In this conclusion to our study classical Christian spiritual formation, we take all practices we have learned so far and put them together to get a picture of a typical day-in-the-life of one growing to maturity in Christ. What we discover is that the work of spiritual discipline is rarely burdensome nor heroic, and one need...
Tag: what is a rule
Loving God 401, Part 6: Finding Your Inner Mystic (a Look at the Apophatic-Affective Dimension of Spirituality)
Is it possible to have an unmediated experience of God? A direct encounter with the divine that transcends any use of the senses or even the intellect? The classical answer is – yes! And its pursuit is the goal of the mystic tradition (an element of the spiritual life that is accessible to us all,...
Loving God 401, Part 5: A Silent Retreat with a Good Book – or – Top 10 Signs You Might Be a Benedictine (i.e., Apophatic-Speculatives)
In this episode, we turn to the next of our spiritual “personality types” (i.e., attraits) – the apophatic-speculatives. What defines an apophatic is a basic desire to escape distraction. They are the ones who love the very idea of a silent retreat or the spiritual practice of “simplicity.” They are not anti-creation. Nor are they anti-social or...