Tag Archives | Mysticism

Answering the Contemplative Call ebooks now available

By in Announcements, Books

I’m happy to announce that three different ebook versions of Answering the Contemplative Call are now available. Pick your preferred version: Kindle Version Nook Version iBooks Version And of course, if you’d rather have the old fashioned paper-&-ink version: Buy it at Amazon But it at Barnes & Noble But it at an Independent Bookstore (Online or Near [...]

Read full story · Comments { 6 } · February 14, 2013

A shout out to Evelyn Underhill and her wonderful book

By in Books, Mysticism

Over the next few weeks or so I’ll be posting four new videos on Youtube. One will be an “about me” video, one in which I talk about my three most recent books, one in which I talk about an idea I first presented at the Patheos website on “compass points for the spiritual life,” [...]

Read full story · Comments { 9 } · December 10, 2012

Getting Started in Contemplative Practice

By in Christian mysticism, Contemplation, Spirituality

A reader writes: I hope you might be able to write me a quick note about a good way to get started in a more contemplative/mystical oriented Christianity.  I was involved in religious fundamentalism for most of my adult life and now I am trying to recover from that.  I am hoping you might point [...]

Read full story · Comments { 12 } · May 7, 2012

Mysticism for those who don’t like “mysticism”

By in Mysticism, Spirituality

A reader writes: In the first chapter of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism you offer your sense that mysticism offers the serious practitioner the possibility of experience of God that is transforming and which then enhances the world around us. I firmly agree. But does that mean such a transformative relationship is not open [...]

Read full story · Comments { 7 } · March 20, 2012

“Eleven years of Catholic education had told me nothing about Christian meditation.”

By in Christianity, Contemplation, Meditation, Mysticism, Spirituality

Here’s an interesting article published the other day in the Utah Statesman by a fellow named Michael Sowder: Finding Home in India. The author tells the story of his spiritual journey, and it’s a story I’ve heard again and again. Basically, it runs like this: born into a Christian family, Sowder (and countless others like [...]

Read full story · Comments { 0 } · September 15, 2011

Awkward

By in Christian mysticism, Mysticism, Mystics, Spirituality

A reader of my blog has written to me to ask for advice on reading the mystics. He notes, “they embrace very traditional theology that is awkward for me in the 21st century.” Indeed. There is no one single “Christian mystical theology.” I would be suspicious of anyone who tries to distill the teachings of [...]

Read full story · Comments { 4 } · August 22, 2011

Quote for the Day

By in Christian mysticism, Mysticism

The elder opened the Philokalia, searched for an instruction of Saint Symeon the New Theologian and began: “Sit in silence and alone. Bend your head. Close your eyes. Breathe ever more quietly. With the imagination look inside your heart. Carry your intellect, that is your thought, out of your head and into your heart. As [...]

Read full story · Comments { 0 } · August 21, 2011
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