All the Narrow Gates of Mysticism

I've been meeting with one of my online journaling groups for a little over a year now.  It's a group formed by Mepkin Abbey, who organized all of the retreatents by zip code and encouraged us to meet when we're not at the Abbey.

In the beginning, we all listened to the same recording of a retreat with Don Bisson.  We journaled on our own, and then we met via Zoom meeting.  We discussed what we had journaled, and then we journaled silently during the Zoom meeting, and then we discussed.

This month, we're branching out from Don Bisson, and I am so glad that we are--not because I have anything against Don Bisson, but because our new resource is so amazing.  I spent the morning listening to the first presentation by Richard Rohr--it was recorded during a retreat called Following the Mystics through the Narrow Gate.  In the first presentation, Rohr takes us through a history of spirituality.  He traces the development of mysticism, along with other spiritual developments.

It was an AMAZING 75 minutes.  I feel like I understand more about world history than I did this time yesterday--and I know A LOT more about spirituality than I did this time last year.  Rohr did a great job of explaining the spiritual developments across the globe and talking about what's happening in the rest of the world at any given time.  For example, he talks about Alexandria as a site of intellectual and spiritual developments while Rome is busy taking over the road militarily.  He talks about Ireland being protected from Rome and other various invaders which meant that they could develop a more cohesive spiritual practice which would become the Celtic Christianity that so many of us know and love.

He also talks about how monastics through the ages have protected knowledge, furthered knowledge, and occasionally gotten in the way.

I hesitate to even use the word knowledge, since in our culture it has such a connection with intelligence and brain power.  Rohr uses it much more expansively.  He talks about the dualistic thinking that has been so damaging--that knowledge can only be associated with our brains.

When I first went to the CAC website to buy the DVD set, I was a bit aghast at the price:  $60, which is more than I would usually pay for a recording of a conference.  But based on this first 75 minutes, I'd say it's worth every penny.