Listening for the Heartbeat of God
Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality
By J. Philip Newell
Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1997
Review by Carl McColman
“Celtic Christianity” is the name given to a distinctive expression of the Christian faith that emerged in the lands where Celtic languages were spoken — Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in particular — during the 250 years following the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the early years of the fifth century. Essentially abandoned to fate and located far away from the center of declining Roman power, the church in the British isles basically made its own way during that quarter of a millennium, combining the mystical theology of early Christendom with the unique sensibility of the Celtic peoples. Although some critics dismiss the idea that “Celtic Christianity” is anything other than a modern romanticized view of the church in the British Isles during that period, many others see in this expression of the faith a path to follow as the church of the third millennium seeks to embrace a more earth-friendly, holistic view of creation, while also deconstructing the compromises made particularly in the west as the church became entangled with imperial and later forms of political power. (more…)
Mysticism in a book?
A blogger named SaltSister recently wrote a post called The Mystic Way in which she takes aim at the kind of person who reads a book or two on mysticism and then decides that he or she is a mystic. While in principle I totally agree with her, the tone of her post bothered me a bit, so I posted a comment asking for clarification. After all, my blog is all about the joys of reading books by and about the mystics. Her response to me included this genuine jewel:
“Studying to learn how to enter into mystical union kind of reminds me of studying how to be crucified.”
Wow. Amen, sister.
It’s wonderful to read mystical literature. And it’s vitally important to remember that doing so does not, in itself, make one a mystic. Only God makes mystics.
Portraits of Grace
Portraits of Grace: Images and Words from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit
By James Stephen Behrens, OCSO
Skokie, IL: ACTA Publications, 2007
Review by Carl McColman
Windows feature prominently in this luminous collection of photography and pithy meditations from Trappist monk James Behrens. In this striking and singular glimpse into the multivalent world quietly hidden within a third millennium cloister, Behrens eschews stereotypes and clichés. Instead of pious images of monks praying or studying, he lingers over a heap of old tires, mops hung up to dry, an old street sign overgrown by kudzu. Like many religious communities founded anywhere from fifty to fifteen hundred years ago, Georgia’s Monastery of the Holy Spirit — where all of these photographs were taken and presumably all these words were written — is rich with the splendors of nature; the community owns over two thousand acres of mostly undeveloped land. Behrens celebrates this bucolic treasure with his singularly unromantic eye: his gaze finds an autumn leaf caught in a spider web, or ominous clouds rolling in over a lonely old barn. But I don’t mean to suggest that this collection of images lacks beauty or warmth: far from it. Tenderness erupts in a candid snapshot of a dove huddling in her nest with her young, while technically gorgeous images of a bumblebee or a preying mantis are almost breathtaking in their loveliness. Pansies, stained glass, green leaves and red bricks, all dance through the book, giving it a colorful, almost kaleidoscopic feel. (more…)
The Limitation of Christ
I can’t resist a good pun, and the only thing I like more than a good pun is a really bad one. Yesterday when I was restocking books at the store where I work, I looked at Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ and thought “somebody should write a book called The Limitation of Christ.” More cutesy than clever, I thought, and so obvious that it had probably been done a trillion times. So I was surprised when I couldn’t find a book on Amazon.com with that title; indeed, when I googled “Limitation of Christ” all I could find was a MySpace Blog from a band in the UK called the Limitations (I couldn’t figure out their connection to Christ, so I figured they are just as hopeless for bad puns as I am). (more…)
Listen with Your Heart
Listen with Your Heart: Spiritual Living with the Rule of Saint Benedict
By M. Basil Pennington, OCSO
Edited by Br. Chaminade Crabtree, OCSO
Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2007
Review by Carl McColman
Many books are available on the Rule of St. Benedict and how it applies to modern life. Esther De Waal, Joan Chittister, Michael Casey, Laura Swan, Norvene Vest and Elizabeth Canham are just a few of the writers who have offered their take on the Holy Rule for readers in our day. Almost without exception, all of these books are aimed at the layperson — either the Benedictine oblate, or else a person with no formal ties to a monastic community whatsoever, but who would like to unpack the wisdom of Benedict for their secular postmodern lives.
Right away, one can see the value of this collection of chapter talks from Basil Pennington during his tenure as the Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia: this is a book about the Rule of Saint Benedict written by a monk, for monks. “Written” might not be the best choice of words, for this book is an anthology of transcripts (several of these talks have also been collected in their original form as a two-CD audiobook). Those of us with secular vocations are basically invited to “listen in” on the kind of teachings that is normally reserved only for those in the cloister. (more…)
Quote for the Day
No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees. These pages seek nothing more than to echo the silence and peace that is “heard” when the rain wanders freely among the hills and forests. But what can the wind say when there is no hearer? There is then a deeper silence: the silence in which the Hearer is No-Hearer. That deeper silence must be heard before one can speak truly of solitude.
— Thomas Merton, from the preface to the Japanese Edition of
Thoughts in Solitude, excerpted in Echoing Silence:
Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing,
edited by Robert Inchausti
Quote for the Day
…we who serve an entirely indoor God have lost a great part of our faith. We must break through the cold, hard walls of our institutionalized worship and reach for the soft, warm reality of God that is found out of doors. It is impossible to imprison God within walls of a church and yet claim that Christianity brings light, growth and life. We need to open the windows of our souls to admit God’s creative energy.
Our inside God is too small. We need to view him through the universe he created…
— Calvin Miller, The Path of Celtic Prayer
I arise today through the strength of heaven…
Courtesy of the good folks at Beliefnet, here’s a wonderful flash-animated “meditation” built around St. Patrick’s Lorica prayer:
Christian Morning Meditation: The Prayer of St. Patrick of Ireland
The music — a Gaelic ode to Brigit sung by Katy Taylor — is particularly lovely and haunting.
Punk Monk
Punk Monk: New Monasticism and the Ancient Art of Breathing
By Andy Freeman and Pete Greig
Ventura, California: Regal Books, 2007
Review by Carl McColman
First, a confession: I fell in love with this book the moment I heard of its title. Bands like the Clash and the Jam provided the soundtrack to my undergraduate years, so I guess I have a soft spot for the punk world (even though I was never much of a punk myself). And while a title like this could easily signify a book that is more cutesy style than substance, I’m happy to report that this book has value well beyond its two-syllable rhyme. (more…)
An Ecumenical Resource for Contemplatives in Atlanta?
Yesterday was the final session of my class on Julian of Norwich offered at the Central United Church of Christ in Atlanta. After class, I joined Cliff and Marjorie, two of the participants in the class, for lunch at a nearby burrito joint. Our conversation kept coming back to the question of how to foster more resources for aspiring contemplatives and students of Christian mysticism in the Atlanta area.
“I’m frustrated this class only lasted three weeks,” said Marjorie, “and I’m sure there are plenty of other people like me, who are interested in learning more about the experiential side of Christianity.” (more…)
Ooooh, that smell; can you smell that smell?
Death seems to be in the air this week, even though Samhain and All Saints/All Souls days are still over a month away.
First, there’s the buzz surrounding the new Sean Penn-directed movie Into the Wild, about the true story of a young man who dies in the Alaska wilderness while on a trip to find (or prove) himself. The youth in question, Christopher McCandless, hailed from Annandale, VA, where several of my best friends in college were from and not far from where I went to graduate school; he attended Emory University, just down the road from where I now live (and where I’m an instructor in the Continuing Education program). McCandless hiked into the wilderness right about the time Fran and I met; he died right about the time we were figuring out that we loved each other. His death was entirely unnecessary — he died in the summer, for heaven’s sake; he didn’t even have a map with him, he obviously didn’t bother to learn the skills necessary for long-term wildnerness survival.
Then yesterday a friend emailed me about Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie-Mellon who has achieved some renown for his work on virtual reality. Earlier this month he delivered a valedictory lecture on the eve of his all-but-certain death from pancreatic cancer. Pausch is only about six weeks older than me; although as of this lecture he was obviously far more physically fit than I am (he does a few one-handed pushups for the delighted audience), doctors told him last month he only has three to six good months left, before the cancer steals first his health, and then his life. In his lecture Pausch is funny, self-deprecating, and positive: his message is all about living your life to the full and making your dreams come true. Maybe not so different from what a Joel Osteen or a Tony Robbins has to say, but certainly poignant and powerful given his backstory. Given how successful Pausch is, not only professionally but personally (he has a picture perfect family with three small kids), his premature end seeems all the more unfair, and his dignity and humor in the face of it all the more remarkable.
My friend Phil Foster once told me that shamanism is all about death. I think that’s true of all authentic spirituality. Death can be absurd (like McCandless’) or tragic (like Pausch’s), or it can simply mark the end of a good long life (like my mother’s). But one thing is certain: we all have a date with it, sooner or later. I’m reminded of Shakespeare’s comment about death: “Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.” With all due respect to the bard, I think he got it backwards. Cowards spend their entire lives running from death, while the valiant fear not to face it; they befriend it and so it transforms their lives. McCandless may have been stupid in how he chose to walk into the wilderness so blindly, but his fool’s death still reveals much to us today about how the quest to live a big life often involves taking big risks. Pausch doesn’t waste any time pitying himself for his imminent date with mortality; but that’s because he has prepared well for death by living well.
I suppose most of all us fall somewhere in between suicidal risk-taking and a life fully lived. We don’t all need to be as successful as Randy Pausch and we certainly don’t need to be as self-destructive as Chris McCandless. But maybe if we risked just a little bit more and pushed just a little bit harder to achieve a little bit more success, it would be a good thing. And if we did, we could count on death — walking alongside us, every step of the way.
Quote for the Day
As I have often said, happiness consists in knowing what you want, and then knowing you have it, or you are on the way to getting it. What we want is God. Our hearts will not rest until they rest in you, O Lord. Our minds seek infinite truth. Our hearts are made for infinite love. The purpose of the structures of our life — of going apart from the world in silence and solitude — is so that we can keep alive, at that level of knowing, who we are and what we really want. Through contemplative prayer and spiritual experiences, we then know that, to some extent, we have it now or are on the way of getting it. This is the meaning of Cistercian life: we are on the way. We have committed ourselves. It is the life of the “stricter observance” in the sense that we are really committed to be in quest of the fullness of divine life and joy. That is why our life can be tremendously happy. There is a deep joy. We know what we want, and we know, to some extent, that we already enjoy it but there is infinitely more in eternal life. We are on the way to it.
— M. Basil Pennington, OCSO, Listen with Your Heart:
Spiritual Living with the Rule of Saint Benedict
Mystics, Heretics and Saints
Consider this list of Christian mystics and theologians (if you’re not familiar with any of these figures, do some research and add their writings to your reading list):
- Clement of Alexandria (second century CE)
- Origen (third century)
- Evagrius Ponticus (fourth century)
- Pelagius (late fourth/early fifth century)
- John Scotus Eriugena (ninth century)
- Marguerite Porete (late thirteenth/early fourteenth century)
- Meister Eckhart (late thirteenth/early fourteenth century)
- Jeanne Guyon (late seventeenth/early eighteenth century)
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (twentieth century)
- Thomas Merton (twentieth century)
What do these figures have in common? Each of them, to a greater or lesser degree, have been either denounced as heretics, had at least some of their writings condemned, or at the very least have been criticized for advocating positions that are ambiguous or confusing to the Christian faithful. In other words, these figures have all been denied access to the inner chambers of doctrinal orthodoxy and ecclesiastical respectability. Here is ample evidence that the tension between dogmatic and mystical Christianity that plays out in today’s world — in terms of the criticism that Mother Angelica and her followers level at the Centering Prayer community (or, on the Protestant side, the anti-mystical attacks emanating from the Lighthouse Trails Research Project, targeting contemplatives like the Quaker Richard Foster or the Episcopalian Tilden Edwards) — is, sad to say, nothing new.
Frankly, when I consider the long and sorry history of how mysticism has been continually ignored, attacked, or marginalized within Christianity, what I find remarkable is not so much how this continues today, but rather what is truly amazing is that some mystics occasionally do get accepted by the church — Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross are three who leap to mind, although thankfully they are not the only ones. Of course, such “insider” mystics almost always have drenched their writings with language that the dogmatic mainstream finds acceptable: submission to the church, self-denial, and dualistic consciousness. This means that the discerning student of the mysteries is faced with particular challenges when reading mystics who are also saints. Of course, for those of us who are trying to walk the tightrope of engagement with the institutional church while also pursuing the contemplative life, the wisdom of the saint-mystics is particularly instructive: they show us how it is to be done.
Welcome LiveJournal Friends
Last night I finally got around to fixing my RSS feed through LiveJournal. For almost a year now it had been pointing to my old blog URL (from when my blog was hosted at SquareSpace) which means that none of the subscribers were getting my new posts. But now it’s fixed. So there are sixty-some (and counting) “new” readers of this blog (“new” is in quotes because many of you were reading me back when I was active on LiveJournal, from mid-2003 through early 2006). Welcome to my WordPress blog, you guys.
I hope that new readers (whether on LiveJournal or not) will take the time to visit the various nooks and crannies of www.anamchara.com. I moved my blog away from LiveJournal to SquareSpace a year and a half ago because I wanted a blog that was seamlessly integrated with a traditional website (where I could post all my old essays, articles, etc., as well as develop new content on my favorite subjects: the great writings of western mysticism, and how to cultivate a spiritual practice). I moved from SquareSpace to WordPress for Scottish reasons, basically: SquareSpace was costing $12 bucks a month, while WordPress is free. You do the math…
As a professional writer turned blogger, I feel like I still don’t fully appreciate the promise and potential of blogging. It really deconstructs the lines that separate intimate writing (diaries, letters) from public writing (books, essays, reviews) and, thanks to commentary and feedback (both on and off the blog) that happens usually within minutes or hours of a post being published, it is revolutionizing the editorial process as well. Since my theology is pretty much evolutionary in how I understand the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, I think it’s tremendous fun to write in this evolutionary medium. Who knows what treasures of spiritual insight we will discover together?
PS to the LiveJournal Subscribers: When the feed was finally updated, LJ picked up everything I had written over the last week. Which means you got inundated with about a dozen posts! Sorry about that, I usually only post 5-10 times a week, so things will slow down from here on out.
Feed the EarthMystic (or is that “Earthmystic the Feed”?)
If you want to read my blog (which is hosted at WordPress.com) without leaving the comfort of LiveJournal, now there’s a solution… all you have to do is subscribe to earthmystic_rss. Go on, do it now. You know you want to.
There, wasn’t that easy?
Quote for the Day
Come Holy Spirit, Spirit of Love, Spirit of Discipline,
In the Silence
Come to us and bring us your peace;Rest in us that we may be tranquil and still;
Speak to us as each heart needs to hear;
Reveal to us things hidden and things longed for;
Rejoice in us that we may praise and be glad;Pray in us that we may be at one with you and with each other;
Refresh and Renew us from your living springs of water;
Dwell in us now and always. Amen.
— Robert Llewelyn, With Pity Not With Blame: The Spirituality of
Julian of Norwich and the Cloud of Unknowing for Today
Quiz of the Moment
You scored as Idealist, Idealism centers around the belief that we are moving towards something greater. An odd mix of evolutionist and spiritualist, you see the divine within ourselves, waiting to emerge over time. Many religious traditions express how the divine spirit lost its identity, thus creating our world of turmoil, but in time it will find itself and all things will again become one.
What is Your World View? |
Terra Fide
As an ex-neopagan who now works in a Catholic bookstore, I have an interesting perspective on things. Yesterday, a woman called the store because she wanted to order some of the monastery-blended incense we sell. As we spoke, she made this comment: “I’m so glad to have found you. So much of the incense that you see for sale these days comes from Pagans and Wiccans.” She emphasized her contempt when she said “Pagans” and “Wiccans,” almost as if she were speaking of something unutterably evil. I made no direct response to her, but tried to steer the conversation back to her order, but she apparently needed to confide in me. “So I really appreciate you guys. I’m so terrified of bringing something with the wrong energy into my home.”
Terrified — that was her exact word. This time, I was so nonplussed that I couldn’t have made any kind of helpful response to her even if I had wanted to. (more…)
Love them all. Let God sort them out.
When the Catholics were fighting the Cathars in the thirteenth century, the French city of Beziers was under Cathar control — but after a siege, fell to the Catholics. About to enter the city, the commander wondered about how he could distinguish the true heretics from others who may have been faithful to the pope. Apparently the papal representative responded to this question with the now legendary phrase, “Kill them all, God will recognize his own.” Over the years it has morphed into the snappier “Kill them all; let God sort them out,” now a kind of wisecrack aimed at lampooning the take-no-prisoners approach to fighting (whether in a military, political, or some other setting).
Okay, so it’s funny in a sick sort of way. But that’s about all it’s good for. Today, this medieval sensibility is not only bad military policy, it’s just plain bad policy in general — but it’s surprising how many people have a “kill ‘em all” approach to life. But for those of us who seek to live God-infused lives, I think we need to get in the habit of turning this line inside out.
I’m amused when I encounter Christians who are uncomfortable forming friendships with people whose theology they find questionable (liberal ex-pagan mystic-lover that I am, my theology gets questioned a lot). Yeah, there are lots of people whose theology or values or ethics I have problems with, too. But I think the Christian’s motto ought to be “Love them all; let God sort them out.” In Christ we have been liberated from the awful burden of having to judge others. In this freedom beyond judgment, we are at liberty to simply love, joyfully, lavishly, unconditionally. In doing so, will we love some folks who may not share our values? Most assuredly. Will we love people whom others see as scandalous or even wicked? Perhaps, if not probably. Will our prodigal love make us appear foolish to others? I suspect as much. Is it even possible that we will (gasp) love people whose faith is entirely different from our own, or (double gasp) who engage in sexual behavior radically unlike our own? In this world, you bet. But just as we have been directed not to judge other people, so too we have been set free from the burden of judging ourselves. We are simply called to love as Christ loved us. Whether the person we love is our best friend, our theological soul mate, or even someone who subtly (or not so subtly) tries to undermine everything we stand for, it doesn’t matter. Judge not. Cast out the fear. Just love — simply love. Take delight, accept, celebrate, enjoy. Love them all — and let God sort them out.
Every Earthly Blessing
Every Earthly Blessing: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition
By Esther De Waal
Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1999
Review by Carl McColman
I’m going to get a bit more personal in this review than I normally do when writing about books. Considering the subject matter — Celtic spirituality — it seems fitting, not only because Celtic wisdom has been so instrumental in my own spiritual life, but because the Celtic tradition honors intimacy and relatedness; in other words, it’s not really a tradition that puts much store in such qualities as “objectivity” or “neutrality.” To write authentically about the Celtic tradition requires being engaged with that tradition. Therefore, I can only review a book like this by sharing with my readers how it speaks to me in a personal and intimate way.
So; there’s a level on which I’m surprised that I’m reviewing this book at all. (more…)
A Tongue that Cannot Lie
According to Scottish legend, when the queen of fair elfland whisked Thomas of Erceldoune away in the 12th century to play his harp and sing for her wild weekend of partying (a weekend that lasted about seven years on this side of the veil!), she was so happy with his service that when she returned him to Scotland, she gave him a gift: a tongue that cannot lie. Of course, a gift like this can also be a curse…
I am reminded of Maggie Kuhn’s immortal command, “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.” Telling the truth really is a gift. Maybe not so much when you’re trying to flirt with someone and you don’t want to (immediately) divulge that it’s marriage or sex you’ve got on your mind. But when it comes to talking about what we really think about religion, or authority, or the powerful discontinuities in our own hearts and souls, telling the truth can be revolutionary.
Just be prepared for when the fighting begins.
The Interior Castle for free…
The wonderful Christian Audio company sells downloadable MP3s and CDs of inspirational audiobooks; their catalog includes a number of mystical classics, including The Rule of St. Benedict, The Imitation of Christ, and The Practice of the Presence of God. Plus they have lots of wonderful works by more contemporary authors, ranging from Henri Nouwen to Richard Foster to N. T. Wright.
Each month, Christian Audio offers one of their titles as a free download. Yes, that’s right: free, no charge, not even a credit card number is required. You just have to enter the provided coupon code when you go through the checkout process.
This month, the free audiobook is The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila!
Click here to download it. It will be available through September 30, 2007. Please note that if you happen to be reading this after that date, you will have missed your chance. But follow the link anyway, since something else will be available — a new free download is offered each month.
Seven Signs of Celtic Wisdom
I’ve been reading Edward Sellner’s lovely book Wisdom of the Celtic Saints. In it he describes seven characteristics of Celtic Christian Spirituality. Of course, while this list may be an insight to what is distinctive about Celtic wisdom, I think it’s really universal in its application: here are seven characteristics of the spiritual life that all of us might profitably emulate, regardless of whether we have any sort of affinity to the saints of the Celtic lands.
- Love of, and respect for, nature
- Love of learning
- Yearning to explore the unknown (pilgrimage, wanderlust)
- Love of silence and solitude
- Understanding of time as a sacred reality blessed and already redeemed by God’s overflowing compassion
- Appreciation of ordinary life (encountering God in the here and now)
- Belief in the value of kinship relationships, especially the spiritual ties of soul friends
School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism
School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism
Edited by The Rutba House
Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2005
Review by Carl McColman
The Rutba House is an intentional Christian community located in Durham, NC; on the back of this book of essays, it is described as a “community of hospitality, peacemaking and discipleship.” It’s also a leading voice in an exciting development within the Christian community: “neo-monasticism.” According to the online essay A Brief History of New Monasticism, neo-monasticism can trace its roots back to a variety of sources, from the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to the Taizé Community to the latter-day revivals of Celtic monasticism such as the Northumbria Community. Neo-monasticism is ecumenical, prophetic, rooted in tradition but radically open to the new ways in which the Holy Spirit is calling Christians to create countercultural expressions of communal life in Christ. Like so many other postmodern expressions of the faith, there’s no single “correct” form of neo-monasticism, but there are some recurrent themes. School(s) for Conversion is a collection of essays that seek to answer this question — What is neo-monasticism? — by considering a dozen of these qualities that seem again and again to show up among the many varied communities that are seeking to foster radical discipleship in today’s world. (more…)
