11 @ January @ 2008 @ www.anamchara.com

Jan

11

Quote for the Day

The Christian religion is primarily about a transformation of consciousness. This takes spiritual practice and the cultivation of wisdom. In another time this was called cultivating the supernatural organism, what Paul called “a new creation.” So the main thing is to be transformed into God, what the early church called deification, theosis, divinization.

— Thomas Keating, OCSO, Spirituality, Contemplation &
Transformation: Writings on Centering Prayer

N.B.: This is a quotation from a lecture that Fr. Keating gave to seminarians at the School of Theology of the University of the South, Sewanee, TN in October 2005.

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Jan

11

Celtic/Mystic, part two

Celtic Christianity / Christian mysticism

The always well-connected Mike Morrell, in response to what I wrote yesterday about Christian mysticism and Celtic spirituality, muses:

Popular consciousness … tends to lump Celtic Christians and Contemplative Christians in the same corner, whether as an admirer (like myself) or a detractor.

Mike, I certainly understand. Celtic spirituality, whether Christian, pre-Christian, or non-Christian, is often described by both its advocates and its critics as “mystical.” So for the longest time I conflated the two as well.