If you’d like to take a sneak peek inside The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, or see its back cover, you now can do so, at Amazon.com. Amazon’s “Click to Look Inside” feature has now been activated for the book. Please take a look…
The Big Book of Christian Mysticism on Amazon.com
…and if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy, now’s a great time to do so! 
The trailer for the movie adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been released.
Needless to say, I’m excited.
| 0 commentsIf my eye is to receive an image, it must be free from all other images; for if it already has so much as one, it cannot see another, nor can the ear hear a sound if it be occupied with one already. Any power of receiving must first be empty before it can receive anything.
—John Tauler, as quoted in The Soul Afire:
Revelations of the Mystics
I’ve created a Schedule page — you can click on it from the banner at the top of any page on this website. Especially if you live in Atlanta, please visit this page from time to time to see where I’ll be out and about. Of course, my travel schedule will be posted here as well; currently I have events planned in Northern Ireland in August and Portland, OR, in October; and as more events get scheduled, they’ll be posted here.
Incidentally, if your church, retreat center, monastery, or other organization would like to sponsor me to come lead a retreat, give a talk, teach a class, or facilitate a quiet day, please let me know via my Contact page.
| 0 commentsMy dear friend Darrell Grizzle has created a Facebook page devoted to The Big Book of Christian Mysticism. I am flattered. Darrell was one of the book’s advance readers, and offered some insightful criticism that I took to heart (and that has hopefully made it a better book). So, if anyone would like to go on the record as “liking” the book, just click here: The Big Book of Christian Mysticism on Facebook.
Of course, you may wish to wait until you’ve actually read it before deciding you “like” it, a sensible course of action which would make sense to me. 
If your main object is the will of God and the good of your neighbor, you will have great interior freedom. If your heart is straight with God, then every creature will be a mirror of life and a book of heavenly teaching. There is no creature so insignificant and small which does not reflect the goodness of God.
— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
| 0 commentsJust a reminder, my friends: if you are interested in participating in the Celtic Spirituality and Radical Activism Retreat in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland, we need to know today. Please fill out this form to indicate your interest, and we’ll be in touch.
The tentative itinerary for the trip can be found here. This will not be a “tourism” experience, but rather a true retreat: we’ll be preparing meals together, spending our mornings engaged in spiritual exercises such as lectio divina, centering prayer, walking a labyrinth, etc.; and our afternoons connecting with Northern Irish peacemakers and others committed to a spirituality of “contemplation and action.”
If you’re wondering why we’re doing this in the middle of August — it’s to make it easy to travel on to England to attend the Greenbelt Festival, where awesome folks like Richard Rohr, Tom Sine, Stanley Hauerwas, Laurence Freeman and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove will be speaking, alongside three days of peace and music.
| 0 commentsThose who are indifferent to praise or blame have great tranquillity of heart.
— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
| 0 commentsHere is a little “friend” we discovered in the woods behind the Abbey Store at the monastery where I work.
Needless to say, Saint Patrick is not in Georgia. This, of course, is a black snake, who helps to control the population of field mice throughout the largely wooded grounds of the monastery — so this slithery fellow is one of the good guys. But if snakes are not your thing, you can rest assured that this creature will not be joining us in Northern Ireland this summer!
He (or she) will stay in Georgia, where he belongs.
The pictures don’t really show this, but my serpentine friend was about four feet long.
| 0 commentsHere is a tentative outline for the Contemplative Spirituality and Social Activism Retreat to take place in Northern Ireland this August. While some of the details are still subject to change, this will give you an idea of just how special this week is going to be. Remember, there are just a few openings left for this week — please let me or my colleague Gareth Higgins know if you’re interested in attending.
Tuesday, August 17th:
Arrivals in the morning and afternoon
Programme begins with dinner and introductions
Wednesday, August 18th – Monday, August 23rd:
For the six full days of the retreats, we will alternate talks, spiritual exercises, conversations and walks in the morning with field trips in the afternoon, and entertainment, socialising and a bit of Irish roguery in the evenings. Provisional programme is below – all subject to change, and some of the details left to the imagination so that we still have some surprises when we get there!
Mornings — Talks and spiritual exercises and walks, including some of the following:
1. Lectio Divina as a core spiritual practice: not just reading sacred text, but reading our lives, reading our struggles, reading our calling.
2. Contemplation: befriending our silence and our darkness.
3. Holiness and Hospitality (or, what do St. Anthony the great and Brigid of Kildare have in common?): connecting the dots between Celtic paganism, Christian mysticism, Celtic Christianity, and transformational spirituality today.
4: Yah-Weh breath prayer: The presence of God in every atom.
5: John O’Donohue’s questions: The things you need to ask yourself.
6: Facing the death that you’ve already experienced: The path to life.
7: Oscar Romero’s vision of planting the seed as a path to radical activism.
8: Interviewing each other about our bodies, and stories we tell each other about our bodies.
9: Exercises on grief and grieving.
Afternoons:
Wednesday, August 18th — Politics Day
Visiting Paramilitary Murals in Belfast
Clonard Monastery (Catholic peace activists)
East Belfast Mission (Protestant peace activists)
Evening: Conversation with William Crawley, BBC religion and current affairs radio presenter and raconteur.
Thursday, August 19th — Landscape Day
Visit some or all of these beautiful sights: the Giant’s Causeway; Dunluce Castle; Bushmills; Corrymeela
Evening: Historic pub visit.
Friday, August 20th — Culture & Shopping Day
Ulster Museum: Superb cultural institution
Holywood/Dirty Duck: Gareth’s home town and classic Irish pub
Evening: Theatre/Cinema/perhaps a movie back at the house
Saturday, August 21st — All day and evening at Randalstown Forest
Great Irish food, walk, storytelling and music in the evening.
Sunday, August 22nd — Silent Day
Silent Day on site; with optional fast for breakfast and lunch, with good home-cooked meal in the evening
Monday, August 23rd — Wrap up: Dealing with the Past, Envisioning the Future
Morning: field trip to meet a political leader and friend of Gareth at the local parliament;
Visit with “Healing Through Remembering” post-trauma initiative.
Afternoon: Final reflections.
Evening: Poetry and music performance from Padraig O’Tuama.
Tuesday, August 24th
Departure for home.
