Citizen Columns
Citizen Columns >> Answer (December 16th, 2006)
Question
Does your faith have a mystical side (speaking in tongues, Kabballah, Sufism, for instance)? Can anyone practice it?
Answer
Mystical life is not just a "side" of Eastern Christianity; it's the heart
and soul. I just finished teaching a university course on Orthodox thought
and at the last class I asked the students-of various backgrounds and
ages-what, if anything, western culture could learn from Eastern
Christianity. Almost everyone put at the top of their list this sense of the
mystical and its availability to everyone. We certainly can learn from
others, but it is a fact that Orthodox Christians continue to cultivate an
ancient tradition of how to lead an inner life, how to pray, how to
recognize and overcome the stumbling blocks that impede communion with God,
with each other, with creation. Monasteries were the special training
grounds for this mystical life, but this experience also deeply influences
the lives of faithful Orthodox Christians "in the world." Far from being
"supernatural," communion with God is perfectly natural. Indeed, Eastern
Christians would say that we are not fully human unless we are in communion
with God. The mystical life is not esoteric. It restores us to who we are
meant to be as human beings.
Mystical life aims at an inward stillness and attentiveness to God, even in
the midst of activity. Paradoxically, this starts with creating order in our
outer life and reclaiming (even clawing back) some of our precious time for
periods of dedicated silence, meditation and prayer. But the stillness is
not empty. Hence, one of the ways we cultivate both inner stillness and
communion with God is the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God have
mercy on me". Repeated gently to oneself, over and over again, we can use
this prayer in our times of silence and to accompany us wherever we go and
whatever our tasks.
For those interested in exploring this further, Saint Paul University offers
a course in January on "Eastern Christian Spirituality".
Father John Jillions
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