Dialogue 3: Mystical Lineage

Turning to the Mystics with James Finley

Center for Action and Contemplation

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this third dialogue session Jim and Kirsten will focus on Brother Lawrence's place in our mystical lineage along with his specific connections to Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be ⁠⁠found here⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ Send us a voicemail: ⁠⁠⁠cac.org/voicemail⁠⁠⁠ We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7th, 2025. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at ⁠⁠⁠https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠ Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
0:04.0	To learn more, visit cac.org.
0:08.2	Greetings. I'm Jim Finley.
0:11.2	And I'm Kirsten Oates.
0:13.2	Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.
0:27.6	Welcome, everyone, to Season 12 of Turning to the Mystics, where we're turning to Brother Lawrence and his teachings in Practice of the Presence.
0:34.3	And I'm here with Jim to discuss his third session.
0:42.1	Welcome, Jim. Yes, as always, it's a grace to be sharing these reflections.
0:49.8	I loved this third session, where you reflected on Brother Lawrence, along with Teresa of Avala and John of the Cross,
0:56.1	and I'm looking forward to going deeper into it with you. I wanted to start with something that really struck me.
1:03.1	You said that the awakenings the mystics talk about are very personal and unique for each of us,
1:09.8	but we can be helped by the mystic teachers because it's subtle and hard to recognize.
1:12.2	So this is kind of a paradox for me, Jim, where it's unique and personal and yet, you know, we can learn from others who have had
1:18.3	their own unique and personal experience. Yeah, here's the way I see it. Let's say if we
1:23.8	fall in love with someone and we love someone very, very much, it's always unique.
1:29.7	You know, it's our love for this love.
1:32.1	But the thing that about it is we're participating in the unity of love.
1:37.9	And that's why we recognize each other.
1:40.3	We recognize love.
1:41.7	Same way, each poet is utterly unique when you read their poetry,
1:46.0	but also you get into the stream of the poetic. So it's an utterly unique experience of the
1:52.2	universality of the path. Lovely. I found this session so powerful because you put these three mystics together that were in
	...

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