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the greatest love story

"The beautiful promise of Christian mysticism is that, by choosing love over all the other potential blessings that life can give us, we are embracing the best possible life; a life in which all blessings can flow, but always in accordance with love.

"… Whether the topic is love won or lost, love thwarted or misunderstood, comic romance or passionate tragedy, there is nothing so fundamentally human as a good story about love. And Christian mysticism is just that. It calls us to become part of the greatest of love stories. And that’s why it matters.

“That’s why people like you and me are drawn to mysticism. Far from being merely a ‘head trip,’ mystical Christianity is the ultimate ‘heart trip’–a journey into the sacred nature of love.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 123

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mysticism’s purpose

“The purpose of contemplative and mystical spirituality is to foster greater intimacy with and devotion to God, which in itself is a universal goal of all religious and spiritual traditions that are God-centered (Buddhism does not require belief in God, so in a sense it’s a philosophy). Mystical, contemplative spirituality invites us deep into the wisdom of a path without insisting that it is the only path. This is true for contemplative Christians as well as for contemplatives of other traditions.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, pp. 297-298

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amazing promise

“The amazing promise of Christian mysticism is that, when God loves you, the Spirit transforms you into love; when God loves you, God gives the fullness of divinity to you and, through you, to all creation. In being called to partake of the divine nature, you are called to be loved, to love, and to be love. You thereby join in the most amazing of cosmic dances, a dance of joy and fullness, of healing and restoration, of light and rest and delight, that will give you the entire cosmos forever and ever.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023 p. 118

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secrets revealed

“While it is unclear just how the Greek concept of mystery influenced early Christianity, the concept of mystery as ‘hiddenness’ appears in the writings of the apostle Paul and other early Christian mystics–even as it has an entirely different flavor from the pagan contexts out of which the language of mystery emerged. The earliest Christian mystics don’t talk about ritual secrets that only initiates can access; rather they talk about secrets that are revealed–through Christ, through the Bible, through the Christian sacraments, and eventually, through personal experiences of the presence of God.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 59

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Mary and Martha

"The mystics in history have also offered different ways of understanding Mary and Martha. The fourteenth-century manual of contemplation The Cloud of Unknowing suggests that Mary represents the contemplative life while Martha symbolizes the active life. In other words, Mary stands for those who live in cloistered communities of monks or nuns, devoting their lives to prayer and meditation, while Martha represents those who live ‘in the world,’ with families and households and the ordinary responsibilities of secular life.

“… On the other hand, Teresa of Avila in her mystical masterpiece The Interior Castle refuses to see one sister as somehow more exalted than the other.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 95.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

secrets revealed

“While it is unclear just how the Greek concept of mystery influenced early Christianity, the concept of mystery as ‘hiddenness’ appears in the writings of the apostle Paul and other early Christian mystics–even as it has an entirely different flavor from the pagan contexts out of which the language of mystery emerged. The earliest Christian mystics don’t talk about ritual secrets that only initiates can access; rather they talk about secrets that are revealed–through Christ, through the Bible, through the Christian sacraments, and eventually, through personal experiences of the presence of God.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 59.

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becoming a mystic

“We become mystics or contemplatives only through the grace of God as work in our lives. Any effort we make to do it strictly on our own is likely doomed to failure. Indeed, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing has stern words for those who, through pride and the folly of their own imagination, try to become mystics or contemplatives without humbly relying on the guidance of the Spirit. He calls these pseudo-mystics the ‘devil’s contemplatives’. Contemplation and mysticism are always gifts from God. But God will never force those gifts on anyone God is not in the business of spiritual coercion.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 176.

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good news

“The good news of mystical Christianity offers a new way of thinking about God, and especially of experiencing God. It’s good news for everyone, especially for anyone who is seeking a spirituality that is anchored in love, compassion, community, justice, and higher consciousness.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 116

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deeper than experience

“Mysticism is a story that begins in silence and only takes on the form of language and narrative after the fact. We say that mysticism involves experience: the experience of union with God, or of the presence of God, or something as extraordinary as Teresa’s encounter with the angel, or Merton’s street corner lovefest. But experience is not the entire story, either. The problem with experience is that it can be driven by the human ego, a self-directed phenomenon that can too easily become self-absorbed. Mysticism affirms the mystery of God more than mere experience. Sometimes God chooses to encounter us deep beneath the horizon of our awareness. That’s one of many reasons why we call this type of spirituality ‘mysticism’–it ushers us into mystery, deeper than what our minds or even our hearts can comprehend.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, pp. 15-16.

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divine presence

“Since the reigning presence of God is within us, any approach to exploring the mystical life will naturally include exercises and practices such as meditation and contemplation, intended to help us become more open to the hidden (mystical) presence of God within. As worthy as such practices are by themselves they are incomplete. Our journey to divine union also needs to be nourished by participation in some sort of community of fellow seekers who are trying, as best they can, to figure out what living and following Jesus is all about.”

McColman, Carl. The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: an Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023, p. 203.