The Little Book of Christian Mysticism

Essential Wisdom of Saints, Seers, and Sages

Carl Mccolman

• Publisher: Broadleaf Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781506485232
• eBook ISBN: 9781506485782
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

With over 300 quotations, this book invites the reader to delve into the writings of the great contemplatives and mystics of the past two thousand years. The Little Book of Christian Mysticism provides a user-friendly, insightful, and potentially life-changing introduction to the essential teachings of the greatest mystics in the western wisdom traditions, past and present, including Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Underhill, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Julian of Norwich. Readers can use this book to initiate themselves into this visionary and ecstatic spiritual lineage, and they can also use it as a book of daily meditations. Small enough to fit in one's pocket or handbag, this is truly a user-friendly introduction to this venerable body of wisdom.

Part One

PURIFICATION

I.

Every heart shelters within it a place of infinite longing. The German word for this is sehnsucht—which suggests a longing that is painful yet beautiful, so lovely that the ache of the yearning is itself a fulfillment. Alas, we live in such a noisy world, clanging with the chaos of our distracted minds and restless passions, so we often remain oblivious to our deepest yearning. Yet when we slow down and silence ourselves enough to recognize this desire for something that we cannot put into words, life will never be the same. We will follow that silent whisper in our hearts forever.

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?

PSALM 42:1-2¹

The innate longings of the self for more life, more love, an ever greater or fuller experience, attains a complete realization in the lofty mystical state called union with God.

EVELYN UNDERHILL

Contemplate the hart of which David sings, weary with the chase, breathless, spent, plunging into the water, as though he would lose himself in its refreshing depths. Even so our heart, ever unsatisfied in this life in its infinite longings, rushes to God, its Living, satisfying Fount, in the next. There, as the famished babe cleaves to its mother's breast as though it would fain absorb it, so our panting soul cleaves to God as though to be for ever absorbed in Him, and He in us!

FRANCIS DE SALES

For our natural Will is to have God, and the Good will of God is to have us; and we may never cease from longing till we have Him in fullness of joy.

JULIAN OF NORWICH

To those who long for the presence of God, the thought of him is sweet, yet they are not satiated, but hunger ever more for him who will satisfy them, as he who is our food testifies of himself, saying, “they who eat me shall still hunger,” and he who was fed said, “I will be satisfied when your glory appears.”

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

Let us consider our soul as a castle, composed entirely of diamonds, or very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions . . . I know of nothing to which I can compare the great beauty of a soul, and its wonderful capacity. Truly, however enlarged our understanding may be, it is unable to comprehend the beauty of a soul, just as it cannot comprehend who God is; for He saith Himself, that He created us to His own image and likeness.

TERESA OF ÁVILA

I am not now living in myself,

And without God I cannot live;

For without God, I am also without myself.

JOHN OF THE CROSS

When you were living like an ordinary Christian in the company of your worldly friends, the everlasting love of the Godhead, by which God made you and formed you when you were nothing, and then bought you with the price of His precious blood when you were lost in Adam, would not permit you to be so far from Him in form and degree of living. Therefore He kindled your desire full graciously, and fastened by it a leash of longing, and led you by it into a more special state and form of living, to be a servant among God's special servants, where you might learn to live more specially and more ghostly in His service than you did, or might do, in your previous way of life. But even then, He would not leave you thus lightly, for the love of His heart which He always had for you. See how lovingly and graciously God has brought you to this singular way of life, where, in solitude, you may learn to lift up the foot of your love; and step towards that state and degree of living that is perfect.

ANONYMOUS (THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING)²

You inspire us to delight in praising You; for You have created us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

During the days of His life on earth, Mary's Divine Son spoke these words: “If you ask the Father anything in My Name, He will give it you.” Therefore I am certain You will fulfill my longing. O my God, I know that the more You wish to bestow, the more You make us desire. In my heart I feel boundless desires, and I confidently beseech You to take possession of my soul.

THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX

There are deeps in our consciousness which no private plumb line of our own can sound; there are heights in our moral conscience which no ladder of our human intelligence can scale; there are spiritual hungers, longings, yearnings, passions, which find no explanation in terms of our physical inheritance or of our outside world. We touch upon the coasts of a deeper universe, not yet explored or mapped, but no less real and certain than this one in which our mortal senses are at home. We cannot explain our normal selves or account for the best things we know—or even for our condemnation of our poorer, lower self—without an appeal to and acknowledgment of a divine Guest and Companion who is the real presence of our central being.

RUFUS JONES

II.

No one chooses to be a mystic. You may choose your profession, your interests, and your passions, but the mystical life is a calling, and we do not call ourselves. It is God's call. Of course, God has chosen you, for God calls everyone; in the words of a Carmelite friar, “the mystic is not a special kind of person; each person is a special kind of mystic.” You are called to be the person God has created you to be, which may or may not line up with your own ideas. Nevertheless, we are all called to the possibility of deep intimacy with God, and even invited into profound union with God. All of us. So the question is, how will you answer your call?

But now thus says the Lord . . .

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

ISAIAH 43:1-2

The homeward journey of our spirit, then, may be thought of as due to the push of a divine life within, answering to the pull of a divine life without. It is only possible because there is already in that spirit a certain kinship with the Divine, a capacity for Eternal Life; and the mystics, in undertaking it, are humanity's pioneers on the only road to rest . . . The spiritual pilgrim goes because he is called; because he wants to go, must go, if he is to find rest and peace. “God needs man,” says Eckhart. It is Love calling to love: and the journey, though in one sense a hard pilgrimage, up and out, by the terraced mount and the ten heavens to God, in another is the inevitable rush of the roving comet, caught at last, to the Central Sun. “My weight is my love,” said St. Augustine. Like gravitation, it inevitably compels, for good or evil, every spirit to its own place. According to another range of symbols, that love flings open a door, in order that the larger Life may rush in, and it and the soul be “one thing.”

EVELYN UNDERHILL

True devotion presupposes, not a partial, but a thorough love of God. For inasmuch as divine love adorns the soul, it is called grace, making us pleasing to the Divine Majesty: inasmuch as it gives us the strength to do good, it is called charity; but when it has arrived at that degree of perfection, by which it not only makes us act well, but also work diligently, frequently, and readily, then it is called devotion.

FRANCIS DE SALES

Suddenly the Trinity fulfilled my heart with most joy. And so I understood that in heaven it shall be, without end. For the Trinity is God, God is the Trinity. The Trinity is our maker, the Trinity is our keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting lover, the Trinity...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• Part One: PURIFICATION
• Part Two: ILLUMINATION
• Part Three: DIVINIZATION
• EPILOGUE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• NOTES
• FOR FURTHER READING
• BIBLIOGRAPHY