Carl McColman's Blog, page 10

You Never Know Who You’re Going to Run Into!

Today I was at the Ignatius House Retreat Center in Atlanta, just long enough to meet with my spiritual director and talk to a few folks about an upcoming retreat — and who should I run into but Carmen Acevedo Butcher, who’s in Georgia visiting family!

For those of you who do not know, Carmen is a gifted translator who has published several wonderful contemporary English renditions of the writings of the mystics. Her Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church: A Spiritual Reader is one of my favo...

Questions and Answers on Interspiritual Mysticism

My good friend and colleague Jana Rentzel of Closer Than Breath invited me to answer a few questions about interspiritual mysticism — which is the topic of my forthcoming talk at Closer Than Breath’s Christian Mysticism Summit. I’ll be speaking at this online summit on Thursday, June 22, as part of a week-long event with either other amazing speakers, including Valerie Brown, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, David Cole, Michael Gungor, and more! This event is free, so please register and join us this com...

Mysticism, Faith, and “Knowing” God’s Will

A reader of this blog, named Peter, asked me a couple of questions recently. He had been at church where he heard a priest speak about a controversial issue with a kind of rhetoric that implied “this is what God wants for the church.”

So Peter writes:

So I put 2 questions to him. 1. Does he know there is a God and 2. Does he also know God’s plans. If yes, then I requested his explanation of how he knows these things.

Of course I don’t expect an answer and in fact have never heard an answer to th...

Online Event: Christian Mysticism Summit (Begins June 18, 2023; I speak on June 22)

Here’s a treat, friends. My wonderful associates Keith and Jana of Closer Than Breath have put together a free, week-long online Christian Mysticism Summit that will run the week of June 18-22, 2023! Click here to register for this free online event.

They have a wonderful roster of speakers lined up, including Valerie Brown, Lerita Coleman Brown, Justin Coutts, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, David Cassian Cole, Michael Gungor, and more!

This is a free event, and they are not going to try to sell you ...

Centering Prayer and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius • In-Person Retreat in Atlanta, June 9-11, 2023

Two of the most popular Christian spiritual practices in our time are Centering Prayer, inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating, and the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In some ways these are very different practices, as Centering Prayer emphasizes deep silence and stillness as a way of consenting to God’s action in our hearts.  The Spiritual Exercises, of course, emphasize fostering a deeper intimacy with Jesus through a variety of prayer practices includin...

Rest in Peace, Fr. Matt Torpey

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 blog once the monks post an obituary on their website).

Me and Father Matt

This picture of me (yes, that’s really me) and Matt was taken in 2005, I believe, at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit’s annual Christmas party for employees and volunteers. I was a new employee (I started working there just a few weeks earlier, in mid-November) so I was still get...

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 reading comes from John 3:1-8, the story of Nicodemus’s night-time visit to Jesus.

Nicodemus is a smart man. In today’s Gospel he is described as a “Pharisee” but also a “Ruler of the Jews.” We learn later in the Gospel that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of seventy-one Jewish elders who met in the Temple and f...

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 the Contemplative Imagination!

Click here to learn more about this retreat and/or to register. Early Bird Registration Special: Save $20 if you register by April 25!

Julian of Norwich proclaimed that “All shall be well.” The Cloud of Unknowing reminded us that love is the key to divine union. Evelyn Underhil...

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 and not open to the public in person, we are offering an option to participate in the retreat via Zoom. You can sign up for the entire seven day retreat, or you have the option to attend just the first half, or the second half (I’m structuring the retreat so each “half” can stand alone for those who cannot attend the en...

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 seemed to enjoy our exploration of the spirituality of the future enough that they asked for an encore. We decided another fun (and unusual, perhaps) place to look for God is in the wild and crazy world of popular music — whether that means Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Beyo...