Tag Archives: unknowing
Knowing and Not Knowing: Weekly Summary
Knowing and Not Knowing Sunday, January 26–Friday, January 31, 2020 Alongside all our knowing must be the equal and honest “knowing that I do not know.” (Sunday) It is amazing how religion has turned the biblical idea of faith into a need and even a right to certain knowing, complete predictability, and perfect assurance about whom God… Continue Reading Knowing and Not Knowing: Weekly Summary
Love: The Highest Form of Knowing
Knowing and Not Knowing Love: The Highest Form of Knowing Friday, January 31, 2020 My good friend, Franciscan sister and scientist Ilia Delio, has written a wonderful autobiography. In it she recounts how her parents decided to name her Denise. (She would have been named Denis had she been a boy.) Later in life, she was delighted to find a… Continue Reading Love: The Highest Form of Knowing
God Cannot Be Thought
Knowing and Not Knowing God Cannot Be Thought Thursday, January 30, 2020 Augustinian priest Fr. Martin Laird is an author, retreat leader, and professor of early Christian studies at Villanova University. He is a gifted teacher who makes the history and practice of Christian contemplation accessible to people of all backgrounds. Here he relates the insights of The Cloud of Unknowing to the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), the great theologian and bishop. The fourteenth-century author… Continue Reading God Cannot Be Thought
The Cloud of Unknowing
Knowing and Not Knowing The Cloud of Unknowing Wednesday, January 29, 2020 God, it seems, cannot really be known, but only related to. Or, as the mystics would assert, we know God by loving God, by trusting God, by placing our hope in God. It is a non–possessive, non–objectified way of knowing. It is always… Continue Reading The Cloud of Unknowing
Soul Knowledge
Knowing and Not Knowing Soul Knowledge Tuesday, January 28, 2020 When Western civilization set out on its many paths of winning, accomplishment, and conquest, the contemplative mind seemed uninteresting and even counterproductive to our egoic purposes. The contemplative mind got in the way of definable goals for progress, science, and development, which were very good and necessary in their own way—but… Continue Reading Soul Knowledge
All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing
Knowing and Not Knowing All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing Monday, January 27, 2020 It is amazing how religion has turned the biblical idea of faith around 180 degrees—into a need and even a right to certain knowing, complete predictability, and perfect assurance about whom and what God likes or doesn’t like. Why do we think we can have the… Continue Reading All Spiritual Knowing Must Be Balanced by Not-Knowing
A Hidden Wholeness
Knowing and Not Knowing A Hidden Wholeness Sunday, January 26, 2020 Alongside all our knowing must be the equal and honest “knowing that I do not know.” That’s why the classic schools of prayer spoke of both kataphatic knowing—through images and words—and apophatic knowing—through silence and symbols. Apophatic knowing allows God to fill in all the gaps in an “unspeakable” way,… Continue Reading A Hidden Wholeness
Unknowing: Week 2 Summary
Unknowing: Week 2 Summary: Sunday, October 7-Friday, October 12, 2018 We cannot grow in the integrative dance of action and contemplation without a strong tolerance for ambiguity, an ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety, and a willingness not to know—and not even to need to know. (Sunday) Information is not… Continue Reading Unknowing: Week 2 Summary
The End of Knowing
Unknowing: Week 2 The End of Knowing Friday, October 12, 2018 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in… Continue Reading The End of Knowing
The Power of Love
Unknowing: Week 2 The Power of Love Thursday, October 11, 2018 The anonymous, 14th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing conveys the fathomless mystery of God and that God can only be known by loving presence—contemplation. The Cloud of Unknowing was the inspiration for practices such as centering prayer and Christian meditation. Today and… Continue Reading The Power of Love
