Reading the Mystics

Each Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. Good Shepherd parishioners and other friends gather in the worship space with Fr. Hendree to read and reflect on the works of select Christian Mystics. There are no prerequisites to joining our group. All are welcome!

Come when you can; don’t come when you can’t.

Current Author│Julian of Norwich

A fresh and contemporary translation of one of the best loved and influential mystical texts of all time, The Showings of Julian of Norwich brings the message and spirituality of this 14th century mystic to 21st century readers. Julian of Norwich, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, was an English anchoress in East Anglia. At the age of 30, suffering from a severe illness and believing she was on her deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions of Jesus, which she recorded and then expanded on later in her life.

Her message for today's readers is simply this:

  • She reveals the feminine face of the Divine and reminds us to see

  • God there.

  • All our failings are an opportunity to learn and grow; that they should be honored, but not dwelled upon.

  • God's love has nothing to do with love and retribution and everything to do with love and compassion.

  • In spite of all appearances, all is well.

“God created the human soul as his throne and his dwelling place.”

Weekly Schedule

5:00 pm│Gather for brief Centering Prayer Instruction

5:10 pm│Centering Prayer Sit

5:30 pm│Introduction, Reading, and Discussion

7:00 pm│Conclude

Note:

  • If you would like to just come for Centering Prayer or just come for Mystics, you are more than welcome to come and go as you please

  • Whether its your first time or fifty-first, All are Welcome! 

  • You do not need to have read up to a certain point in the book... you can just jump on in!

Reading Schedule

Best of the Mystics

Monday, January 13: Chapters 1-7

Monday, January 20: Chapters 8-17

Monday, January 27: Chapters 18-24

Monday, February 2: Chapters 25-32

Monday, February 9: Chapters 33-40

We will take a short break from The Showings in order to take up Fr. Thomas Keating’s primer on Centering Prayer, Open Mind Open Heart. We will read Keating in preparation for our Silent Retreat with Fr. Gary Jones on Saturday, March 8th. We will return to Julian on Monday, March 10th.

Monday, February 16: Open Mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating

Monday, February 23: Open Mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating

Monday, March 3: Open Mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating

What is a Mystic?

This is the way Frederick Buechner describes the mystics, “There must be a God because every age and culture has produced mystics  who have experienced a Reality beyond reality and have  come back using different words and images but obviously  and without collusion describing with awed adoration the  same Indescribability.” 

James Finley writes, “The mystic is not somebody who says, “Look what I’ve experienced. Look what I’ve achieved.” The mystic is the one who says, “Look what love has done to me.” . . .  There’s nothing left, but the being of love itself giving itself away as . . . the concreteness of who you simply are.”

Meet our Mystics