Carl McColman's Blog, page 58
February 10, 2016
Books and a Film: All About Silence
Explore the Heart of Contemplation With These Titles
I would love toattend the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin next month — if for no other reason than to be at the North American premiere of the movie In Pursuit of Silence. Here’s the latest trailer for this“meditative film about our relationship with sound and the impact of noise on our lives.”
So if you live in or near Austin, or are attending SXSW, go see this movie (they haven’t announced time and location yet, so keep an eye...
February 3, 2016
“The Process of Being in Relationship with God”
Some Notes from an Old Class on Prayer
Okay: to summarize…
Spirituality: the process of being in relationship with God.
Belief and Wonder: the mental and emotional qualities of being open to the possibility of Divine presence in our lives.
Culture, Ikons, Teachings/Tradition/Scripture: the stuff in our lives that carry the news of God to us; the evidence we have of God’s presence and the clues we have to help us recognize God’s presence in our own experience…
Community: the people who are our...
January 27, 2016
Relational Contemplation
Christian Mysticism is More Than Just the Flight of the Alone to the Alone
Medieval image of Neoplatonic philosophers Plotinus and Porphyry (public domain).
The Christian faithstands on the recognition that God is Love. Therefore, love is the heart of all spirituality, including contemplative prayer.We are called not just to be contemplatives — we are called to berelationalcontemplatives.
Writing in the third century, the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus had this to say about mysticism:
This...
January 20, 2016
Is Contemplation Dangerous?
If a tool is powerful, handle it with respect
Is contemplation the key to happiness, or a path to holiness? (Photo credit: Shutterstock)
Is contemplation dangerous? Some people think so.
This past weekend I read a book that has given me some food for thought on this subject.The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?is byMiguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm, two psychologists in England who studythe idea that practices like yoga or mindfulness meditation have observable health benefits. They b...
January 13, 2016
Philippians 2 and the Heart Sūtra
Form and Emptiness as Keys to Contemplative Practice
One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is the hymn found in Philippians 2:5-11:
Let the same mind be in you that wasin Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
...
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
January 6, 2016
Seven Reasons to Pray the Divine Office
Prayer Does Not Change God — It Changes Us
Everyone knows that monks devote their lives to silence, but also to daily prayer and chanting. Monastic prayer occurs at fixed-hours throughout the day. The rota ofPsalms, canticles, scripture readings, antiphons and other prayers that incorporate this daily liturgy is known as the Divine Office (or the daily office, or the liturgy of the hours).
The Divine Office: a Path of Prayer (Photo: Georgia Botanical Gardens; courtesy of Shutterstock)
Praying...
December 30, 2015
What Are We Afraid Of?
Reflecting on the Social Awkwardness of Silence
Sometimes silence is the best way to communicate
I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s charming and delightful book on the English language, The Mother Tongue, and ran across this delicious tidbit:
English speakers dread silence. We are all familiar with the uncomfortable feeling that overcomes us when a conversation palls. Studies have shown that when a pause reaches four seconds, one or more of the conversationalists will invariably blurt something...
December 23, 2015
The Three Advents
When we honor Mary, and look forward in hope, let us remain present to the longing for Divine Love in our hearts today
Advent is almost over. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the seasonof Christmas begin the day after that.
Even though the Christmas season is technically shorter than Advent, it always seems to me that Advent is way too short. Maybe that’s because this is a time of much secular hustle and bustle, as we strive to finish our holiday shopping, participate in various end-of-year par...
December 16, 2015
How to Find a Contemplative-Friendly Church
Hint: Inquire Within
Spirituality is all about love, and love only exists in relationship. Therefore, spirituality is healthiest when it is expressed in a communal way.For better or worse, this means — at least for followers of Jesus Christ and the Christian contemplative/mystical path — finding some sort of church or other faith community.
That’s not always easy. Frankly, many churches are indifferent, or even hostile, to Christian contemplation and mysticism. Many Protestant and Evangelical...
December 9, 2015
Does Union with God mean Losing Your Self?
Contemplation Inspires Us to Be Unique Expressions of Divine Love
Be yourself. Everyone else is taken!
“If the goal of the contemplative is union with God, does the individual begin to disappear and lose his or her unique self (personality, emotions) in pursuing this goal?”
The above question came to me in an email from a reader of this blog. It’s a huge question and I’m not sure a single blog post can do it justice. But I’ll give it a try.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux suggests that the spiritual...
