Pioneering Old Paths
You need somewhere to ponder, wonder, wrestle.
You're curious - perplexed - even listless - about the paradoxes of life in Christ: the pains, promises, people, and practices.
You're in the right place.
Join Amy Leigh Bamberg, a spiritual director who deeply values the sacred work of holy listening with individuals, couples, and groups in exploration of the intricate ways God meets each person. Tune in for in-depth discussions with insightful guests and find companionship for your spiritual transformation journey.
Pioneering Old Paths
The Mystics: Reformation & Transformation
You sign up for it.
Find a supervisor with exceptional expertise. Then spend the next four years following them, failing, learning, fumbling around with the fret saw, feeling mortified on jobsites. You watch. Ask. Listen. Obey. Change.
After 8000 hours of working alongside this supervisor, you've been transformed in mind, body, and soul. As you sit for the exam, you now possess the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to be a journeyman carpenter.
It's a simple concept in the trades, but an obscure one in many Christian circles. The end goal of the carpentry apprentice is to become a carpenter and build exquisite structures. Similarly, the goal of a Jesus follower is to become like Christ and live with him in the world. [Shout out to John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way.] And similarly, the process of becoming takes time--a lifetime. It's not transactional, as if by church attendance and tithing; it's not external, as in a cross dangling from your neck or rearview. It's utter transformation--spiritual formation--becoming a person who lives and loves as one with Christ in the world.
The mystics understood and embodied this truth. They knew that Christ resides within us, by his Spirit, in some mysterious way and that he continues to minister to and through us as we go about our day. Knowing this, they lived in tension with the church and broader culture who reduced formation in Christ to external behavior modifications based on pragmatism, dogmatism, moralism, institutionalism. With a childlike posture of love, a fierce devotion to Christ, attention to inward transformation, a longing for deepening intimacy with God, these medieval mystics were willing to appear foolish in the world's eyes as they tiptoed higher up and deeper into Mystery.
In this episode, Amy Leigh and Terry explore a bit of the life and work of Saint Teresa of Avila, whose reforms echo across the halls of church history and invite us to prayer.
Here are a few resources that may enrich the journey:
- Mysticism, as defined by Evelyn Underhill in the preface of Practical Mysticism, is "the art of union with Reality." She continues, "the mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or lesser degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment."
- Various works by Father Hans Boersma, theologian, seminary professor, and Anglican priest
- The Great Emergence, by Phyllis Tickle
- Dr. Gerald May offers a helpful guide to understanding the epic work by Saint John of the Cross. Check out The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth.
Explore spiritual direction here!
