Stages of the Path

In this week's "Life, Love, & Light" podcast, we go in depth to examine the three stages on The Mystical Path: the path of purification and recollection; the path of illumination; and the path of divine union. We discuss what "the path of purification and recollection" entails and why a daily practice of meditation is absolutely necessary to our growth in the mystical life. We reflect on the words of mystics like St. Teresa of Avila and Julian of Norwich, Johannes Tauler and St. John of the Cross concerning the value of self-discipline and mortification -- in order to gain our freedom from slavery to the senses. Then we consider "the path of illumination" as the glimpse of the Ground of Reality that is God and realize that it is only by entering into "the prayer of quiet" that we are able to surrender totally to the divine will. We see the need to "discern the spirits" that may arise as either revelation or distraction and acknowledge that while the stage of illumination may be filled with extraordinary graces, it is not yet the stage of perfect union. In "the path of divine union" we understand that the ingrained sense of being a self separate from the Divine Source disappears. Divine Reality is not only perceived and enjoyed as a “beholding,” but the contemplative becomes one with it. Drawing mainly on the Revelations of Julian of Norwich, we hear her description of the unitive prayer "that oneth the soul to God."The Guided Meditation offers a method of watching the sensations in the body, the thoughts and images in the mind, and the emotions attached to these thoughts and images, so that we may learn to let them go and become more and more focused on the stillness of awareness within the soul. It is in this silence and stillness that we may discover the Divine Awareness that is the ground of our being  . . . that never moves.PLEASE SHARE this podcast with family members and friends who wish to develop a meditation practice in their daily lives, especially during this Lenten time of silence, stillness, and surrender. Blessings to all!