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Contemplative

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--Year-- 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2004 --Month-- December November October September August July June May April March February January

January 2018

January 29, 2018

Praying with Evelyn Underhill — and the Celtic Saints

Believe it or not, Lent is just over two weeks away. Which means it is...

January 24, 2018

Help Me To Make This a Better Blog — Take My Short Reader Survey

I know, reader surveys are annoying. But I hope you will take just a few...

January 18, 2018

How to Pray Every Day — Without Confusing Prayer with God

In response to my recent post about Contemplative Prayer and the Holy Trinity, a reader...

January 11, 2018

Everyone is Called to Union with God

About ten years ago I had a conversation with an elderly Trappist monk about the book...

January 08, 2018

Contemplating the Trinity

The heart of Christian spirituality is the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. This is the...

January 02, 2018

Expanding our Minds: Recovering Contemplation In Pursuit of Wisdom

Today’s guest post is by Kevin M. Johnson, one of the co-hosts of the Encountering Silence...

December 2017

December 28, 2017

Holding Spiritual Experience Gently

The other day I received this message from a reader who contacted me via Facebook......

December 26, 2017

“What is it about paganism that scares Christians?”

Several months ago, in response to a reader's question, I posted an article to this...

December 21, 2017

Cutting Through Contemplative Materialism

A reader of this blog wrote this question to me recently: Hi Carl, just wondering...

December 20, 2017

Contemplation and the Bible

A reader of my blog writes: "Christian Contemplative prayer gets a lot of bad press,...

December 19, 2017

Into Safe Hands: A Meditation On Dying for Advent and Christmas (by Ronald Rolheiser)

Note: Today's post, by guest contributor Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, is an excerpt from his new...

December 15, 2017

Seven Lessons on Prayer I learned from Julian of Norwich

The great medieval mystic Julian of Norwich is renowned for her theological optimism ("All shall...

December 13, 2017

Fundamentalism versus Contemplation

In his book Peace Be With You: Monastic Wisdom for a Terror-Filled World, Orthodox Christian...

December 08, 2017

The Call to Move “Beyond” What is Safe and Familiar

Today's post is by guest contributor Mark S. Burrows, who is a poet and an...

December 07, 2017

What is the Relationship Between Silence and Mystery? and Other Questions “Encountering Silence” Will Explore

What is the relationship between silence and mystery? Why is silence such an essential part...

December 06, 2017

Happy Birthday, Evelyn Underhill

December 6 is Evelyn Underhill's birthday, born this day in 1875. Not only did she...

November 2017

November 30, 2017

What is the Relationship Between Silence and Social Justice?

Today’s post is by a guest contributor: writer, photographer, and filmmaker Cassidy Hall. ...your silences will...

November 28, 2017

Support this Blog on Patreon (and Let’s Spread the Word About Contemplation and Mysticism)

Dear readers, please support this blog. After much consideration (and prayer!), I've set up a...

November 24, 2017

The Two Sides of Silence

Today’s post is by a guest contributor: Brother Mark Dohle, OCSO, who serves as the Guestmaster...

November 21, 2017

Twelve Insightful Quotations from the Great Christian Mystics

Note: the following quotations are excerpted from The Little Book of Christian Mysticism which features...

November 16, 2017

What Can We Learn from that Foolish St. Francis?

Today's guest contributor is Jon M. Sweeney, author of The Saint Francis Holy Fool Prayer Book. Read Jon's...

November 14, 2017

If You Could Capture Contemplation on a DVD, It Might Be a Lot Like This…

One of my favorite movies is finally becoming available on blu-ray and DVD: In Pursuit...

November 09, 2017

What do Gene Kelly and St. Francis have in common?

Today's post is by a guest contributor: Jon M. Sweeney, author of numerous books including The Saint...

November 07, 2017

How to Find a Mystical Teacher, Part Two

This post is a sequel to my post from last week called How to Find...

November 02, 2017

How to Find a Mystical Teacher

A reader sent me this message the other day: I am loving your book, Christian...

October 2017

October 31, 2017

Wisdom from the Christian Mystics

Note: the following quotations are excerpted from The Little Book of Christian Mysticism which features...

October 26, 2017

Six Books on Christian Spirituality (and the Order in Which to Read Them)

It's always a little awkward to write about my own books. But today's post is...

October 23, 2017

On Discerning the Meaning of Spiritual Experience

A reader of my blog writes: How do you know if a certain spiritual experience...

October 19, 2017

Some thoughts on Non-Dualism (East and West) and Single-Mindedness

A reader on Facebook recently asked me: How do Eastern and Western non dualism differ?...

October 16, 2017

Five Elements of a Daily Contemplative Practice — and Four Principles for Cultivating Your Practice

Recently a reader of this blog posted this question: Just curious Carl — what does your typical schedule...