Reading the Mystics
Come reflect on the work of Christian Mystics
We are currently on a 2-week break. We will return August 4!
“The mystic is not somebody who says, ‘Look what I’ve experienced. Look what I’ve achieved.’ The mystic is the one who says, ‘Look what love has done to me.’” -James Finley
Quick Guide
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We are currently on a 2-week break. We will return on Monday, August 4!
We are reading Brother Lawrence’s work: Practicing the Presence of God.
We will make use of a new translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher. You are also welcome to use the popular translation by John Delaney. Both are faithful, helpful renderings of the profound and simple wisdom of Brother Lawrence (1611-1691). Alternatively, there is some evidence that Br. Lawrence’s year of birth may have been 1606.
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June 23: First Conversation, Spiritual Maxims
June 30: The Heart of Br. Lawrence and Profile
July 7: Letters 1-8
July 14: Letters 9-16
July 21: NOT Meeting
July 28: NOT Meeting
August 4: Brother Lawrence continued: Spiritual Maxims and Conversations 2-4
August 11: Last Words
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Meet our Mystics
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Brother Lawrence
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The Best of the Female Mystics Series
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Julian of Norwich
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Thomas Keating
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![etty hillesum: reading mystics]()
Etty Hillesum
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St. John of the Cross
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Thomas Merton
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St. Teresa of Avila
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Meister Eckhart
What is a Mystic?
This is the way Frederick Buechner describes the mystics, “There must be a God because every age and culture has produced mystics who have experienced a Reality beyond reality and have come back using different words and images but obviously and without collusion describing with awed adoration the same Indescribability.”
James Finley writes, “The mystic is not somebody who says, “Look what I’ve experienced. Look what I’ve achieved.” The mystic is the one who says, “Look what love has done to me.” . . . There’s nothing left, but the being of love itself giving itself away as . . . the concreteness of who you simply are.”
Weekly Schedule
Notes:
If you would like to just come for Centering Prayer or just come for the Mystics, you are more than welcome to come and go as you please.
Whether its your first time or fifty-first, All are Welcome!
You do not need to have read up to a certain point in the book… you can just jump on in!
5:00pm
Gather for brief Centering Prayer Instruction
5:10pm
Centering Prayer Sit
5:30pm
Introduction, Reading, and Discussion
7:00pm
Conclude