BONUS: Stories of Pilgrimage

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more, visit cac.org.

Kirsten Oates (0:07)

Hello, everyone. This is Kirsten Oates, and I'm here with James Finley, and we want to invite you to join us for the Turning to the Mystics virtual retreat, December 5 to 8 Over the course of those four days, we'll be engaging in an interior pilgrimage, mirroring the journey laid out in the 19th century Russian mystical text, The Way of a Pilgrim.

James Finley (0:32)

In kind of wondering like what you might expect in being on this retreat, my hope for you would be encouraging insights that helps you to realize you're already on this path of longing. And also you might receive guidance in how to be true to it and follow it, because it's very subtle, because it's interior, it's in our heart. So I would hope there would be encouragement and a sense of guidance and inner clarity about this path and how to be true to it. To surrender to the path is to surrender to God, because he finds his way to the realm of the heart. And the realm of the heart is that place where our life and God's life are one. And how do we find our way to that oneness is hidden deep within us in an experiential way? And learn to live by it and share it with other people day by day? So I look forward to our time together prayerfully kind of walking through these insights about God's oneness with us in life itself.

Kirsten Oates (1:38)

If you'd like to join us, please head to cac.org/retreat to register. We hope to see you there.

James Finley (1:50)

Greetings. I'm Jim Finley.

Kirsten Oates (1:53)

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

James Finley (1:55)

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Kirsten Oates (2:05)

Hi, everyone, this is Kirsten here. And this is a very special episode of Turning to the Mystics, and something we haven't done before. So I thought it would be helpful to start with a bit of context before we officially dive in. In season nine, we explored the way of a pilgrim by an anonymous author. And that book narrates the journey of a pilgrim in the Russian Orthodox tradition, following the universal path of spiritual awakening. As a part of that season, we invited listeners to share their own stories of interior pilgrimage, reflecting on how their experiences resonated with the pilgrim's journey. It's hard to share how grateful we are for the stories we received. We received so many incredible stories from our listeners. And while we don't have time to share them all in this episode, Jim and I and the team read each one and were deeply touched. In this episode, Jim and I will lightly touch on core themes from The Way of a Pilgrim. And then you'll hear a story or two from our listeners that relate to the theme. Jim goes into a lot of details on these themes in Season 9 So if you want to hear more on the themes themselves, please take a listen to Season 9 The stories will be shared by our listeners in their own voices. And we thank them for being a part of our community and for sharing themselves so vulnerably with us here. So let's get started.

Welcome everyone to this bonus episode of Turning to the Mystics. And I'm here with Jim and we're excited to share these stories of pilgrimage. Welcome, Jim.

James Finley (3:49)

Yes, yes. It's such a grace to be able to listen to the people listening to us. And we can all be together like this on this path. So it's, yes, wonderful.

Kirsten Oates (3:59)

Yeah, really wonderful. So Jim, you just wanted to share some opening statements before we get started.

James Finley (4:06)

Yes. You know, I was really moved in reading these stories of awakening. And I was moved because when Kirsten organized your responses into themes, these themes are the very, if we listen to all the mystics, turning to the mystic series, and we would color code these themes and color code them in the mystics, the same themes that the mystics are talking about. And so it kind of bears witness that we found our way into the interiority of the divinity of our lives that the mystics invite us to discover. So it's encouraging. It's lovely.

Kirsten Oates (4:46)

Yes. Wonderful. And so for the episode today, Jim, you're going to reflect on each of these core themes. And then we'll hear from our listeners some stories that relate to the theme. Before we turn to our first theme, though, we have an opening poem. And we chose this poem because it reminded me when I read it of what you share often about how wonderful it would be to have all our listeners sitting in a circle together and sharing about our lives. And I wonder if you'd just reflect on that vision for us.