Carl McColman's Blog, page 32
July 23, 2020
Spirit of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses: A New Edition for an “Old Friend”
If you are interested in Celtic mythology — and curious about how to integrate the ancient wisdom from the Celtic people into your spiritual life today — then The Spirit of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses might be for you.
I co-authored this book with a good friend, Kathryn Hinds; the first edition was published in 2005. It’s been out of print for a while, and Kathryn passed away after a brief illness in 2018. I’m sorry she isn’t here to see this beautiful new edition featuring an introduction by ...
July 9, 2020
Missing Your Favorite Monastery or Retreat House? Here are Some Online Retreat Opportunities
In these extraordinary times that we find ourselves in, I have been profoundly moved at how meaningful online retreats and courses have become for so many. Everyone knows that Zoom is no substitute for a week at a monastery — but it’s much better than nothing!
Here are some online events that will be happening over the next few months. Although they are sponsored by monasteries and retreat houses located in New York, South Carolina, Georgia, California, and other locations, because they are all ...
July 4, 2020
Books For Understanding the Wisdom and Theology of Julian of Norwich
It’s no secret to anyone who reads this blog that I consider Julian of Norwich to be one of, if not simply the, greatest of western Christian mystics.
I’m not alone in this assessment. Consider what Thomas Merton once wrote, in one of his legendary Cold War Letters:
Julian is without doubt one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices. She gets greater and greater in my eyes as I get older and whereas in the old days I used to be crazy about St. John of the Cross, I would not exchange him no...
June 24, 2020
Dreams, Songs, and Sorrow: Three Celtic Poets to Read Now
Ireland is a land shaped by myth, story, and poetry — and her sister countries in the Celtic world, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and so forth, all share in their affinity to eloquence and incantatory language. Names like William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Robert Burns, Dylan Thomas, R.S. Thomas (no relation, I believe) and countless others testify to the enduring place of poetry in the hearts and minds of the Celtic peoples.
In traditional Gaelic culture, the bard played a central role in the sp...
June 18, 2020
A Drop of Water is Not the Ocean (Understanding Christian Mystical Teachings of Union and Nonduality)
A reader named Beth writes:
Hi Carl, I started reading “The Big Book of Christian Mysticism” and have a question for you… In chapter 1 you make the point of understanding the text from a Christian perspective which makes the distinction between being identical with God vs. communion with God. That subject has always perplexed me. If the spiritual realm is not material it therefore may not comply to matters of separation. How can we understand that statement given that we only experience the real...
June 15, 2020
Evelyn Underhill, Baron Friedrich von Hügel, and the Journey of Spiritual Formation
Today (June 15) is a day for remembering the passing of Evelyn Underhill, who died on this day in 1941.
If you are new to Evelyn Underhill, she was probably the most important writer in the English language for celebrating Christian contemplative and mystical spirituality in her lifetime. From the publication of her magisterial book Mysticism in 1911, until her death three decades later, she (in the words of Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey) “did more than anyone else… to keep the spirit...
June 13, 2020
Where Do You Draw the Line: Discerning Appropriate Boundaries for Interspiritual Practice
I recently received a letter from a reader of this blog who grew up an evangelical Baptist, and when to a conservative Christian school, the kind of place where if you doubted that God created the world in seven days, people were worried for the state of your eternal soul. As an adult, he discovered Christian mysticism and writers like Richard Rohr (and yours truly), and opened up a new dimension to his spiritual life, exploring resources and traditions as diverse as Paul Knitter’s Without Buddh...
May 30, 2020
A Friend Called Me Out For Hiding Behind My White Privilege. She Did the Right Thing.
Last week, when the story about Amy Cooper, the white woman in Central Park who called the police after a black man simply requested that she leash her dog, was making headlines (this was the day before George Floyd was murdered), I sent a text to a couple of close friends of mine, in which I talked about how embarrassing it is to be a white person, given how some whites (like Amy Cooper) behave in such blatant and unthinkingly racist ways.
One of the people I texted replied with a similar text....
May 26, 2020
An Examen of the Senses
Today I want to share with you something I co-wrote with my wife, Fran.
For our RCIA program, we often begin or end our meeting with an Examen — a prayer practice inspired by the Daily Examen as promoted by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Think of it as a daily “life review,” an examination not only of conscience but even more so of consciousness — consciousness of God’s presence in our lives and of how we both accept that resist that presence.
Fran and I wrote an Examen based on the five senses back in...
May 19, 2020
Rebooting a Contemplative Practice… and Choosing the Right Method for Silent Prayer
A reader named Allen sent me this question — actually two questions.
What advice would you have for someone who who wants to reboot their contemplative prayer practice?
I flit between the Jesus Prayer and Centering Prayer. I find Centering Prayer “easier” but I find The Jesus Prayer grounds me in Christ. Centering Prayer seems more like mantra meditation to me. Maybe its the prayer word I am using (Ruagh the Hebrew for spirit)..Maybe I need to use a more explicitly Christian sounding word t...
