Over the past three weeks I have been co-leading a discussion group with my friend Brian about Christian mystics and spiritual practice. Each week we discuss a Christian mystic, have a scripture reading and time of meditation, and pray. The first three weeks we have learned about ancient mystics through the anonymous work The Cloud of Unknowing, and by looking at the work of Anchoress Julian of Norwich (14th) century and the art of Hildegard of Bingen (11th century.) we have had some really interesting discussions and I look forward to the rest of our meetings!
The Cloud of Uknowing is a fairly short book written by an anonymous author in the middle ages. The ”cloud” refers to the separation betweens humans and God, the seeming impossibility to connect fully with God while we are living human beings. We should reach toward God as best we can through prayer and contemplation, the author says, and at the same time we should keep a ”cloud of forgetting” between ourselves and the temptations of the material world so that we are not distracted from our purpose— to love and worship God. By no means is the contemplative life to be an inactive life, however; along with prayer and contemplation of God we are to be active participants in acts of charity in our communities. Only in this way may humans be ”oned“ with God.
Our second mystic, Julian of Norwich, lived in the 14th century in England. An educated young woman, she prayed to be stricken with an illness during her life— an illness that would be like death— in order that she might share in the knowledge of what Christ suffered. She also prayed to receive a vision of Christ on the cross, as if she were at the foot of the cross with Mary, Mother of Jesus, in order that she might bear witness to Christ’s suffering as Mary did. Julian did indeed receive both the vision and the illness; she appeared so close to death that she was given last rights, but she survived. The visions she experienced went beyond seeing Christ on the cross to bring her to a deep understanding of God, Christ and Spirit. Julian’s manuscript of her visions is called Showings; there is a short version that was her initial recording of the visions, as well as a longer version (that she worked on for the rest of her life) that goes into much more detail about the visions. Julian became an anchoress of the church at Norwich, England, at about 30 years of age; she was sealed into her chamber at the side of the church and given last rites again as she was considered ”dead to the world.” She lived the rest of her life in this chamber; she had a spy hole through which she could watch mass, and a window through which she could talk to people from the community, to whom she would often offer spiritual instruction or direction.
Hildegarde of Bingen lived in the area we now know as Germany, in the Rhine Valley. She was born at the end of the 11th century and lived well into the 12th century. Hildegard began having visions when she was 3 years old and as an adult was encouraged to write them down, which she did. Some versions of her life story tell that as the 10 child of the family she was ”tithed” to the church; however it happened she did join religious service and lived in Benedictine communities for most of her life.
Besides her writings, Hildegard created illustrations of her visions; she also wrote plays and poetry as well as music. Her illustrations portray the deep mystical connection she had with the Divine and work to help interpret her theology. She offered visions of God, of Divine Love, of the Trinity, and other spiritual symbols; but perhaps her most intriguing were her visions regarding creation and the ”greening” of the world. She was concerned about the relationship between humans and the created world and believed that humans were to be caretakers rather than dominators of creation.
It is fascinating to take a peek into the thinking of these mystics, and to explore contemplative practice. We will resume meeting on July 11 to take a look at Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Meister Eckhart, and Richard Rohr.
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