Leah, Author at The Contemplative Christian

Early Interfaith Dialogue: Pseudo-Dionysius vs. the Pseudo-Contemplative

The Set-Up: From Outsiders to Mainstream Culture Welcome to the fourth century. Christianity has come a long way. The Jesus-followers are no longer a first century sect of Judaism struggling to define their faith. After a couple centuries complete with waves of persecution, the Edict of Milan (313 AD) significantly decreased the likelihood of martydom. […]

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The Early Mystics: Pin the Tail on the Donkey

History of Contemplative Christianity

After the “New Testament Mystics” (the Apostles and Paul), things got weird for a few centuries. The earliest post-biblical era contemplatives had a rough start of it, though they did pave the way for future Christian mystics. It’s hard to blame them for the rough start. Jesus knew God directly, so he got it ALL

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Christ Lives in Me: Contemplative Christianity in the New Testament

History of Contemplative Christianity

A Bad Rap: Mysticism’s Fall From Glory Contemplative (mystical) Christianity is clearly present in the New Testament and is at the heart of the Christian faith. Contemplative Christianity (Christian mysticism) was all the rage up through the 1400’s. That’s a solid 15 centuries of being “cool”. Generally, folks embraced the concept of having a deep-hearted

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This Year’s New Year’s Resolution: “Somebody has to save our skins”

Thoughts

Don’t Get Cocky My boys are back into Star Wars recently. They just watched “Solo” yesterday morning, so I have all things George Lucas on the brain. Leia’s line and the inspiration for the title of this post is not far from the truth, though. Between COVID, climate change, racial injustice, political corruption, and a

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The View from the Summit: The Mountain and Interfaith Connection

History of Contemplative Christianity, Thoughts

The Way, the Truth, and the Life I grew up a maroon jumper-wearing, saddle-shoed strutting, rosary-praying good Catholic girl. A decade later, I spent my college years as an evangelical Christian. Steeped in the traditions and rituals of the Christian faith, my relationship with God flourished. My upbringing not only gave me a strong grounding

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Breaking Up with Thinking: How to Enter the Peace of God

Contemplative Life, Meditation

All In My Head For much of my life, I, like most humans, have lived in my mind. As I take a walk in the beauty of nature, my brain is daydreaming about that delicious meal I plan on cooking later on that day and inventorying the fridge. Shoot–we’re out of soy sauce. Is there

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Why I’m (Sort of) Vegan

Contemplative Life, Thoughts

Walking the Walk The longer I have been on the contemplative path, the more I have been drawn to a life that is slower-paced and more connected to nature, other people, and, it goes without saying, the creator. Within a couple years of starting down this road, I naturally felt drawn to cultivate more compassionate

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Is This Heaven? Four Spiritual Lessons from Field of Dreams

Thoughts

Field of Dreams is my husband’s favorite movie. Despite this, in thirteen years of marriage, we never once watched it together in its entirety. Instead, he would flip over to it after our boys went to bed whenever it was showing on one of the cable channels. Typically, we would catch only portions of the

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How to Meditate in 5 (Simple?) Steps

Meditation

Meditation…pure bliss or pure torture? Sitting in utter quiet for minutes on end focusing on your breath. Nowhere to go, no one to bother you, nothing to accomplish. People who meditate often look so serene and peaceful. They seem to be in some ethereal state that the common man feels is out of reach. However,

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Mommy Monk: How to Parent with Wisdom and Love

Contemplative Life

Monk: A person who dedicates his life to serving others and/or to a life of prayer and contemplation Mother: A person (usually a woman) who cares for children: nurturing, teaching, loving, and awakening goodness within them. Said person usually has little time for contemplation and is in great need of prayer. Is it possible to

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