Greetings in the Name of the Lord, 

I have been using this space to talk about things that happened in the distant past, histories from the early church, commentary from Mystics of the 4th and 15th centuries. I wanted to step away from the ancient for a moment and bring this exploration of Mysticism to a more recent chapter. There are plenty of modern examples of Christian Mystics--Thomas Merton, Howard Thurman, Richard Rohr, Dorothy Day--and we will certainly explore some of those folks and their contemporary commentary on the specifics of the world we live in, but today I want to take a moment and introduce Catherine De Hueck Doherty.

Catherine was born in Russia in 1896, became a Baroness through marriage and was forced to flee Russia in 1917 to Canada because of her royal status. Once in Canada she struggled financially until she started to lecture about what it was like being a Russian Baroness. This led to a considerable level of financial success. She eventually realized the money left her feeling hollow, quit the work, took the admonishment of Jesus to sell everything seriously and started the Friendship House in Toronto serving the poor. In the 1930s Friendship House moved to Harlem, and led to the creation of several houses across the United States. She eventually left the organization and returned to Canada to start the Madonna House. All the Friendship houses eventually closed during the 70s, but Madonna houses still operate today around the world, serving the poor. She passed away in 1985, but her legacy continues.

I recently stumbled across some of her writing and found it particularly meaningful to the current moment. When we talk about Christian Mysticism we are talking primarly about creating space for encountering the Divine and the space for being transformed by that encounter. Christian Mysticism moves a person away from binary, black/white, either/or, winner/loser thinking to am more inclusive, expansive, diverse, yes/and way of thinking. Of seeing the world closer to the way God must see the world, as a place of great diversity, but that in united in being created and loved by God.

As we seek to find ways to connect with younger generations, a noisy world around us swirls and overwhelms--intentionally creating moments of quiet to come into an encounter with the Divine will prove to be more and more important.  Catherine understood this decades ago, as she could see the writing on the wall for modern society.  Here is the writing I came across, which she wrote in 1975, it is an excerpt from her book Poustinia. I believe it speaks for itself, and hope that it speaks to you as well:

For the last few years I have been talking and writing a great deal about silence, solitude, and deserts, and I will continue to write about them because I think they are vitally important to our growing, changing, technological, urban civilization. It is obvious that humanity is acing many problems, will have to face many more, and that these problems cannot, must not, reject the new, strange, adventuresome, frightening world that is opening before us…that is already with us. Especially we Christians cannot do this because Christ has interested himself into this world and we are his people, his body, and so we belong as he does to this world…

It seems strange to say, but what can help modern man find the answers to his own mystery and the mystery of him in whose image he is created, is silence, solitude—in the world, the desert. Modern man needs these things more than the hermits of old.

If we are to witness Christ in today’s marketplaces, where there are constant demands of our whole person, we need silence. If we are to be always available, not only physically, but by empathy, sympathy, friendship, understanding and boundless caritas, we need silence. To be but of mind, heart, body and soul, we need silence.

True silence is the search of man for God.[1]

Our search for God, is a search for a relationship with the Love that is underneath and within all things, for an encounter that leads to transformation towards wholeness. In a busy, hectic, sometimes crazy world that can sometimes feel like it is breaking apart at the seams, this is a message that I believe will not only resonate but is sorely needed.

In Peace,

Mike

[1] Ellsberg, R. (ed). Modern Spiritual Masters. Orbis Books, 2008. p. 78