Practical Christian Mysticism

I loved the article “Freedom from the Fear of Death” on theocentric.com so much I just had to link to it here

click here to read “Freadom from the Fear of Death”

Rich Vincent is a fellow Christian Mystic (or as he says “wannabe mystic”) who writes some of the best articles on modern Christian culture, practical theology, and Christian Mysticism I have ever seen. His latest article I have linked to talks about how Western Christian thinking is often backward in God’s relationship to death. Where we often attribute death as a punishment or curse from God, the truth is that death is the antithesis and enemy of God.

St. John of the Cross is one of the major founders of Christian mysticism, his book “The Dark Night of the Soul” exhaustively outlines the spiritual process all who seek a deep mystic experience with God must go through. Basically, the book explains a period of “darkness” that all who travel the mystic path experience at some point as their own sinful nature and worldly attachments must be purged in order to continue toward enlightenment and communion with God. This experience is testified too by later mystics such as C.S. Lewis in “A Grief Observed”, and John Bunyan describes it in “A Pilgrim’s Progress”. The “darkness” is caused us having to face the sinful and perverse reality of our true self and the world around us. During this time we feel lonely, depressed, discouraged, and overwhelmed. As St. John of the Cross would explain, the darkness is not from God but from the light of God exposing our own darkness. The Dark Night of the Soul is the point at which most people give up, and usually take medication. For those who preserver, God rewards them with the secrets of His Kingdom. Continue Reading »

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. - Jesus Christ, Matthew 10:38

“Now gird up your loins like a man…” - God speaking to Job, Job 38:3

Men and women experience God differently, likewise God requires different things from men and women. God has both feminine and masculine aspects, so men and women will each relate to parts of God the other does not. I am writing this article for what I see as a seriously lacking element in the modern male’s mystic experience… masculinity. Men today are losing touch with the manly aspects of God given to us when we were made in His image. Much of this is because men don’t even know what it means to be masculine anymore. Continue Reading »