Carl McColman's Blog, page 16

I’m Giving Away 5 Free Autographed Copies of “The Lion, the Mouse, and the Dawn Treader” — Here’s How to Enter

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of CS Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — to celebrate, I am giving away five autographed copies of my book, The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader! Here’s the catch: you have to follow me on Instagram. Also, this is only for USA residents, age 18 and older.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a charming children’s book that describes the various stages of the mystical life through adventures of three children sailing on a magical shi...

Encountering Silence interviews Carmen Acevedo Butcher

Hi friends! Just a quick note to let you know that the latest episode of Encountering Silence is out. We’re interviewing our friend Carmen Acevedo Butcher, noted for her translation of The Cloud of Unknowing. She’s now releasing another translation of a mystical classic: Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence. Listen to the episode here, and/or download it from your favorite podcast source — and please be sure to visit Patreon to support Encountering Silence.

25 Celtic Books (and a CD) for Your Late Summer Reading List

Hello friends! I currently have a course on Celtic spirituality running through Spirituality and Practice (it’s not too late to sign up for it, if you’re interested, click here).

We had a zoom call the other day which gave me a chance to interact with participants in the course, and of course during our time together several books were mentioned; people asked to recommend a few books, and so forth. So I was asked to draw up a list of books on the topic of Celtic spirituality that I enjoy, find u...

In Person Event: Centering Prayer and the Mystical Imagination (Tallahassee, FL; September 10, 2022)

Friends, I’m excited to visit my friends with Contemplative Outreach Tallahassee and The Front Porch: A Spiritual Life Center, who are co-sponsoring a Saturday program I’m leading in person on September 10. Hope to see you there!

The program will take place at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 211 North Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL. We’ll be there on September 10 from 1o AM to 12:30 PM. For more information or to register, please contact Angela Shelley at angela@saint-john.org.

Here’s the informati...

Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, and Centering Prayer: Three Mystical Books for Children

Yesterday I received an advance copy of a wonderful book coming out this fall, that tells a simple children’s story about grief and loss, while using the wisdom of Julian of Norwich to underscore the message that “all shall be well.”

Excerpt from “All Will Be Well” by Borgo and Evans.

All Will Be Well: Learning to Trust God’s Love by Lacy Finn Borgo, illustrated by Rebecca Evans, will be published in October, so you can get a copy for all the children on your Christmas list. It’s appropriate for...

Memento Mori: The Contemplation of Death and the Wonder of Life

Twice this week I have learned of the death of an acquaintance. I hesitate to say “friend” because neither of these people were friends in a close sense: one of them I hadn’t seen or been in contact with in almost four years, the other not since the mid-1990s. But they were both men I liked, and both I knew through church. One was a Jesuit priest at my parish from 2017-2018, the other the organist at Fran’s and my wedding, at the Episcopal Church we attended in the 1990s.

Fr. Rudy Casals, SJ was...

Some Christians Attack Centering Prayer and Contemplation. They are Motivated by Bad Theology.

A reader of this blog sent me the following question today.

Hi Carl,
I see from conservative Christian circles that WCCM and Centering prayer is labelled new age and dangerous.
Are these practices Christian really?  Or are we trying to incorporate eastern meditation into Christianity ?

First, the short answer. Contemplative practices like Centering Prayer and Christian meditation are rooted in the Christian tradition, roots that go back to the Desert Mothers and Fathers and the medieval mystics....

Seven Ways to Read a Mystical Book

Reading the writings of the great mystics — of figures like St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Ávila, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, or even modern writers like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin or Bernadette Roberts — is not always easy. Many mystics use dense or figurative or poetic language in their attempts to express the inexpressible. Others rely on highly technical philosophical or theological language to make their points. Many of the mystics lived centuries ago, meaning that they had ra...

Eternal Heart Audiobook CDs now in stock!

Back in June I announced that Eternal Heart is being published as a 4-CD audiobook. As of today, the CD audiobook is now available through my E-Commerce store. You can order it by clicking here.

This means that Eternal Heart is now available in three formats: as a hardcover book, an ebook (Kindle and all other major ebook formats) and audiobook (both streaming and CD). You can order autographed copies of the book from me, along with the CD audiobook. Ebooks are available through all the major e...

“Mystics Teach us to Reconnect with Timeless and Essential Truth” — Join Me for the Free 2022 Mystics Summit, online August 15-19!

An awake heart is like a lighthouse helping others to find a safe way home.
―Rolf van der Wind

I’m one of over thirty presenters for the 2022 Mystics Summit hosted by The Shift Network — along with Mirabai Starr, James Finley, Rami Shapiro, and Greg Boyles, among many others!

It’s free to register for this five-day event. To sign up, register here.

Here’s the description of the event from the folks at The Shift:

As the increasing noise, chaos, and distraction presented by the daily global news ...