Carl McColman's Blog, page 76
June 21, 2012
Patheos & the Wild Goose
Origen of Alexandria
Today Fran and Rhiannon and I are driving up to North Carolina for the second annual Wild Goose Festival. Will we see you there? We’ll be there all day Friday and Saturday and at least part of the day Sunday. I’ll be speaking on Celtic Spirituality Saturday evening, and on “Contemplation as a Subversive Act” Sunday morning.
Of course, my Internet access will be spotty and confined to my iPhone over the next few days, so I don’t anticipate spending much (if any time) on this...
June 19, 2012
The “Overplus” of Reality
Man and the Supernatural
Indeed that which, beyond all else, spiritual genius never fails to give us, is this realistic sense of the overplus of Reality; a perfection exceeding in its totality and splendor all possible human apprehension.
— Evelyn Underhill, Man and the Supernatural
I stumbled across the quotation from Evelyn Underhill the other day in an anthology of her writings (Daily Readings with a Modern Mystic) and was immediately struck by the whimsy of the word “overplus.” Clearly this...
June 18, 2012
The Spirit of George and Jack
George MacDonald
This past weekend I led a retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit called “The Spirituality of George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis.” Following Lewis’s longstanding nickname, I affectionately referred to our topic as “The Spirit of George and Jack.”
Weekend retreats at the monastery typically include five conferences: one Friday evening, three on Saturday, and on one Sunday. Friday evening I gave a brief introduction to George MacDonald, generally regarded as the father of moder...
June 17, 2012
Happy Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day! To celebrate, Fran and Rhiannon gave me this card which they made themselves. I thought it was so pretty I decided to share it with the world.
Happy Father's Day. Artwork by Rhiannon Wilburn and Fran McColman
June 15, 2012
Coming back from the desert
Spirituality and Pastoral Care
No longer are such centres of solitude and critical reflection located only in the remote regions. The last decade has seen the growth of urban contemplatives, communities of Christian women and men who seek to live lives of prayer and silence within the urban scene. It was a movement predicted over twenty-five years ago by the Jesuit Jean Daniélou:
‘The Constantinian phase in Christian history is coming to an end … The flight into the desert was a revolutionary i...
June 14, 2012
The Point of Mystical Writing
The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian
Now because the Holy Spirit speaks through Isaac’s mouth, the words of this thrice-blessed saint are matchless in their beauty and are fired with a divine spark. That is why, even though he writes so much, he makes a holy silence come to rest within our spirit, just as if there were no one speaking, but we only heard the distant echoing of a sea hidden from our sight.
—Photios Kontoglou’s Encomium for Isaac the Syrian,
in The Ascetical Homilies of...
June 12, 2012
The Shattered Cup
For my latest column at Patheos, I take a rather whimsical look at the legendary/hagiographical story of Saint Benedict and the poisoned cup. The story goes that Benedict had been asked to serve as the abbot of a monastery, but the monks of that community soon decided they wanted to be rid of Benedict, and so summarily tried to poison the man, not once but twice! Benedict was smart enough to bless his food before eating or drinking, and in both cases, the blessing led to his being saved: when...
The Mystic Way of Evangelism
The Mystic Way of Evangelism
…there are other, deeper indicators of a loss of vitality in the American church. The accommodation of the church to the consumerism, competitiveness, and individualism of postmodern culture is pervasive, from the opulent lifestyle of prosperity gospel preachers to the ubiquitous “worship wars” to pseudoevangelistic “transfer growth” as churches cater to Christians who shop around for a better deal. The fruitlessness is experienced by renewal-minded pastors who are...
June 10, 2012
Craving, Avarice, and Deadly Sin
Had an interesting exchange on Twitter over the weekend. It began with I made the following tweet:
According to Dorothee Soelle, the Christian “deadly sin” of avarice equals the Buddhist concept of craving.
Here is the quote from Dorothee Soelle which inspired my pithy little comment.
The Silent Cry
Possessions are often regarded as a kind of life-threatening drug, impeding the power of judgment. ‘Sloth and cowardice creep in with every dollar or guinea we have to guard.’ Having contributes to re...
June 9, 2012
Images from my Lay Cistercian Life Promises Ceremony
On May 6, 2012, I made my Lifetime Promises as a Lay Cistercian of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit, affiliated with the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. It’s been quite a journey, the culmination of a five year formation process (and several months of discernment prior to that). Here are a few photographs taken on that happy day. If you want to learn more about Lay Cistercian spirituality, click here.
Making my promises to the monks, with my wife, Fran, at my side.
Eight Lay Cistercians...
