
Introducing Season 8 (and our new co-host!) with Carmen Acevedo Butcher and Brian McLaren
Learning How to See with Brian McLarenShow Notes
In this opening to Season 8, Learning How to See returns with understanding how to see with the eyes of love. On this season, Brian McLaren introduces his new co-host Dr. Carmen Acevedo Butcher—a scholar, translator, contemplative teacher, and birdwatching chocolate lover—and together, they launch the theme for this season: Seeing Through Eyes of Love.
This episode weaves together personal storytelling, embodied spiritual practice, and reflection to explore how love can transform the way we see ourselves, each other, and the world.
Your Practice for the Week:
Once a day, notice something you’re seeing with judgment or indifference. Pause. Shift your gaze to see it with the eyes of love. Then try to “telescope out”:
See yourself seeing with love.
See others doing the same.
Envision Divine Love witnessing it all.
Connect with us:
Have a question you'd like Brian or Carmen to answer about this season?
Email us: [email protected]
Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail
Resources & Mentions:
The transcript for this episode can be found here.
In this episode, Carmen referenced the following:
Dorothee Sölle – Death by Bread Alone
Howard Thurman – Mysticism and the Experience of Love
Brother Lawrence – The Practice of the Presence of God
Meister Eckhart – on the “eye within me”
Brian referenced the following:
Richard Rohr’s Cosmic Egg – a framework of nested stories: My Story, Our Story, The Story (This is located in his book, The Wisdom Pattern.)
1 Corinthians 13 – closing reading on the nature of love
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In today's episode, we look at the Genesis 12 story of Abram’s call. Hosts Brian McLaren, Randy Woodley, and Edith Woodley explore what it means to be “blessed to be a blessing,” how generosity and hospitality can shape our identities, and how a strong sense of identity can become a gift to others rather than a reason for exclusion or domination.
In today's episode, we explore the story of the Tower of Babel and turn the usual reading of it upside down. Diverse languages, in this telling, are not the curse — the tower is.
Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Learning How to See, hosted by Brian McLaren, with guest hosts Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley and Edith Woodley.