“This is an enticing book, full of practical directives for us to make of our own lives a spiritual pilgrimage to the heavenly Jerusalem in the company of Walter Hilton, Julian and many other mothers and fathers of the English way.”
-The Rev’d Canon Dr Alison Milbank, Associate Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Nottingham
In seekers and skeptics posts, I write specifically for those outside of the Christian faith. I know some will be considering the faith, some will be exploring spiritually, and some will come to any consideration of Christian claims with considerable suspicion. If this describes you at all, I’m glad you’re here. Welcome!
An Apology and a Plea to Those Hurt by and Disillusioned with the Church
Have you been hurt by the Church? Christians have hurt many people. For example, some church leaders violate the high standards of their calling, knowingly using their position to harm others.
There are many other people who have not personally experienced these deep levels of abuse but have, for various reasons, become disillusioned with the Church. For example, the experience of gossip within a congregation can contribute to hurt feelings and disillusionment.
This piece is an inadequate, but sincere attempt to offer an apology and a plea to those of you who have been hurt by the Church or become disillusioned with the Church. I don’t address every sort of situation.
Nor can I address each situation with the depth and dignity they deserve (that your situation deserves). Too often church leaders and church people do not acknowledge these situations unless we are forced to.
3 Ways People Have been Hurt by the Church
1. They were abused by a Christian.
When a family member, a member of the clergy, or a leader in the Church abuses physically, sexually, spiritually, and or emotionally another human being, made in God’s image, a heinous sin has taken place. People carry deep wounds from these incidents. Not only has the abuser inflicted harm.
The abuser has also damaged the victim’s relationship with the Church and often with God. Ordinarily, a person trying to find healing after a difficult incident in their life could look to their faith community and to God for support.
For those abused by Christians, and especially church leaders, this avenue of healing has at best has been comprised, and in many situations has been cut off entirely. For victims, Church often becomes an unsafe place to be avoided. Faith can become a word devoid of any positive meeting.
♥ If you have experienced something like this, I am so sorry. It was wrong what that person or group of people did to you. They violated the teachings of the Christian faith in their actions toward you. You did not deserve it.
♥If there were legal crimes committed against you, those individuals need to be held legally accountable. They also need to be held accountable by the structures of the Church. They have to answer for what they have done.
2. They were let down by a Christian leader.
A pastor who yelled at someone in a meeting. A nun who was cruel. A priest who did not visit a loved one in the care home.
There are also “dramatic” letdowns such as when an admired Christian leader falls in a public way, revealing a “double-life” and a behavior of abuse or financial scandal incompatible with the loving and life-giving ways of Jesus Christ.
♥ If you have been let down by a Christian leader, I am so sorry. In terms of scandals there is no excuse for that kind of behavior and what I wrote above under the “abuse” heading applies here. For the more everyday letdowns, these can be tremendously hurtful.
♥ I am sorry you had to go through that. To have that leader not show up or that leader to behave in the way they did. On behalf of all church leaders, I apologize for the letdown you experienced.
3. They experienced the Church negatively.
This is a broad category. Some people experienced churches that were oppressive, judgmental, and harsh. In these settings, people’s experience of Christian faith was not one of mercy, love, and kindness, but of impossibly high standards, cruel judgment, and fearful demands for conformity.
Alternatively, others experienced the Church negatively by getting involved in its leadership structures, becoming unpleasantly surprised at the pettiness of some church politics.
Fights over the color of the carpet, melodramatic power plays between members of the congregation, and hurtful gossip have also caused some to become disillusioned with the Church. There are also those who have been burned out by the Church.
They gave and gave of themselves in various forms of service, leading ministries and serving on committees but received little support or acknowledgment of their important contributions.
♥ If you grew up in a church that was harsh, I am so sorry. They failed you by their words and actions. I am also sorry if you’ve been put off by church politics,
♥ If you’ve served the church faithfully but were never properly acknowledged for all that you did for others, I’m so sorry.
A Plea to Those Hurt by The Church
My gentle plea to you is to not let what you experienced in the past rob you of the power of faith in your life or the power of having a loving, albeit imperfect, Christian community in your life.
For those of you who have been abused and deeply wounded these words of mine probably seem an impossibility. Based on your experience you have no reason to trust anyone. You are glad not to be involved in the life of Church.
You have no desire to venture there again. I gently want to suggest there is hope for healing and new life for you. God and the people of God can be part of that. Working through your trauma is a personal journey.
A journey greatly aided and often requiring the help of a professional counselor.
Whether your hurt is at these very deep levels or whether your hurt is more simply disillusionment, let me tentatively offer some first steps. These are tentative suggestions. You know your situation better than I.
These steps may lead to a deepening of your faith, a restoring of your faith, and connecting to a supportive, loving, spiritual community. A faith that supports your healing. A faith that opens new doors and new possibilities for your life.
A community that supports you, appreciates you, and walks with you through life’s highs and lows. None of this is something you have to do. You can say no. You can say not yet. These are simply possibilities.
Some of which, I believe, God hopes for you.
Possibilities
♥ Try prayer. Be honest, “God I don’t know if I want to be talking with you” or “Show me your presence.” Pray a prayer that gave you comfort in the past. Pray it more frequently as feels helpful. You may need to think of God differently to move forward. If God as Father is not helpful, approach God as Mother or God as Light or God as Warmth.
God is infinite and many different images help us approach the many aspects of God. Maybe a return to the church or denomination of your past is appropriate. But it may be necessary to move to a new church or a new denomination.
Perhaps a denomination that shares some of your current values. Maybe instead of showing up to a church as a first step, you participate virtually.
♥ Maybe when you muster the courage, you go to a large service where you can be anonymous. Maybe you go to a smaller service, that is less overwhelming with people and noise. Maybe you pray that God will send you a spiritual friend or two in your life. Sometimes the first step toward community is friendship.
Maybe you make a phone or in-person appointment with a pastor or spiritual director to ask your questions and to express your doubts and concerns. Maybe you try reading the Bible. Perhaps you explore Christianity.
Maybe you get an icon of Mary. Perhaps you try following the Christian year at home. When you get involved in serving at at your new church home, set appropriate limits. Practice Sabbath.
May God bless you and guide you. May you find Peace and Joy.
Julian of Norwich, 14th century anchoress, visionary, and spiritual director is the most well-known figure of the “Golden Age of English Mysticism.” Scholars and theologians debate this notion of a golden age.
They also debate the merits of the mystics associated with it: Julian, Richard Rolle, the anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing, Walter Hilton, and sometimes Margery Kempe. In recent years Julian’s popularity has soared.
Sometimes this is attributed to her use of feminine imagery for God. While this has contributed to her fame and been helpful for many, Julian’s gifts to us extend beyond this imagery.
She offers to readers a thoroughly theological, honest, and encouraging picture of God and the spiritual life. Her feast day in the Church of England is May 8.
Julian of Norwich: Life and Writings
Julian was born around 1342 and died around 1429. We know little about her life prior to the record of her visions. Some have speculated that prior to becoming an anchoress, she had been a nun or possibly a married woman.
What we do know is that on May 13, 1373, when she was around 30 years of age, she lay dying. During the course of two days received a series of showings or visions about the crucified Christ.
She recovered and wrote her visions down in a text. This text, titled in an early manuscript, “A vision showed by the goodness of God to a devout woman” has become known as the short text. Over the next twenty years Julian reflected on the meaning of the visions she had seen.
The result was a mature reflection upon them, which is known as the long text. Julian is often credited as being the first woman to write a book in the English language. Translations of the texts (from Medieval Middle English) are often titled, “The Showings of Julian of Norwich” or “The Revelation of Divine Love.”
Julian was an anchoress, meaning she remained “anchored” in one location. Hermits in medieval England, like Richard Rolle, were permitted to travel.
Whether anchorite or hermit the individual’s purpose was the pursuit of the spiritual life and ultimately union with God. In a move starting to modern sensibilities, anchoresses like Julian, symbolically and physically “died” to the ways of the world by being sealed into a set of rooms attached to a church.
Julian’s cell attached to St. Julian’s Church, Norwich, England, has a window on one side to the world. There she offered spiritual counsel to all sorts and conditions of people. There was also an opening on the opposite side to the church.
This enabled her to receive Holy Communion. Anchoresses were permitted to have cats. In iconography, Julian is often pictured with one.
Spiritual Practices and Teaching
Julian’s visions are an extended theological reflection on the Passion, the death and sufferings, of Jesus Christ. The medieval literature scholar Dr. Christiania Whitehead comments:
“Julian’s revelations function as a series of animated snapshots of iconic moments: blood trickling down from the crown of thorns, blood coagulating from the scourge wounds, the drying and discoloration of the face shortly before death.”
– “The Late Fourteenth Century Mystics” in Christian Mysticism
Julian often addresses her readers as “even Christians.” While she may have anticipated a broad audience, Julian is conscious that as an anchoress she is a contemplative.
She has committed herself to a particular way of seeking the Triune God. A way of seeking God principally in deep prayer and meditation. Rather than in seeking God principally in service to others. Julian writes:
“Every man and woman who wishes to live contemplatively needs to know of this, so that it may be pleasing to them to despise as nothing everything created, so as to have the love of uncreated God. For this is the reason why those who deliberately occupy themselves with earthy business, constantly seeking worldly well-being, have not God’s rest in their hearts and souls; for they love and seek their rest in this thing which is so little and in which there is no rest, and do not know God who is almighty, all wise and all good, for he is true rest”
– Short Text, Chapter 4
Finding Our Rest in God
Julian encourages us to find our ultimate rest in God. Whether contemplative or active, we all should heed her warning. Her words echoes these words of Scripture from our Lord Jesus:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
– John 14:27 (NRSV)
While well known for using feminine language for the divine, Julian was not the first to do so. Earlier spiritual writers such as Anselm of Canterbury, as well as Julian’s near contemporary, the Dominican Meister Eckhart, also made use of this kind of language for God.
However, she explores this understanding of God with greater depth and insight than those before her. She writes:
“Our great God, the supreme wisdom of all things, arrayed and prepared himself to do the service and the office of motherhood in everything. The mother’s service is nearest, readiest, because it is most loving and surest because it is truest.”
– Chapter 60, Long Text
She compares the passion of our Lord with giving birth. For where there is blood in birthing, there is then new life. Julian tells us, with the rest of the Christian Tradition, that from the blood of Jesus came new life for all (Ephesians 1:7).
Julian of Norwich and Christians Today
Evelyn Underhill, a spiritual writer from the last century, says of Julian:
“As the first real English woman of letters, she has a special interest for us; the more so when we consider the beauty of character, depth of thought, and poetic feeling which her one book displays. In her mingled homeliness and philosophical instinct, her passion for Nature, her profound devotion to the Holy Name, she presents the best elements of English mysticism.”
– The Mystics of the Church
Julian offers Christians today language for God and the spiritual life that is maternal and distinctively feminine.
This gives us permission to approach God as Mother and Father. This will be liberating for some, complimentary for others, and difficult for some. This language can open new doors for our intimacy with God.
Julian’s relationship with God is personal, intimate, and conversational. She does not hesitate to voice her struggles. Her struggles with sin or with making sense of her experience of God and the teachings of the Church.
Throughout the showings she experiences a tension between her experience of the love of God and the Church’s teachings on hell and judgment. She does not choose one or the other but holds to her experience and to the Church’s teachings.
She tells us:
“But Jesus who in this vision informed me of all that is needed by me, answered with these words and said: ‘It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
– Long Text, Chapter 27
Neither God nor Julian resolves the tensions between the realities of sin and judgment and those of grace and love.
What Julian does is hold to both. Wise counsel for all of us, whatever our struggles or doubts, while trusting in God “that all shall be well.”
Are you thriving as a committed church volunteer? Churches are volunteer driven communities. Besides a small cadre of staff, churches are appropriately comprised of individuals who choose to come together to form a congregation.
There are those who are on the edge of congregational life, there are guests, and so on, but at the heart of every congregation is a core group of volunteers. These dedicated workers make the majority of a congregation’s ministries possible. (Thank God for them!) 🙏
These faithful folks serve on the board, teach Sunday school, lead the youth group, deliver meals to shut-ins, repair leaks, raise funds, sing in the choir, run power point slides, prepare the meals for funerals, and welcome the homeless.
Wait! There’s more, they also: manage the church’s finances, paint rooms, shovel snow, organize on behalf of justice causes, answer phones, teach classes, and much more.
These varied ways of service in our era reflect the teaching of the Apostle Paul from a past era:
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. ”
– 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.
4 Ways to Thrive When You’re a Committed Church Volunteer
1. Make Faith Your Foundation 🔑
Don’t get so caught up in the work of serving the Church that you neglect your faith. Tend to your worship life, your prayer life, and your own growth as a Christian. This also includes fellowship with other Christians, as well as periods of rest and renewal.
These practices should not regularly be set aside in favor of getting something done for the church (e.g. committee report, Sunday school lesson, etc.). The basics of the life of faith must come first.
Otherwise you are undermining your own faith and acting contrary to the very purposes of the church which you are serving. If you neglect your faith, you may eventually wonder why you are serving at all.
😲Reality Check for Clergy and Staff: Are we setting good, not perfect, examples in this area? After our own faith, is our first focus the faith of our volunteers? Yes, serving helps all of us to practice our faith, but to sustain our service over the long hall requires regular spiritual nutrition: worship, prayer, fellowship, study, and rest.
2. Make Healthy Communication a Priority 🔑
In congregations, communication sometimes go awry (I know this shocks most of you…). The announcement does not get in the bulletin. At the last minute there is a change in the part of the service you are to lead.
Another parishioner is angry about something in the church and wants you as a fellow volunteer to explain and resolve the situation. All families experience conflicts and miscommunications, including spiritual ones. These normal human happenings are opportunities for you to practice your faith, to love and to forgive.
Avoid gossip, triangulations, and complaining about others. If you have a concern, especially a serious one, bring it to the individual in question (Matthew 18:15-17). If someone is gossiping, redirect the conversation or refer them to the right person.
(Or you can refer them to my great-Uncle Seamus. He’s blind as a bat and deaf as a doorknob. Disclaimer: The Bible does not approve of this practice. Nor is what most of my great-Uncle says Scripturally approved either.)
😲Reality Check for Clergy and Staff: Again, are we setting the example here? Do we communicate regularly with the congregation as a whole as well as with individuals? Do we model healthy conflict resolution? This includes owning up to when we are wrong and apologizing when we’ve offended someone.
3. Minor in Duty, Major in Joy 🔑
Duty is sometimes required of us by our church family. These duties may not reflect your skills, gifting, or sense of calling, but they need to be done and so for the good of the congregation, you do them.
For example, taking out the trash after a funeral or serving for a season in a ministry that is not your cup of tea. These are opportunities to practice your faith and to grow in the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
However, strive to give the larger share of your energy to ministries and activities that bring you joy. Serving at your church should ordinarily be something you look forward to. Serving as a committed church volunteer should ordinarily give you a sense of satisfaction. It shouldn’t be something you dread.
😲Reality Check for Clergy and Staff: When recruiting individuals do we rush to fill slots or are we making sure the person is a good fit? Do they have the time, energy, and interest to serve? Do we provide them with support? Are we, not perfect, but good examples of joy? Or do we appear to be all about duty?
(Ok I confess. I don’t actually have a great-Uncle. Sorry. You’ll actually have to refer to the person in question when dealing with conflicts or questions. )
4. Set Limits🔑
The need to set limits is obvious if you are going to make faith your foundation and if you are going to serve with joy. This means not taking on too much. If you are in worship related ministries (e.g. praise band, worship leader, liturgical assistant, usher, etc.), make sure you have opportunities to just sit in the pew.
Occasions where you can sit with your friends and/or family and worship as a member of the congregation. When you agree to serve in any ministry make sure you understand the expected time commitment.
Also, at regular intervals pause and reassess whether you want to continue serving in a given ministry. You should give yourself permission to step out of one area of service and enter another.
😲Reality Check for Clergy and Staff: We are often short on volunteers and always desperately in need of more leaders. Do we encourage our volunteers to set limits? Do we give them permission to say no? Are we modeling healthy boundaries and limitations in our own service to the Church?
Keep the Big Picture in Mind 🔍
Finally, it is important to put serving at your local church within the bigger picture of your life. Your family, friends, job, finances, and free time are not secondary to your faith. In fact, these areas are the primary arenas for living out your faith, Dr. Scott Hahn, Biblical scholar, highlights this truth:
“Each of us is called to work as a priest who sanctifies the temporal order. Our altar is our desktop, our kitchen countertop, our laptop, our place in the assembly line, our diaper-changing table, our operating table. Our altar is the row we hoe. Through baptism, God has called us and empowered us to take the whole world and make it once again a sanctuary – and everything in it an offering.”
– Many are Called
So, whether you are serving as a committed church volunteer, working at your job, spending time with your loved ones, or picking your nose👃. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself, I mean typing that, not doing that, ew.) Remember the words of St. Paul.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
– Colossians 3:17
(If you serve at your local church or in some ministry, thank you. What you do is more important and impacts more people more than you realize. Bless your continued service.)
Dealing with doubt is not unusual. Most Christians experience doubt. Some rarely, others more frequently. 🤔
In either case, their doubt may concern God’s existence (e.g. is there a God?), God’s character (e.g. Is God really good?), a specific Christian doctrine (e.g. hell), or the viability of a specific Christian practice (e.g. healing prayer).
Extreme Church Positions on Doubt
While doubt is not unusual it should be taken seriously. Unfortunately, some Christian communities take extreme positions on doubt.
One extreme position is to be flippant and dismissive of doubts, “Oh well, everyone has doubts, who cares, keep calm and carry on.” This attitude may be appropriate for occasional doubts that pass through our minds and hearts.
However, this attitude is inappropriate for regularly reoccurring doubts. Another extreme position on doubt is to view it as a sign of sin and unworthiness. “If you doubt, it’s because your faith is weak.” 😒
With churches that learn toward the first response, people with doubts often experience a gradual diminishment of their faith. Their church does not stress the importance of faith, belief, and dealing with doubt, so peoples doubts are left unaddressed.
With churches that lean toward the second response people often feel pushed away from faith. They often leave their churches because they cannot find a safe space to explore their doubts with other believers.
A Joke about Doubt
(Ok. Forgive me. I must include this old joke about doubt. To have a chance of getting it you must know the most basic facts about Rene Descartes. Descartes was a 17th century philosopher.
He used doubt as a method to determine what was true and what was false. His famous saying, as rendered in Latin is, “Cogito ergo sum”. In English, “I think, therefore I am.” Let us not bother with the pros and cons of this method, instead let’s get straight to the joke.
Rene Descartes walks into a bar. The barkeep says, “Rene, would you like a beer?” Descartes pause and says, “I think not.” Then he disappears.😆 Ha!)
Here are five ways to persist in faith while dealing with doubt.
1. Pray about your doubts:
Tell God about them, “Lord, I’m struggling with this issue. ” “God help me to understand. When I can’t understand, help me to trust you anyway.”
Prayer can release a spiritual power in your life that can sustain you even in the darkest moments of doubt. Along with your prayers, make sure others are praying for you in general, and specifically, about your doubts.
💪 Super Tip: Yes, pray about your doubts. But pray about more than just your doubts. Each day give thanks to God for all the blessings in your life. Each day pray for the people in your life.
2. Think through your doubts:
Work through your doubts by developing a mature, well thought out faith. There are many Christian scientists, philosophers, and theologians who have worked through every single intellectual issue you could think of.
Read these authors. Do the mental work. Ask the tough questions. Don’t just feel your faith, think your faith. Find safe believers to discuss and work through your doubts with. This can be very helpful.
💪Super Tip: Be encouraged that over the centuries to the present day many of the world’s greatest minds have wrestled with the claims of the Christian faith, emerging as committed followers of Jesus Christ.
3. Feel through your doubts:
If you went through a tragedy that has caused you to doubt the existence of a loving God work through your feelings. Offer them to God in prayer. Read or listen to the stories of other Christians who have suffered greatly and how they worked through their pain and found their faith restored.
Hearts can be healed. Sometimes working with a pastor, counselor, or spiritual director over a period of time is what is needed to feel through your doubts.
💪Super Tip: Be encouraged that some of the world’s greatest sufferers, those who have gone through life’s worst, emerged from their trials with a deeper and more robust faith.
4. Doubt your doubts:
You do not have to believe every thought that comes into your mind. See old Rene’s method has something to it! Doubt your doubts, reaffirm your core beliefs. You can do that with these timeless words a man said to Jesus over 2000 years ago:
“Lord I believe help my unbelief!”
Mark 9:25
It is a great affirmation. It can also be a great prayer. Use it as needed. Pray it as needed, even aloud.
💪Super Tip: The infinite (God) can, at best, be only partially understood by the finite (you). Put your trust in God. Yes, think your faith, but at the end of the day you have to live your faith.
5. Feed your faith, not your doubts:
Too often when people begin to experience doubt, they stop feeding their faith and start feeding their doubt. Always put as much effort into your faith as you do your doubt.
This means keep worshipping (or perhaps getting back to worshipping) on Sundays, staying connected to other Christians, and practicing your faith daily. Finally, eat lots of ice cream. (Just making sure you were paying attention there. 🍦)
💪Super Tip: Do not travel the tough stuff of life alone. Allow others to walk with you. Seek others out. Yes, it can be hard, but so many of life’s blessings are found in community with others.
Dealing with Doubt Can Lead To Spiritual Growth
Professor William Barclay, one of the great Bible teachers of the last century, wrote:
“There is more ultimate faith in the man who insists on being sure than the man who glibly repeats things which he has never thought out, and which he does not really believe. It is doubt like that which in the end arrives at certainty. If a man fights his way through his doubts to the conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord, he has attained to a certainty that the man who unthinkingly accepts can never reach.”
Dealing with doubt is often what fuels us to learn more about our faith. It often prompts us to develop our understanding of our faith in new ways.
Doubt is often what causes us to take what we may have learned as children (or never learned) and do some adult level homework, leading us to develop a more mature, more reasoned faith.
Doubt Can Keep Faith Awake and Moving
Frederick Buechner, theologian, author, and novelist tells us that:
“Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”
When you experience doubt, do not assume it is a bad thing. See it as an opportunity to take your faith to the next level. Do not ignore your doubts but do not beat yourself because of your doubts, either.
Instead, pray about your doubts, think through your doubts, feel through your doubts, doubt your doubts, and feed your faith, not your doubts. Most importantly, do not face your doubts alone. Share them and work through them with other Christians. Persist in faith! 🙏🏼
Walter Hilton, 14th century Augustinian canon, writer, and spiritual director is one of the significant figures of the “Golden Age of English Mysticism.” Scholars and theologians debate this notion of a golden age.
They also debate the merits of the mystics associated with it: the anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, Hilton, Richard Rolle, and sometimes, Margery Kempe. Many of the other writers in this mystical fellowship readily refer to their own experiences of encountering God.
Hilton is reluctant to do so. His gift to his contemporaries and to us is his warm, wise, and well-organized counsel. Hilton addresses a depth and breadth of issues related to the spiritual life in a way that remains helpful today. His feast day in the Church of England is March 24.
Walter Hilton: Life and Writings
Hilton was born around 1340, probably in Hilton, Huntingdonshire, England. We know little of his family or his early life. He would have had to receive some rudimentary education to account for his admission to Cambridge.
There he studied canon law. At some point Hilton became dissatisfied with the practice of canon law and became a hermit. He wrote about his decision to a friend,
“They believe that if you dismiss the study and practice of law from your mind, cast off honors, degrees and choose poverty and humility for Christ’s sake, that you are infatuated and insane.”
– A letter written to Adam Horsley
Despite the views of others, Hilton left the practice of law to devote himself fully to God. He gave particular attention to the practice of prayer and providing spiritual guidance to others. Hilton eventually joined the Augustinian priory in Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire.
As an Augustinian canon, Hilton lived like a monk. The canons prayed the liturgy of the hours together. They also ministered to the people in their village and region. In his years at the priory he wrote many works.
This included his two most influential works: The Scale of Perfection and The Mixed Life. Hilton died on the eve of the Annunciation, March 24, 1396. His writings became popular with a wide range of readers.
Readers who read Hilton included women, men, clergy, and monastics, as well as single and married persons with work and family responsibilities. Father Martin Thorton, one of the great ascetical theologians of the last century, wrote:
“Walter Hilton, is the centre of English ascetical theology, and remains, our prime source of teaching on spiritual direction.”
– English Spirituality
Ascetical theology is the branch of theology that studies the spiritual life, its purposes, practices, and pitfalls.
Spiritual Practices and Teaching
Spiritual direction is an ancient Christian practice. A spiritual director accompanies and guides another Christian toward deeper growth in their life of prayer and in their relationship with God.
Until recent decades, spiritual direction was a practice of certain monks, nuns, and priests. Today spiritual direction is practiced by Christians from many denominations, with many directors being lay persons.
In Hilton’s time spiritual direction could happen in person or in writing. Hilton wrote his major works, The Scale of Perfection and The Mixed Life to specific individuals.
In the first case, a contemplative nun, and in the second case, a worldly lord. As mentioned, Hilton’s wise counsel captured a wisdom that was found to be useful by many readers in his time and after.
Hilton writes:
“Nobody is suddenly made perfect in grace, but through long exercise and skilled working a soul may come to it, especially when a wretched soul is taught and helped by him in whom lies all grace. For no soul can come to it without special help and inward teaching from him” (Christ).
–The Scale of Perfection
Hilton affirms that the basic posture of the Christian spiritual life is not striving but receiving. Any progress we make in the spiritual life, whether in loving God or in loving others, rests on the foundation of God’s grace.
Grace meaning God’s special help or assistance. Christian growth must never be thought of as a self-help spirituality, but a grace-based spirituality dependent on the Holy Spirit’s power.
Starting with our Character
With grace as our foundation we may then cooperate with God in growing into the most Christ-like versions of ourselves. Hilton, like other mystical writers, stresses the importance of character formation in the early stages of the spiritual life.
Before we try to reach the heights of closeness to God in prayer, we would do well to ask ourselves, “Would people describe me as a humble person?” “How can I grow in humility?” “ or “What vices are present in my life that are obstacles toward love of myself, others, and God?”
Sometimes the promise of mystical encounter, miracle, or other extraordinary phenomena capture our attention. Hilton, along with other spiritual writers, tell us the primary yardstick of spiritual and human growth is not extraordinary experiences, but ongoing love toward God and neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40).
Hilton compares our love for God and others to a flame within the heart of our being. This flame needs nurture or it will diminish. Hilton phrases it like this:
“The more sticks are laid on a fire, the greater is the flame, and so the more varied the spiritual work that anyone has in mind for keeping his desire whole, the more powerful and ardent shall be his desire for God.”
– The Scale of Perfection
When we fail to regularly put kindling on the fire of our faith we should not be surprised when we feel far from God or when we receive little joy from our faith.
Yes, there are dark valleys in our lives where despite our faithfulness in tending our spiritual flame we experience spiritual despair. Ordinarily, thankfully, if we tend to the fire our faith, we will feel its warmth and consolation.
Walter Hilton and Christians Today
Mother Julia Gatta, theologian, spiritual director, and author writes:
“In the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there was in England no more highly esteemed devotional writer than Walter Hilton.”
– The Pastoral Art of the English Mystics
Hilton understands growth in the spiritual life is not a purely subjective matter. Spirituality is not a matter of individual taste alone. Hilton understands growth in Christ has been characterized by certain practices, stages, and challenges over the centuries.
While each Christian’s journey has its own peculiarities, the journey toward deeper union with God has a general pattern that most of us will find useful to refer to and learn from. This approach contributed to his popularity in the past and his usefulness as a spiritual guide in the present.
Hilton’s spiritual counsel is full of Biblical references and allusions. It is a joyful spirituality encouraging readers to go further and further in their pursuit of knowing God in Christ through the power of the Spirit. Hilton writes:
“And even though you experience him in devotion and in knowledge, do not content yourself in that as though you have fully found Jesus. For know this for certain: that whatever you might experience of him, no matter how much – yes, even if you were to be ravished into the third heaven with Paul (2 Corinthians 12) yet you would not yet have found Jesus as he is in his fullness of joy.”
– The Mixed Life
For Hilton, the spiritual life is about love and joy as found in Jesus Christ.
In seekers and skeptics posts, I write specifically for those outside of the Christian faith. I know some will be considering the faith, some will be exploring spiritually, and some will come to any consideration of Christian claims with considerable suspicion. If this describes you at all, I’m glad you’re here. Welcome!
Choosing a Religion. For most of human history the question of being religious was not a question. And most people didn’t choose a religion, they were born into a religion. To be religious was to be human and to be human was to be religious.
Today many perceive religion as an obstacle to human flourishing and development. Despite a vocal minority, the majority of billions of human beings still find meaning, purpose, and answers to life’s most persistent questions in religion.
These humans may be rigorous in the practice of their religion. They may be casual in their practice of their religion, but they are religious to some degree. You probably encounter people who are religious on a regular basis.
Their religiosity may intrigue you. It may also be confusing , be off putting or raise lots of questions for you. Maybe you do not encounter people like this very often. Yet, you still feel a spiritual curiosity to learn more about religion.
4 Starting Points For Choosing a Religion
1. Know the Difference Between Denomination and Religion
It is important to understand what we are referring to when we use the world religion. Very often people mistakenly use the world religion to refer to a denomination or branch of a particular religion. For example, Catholics and Lutherans are not members of different religions.
They are members of different denominations of the Christian religion. Shiites and Sunnis are not members of different religions but are members of different branches of the Islamic religion. This is important to know when exploring or choosing a religion. The world’s religions are often composed of several branches or denominations.
When exploring a religion that interests you, say Buddhism for example. You want to learn about Buddhism in general, but you want to also learn about the different kinds of Buddhism. For example, Theravada and Mahayana.
Atheism and agnosticism are not religions, they are beliefs people have about certain religious claims. An atheist does not believe in God. An agnostic believes there is not enough evidence to prove or disapprove the existence of God.
Most atheists and agnostics, while not persuaded by the claims of religion, are not active in opposing religion. They simply choose not to include religion in their lives.
2. Begin Your Search at Home
If you grew up or around a particular religion it might be worth starting your exploration there. People raised in a religion sometimes know little about it. They have collected bits and pieces of information and impressions about their religion but may not have every studied it seriously.
This often leads to misunderstandings about their religion. Beyond that most religions comes in many denominations and branches. Test your assumptions about what your religion is about or what it teaches by doing your homework, both on paper, and in connecting with people who practice your religion.
Some parents say, “We leave it to our child to choose a religion for themselves when they get older.” A problem that sometimes confronts people raised this way is that they have no point of reference for exploring religion as an adult.
If a child raised in one religion chooses another, their foundation gives them a point of comparison for understanding all religions. Atheist or agnostic parents could make sure their children receive some instruction in the religions of the world.
If you didn’t grow up with or around a religion, that’s ok. Start with a religion that shares some of your values as a starting point for your exploration.
3. Use the Exemplar Principle
Since human beings practice religion, no religion is free of atrocities, scandals, or short comings. Atrocities, scandals, and short comings are not unique to religion. A principle to use when evaluating the merits of a particular religion or philosophy of life is what I call the exemplar principle.
Each of the major religions of the world have their exemplars. These include not only the founders of certain religions (e.g. Siddhartha Gautama ) but followers of a specific religion who are recognized as models worthy of admiration (e.g. Mother Teresa). Research several exemplars or role models of a religion and see if they inspire you to learn more.
The presence of one or more amazing human being in a religion does not excuse all the atrocities or scandals sometimes done in the name of that religion.
However, it does demonstrate that these failings were done not because of the teachings of the religion itself, but because followers of the religion disobeyed the teachings of their religion. For example, if a Buddhist leader (secular or sacred) was found to be cruel and malicious, this is clearly contrary to Buddhist teachings on compassion.
Also, many religions will have statements on record addressing their failings and the problem of human weakness, check these out as well.
4. Look Out for Hijacked Religion
Religion is like medicine. Just because there are bad examples of how medicine is practiced in the world does not mean we get rid of all medicine. Instead we look for better medicine, practiced well.
In the same way, just because religion is sometimes practiced in harmful ways does not mean we get rid of all religion. Instead, we look for better religion, practiced well. Throughout history there have been individuals and groups who have used religion not for its intended purpose, but their own purposes.
This still happens today. Religious individuals or groups that make unreasonable demands on your time, finances, and freedom of thought should be approached carefully and potentially, avoided all together.
Along the same lines, if you run into groups that isolate themselves from other members of their religion, groups that have no accountability beyond themselves, you should proceed very carefully.
There are noble and venerable religious traditions that as a matter of religious faith withdraw from society, such as monasteries in Buddhism and Christianity. But these monasteries still have connections to the public and to other religious communities.
Religious leaders that demand or suggest you perform violent or other immoral acts should be abandoned immediately and when appropriate reported to the authorities.
Choosing a Religion: The Adventure of the Human Spirit
Dr. Houston Smith, the late author, philosopher and scholar, wrote:
“Religion alive confronts the individual with the most momentous option life can present. It calls the soul to the highest adventure it can undertake, a proposed journey across jungles, peaks, and deserts of the human spirit. The call is to confront reality, to master the self. Those who dare to hear and follow that secret call soon learn the dangers and difficulties of its lonely journey…What then can rival its power to inspire life’s deepest creative centers?”
– The World Religions
Religion, like any human endeavor, has its faults and failures, but religion at its best taps into an expansive understanding of the human spirit.
While many human beings in their search for meaning begin with the idea of choosing a religion, they often claim in the end, their religion choose them. May your explorations of religion bring you to the heights of beauty, truth, and goodness.
[Feel free to ignore this, but I invite you to explore Christianity, maybe for the first time or the first time seriously in a long time. Click here.]
These are exciting times to be a Christian. These are exciting times for the work of discipleship and formation. The seismic changes that have happened in recent decades have resulted in significant challenges for Christianity.
Challenges for world Christianity, but especially in the Western world. One of the fundamental challenges is the challenge of formation. In an increasingly secular world how do we pass on, build up, and educate ourselves and others in the faith? I am not primarily speaking about those outside the Church, but those within it.
There was a time when Christian faith was passed on almost through a process of cultural osmosis. A cultural sense of being Christian lingers in some places but is gone or on the way out in others.
This is exciting. Why? It gives us an opportunity to revisit tried and true methods of passing on and growing in the faith. It’s also exciting because it gives us an opportunity to experiment with new methods.
Ways to Practice Discipleship and Formation:
1. Equip all to practice their faith at home.
The Shema, an ancient Jewish Prayer, from the Old Testament, states:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem[ on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
– Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NRSV)
These verses picture the teachings of faith as woven into the ordinary activities of life. Weaving faith into daily life is made stronger by weekly participation in a local congregation. It is not one or the other, it is both faith at home and faith together in community.
Families praying Grace at meals. Individuals displaying symbols and wearing symbols of faith. Roommates observing the Christian year at home . All of these are part of this weaving of faith into the ordinary joys and sorrows of life. In this way faith becomes part and parcel of life, not something separate from it.
2. Encourage adults to share faith with the children in their lives.
We need to find ways to reach out to the increasing numbers of families who do not identify as Christian. Many do not identify with any historic Christian denomination or any faith at all. Before we do that or as we do, lets reach out to the children that are already in our lives.
This includes parents talking to their own children about faith. This sharing can and should also include grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, pastors, church members, and other caring adults. Children also benefit from hearing stories of faith from children older than themselves.
Seeds of faith are planted, watered, and nurtured when caring adults share their faith with the children in their lives. This need not be long and drawn out. It does not need to be a formal lesson. It could be a simple as a grandparent praying a short blessing over their grandchild at the end of a phone call.
Another example would be church members sharing with kids how God and the people of God helped them during a tough time in their lives. It could be as simple as a godparent writing a note to their godchild on the anniversary of their baptism or confirmation.
3. Engage people theologically with personal and public issues.
Most of our lives as followers of Jesus are spent outside the gathered community of the Church. Most of our lives are characterized by periods of stability and instability. Our lives include periods of achievement of crisis. Adults and older children need tools for thinking about and responding to life’s highs and lows.
They need perspectives on life’s challenges from the perspective of a thoughtful Christian faith. This includes care and compassion when people are in crisis. It should also include practical and theological education in a wide range of topics, from personal issues to public controversies.
For example, how have Christians understood suffering in the past? How should we approach suffering? What does our faith have to say about our work? What about poverty, climate change, race, sexuality, marriage, divorce, forgiveness, science, and war?
There are many faith-based resources on these and other topics. Christians are well served when their leaders and teachers give them the tools to think about various topics for themselves, using the tools of faith. This is in addition to sharing a range of Christian views on any given topic.
4. Elevate everyday discipleship for all.
Jesus’ invitation, first given to two sets of fisherman brothers, is given to you and me today by the power of the Holy Spirit:
“Come, follow me”
– Matthew 4:19
These words are not for a special few, but an invitation to all. An invitation to a life of discipleship, a life of following Jesus. A long term commitment to allow God’s spirit to weave together all the varied parts of one person’s story into a beautiful, whole.
A whole life that God weaves together with countless other lives from the past, the present, and, the future. A whole life brought together with all of life.
The Church sometimes give the impression that God is most concerned with mystics, preachers, and missionaries. God has used these kinds of disciples of Jesus in many ways. Yet, God is equally concerned with the plumber and the politician, as well as the ballerina and the businessman.
Elevating discipleship for all also means training all in the practices of discipleship: prayer, Bible reading, sabbath, spiritual friendship, service, giving, fasting, witness, and worship.
Discipleship and Formation: Beyond Programs
None of these ways requires formal Christian education programs, staff or large numbers of people (volunteers, children, or adults) to implement. A house church can implement these. A church with several hundred on a Sunday can implement these.
Your local church, whether small or large, can adopt and encourage these ideas and practices. Many denominations, publishing houses, and ministry organizations provide an abundance of resources in all these areas.
The word formation is used by many teachers to emphasize that we are not only educating people about facts, but in cooperation with the Spirit are forming ourselves and others in a way of being human.
A way rooted in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In a secular age how do we pass on and grow in this way of faith and love? We do so with God’s help in ways tried and true, in ways new and surprising, and in ways forgotten but restored. These are indeed exciting times.
How to read the Bible? The Bible is like a vast underground network of passageways. These passageways contain spacious cathedral like caverns. They also contain claustrophobic caves smaller than a closet, as well as ugly craters and beautiful canyons.
☀Within these ancient passages, sometimes illuminated by sparkling sunlight from on high, and sometimes hidden in damp and dusty darkness deep below, are treasures for the soul. 👑Treasures used by the Holy Spirit over the centuries to guide, strengthen, and transform lives. The lives of individuals, communities, and the world.
Whenever you open the pages of the Bible you are engaging in a bit of holy adventure, a bit of spiritual spelunking or prayerful potholing.
[In preparing for writing this article, I took a Bible and traveled to a local cave. After entering the cave and attempting to read the Bible, I learned three important lessons. First, it is difficult to read the Bible in the dark.
Second, it is difficult to read the Bible after hitting your head against the stone ceiling of a cave. Third, bats do not appreciate unexpected religious visitors anymore than humans do.] 🦇🦇🦇
Part of the reason Bible reading is a bit of a cave crawl is that the Bible is a library. Christians look for the consistent themes and threads that weave their way throughout this library. Yet, it is important to keep in mind that the Bible is a collection of books. 📕📔📕📔
Books of different kinds. Books with different literary genres. Such as history, poetry, law, and Gospel. The Bible’s pages reflect over forty human authors, written over a period of centuries. The teachings of most Christian denominations hold that the Holy Spirit inspired this collection in a special and authoritative way.
For what purpose? For the purpose of communicating God’s truth and God’s will to the world. Reading this library faithfully and prayerfully requires careful attention to the cultural and historical setting of a given passage.
How to Read the Bible: Five Tips
#1 Use A Proper Map 🗺
Yes, you can read the Bible without a map. God is gracious and over the centuries has spoken to people through Scripture, even when readers and listeners come to Bible ill-equipped and ill-prepared. Ordinarily, you will gain more insight and value by reading Scripture with a “map.”
By a map, I mean a study Bible. These Bibles, available in a variety of translations, provide helpful notes with introductions to each book of the Bible, commentary on difficult passages, and explanations of cultural practices unfamiliar to most people today.
There are dozens of these types of Bibles to choose from online or at your local bookstore. Choose a readable translation, ideally a translation used by your local congregation.
Just as a map will make the journey easier and more interesting through a cavern, so will solid study-notes make journeying through the Bible easier and more interesting as well.
#2 Start with the Easier Passages 🚶🏼♂️
Whether exploring caves or the pages of the Bible it is wiser to start with the easier passages. Exploring the easier passages now builds your capacity to traverse the more difficult ones in the future.
For Christians, a good way to start with Scripture is by reading about the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. There are four New Testament books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which tell us about Jesus’ earthly ministry. I often suggest Mark to perspective readers because it is the shortest and simplest of the four accounts.
Another place to begin is the book of Psalms, a collection of prayers. Strive to read the Bible on occasion, then work toward reading a small amount each day. In terms of harder passages for experienced Bible readers, try Job, Romans, and Revelation (there is no s!).
#3 Use the Right Tools 🔨
Spelunking a cave is made easier, more enjoyable, and safer by using the right tools. The same is true of reading Holy Scripture. With the Bible many of these tools are interpretative principals or “rules of thumb” to use often but especially when confronted with a difficult passage.
One such tool is the “Law of Love.” St. Augustine, the fifth century scholar saint, described the law of love in this way:
“Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.”
–On Christian Doctrine, 1.36.40
When a passage befuddles us, besides consulting our map, we should apply the law of love. As followers of Jesus we read Scripture through the filter of love.
[I confess the bats I encountered in the cave were not impressed with my suggestion that I had awakened them in the middle of day out of love.]
#4 Read with Explorers Past and Present 🤼
While you and I should read the Bible individually, it is best understood and explored in community. Whether we are benefiting from the wisdom of past explorers like Saint Augustine or the insights of people like and unlike us in our local church, our understanding of the Bible will be greatly enriched and sometimes corrected by reading it with others.
There are probably passages of Scripture you love, passages you struggle with, and passages you just do not understand. Reading Scripture with explorers past and present will show you that your questions are questions that have been wrestled with for centuries, that passages that inspire and comfort you have inspired and comforted others for centuries, too.
The ancient cavern system that is the Bible is better ventured with fellow explorers, past and present.
#5 Find the Timeless Treasure 💎💎💎
Scripture can be studied from the perspective of ancient documents rooted in a particular historical and cultural situation. Scripture can be studied from the perspective of what others have said about it and done because of it in the past.
These are necessary approaches to the study of the Bible. While your study can and should include these approaches, never stop there, but always build on these approaches to find the timeless treasures of Scripture.
Finding this treasure requires the combination of prayer and page, of human seeking and God revealing. The treasure of a word from God. The treasure of confronting who you are in all your goodness and all your sin.
The golden treasure of realizing your one little life is part of the much greater story of all life. The treasure of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (John 5:39).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor executed for his opposition to Hitler, gave sound counsel for seeking the Bible’s treasures.
“The Word of Scripture should never stop sounding in your ears and working in you all day long, just like the words of someone you love. And just as you do not analyze the words of someone you love, but accept them as they are said to you, accept the Word of Scripture and ponder it in your heart…until it has gone right into you and taken possession of you.”
– Life Together
The next time you open a Bible (and make sure it is soon), remind yourself you are entering a vast maze of underground passages, tunnels, and caverns.
Caverns that contain treasures, some in plain sight and some hidden in the depths. Get your gear, if you seek, you will find. 🔍
Richard Rolle, was a 14th century English hermit, writer, and spiritual director. He was part of the “Golden Age of English Mysticism.” Scholars and theologians debate this notion of a golden age. They also debate the merits of the mystics usually associated with it.
These mystics being the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and Rolle. In terms of significance, Rolle is sometimes compared to Margery Kempe. A devout woman who lived into the 15th century.
Rolle shares commonalities with these other writers. It is his differences, especially his experiences of mystical warmth 🔥 and melody 🎵 that draw attention to him. His feast day in the Church of England is January 20.
Richard Rolle: Life and Writing
Rolle was born around 1300 in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. He had siblings. Rolle came from a family of means. He attended Oxford. Father James Walsh, S.J., writes,
“A young man of fiery temperament, who after a few years at Oxford and at home, one day resolutely turned away from what he called his sinful youth, ruthlessly cut himself off from his worldly environment and thenceforth, strove amidst difficulties and temptations towards union with God in solitary contemplation.”
– Pre-Reformation English Spirituality:
In monastic life, there is the eremitical life. The life of a solitary or hermit. There is the cenobitic life. The life of a monk in community. An interesting feature of medieval England was the popularity of the eremitical life. 🙏
Julian of Norwich is an example of the eremitical or solitary life. She lived in a monastic cell attached to St. Julian’s Church in Norwich. Julian was an anchorite. She remained in one place. Hermits, like Rolle, traveled from place to place. Both hermits and anchorites pursued the spiritual life.
Their goal was union with God. After becoming a hermit, Rolle wandered for a time. Eventually he established his hermitage near the Cistercian community of nuns at Hampole. Rolle wrote several books on the spiritual life in Latin and English.
The writing of theological works in English was new at the time. His most famous work is Incendium Amoris (The Fire of Love). He died around the year 1350.
Spiritual Practices and Teaching
Rolle’s made unique contributions to English mysticism. Yet, it is important to remember his commitment to the ordinary habits of the spiritual life. Rolle’s writings recount his own experience with these basics. Basics recommended by most spiritual directors of his time.
Basic practices such as reading, prayer, and meditation. Reading meaning the Bible. Prayer, meaning liturgical prayer as well as individual prayer. Rolle also wrote about deeper forms of prayer, sometimes called contemplative prayer.
Meditation meaning both imaginative and intellectual reflection on Scripture. Contemplative prayer and meditation are probably the least understood or practiced by Christians today.
In the Christian faith, meditation is not about clearing of the mind. Rather meditation is careful thinking about and pondering over a selection of Bible verses. Lectio Divina is an example of classic Christian meditation. Centering Prayer is probably the most well-known form of contemplative prayer today.
Rolle, like his fellow mystics, recommends that if we wish to encounter God more deeply we should practice Scriptural meditation. Also, we should aspire to and be willing to perspire spiritually 💪 to experience the gift of contemplative prayer.
Prayer can be hard work. Contemplative prayer for Rolle was entering into union with the Triune God. Rolle acknowledges that union is pursued by God’s grace over time.
Unusual Experiences
Rolle writes the following about his unusual experience of God’s presence:
“I was sitting in a chapel and, enjoying the sweetness of prayer and meditation, I suddenly felt in myself an unusual and pleasant warmth. At first I wondered where this came from, but after a prolonged experience of it, I realized that it had emanated not from a creature but from the Creator, for it became ever more ardent and more pleasant. This material and inexpressibly sweet warmth remained with me nine months and a few weeks, until the time when I received from above the gift of hearing the celestial melody.”
– Incendium Amoris
Rolle describes these sensations as fervor (burning), dulcor (sweetness), and canor (song). Rolle relates these signs with closeness to and union with God.
Visions and voices are not uncommon features of mystical writings. Most theologians are cautious about them. 🛑 We should not pursue God for the sake of special experiences but out of love. Also, many spiritual directors over the centuries have identified such sensations as belonging to the early and not later stages of prayer.
Regardless, Rolle’s experiences are helpful in reminding us that such phenomena can be part of Christian prayer. Should you experience something “spiritually unusual” the best course of action is to test it (1 John 4:1).
Ask yourself, “Lord, is this from you?” Does the experience motivate you to love God and neighbor more? If such experiences continue you would be wise to consult a trusted pastor or spiritual director.
Richard Rolle and Christians Today
Rolle is the “charismatic Christian” of the English mystics. 🕊 His experience of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is similar in some ways to the experiences of millions of Pentecostal Christians throughout the world today. Bernard McGinn, the venerable and prolific scholar of mysticism writes:
“The theological message Rolle wants to convey has an important Christological dimension. The Word came in a body to save us not from our bodies and senses but in our bodies and senses.”
– The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism
This physical, bodily experience of spirituality is a helpful corrective to some expressions of spirituality which seem to regard the body as little more than a nuisance.
Rolle’s writings are lyrical and poetic in style. His emphasis, like so much of the mystical tradition, is not on knowledge, but on love. He writes:
“A reasonable soul cannot be without love while it is in this life…for to love and to be loved is the sweet business of human life…if therefore you seek to be loved, love; for love demands its return”
– Incendium Amoris
For Rolle, love is pursued in seeking God above all things. Rolle’s writings and prayers are filled with references to the name of Jesus. In the Christian faith, Jesus is not only the example and teacher of love, but the way to Love and Love’s final destination.
This Gospel melody, the melody of love, is one we can all hear and sing, through our prayer and within our action. 🎵 🙏 🎬
