Carl McColman - Answering the Contemplative Call

It is not often that a book is both very practical and very inspiring at the same time. Carl McColman gives you much wise direction and broad understanding of the field of contemplative theory and practice. The need is too great today to waste time relearning what has already been learnedso well. Here is your teacher!

Fr.Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico

... a magnificent primer on contemplative spirituality... a first rate contribution to the conversation about the vital relevance of ancient spiritual practices for contemporary people thirsting for communion with God.

Ian Morgan Cron, author of Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me: A Memoir of Sorts and Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale

... Carl McColman creates a safe and beautiful space where each of us can comehuman as we areand learn how possible it is to befriend silence and to live in the certain joy of daily intimacy with God.

Carmen Acevedo Butcher, translator of The Cloud of Unknowing and author of Man of Blessing: A Life of St. Benedict

... invites us on a journey of love where everyone is welcome and worthy, and it is impossible to get lost. It is a journey that necessarily begins within, and leads ever-deeper inward, to a place of resonant silence. Bountiful quotes from mystics who have walked the path before us provide a series of luminous stepping-stones for own adventure.

Mirabai Starr, author of God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Carl McColman masterfully maps out for the serious spiritual seeker the nature of the mystical experience and outlines a clear and accessible pathway on how to get there.

Kyriacos C. Markides, author of The Mountain of Silence and Inner River

A contemplative seeker will find a mature, sane, reliable guide to that path in these pages. I found it full of the experiential spiritual wisdom found on that path, leading us into ever deeper intimacy with God...

The Rev. Tilden Edwards, PhD, founder and Senior Fellow, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation

What Frommers, Rick Steves, and Lonely Planet are to travel guides for physical locales, Carl McColman is fast becoming for the spiritual journey. There is so much that recommends this delightful guideCarl's own depth of experience, his wonderful ability to bring in apt quotations from the great contemplative saints of history, his ability to be both simple and deep without ever becoming simplistic or murky. As I read, I kept thinking of friends with whom I want to share this treasurea travel guide to an adventurous journey that will last forever.

What Richard Foster and Dallas Willard were to my generation prime tour guides to the spiritual lifeI hope and believe Carl McColman will be for the next generation. If you don't know about him and his work, you should.

Brian McLaren, author/speaker/networker

There is a sweetnessa candora gentleness to McColman's work that makes him the most desirable of guides into the holy places of the soul... This is a book to savor and then to treasure.

Phyllis Tickle, compiler of The Divine Hours

This well-written book presents the classic precepts and practices of the Christian contemplative path in a clear and helpful way.

The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D., author of Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, The Wisdom Jesus, and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene

Copyright 2013

by Carl McColman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Hampton Roads Publishing, Inc. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Cover design by www.levanfisherdesign.com/Barbara Fisher

Cover art by Mel Curtis/photodisc/getty images

Text design by Dutton & Sherman Design

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

Distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

www.redwheelweiser.com

Unless noted otherwise, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McColman, Carl.

Answering the contemplative call : first steps on the mystical path / Carl McColman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-57174-677-1

1. Mysticism. 2. Contemplation. I. Title.

BV5082.3.M33 2013

248.2'2dc23

2012031909

Printed on acid-free paper in the United States of America

MAL

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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For Fran, my lovely wife, my dearest friend, my partner in contemplation, and my companion on the journey of kenosis.

To You, silence is praise, O God in Zion; and unto You shall the vow be fulfilled.

PSALM 65:2, STONE EDITION TANACH

W riting a book is, in many ways, like other elements of Christian spirituality: it entails a dynamic balance between solitude and community. Along with the many hours spent toiling away by myself with only my trusty computer (and a few cats) for companionship, I have relied on friends, colleagues, and brothers and sisters in the faith for support, nurture, challenge, and insight.

Greg Brandenburgh and Linda Roghaar, thank you both so much for your support, guidance, and honesty. Everyone at Hampton Roads and Red Wheel/Weiser has been most helpful. The monks, Lay Cistercians, employees, and friends of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit continue to be a blessing in so many ways. While listing just a few people is problematic because so many of you deserve my thanks, I feel I must particularly mention Fr. Anthony Delisi, Fr. Tom Francis Smith, Br. Elias Marechal, Br. Cassian Russell, Linda Mitchell, Paco and Malika Ambrosetti, Rocky Thomas, and Michael Thompson for your friendship, guidance, and encouragement.

Other friends and colleagues whose support has been invaluable include Rick Branaman, Andy Fitz-Gibbon, Phil Foster, Dana Greene, Darrell Grizzle, Gareth Higgins, Ben Campbell Johnson, Brian D. McLaren, Michael Morrell, Edd Salazar SJ, Ann Temkin, and Karen Davis Young.

I am haunted by the thought that I have forgotten someone. If I have, I can only trust that you know who you are and you know my heart knows gratitude beyond the frailties of my imperfect memory. Finally, my deepest gratitude continues to flow toward my wife, Fran, and daughter, Rhiannon, who remain my closest friends, dearest companions, and living sacraments, through their love, of God's grace in my life. Words simply cannot express how much I cherish you and am grateful for you.

A ll the world's a stage, said William Shakespeare, and all the men and women merely players. This metaphorseeing the human experience in terms of the stories we tell and the masks we wearis a natural one for a playwright to use. A few centuries later, the game inventor Milton Bradley offered a different way of thinking about the world: as a game. His Game of Life was one of the most popular parlor games of the nineteenth century, and a revised version of it remains on the market today.

Long before the days when actors thrilled audiences in the Globe Theatre, however, or families laughed as they playfully competed to move their tokens across a board, writers and mystics and other spiritual seekers used another metaphor to describe the adventure of life a journey. Consider two of the great works of literature of the Middle AgesGeoffrey Chaucer's