This curated selection of posts provide an in-depth exploration of the mystical life.
The Scale of Perfection is, in essence, a book of spiritual guidance or direction, written by an elder contemplative for a younger reader.
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Mysticism is important because it implies an experimental spirituality — it's not something you learn from a book, but it's a reality that we live, in our own heart and minds and bodies. But does this mean that there is no room for doctrine and faith in the mystical life?
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When we consider also the rich mystical sensibility that characterizes Howard Thurman’s sermons and writings, it is clear that he is one of the great twentieth-century Christian contemplatives.
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The best way to understand Christian mysticism (if "understanding" is even a possibility, given the mysterious nature of mysticism) is to approach it as a process: a developmental journey of how one relates to God.
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I cannot nail down a Christian understanding of mysticism in a single session of a class (or in a simple blog post), but hopefully I can offer some lines of thinking that can help readers and students to think about Christian mysticism in a manner that is consistent with how mysticism has been understood by Christian theologians, contemplatives and visionaries.
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Anyone interested in the beliefs of Christian mystics will naturally be curious to know, "do Christian mystics believe the same things as other Christians?" It's an almost impossible question to answer...
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If you share with others a moment of profound mystical insight that you have does it, in fact, make it stronger and real for the person with the epiphany? In other words, in the retelling does it gain strength?
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I think I understand how many people — including many people with a genuine interest in the mystics — find church to be the last place they want to be, on Sunday or any other time during the week.
There are many reasons for this. Many people have been hurt by churches.
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So much of the language of the New Testament, and of so many of the mystics (at least in the Christian tradition), is language of love. God is love (or as I like to say, "Love-with-a-capital-L"). We love because God first loved us. God's love is poured into our hearts.
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So contemplation, mystically speaking, is one type of prayer. And the Catechism definition gives us a pretty good way of understanding this unique dimension of communication with God.
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Mysticism is the dimension of spirituality that goes deeper than belief, doctrine or dogma. It recognizes that spiritual reality cannot ever be fully comprehended by the limitations of human thought, language or logic.
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If you want to learn the Centering Prayer method of silently consenting to God's presence and action in your life, explore the psychology and theology of such prayer, learn about related practices such as lectio divina, and find a community of like-minded persons who can support you in establishing and maintaining a daily silent prayer practice, then Contemplative Outreach is for you.
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