This year throughout Lent I will be writing about the desert monastic tradition and the way they understood thoughts and our relationship to them. In another article, which you can find by clicking HERE, I talked about the imagery used by these early Christian monks which describes unwanted thoughts and feelings as demons. This is … Continue reading Acedia: The Ancient Word for Covid Blues →

Evagrius of Pontus, one of the most influential of the desert fathers and a student of Origen, wrote a book called Antirrhêtikos which is usually translated today as "Talking Back." This book was meant to be a practical reference manual for contemplatives. The idea behind the book comes from the scriptures, specifically Jesus' being tested … Continue reading Antirrhêtikos: Talking Back to Demons →

It was a few years ago now that I (David Cole) became a vowed member of the dispersed New Monastic community ‘The Community of Aidan & Hilda’ (CA&H). Much more recently (at time of writing) I had the privilege of facilitating the service of one of the Explorer members of CA&H taking their vows to become … Continue reading Being a Pneuma Nastic New Monastic →

Today is the first Sunday of the month when we share guest posts from people living and teaching the Contemplative and/or Celtic Christian way around the world. One of the beautiful things about the internet is that people doing amazing things in isolated parts of the world can learn from one another and grow together. … Continue reading Be Who You Were Born to Be →

Monasticism, in the Christian tradition, goes right back to Egypt and Syria in the third and fourth centuries. For a brief period in Christianity's early history it was very dangerous to have the name Christian. Martyrdom was seen as a virtue precisely because the empire was trying to crush the Jesus movement which claimed that … Continue reading New Monasticism: A Modern Expression of an Ancient Way →

This is the last in a three part series on Mary Magdalene with my friend Kayleen Asbo. The first part was What do We Know About Mary Magdalene? and the second part was Was Mary Magdalene a Sex Worker? In this section we are looking at the relationship between Mary and that other famously contemplative … Continue reading Mary and John: Two Examples of Contemplation →

Mary Magdalene is often presented as the repentant prostitute. The one who lived a life of harlotry and sin but was healed by Jesus and so became his devotee. There's all kinds of problems with this. Firstly, it has a very negative view of sexuality in general, and women's sexuality in particular. Secondly, there's no … Continue reading Was Mary Magdalene a Sex Worker? →

Mary Magdalene is one of the most mysterious figures in the bible. In the canonical gospel stories she is clearly presented as being close to Jesus. She is there with him at the crucifixion and she is the first to see him after the resurrection. We can see that she was clearly devoted to Jesus … Continue reading What Do We Know About Mary Magdalene? →

Today is the first Sunday of the month when we share guest posts from people living and teaching the Contemplative and/or Celtic Christian way around the world. One of the beautiful things about the internet is that people doing amazing things in isolated parts of the world can learn from one another and grow together. … Continue reading Monkey Mind: Christian Mindfulness and the Eternal Now →

Celtic cosmology has often been cyclical rather than linear. The pre-Christian myths of the Celtic people do not have an account of the origins of the universe or the end of time. That changed when Christianity came on the scene as there was a clear beginning and clear end to the Biblical narrative. Yet, there … Continue reading Apokatastasis: An Alternative Doctrine to Hell →