Thomas Merton: Session 1

Turning to the Mystics with James Finley

Center for Action and Contemplation

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the first episode of eight that focuses on the mystic, Thomas Merton. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley begins with a seminal passage from Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, reflects on the qualitive essence of the spirit of this text and finishes with a meditative practice. To learn more, visit jamesfinley.org Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. We'd love to hear your thoughts, comments or feedback. To do so, email us at [email protected] For the transcript to this podcast, you can find it here. Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer on a future episode? Email us: [email protected] Or, send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail 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 cac.org/podcastsupport Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
0:04.4	To learn more, visit cac.org.
0:08.4	Greetings, I'm Jim Finley.
0:11.4	Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.
0:15.0	Welcome. Welcome to this first session of this series of explorations we're titling turning to
0:32.2	the Mystics for spiritual guidance.
0:35.0	And in our sessions together I'll be sharing with you here how I've come to experience and understand the contemplative mystical dimensions of the Christian
0:48.8	faith, one with the contemplative mystical lineages of all the world's great religions
0:56.0	that I was introduced to and immersed in in the years I spent as a monk in the monastery
1:01.0	in which I continued to try to be faithful to in my day by day life
1:06.4	out here in the world.
1:09.7	And what I want to start here as our first mystic with some teachings, some sessions devoted to
1:18.2	Thomas Merton, who I understood when I was with him to see it. It was a living mystic and this living
1:25.0	lineage. And so he's my teacher. I mean I went there and 18 years old and I just sat at his feet. I mean I just saw myself sitting in this ancient
1:36.4	lineage of mystical Christianity open to these things and so here I am today sharing this.
1:42.0	So this is Thomas Merton.
1:43.0	And so in this first session,
1:47.0	and this is how I usually start when I give a retreat on a mystic
1:51.0	when I give retreats on Thomas Merton. This is the text I usually begin with.
1:57.4	And this passage is the final paragraphs of his book New Seeds of Contemplation.
2:05.0	Excuse his sexist language is before they knew better.
2:08.0	If you were learning today, he wouldn't do that.
	...

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