Dear friends, I’m excited to announce that I have launched two new podcasts. Each one will be oriented toward exploring mystical spirituality — one in a more “learning about” sense, and the other in a more direct, “practice/exercise” sense.
Both of these new podcasts are now available on Apple Podcasts, and will be available on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, and other directories soon.
Here’s the details:
Schola Mystica
Schola Mystica is Latin for “Mystic School” and the idea comes from the monastic tradition. St. Benedict spoke of the monastery as a “School for the Lord’s Service” and the early Cistercians expanded that idea to be a “School of Charity” or “School of Love.”
Karl Rahner famously said “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.” Friends, I believe it is time that we begin to take seriously this idea that we need to be “schooled” in the theology and spirituality of the mystical life. For such a school, only the Holy Spirit can be the headmaster. This podcast is not itself a “school” so much as a forum where you and I and other interested parties can explore what it means to be students of the mystical path here in the 21st century. Any topic related to Christian mysticism will be fair game for this podcast: book reviews, profiles of great mystics, insights into how mysticism can be relevant for our lives — especially those of us who are not monks or nuns.
To subscribe to Schola Mystica on Apple Podcasts, click here.
Via Mystica
Via Mystica is meant as a companion program to Schola Mystica. Whereas Schola Mystica is devoted to learning about mysticism, Via Mystica is all about practice — meditations, exercises, and methods of prayer that we can all begin to incorporate into our lives to further our commitment to exploring the mystical element of life. Like Schola Mystica, this podcast will be primarily based in Christian spirituality and practice, but it will have an interfaith dimension to it, since many spiritual practices (for example, tonglen, which originated in Tibetan Buddhism) are truly universal in nature.
My hope is that Via Mystica will appeal to anyone who wants practical help in establishing a deepening a daily prayer/meditation/contemplation practice. From lectio divina to the Examen to Centering Prayer, this podcast will be a repository of different spiritual practices that you can explore and possibly integrate into your own daily walk.
To subscribe to Via Mystica on Apple Podcasts, click here.
But what about Encountering Silence?
Many of you know that, for almost three years now, I have been a co-host of the Encountering Silence podcast. That is not changing. Schola Mystica and Via Mystica are an extension of my blog, not a replacement of the podcast I’m already involved with.
If you don’t know Encountering Silence, it’s a podcast dedicated to, well, silence, in all its many forms. So it’s more than just a spirituality podcast, although of course with a topic like silence, we do explore spirituality at length. But we also talk about social justice, poetry, education and psychology, even topics you might not typically associate with silence, like neuroscience or gardening!
I love Encountering Silence and we’ve just begun working on our fourth season. If you haven’t already done so, please listen — and subscribe! Visit www.encounteringsilence.com for a variety of subscription options, or click here to subscribe to Encountering Silence on Apple Podcasts.
Don’t Forget: I’m also on Youtube!
Thank you for subscribing to my podcasts — your subscription helps the directories to determine which podcast(s) are the most popular and deserve to be promoted. So every time you subscribe to a podcast, you are helping to promote it (also, be sure to leave reviews of your favorite podcasts on their respective pages at Apple, Google, etc. Reviews also contribute to making a podcast more visible).
With all this subscribing going on, I have one more request: will you take a minute and subscribe to my Youtube Channel? I’m currently producing about 1 new video a month, but depending on peoples’ response to my channel, that could change!
Click here to visit and subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
A Final Word…
If you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll also subscribe to my email list. That way you’ll get notified, about once a week, of all my new posts on my blog. I’ll be creating posts to promote my audio and video releases, so the email newsletter is the single best way to stay in touch with me! To sign up for my email list, click here.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope you will enjoy not only my future writing, but also my audio and video offerings as well. As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments or feedback about any of my content. Many blessings to you!
