Best of Jesuitical: How to become a mystic (and keep your day job)

Jesuitical

America Media

Spirituality, Christianity, News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 949 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The hot weather couldn’t keep Ashley and Zac away from the mics, so they’re back with a summer “best of” series, featuring some of the most interesting and engaging interviews from the past few years. What does it mean to be a mystic in the modern age? Many of us think of mysticism as something for spiritual masters who lock themselves away from the world in monasteries and convents and dedicate their lives to constant prayer. But we are all called to a close and yes mystical relationship with God and to lead lives of contemplation. And today's guest, Kelly Deutsch, wants to help people do just that. After entering a convent, Kelly came down with an illness that left her bedridden for 18 months—and spurred great spiritual desolation and growth. She went on to found Wanderlust, a center for contemplative formation, which provides podcasts, courses and other spiritual resources to those hunger for a closer union with the divine. What’s on tap? Seltzer Water with Lime You can follow us on ⁠X⁠ and on ⁠Instagram:⁠ @jesuiticalshow You can find us on Facebook at ⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/groups/jesuitical⁠ Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America magazine at⁠ ⁠⁠americamagazine.org/subscribe⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from America Media for Saints and sinners.
0:14.2	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church in our world today,
0:19.4	sometimes over drinks. I'm Ashley McKinless, and I'm joined by Zach Davis.
0:22.8	Great to be with you, Ashley.
0:23.7	Great to be back in the studio.
0:24.9	Yeah, I agree.
0:25.9	I don't know about you, but whatever the opposite of a mystic is, I think that's me on the New York City subway during the summer.
0:34.7	You don't look around and just see evidence of the divine around you? No, I just
0:38.1	look at my body and see sweat just like everywhere while waiting for the train to come in those
0:43.6	platforms. Once you get on trains, not so bad, but then I don't know, but I'm certainly not mystical.
0:48.8	No, so this is why we needed the help of Kelly Deutsch. Kelly is an author, podcaster, and the founder of Spiritual
0:55.5	Wanderlust. This is a online platform where she describes herself as a spiritual wilderness
1:00.7	guide, so she's helping people navigate the world of mysticism and religion online and in a
1:06.3	podcast. So definitely check that out. Yeah, and also like trying to actually define mysticism always
1:11.9	feels like a squirly thing to do. So we try to pin her down on that, acknowledging that it is a
1:15.9	difficult thing to get an exact definition of, also because it, you know, exists across religious
1:20.9	traditions. But the Catholic Church has a really rich mystical tradition. So it was really fun to unpack
1:26.3	that and revisit that again this summer.
1:28.5	Now stick around for our conversation with Kelly Deutsch about how to become a mystic and keep your day job.
1:37.9	Joining us from Salem, Oregon is Kelly Deutsch. Kelly is an author, podcaster, and the founder of Spiritual Wonderless, a center for contemplative formation. Welcome to Jesuitical, Kelly. Thank you. Nice to be here.
1:52.9	Thanks for being here. I'm wondering if, for this conversation, if you could just sort of pin down or define that pesky word myst mysticism because I feel like people always like to
2:02.2	say that well you know it's kind of mystical it's tough to really get to yes yes and that's a great
	...

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