this book feeling rather confused about the purpose and intent of the book.

[Kate Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended reading for SFD 601: Prayer, Presence, and Practice

A decent introduction to ideas of both nonviolent atonement and nondual thinnking, but assumes a lot of knowledge to fully understand what he's saying. Would be good for someone who is kind of curious about either of those but not quite prepared to read a lot, and then follow it up Ken Wilber if more interested.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Rohr never disappoints. This is a wonderful book which makes it clear how religion moves through a stage of rules, boundaries then a reaction of critique and finally the wonderful harmony that comes from the union of opposites.
There is so much to like in this book I heartily recommend it.

[Catherine Casey]

Richard Rohr's book " A Lever and a Place to Stand>>" was very thought provoking and provided something of a push for me to take better quality time in Contemplation in order to enter into the Actions of my life in a more intentional manner.

[Gene · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read only one book this entire, make it this one! Seriously.

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a joy to read. A welcome response to a radical individualism that has no where to stand. The contemplative activist is possible if awareness, prayer and faith come together.

[Thomas (Tom) Baynham,Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding as the other Rohr books!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the right book for me at the right time. I have read several other books promoting meditation, but never anything as persuasive and enticing as this one. This book called to my soul.

[Donna Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to contemplative prayer.