Archives

November 2019

November 16, 2019
“Absolute attention is prayer.” -Simone Weil “This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I...
November 01, 2019
James Baldwin is a prophet for troubled times. Baldwin was a black, gay, renowned novelist...

October 2019

October 25, 2019
God is creativity. There’s something intrinsic to how God is conceived in the Bible that...
October 18, 2019
Joy and justice, on the surface, do not seem to go together. Sometimes we might...
October 11, 2019
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, God said, “Let there...
October 04, 2019
"It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper as...

September 2019

September 27, 2019
I love the moniker “ordinary mystic.” It resonates with me. In contrast, the word “mystic,”...
September 19, 2019
The universe is strange.  Here are a few paraphrased facts from an article I stumbled across: If you...
September 11, 2019
I cannot imagine a better start to each day than a silent sit. When I...
September 02, 2019
The recent book Bless this Mess, the fruit of a team-up between pastor Molly Baskette...

August 2019

August 29, 2019
I can’t remember the first time it happened in prayer. But I remember the first...
August 21, 2019
Hildegard of Bingen is, to use one writer's phrase (William Harmless), a mystical multimedia artist. She...
August 14, 2019
Christ is not Jesus’s last name, as Richard Rohr says so powerfully in his latest book...
August 05, 2019
Marianne Williamson’s focus on love, and her new book "The Politics of Love," make her...

July 2019

July 29, 2019
The Busy Trap has snagged many readers, I’m sure. I know it has snagged me. We...
July 26, 2019
Note: This article appears in SEEN Journal, Issue XVII, a publication of Christians in the Visual...
July 19, 2019
Why is contemplative prayer so needed in our time? What good does the mystic generate...
July 17, 2019
So dark the night!...I went with no one knowing upon a lover’s quest –Ah, the...

June 2019

June 07, 2019
God wants to meet with us. It goes both ways: we want to meet with...
June 04, 2019
Is Earth a sacred place for us, given by the hand of the Creator -...

May 2019

May 29, 2019
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a celebrated speaker, writer, and activist living in Durham, North Carolina. He...
May 22, 2019
Matthew Fox is a prolific writer, from whom creative spirituality passionately pours forth. His two...
May 15, 2019
Last week, my local independent cinema in Williamstown, MA showed a one-time showing of the...
May 13, 2019
Wonder is a word for a life saturated with praise. Regardless of belief system, we...
May 08, 2019
Note to the reader: This narrative is a summary in my own words of the...
May 01, 2019
I had it all planned out: a stay at a Trappist monastery planned for my...

April 2019

April 25, 2019
Wisdom is a woman. In Proverbs eight, she is a teacher walking the streets. She...
April 21, 2019
We grieved this week as Notre Dame Cathedral burned. Many hearts broke while reliving memories...
April 14, 2019
I always have an uneasy feeling on Palm Sunday. I enjoy waving palms in church...
April 10, 2019
The Shakers planted some of their most vital outposts of utopia near where I live,...
Related posts from Ordinary Mystic
Contemplative
James Baldwin: Prophet of Love
Ordinary Mystic
Contemplative
On Christianity, God as Creativity, and the Arts
Ordinary Mystic
Contemplative
Joy and Justice Belong Together
Ordinary Mystic
Contemplative
Beyond Light Supremacy: Let There be Light *and*...
Ordinary Mystic