Preacher, Teacher, Scholar, Author
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 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.
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
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).
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.”
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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).
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 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.
(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!)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 🙏🏼
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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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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!).
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.]
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.
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. 🔍
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 🎵 🙏 🎬
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Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life. The Christian life can be thought of as a great voyage across great waters that begins in this life and continues in the life after. A voyage with high points of adventure and danger.
A voyage interspersed with stretches of sometimes tedious and sometimes hard labor. If you have ever rowed a boat across a lake you know what I am talking about. 🚣♀️
(I began writing this on a rowboat. Tragically, a loon startled me, sending me and my laptop overboard. I confess that I provoked the bird. As it swam past I said several times, rather sarcastically, “Lost your mind have you?” It then flew at me.)
Prayer is a way we navigate this voyage. It is how we harness the tremendous power of the spiritual winds of the Holy Spirit for this voyage. Prayer is a strengthening to keep us on course during this voyage.
Perhaps, most importantly, prayer is how we come to know the one who voyages with us along the way, the Heavenly Captain, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Here are five ways to develop your life of prayer, whether you are a just beginning your spiritual voyage or whether you are an experienced spiritual seafarer:
Find a time to pray exclusively each day. By exclusive I mean a time you set aside only for prayer and devotion. A time you set aside each day, at approximately the same time each day, to meet with the Lord. An opportunity to be strengthened for the voyage ahead.
An opportunity to pray over your day. A time to pray for the people in your life. A time to listen to God. An opportunity to reset the course of your life. 🧭
This quiet time could be for two minutes. It could be for twenty. For most people this will be in the morning, but for others it will be before they go to bed. The time of day is less important.
What is important is developing this as a daily habit. This daily appointment sets the sail of your soul, inviting God into the details of your life and releasing spiritual power into your day.
St. Francis De Sales, the 16th century spiritual director and guide said:
“Sprinkle a seasoning of short prayers on your daily living. If you see something beautiful, thank God for it. If you are aware of someone’s need, ask God to help…You can toss up many such prayers all day long. They will help you in your meditation and in your secular employment as well. Make a habit of it.”
Introduction to the Devout Life
These little prayers can adjust the sails of your soul to meet your day’s dosage of choppy waters. These prayers will usually be brief, maybe nothing more than a quick, “Thank you God” or a frustrated “Lord give me patience to help this person!”
You can season your day with these little prayers even without words, simply by pausing with prayerful intention toward God. 🙏
Pray regularly with other members of the crew. This means worshipping at your local church. It can also mean praying in smaller groups with friends and family. We are all members of the great fleet of God’s people.
Even when you feel lost at sea and far from any friendly shore or ship, you are connected by the power of the Holy Spirit with other believers. (Just be on the lookout for loons).
Praying regularly with others strengthens your awareness that you never pray alone. Praying regularly with others strengthens your own ability to pray, especially when the storms of life threaten to throw you off the ship of faith into the cold waters of despair.
Thankfully, prayer when offered with others can become a faith saving rope, securing you safely on deck. 🦺
The Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer lists several kinds of prayer:
“The principal kinds of prayer are adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession and petition”
Petition is prayer you offer for yourself. Intercession is prayer you offer for others. Some spiritual writers use these terms interchangeably. In either case they are “asking prayers.”
Christian prayer is relational. In a trusting relationship it is appropriate to share our concerns, our needs, and even our wants. Yes, there is a place for petition in your prayer life.
However, if you desire to reach new destinations in your spiritual voyage, you need to regularly practice other kinds of prayer: prayers of confession, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of praise.
You may learn to pray with Scripture or to pray with beads. As you grow in prayer the Spirit will grow in you a greater awareness of God love’s and a greater ability to love others (Matthew 22:36-40). 🧾
The most faithful thing you can do and the most helpful thing you can do to cultivate a regular prayer life is to persist in praying. Whether your voyage is presently turbulent or presently serene and whether you “feel” like praying or not, the key is to keep at it.
Sister Miriam Pollard, O.C.S.O., in her book, The Laughter of God writes:
“The most important part of prayer technique is to keep at it, to give it a daily place in our lives. If we are faithful to a daily amount of prayer, we will want to pray at other times during the day, in our various needs and activities. Even if the prayer time seems to be more than a refined nuisance, it is giving life to the rest of our day.”
(Excuse me, I just received an email from the Canadian Association for the Advocacy of Loons. In response, I attest that no loons were harmed in the research or writing of this article. Several jokes follow from here but let us finish up for now.)
The Christian life is a great voyage, a high seas adventure of the soul. The heavenly Captain, Jesus Christ, has promised to be with us (Matthew 28:20).
So we will sail on faithfully through storm and sunrise until we arrive on that heavenly shore. In the meantime, with your Captain and crew, persist in prayer. Adventure awaits. Anchors away! ⚓
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Elsie Gibbs, in her 1939, hymn, “Christ’s Year” likens the observance of the Christian Year to a,
“wreath of praise, plaited of our Christian days.”
The Church Calendar, also called the Christian Year and the Liturgical Calendar, is a delightful way can connect our lives to the colorfully textured tapestry of devotions observed by God’s people for over 2000 years.
The seasons of the Christian year can ignite our spiritual lives if we take them home with us and not leave them on the Sunday pew. The Christian year observed regularly, not perfectly, can be used by the Spirit in igniting and sustaining the flames our faith. One of the best ways we can spark faith in the children in our lives is by observing the year with them. Try and see!
(Sorry to interrupt, I received a complaint from a Fire Station near Auckland, New Zealand. Please understand readers, I mean sparking and igniting our lives spiritually not literally. 🔥)
Fr. William Syndor, an Episcopal priest, offers some wise words in his book, Keeping the Christian Year. Regarding home observances he says they:
“must never be a meaningless activity in which everyone must participate, or a new regulation to be imposed. Christian Year observances are meant to be enjoyed, not endured.”
Each season has its own rich liturgical spirituality, traditions, and customs, but here are 14 ideas for observing the Christian year to get you started:
The beginning of the Christian year. A time for preparing for Christ’s coming.
1. Host a New Year’s Eve party on the evening before the first Sunday of Advent. A fun activity for those in attendance would be to create Advent Wreaths.
2. Eat your evening meals by candlelight (perhaps by your wreath) for the whole season as a reminder that the world was waiting in darkness for the Light of Christ to be revealed. 🕯🕯🕯🕯
The celebration of God come among us, Emmanuel.
3. Earlier in Advent, set up a creche, but have Mary and Joseph “travel” to Bethlehem through your home, not arriving until Christmas Eve or Day. Place the baby Jesus in the crib after your attendance at Christmas worship at your local church.
4. Sing a Christmas carol on each of the twelve days of Christmas after the main meal of the day. Hold off on Christmas music during Advent but enjoy it during the 12 days.
The celebration of Christ’s manifestation to all peoples.
5. Keep your Christmas decorations up through this feast and mark it by singing “We Three Kings of Orient Are”. The three Kings can “travel” through the home during the twelve days of Christmas, arriving this day.
6. Invite your pastor over to bless your home. Include a group of friends and or family. Share food and fun, call it an Epiphany Party.
A forty-day period of repentance and self-examination in preparation for Easter.
7. Commit to taking something on and giving something up. For example, taking on the practice of daily Scripture reading and giving up meat on Wednesdays and/or Fridays. 🐟
8. As an individual, family, or group of friends, volunteer to serve the poor.
9. Observe the Triduum, (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) by reading aloud the primary Scriptural passages appointed for the day followed by a silent meal or period of silence for somber reflection. You could do this morning or evening.
10. Host a meal or party with friends and or family. It need not be elaborate but is an opportunity to celebrate the Resurrection with good food and good friends. Begin with prayer and each person reflecting briefly on their Lenten and Easter Sunday experience.
11. Eastertide lasts for fifty days, walk in the power of the Resurrection by scheduling more time for celebration and fun with friends and family.
The longest season of the Christian year
12. Add at least one devotional reminder to your home.
A physical reminder of your faith is important, because as the old saying goes “out of sight, out of mind.” Different Christians denominations and traditions use different devotional objects for domestic use. Here are some examples:
A Bible prominently displayed, a prayer book on your nightstand, a cross above your bed, Scripture verses displayed in the living room, one or more icons of beloved saints, a crucifix on the wall, a signed and autographed picture of me, a home altar, a statue of saint, a book of devotions in your workshop, or a hymnal on your piano. 🎹
(Yes, that was a joke about my picture, just making sure you are reading carefully. To receive your autographed picture send your check to….just kidding! I would never stoop to supporting my ministry by autographing pictures for checks. For cash, yes. Again, just kidding!!!)
13. Display a devotional object in your car and workplace. At work it may have to be small or kept out of sight (e.g. in your desk) but will still be a reminder of God’s presence and your call to follow Jesus wherever you may be. Similar advice could be given about worn or carried objections of devotion (e.g. crosses, rings, prayer cards, t-shirts, snakes, etc.) 🐍
14. Snakes Day. Saints Day are great opportunities for observance. For example, offering special prayers of thanks for your pets (e.g. snakes) on St. Francis of Assisi’s Day (October 4) or having an after-dinner music concert with family and friends at home on St. Cecilia’s Day (11/22).
The simplest way to bring the faith home is to pray at home. The easiest way for most individuals or families to begin to do this is by prayers of thanksgiving at meals and before bedtime. When first introduced prayer may feel odd, but over time will become a normal part of home life. Couples can develop the habit of praying together for each other daily.
There are warehouses of activities and customs for the Christian year. An internet search, resources from your local church, as well as asking your Christian friends will reveal creativity as well as simple faithfulness in observance. Do not wait to get all fancy, just begin to incorporate this “wreath of praise” into your daily life in simple ways, you and others will be blessed.
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Mysticism is a mystery. For some mysticism means an ocean of sparking spirituality found outside the narrow bounds of the darkened pools of religion. For some mysticism means the purest waters at the very source of their religion. The mystics have been a great help in the pilgrimage of my life. For me, they have been lifeguards along the shore.
There is an old story about a medieval peasant. The peasant sat in the back of the church day after day, hour after hour. This led to someone asking him what he was doing sitting in the back of the church every day the peasant replied,
“I gaze at him and he gazes at me.”
Perhaps that peasant was a madman. Maybe he was a mystic. Whoever they are, peasant or prince, physician or plumber, a mystic possesses an unusual awareness of God.
(I was going to ask you whether I’m a madman or mystic. I thought better of the idea and decided to move on. 😊)
Evelyn Underhill in her book, “The Mystics of the Church,” writes,
“The Christian mystic is one for whom God and Christ are not merely objects of belief, but living facts experientially know and mysticism for him becomes, in so far as he responds to its demands, a life based on a conscious communion with God.”
The Apostle Paul had mystical experiences. For instance, the experience he had during his conversion. In Acts 9 Paul loses his sight and hears the resurrected Jesus speak,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me.”
Paul’s visionary experience as recorded in 2 Corinthians 2:12 is a mystical one,
“I know a person who was caught up into Paradise” (12:3).
Some mystics report extraordinary experiences of prayer. For example, extraordinary encounters with God in the form of extraordinary phenomena, such as miracles, visions, and voices. Over the centuries the great teachers of prayer warn us that that focusing on the extraordinary aspects of prayer will usually hurl us off the mountain of genuine mystical experience. 🌄
[I thought about mentioning my extraordinary ability to use the word extraordinary, but again, moving on.]
The primary goal of the Christian mystics has been not the possession of extraordinary powers. It has not about the accumulation of extraordinary experiences. The primary goal of the mystics has been possession by God. The mystic desires union with God, not merely knowledge about God.
Therefore, spiritual graces or gifts the mystic receives while pursuing union with God are incidental. Such gifts might even be distractions from the mystic’s relationship with God and neighbor.
Some, like the Apostle Paul, became mystics unexpectedly. The majority of mystics have sought to crank open the cottage windows of their souls to the warm sunglow of the Holy Spirit. How have mystics done this? By loving their neighbors, meditating on Scripture and praying, with and without words. Prayer has been the ordinary threshold into the deeper waters of God.
Walter Hilton, the 14th century English mystic, writes,
“Then ask from God nothing but this gift of love, which is the Holy Spirit. For of all the gifts that our Lord gives, none is so good or so profitable, so valuable or excellent as this; for there is no gift of God that is both the giver and the gift, except this gift of love”
(The Scale of Perfection, 2:36).
Hilton, like many mystics, finds the garden gate to God in Jesus Christ. Not all mystics locate their mystical experience in Jesus Christ. Some speak of their mystical experience in terms of unknowing, an ineffable experience difficult to translate into words. The goal is to go past intellectual knowledge of a theological claim. To go past knowing about the claim that “God is love” to experiencing that claim in relationship with God.
“I gaze at him and he gazes at me.”
Great! Some individuals experience their relationship with God in profound ways. Ways that you and I probably do not on a regular basis. We call them mystics. This is true. Their witness to the warm waters of God’s love tells us that there is more for us to explore and experience in our own lives of faith and prayer. They can be for us lifeguards along the shores of a deeper spirituality. 🏊♀️
Hold that thought…
Contemplation is part of mysticism. In the general sense, contemplation is a set of practices as well as posture toward life that make space for and facilitate an ongoing awareness of God. All Christians engage in contemplative moments. Some Christians are called to the contemplative life.
A contemplative life can be lived in a monastery. It can, with some care, be lived elsewhere. The witness of history has been that most of us as Christians are not called to the contemplative life. Most of us are called to what has been called the active life. The active life focuses less on deep prayer and more on relationships and responsibilities to other people.
Back to that thought: Is every Christian a mystic? Or should they be? One perspective on that question was offered by theologian and writer, Karl Rahner S.J.
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.”
If Father Rahner meant that in the face of increasingly secularization, only those who have experienced the reality of God will persist in their faith, I agree that experience of, not just facts about faith, is important.
If Fr. Rahner meant that every Christian in the future must have extraordinary mystical experiences with God to persist in their faith, I disagree. Through the best and worst of human history, from times of prosperity, to times of persecution, Christians have persisted in their faith. Usually, they have persisted in their faith by loving God and loving others without any report of extraordinary mystical experiences.
[Notice the masterful inclusion of that word again. You might say my talent for it is, wait for it…extraordinary Oh, never mind! 🙄 ]
Spiritual theologians and teachers of prayer disagree whether contemplative living and mystical experiences are for all Christians. The Church and the world is sustained and strengthened in ways beyond our limited comprehension by those who commit themselves to seeking union with God through deeper states of prayer. Their prayers lift us all.
Mysticism is a mystery. For the Christian it is an immersion into the lifegiving waters of God’s love. Mystics are spiritual swimmers seeking the swift currents of the Kingdom of God. In baptism, maybe all Christians splash into the mystical depths of the ocean of grace, no matter how quickly they swim for the dry land.
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