Father Matt Torpey, OCSO died this morning. I don’t know how old he was, but I’m sure he was well into his 90s (I’ll post more info here on this…
Author: Carl McColman
Soul Friend and Storyteller. Lay Cistercian, Centering Prayer Presenter, Author, Blogger, Podcaster, Speaker, Teacher, Retreat Leader.
Nicodemus, Peace, and the Dark Night
N. B. This is a Gospel reflection I shared during a communion service at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Decatur, Georgia, on the evening of April 17, 2023. The Gospel…
English Mystics and the Contemplative Imagination • In-Person Retreat in Maryland, June 25-July 1, 2023
Meet me at the beautiful Bon Secours Retreat Center in Marriotsville, Maryland (between Baltimore and Washington DC) the last week of June for an in-person retreat on the English Mystics and…
Online Retreat: The Mystical Path to a Joyful Life (June 1-7, 2023)
During the first week of June I am giving a retreat based on my book Eternal Heart for the Sisters of Saint Francis in Rochester, Minnesota. Although this is a cloistered retreat…
ONLINE EVENT: FINDING GOD ON SPOTIFY (OR THE RADIO): THE SPIRITUALITY OF POP MUSIC — MAY 18, 2023
Last year, my friend and colleague Alice Camille and I spent an evening on Zoom geeking out on one of our favorite topics: The Spirituality of Star Trek (seriously!). People…
Modern Mystics: The Latest from Bernard McGinn
I make the following statement in my forthcoming New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: Some writers and scholars, who might humbly deny identifying themselves as mystics, nevertheless have contributed much to…
Lessons From a Feral Cat, Part II: Little Mama’s Final Legacy
Little Mama, one of Fran’s and my adopted feral cats, died yesterday, and we are devastated. We made the heartbreaking decision for her to be euthanized after several weeks of…
Want to Learn More About Julian of Norwich? Start Here
Next month — May 2023 — marks the 650th anniversary of the visionary “showings” of the great 14th century English mystic, Julian of Norwich! To make the occasion, for the…
The Stations of the Cross with Julian of Norwich
Friends, it is holy week, and I cannot think of a better guide to this most sacred week of the Christian liturgical year than Julian of Norwich. Julian’s book of…
How Do I Meet Other Mystics?
One of the patrons of this blog wrote to me recently: My question is, how do I meet other Christian mystics? Thanks for asking. It’s a question many of us ponder….
Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership (Pre-Order Today)
Friends, I am so honored to announce that I have an essay appearing in an upcoming anthology called Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership which is being…
Contemplative AI: Google’s “Bard” Answers My Questions About Mysticism, Centering Prayer, and Interspirituality
So I got invited to be a beta-tester for Google’s new AI assistant called Bard. Yesterday I received an email from Google that said, in part: Meet Bard, an early…