Links to Sites of Interest
Visit our Forum, The Christ Path, over on Yahoo! We hope you'll like what you see and that you'll take the time to join and contribute your thoughts and prayers.
Here are some of the links I've discovered lately and a few comments about each one. Please note that some of pages I point to are parts of larger sites and that some may contain a few points of view that I don't personally hold, but seem to me to be of vital importance to anyone who's interested in the Christian mystic.
Perhaps it's the result of one or two strokes that sometimes makes if easy for me to be overcome by sensory input (not a condition I'd recommend to anyone as a hobby), but lots of noise or a great amount of information at once tends to overload my system. In spite of that, I am totally fascinated at the moment by a little site I found, Escape From Fundamental Thinking. It's absurdly cluttered, but there is so much there in the way of quotes and ideas to feast on, I have to offer it up as a suggested link. I also suspect the person meant "Fundamentalist Thinking." Also, to echo the little disclaimer at the top of the page, I'm astonished that so many of my favorites are represented on that page -- Joseph Campbell, Eckhart, etc. etc -- and shocked to find people such as Osho, the renamed-for-marketing-purposes teacher known infamously for his sexcapades and tactics (several Rolls Royces) as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Sacred Space is one of my absolute favorite places to visit, and I suspect it may become a regular stop for many visitors to this site. From their front page: "We invite you to make a 'Sacred Space' in your day, and spend ten minutes, praying here and now, as you sit at your computer, with the help of on-screen guidance and scripture chosen specially every day."
The Search for the Historic Jesus, as it has been called, is especially well represented with a look toward writers and scholars on this site, with much of their work available online. It is fascinating reading and, I warn you, you can follow the threads endlessly from this page!
Orthodox.tv seems to me a mixed blessing. There are one or two people here who take a very unfortunate view of the world today, or certainly an unsettling one, in particular in their evaluation of Islam and the future of this world. If you can avoid that, you will find Bishop Kallistos Ware with a remarkable series of talks on the meaning of the Jesus Prayer and more. I haven't watched his free interview -- but I did pony up the $2.99 for a month's worth of viewing of his work (and time to explore a few others).
Yet again from the Orthodox tradition, the entry on Hesychasm (tradition of interior prayer) from the increasingly famous Wikipedia may have a jumping off place or two that you enjoy. Wikipedia also has a great central resource on the subject of Christian Mystics.
Before there were poetry slams in corner bars, mystics often expressed themselves in poetry. Poet Seers has done a wonderful job of presenting some of the Christian Mystics (and others) from this particular angle. I simply can't imagine not having this site bookmarked on your computer and available at an instant. The site is maintained by followers of Sri Chinmoy, and regardless of one's interest or disinterest in the spiritual teacher, the service provided by this collection of poetry is wonderful.
Care to get lost in comparative religion? Although I got thumped there for my use of "true Christianity" on the front page of this site, I really do suggest you stop by ReligiousTolerance.org and take a gander. There is basically little avilable at this point on the rich mystic tradition in Christianity, but from email back and forth, they are growing and cautiously interested. I do respect the fact that they are vehement in their concern over religion that is used to justify very nonreligious activity by governments and people. Very often, people grow up surrounded by very restrictive, literal or fundamentalist views of Christianity and never quite recover enough to become familiar with Christianity's truer, more inclusive spirit.
Visitors to this site already have seen Father Lorenzo Albacete, a remarkable person, to say the least. This review of his book, God At The Ritz, is worth reading as an introduction to Albacete and some of his ideas.
more to come