Carl McColman's Blog, page 60
August 19, 2015
How Saint Benedict Can Help Us Grow Spiritually
The Benedictine Vows and a Life of Integrity, Commitment, and Mindfulness
Monk in Stained Glass (Panaspics/Shutterstock)
How can the wisdom of the monastery help folks like you and me — who are not monks or nuns — to grow spiritually?
To answer that question, we can begin by looking atTheRule of Saint Benedict.
TheRule of Saint Benedict remains one of the great classics of western spirituality, even though it was written for a very small and specific audience: monks and nuns. What on the surf...
July 29, 2015
How Mysticism is Unique — and Universal
One Light… Many Candles…
How, exactly, does Christian mysticism relate to all the other “mysticisms” of the world (Kabbalah, Sufism, Taoism, Vedanta, Zen, etc.)?
A reader of this blog writes:
I have been reading your Big Book of Christian Mysticism: on page 64 you say that “Ultimately … no absolutely clear distinction can be drawn between Christian and non-Christian mysticism.” This concerns me, because you *do* seem to say in other parts of the book that there *is* a clear distinction betwee...
July 22, 2015
What to Say to the Nay-Sayers: Talking About Contemplation With Its Critics
Often, remaining silent is better than getting into a pointless debate.
If you are active in a church or other faith community, and you are drawn to (or practicing) silent prayer, if you talk about it with others you will likely, sooner or later, hear somebody say something along these lines:
“Isn’t meditation Buddhist? Or Hindu? Christians don’t need to do that sort of thing.” “Sitting in silence? It’s just a waste of time. We are called to be serving others, not avoiding them.” “Contemplat...July 15, 2015
Mindfulness and Contemplation: What’s the Difference?
Like a gentle stream, mindfulness and contemplative prayer both seek clarity. Silent prayer also seeks the face of God.
Recently a reader left the following comment on this blog:
I have been reading and tried to practice the way of a contemplative life although poorly I believe. But my hunger for anything on the topic of contemplation continues. Recently I have also been enticed into “mindfulness” practices. Now what or how do you relation contemplation and Mindfulness? They’re beginning to s...
July 10, 2015
Desert Island Discs (and DVDs)
Of course, if I were stranded here, I probably wouldn’t care if I had CDs or DVDs with me…
If you were stranded on a desert island, what music would you want to accompany you?
The BBC has a long-running program called Desert Island Discs whichbegan airingin 1942 and as of 2015 it’s still going strong. Here’s the concept:
Desert Island Discs …was introduced to the listening public as “a programme in which a well-known person is asked the question, if you were to be cast away alone on a desert...
July 8, 2015
Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part Two)
Contemplation is like a path through a beautiful garden.
Last week I shared six principles that guide me in my understanding of what Christian contemplative spirituality is. This week I’m sharing six more.
As I said last week, it’s a bit of a paradox to offer principles for a spiritual practice that is grounded in silence and invites us into silence. Speaking of silence: perhaps the ultimate irony. Nevertheless, we human beings are inveterate thinkers, talking, reflectors, philosophizers. I t...
July 1, 2015
Principles for Contemplative Spirituality (Part One)
Contemplation: the art of beholding God’s beauty
A couple of years ago Rob Bell wrote a book with the title What We Talk About When We Talk About God. I haven’t read the book, but I love the title. So I suppose this blog post could be called “What we talk about when we talk about contemplation.”
If that seems funny to you, I admit I’m being ironic. Why talk about something that takes us — or at least invites us — to a place beyond language, beyond words, beyond grammar? But as silent as conte...
June 24, 2015
Artist, Mystic, Pilgrim, Companion: An Interview with Christine Valters Paintner
Christine Valters Paintner
Recently I had the opportunity to interview author and contemplative artist Christine Valters Paintner of the Abbey of the Arts. We talked about contemplative spirituality, pilgrimage, and her latest book, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within.
The book celebrates the spirituality of pilgrimage by identifying eight essential practices that can inform and illuminate the journeys and adventures that mark our lives. It grew out of the author’s (...
June 17, 2015
Letter and Spirit: Thoughts and Silence?
In his sermonOn Conversion, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux quotes Acts 26:24, only he paraphrases it like this: “Too much thinking has made you mad!”
Whenever I see a verse like this rendered in an unusual or thought-provoking way, I like to check out the original Greek or Hebrew, even though I’m strictly an amateur when it comes to Biblical languages.
These words were spoken byFestus, who is criticizing Paul when the saint is addressing Agrippa. Festus says, in Greek,πολλασεγραμματαειςμανιανπερι...
June 10, 2015
The Rule, the Discipline, and Spiritual Growth
Saint Benedict, author of the most widely used rule in western Christianity
I bet if I took a poll, almost everyone who reads my blog would agree with this statement: “I want to grow spiritually.”
Readers of spiritual blogs want to grow in their faith and practice the way that readers of marketing blogs want to expand their business, or the readers of investment blogs want to make more money. It’s part of the nobility of being human: we see areas in our lives where we want improvement, and we...
