Mechthild of Magdeburg: Listener Questions (Part 1)

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Kirsten Oates (0:07)

Hello, everyone. I'm here with Jim, and we'd like to invite you to the Turning to the Mystics Online Retreat that we'll be hosting together December 7 to December 10

The topic is The Way of the Mind and The Way of the Heart. And Jim, would you like to share what you'll be teaching on at that retreat?

Jim Finley (0:27)

Yes. First of all, I'm looking forward to our time together for this retreat. And also, it was so interesting this last season where we went through Meister Eckhart and the profound teaching on the divinized mind, like the mystically awakened mind. And then Mechthild of Magdeburg, one of the beginnings, is a love mystic.

And when you put them side by side, you see how the awakened mind and the awakened heart illuminate each other, and I like to explore that in ways that pertains to our daily life. Like, where do we experience that and how can we deepen that so we can explore it together? So I look forward to it.

Kirsten Oates (1:06)

Yes, it sounds wonderful. Thank you so much, Jim.

So please join us and you can learn more and register at cac.org forward slash retreat. That's cac.org forward slash retreat. We look forward to seeing you there.

Jim Finley (1:26)

I'm Jim Finley.

Kirsten Oates (1:27)

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

Jim Finley (1:29)

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Kirsten Oates (1:39)

Welcome, everyone, to Season 8 of Turning to the Mystics, where we've been turning to Mechthild of Magdeburg. And in this session, we're going to reflect on listener questions.

And I'm here with Jim, and Jim, I just wanted to start by sharing how wonderful it is to get these questions every season, and to feel the sense of community around us listening to the podcast. It's just beautiful.

Jim Finley (2:04)

It really is. I sat and read through them all. They're very heartfelt, and you can tell how sincerely touched they are by listening to the mystics. So yeah, it's wonderful.

Kirsten Oates (2:13)

So you ready to get started?

Jim Finley (2:15)

Yep, I'm ready.

Kirsten Oates (2:16)

Okay, so the first topic we're going to look at is love.

And the first question comes from Brian. And he's reflecting on that concept of bound love.

He says, in session three, you reflect upon Mechthild's discussion of bound love versus unbound love. If I understand correctly, when she's discussing bound love, she's really describing a kind of love that is utterly pure, sincere and focused. Perhaps similar to when two lovers say to one another, I have only eyes for you and truly mean it. If so, this bound love seems to me to be something paradoxically freeing. Freedom here is not the unrestricted ability to choose, but rather the lifting of the burden of craving, mixed motivations, deception, et cetera. Surrendering to this bound love seems to be an entry point into the path of endless liberation, if I may borrow your phrase from the first season on Merton. Can you please talk a bit more about the paradoxical freedom that arises in surrendering to the bound love that Mechthild describes?

Jim Finley (3:29)

Let's say first, and Brian, he picks us out between two people. Bound love, I only have eyes for you. So they're each other's fidelity to each other as the beloved. They're bound. But they're bound in the freedom of love.

And if they would compromise that fidelity, they're actually becoming bound in a negative sense. They're being bound by hurtful patterns. And they have to look at that and where's that coming from and so on. So bound is actually bound to the freedom of the fullness of love. So with God, bound love is knowing, first of all, God freely chooses to be in bonded love with us. We are the beloved. So God's infinitely faithful to us and bound to us as the beloved.

And we, however, we're bound in the sincerity of our intention.

But in our wavering heart, there's ways that we're half-hearted, there's ways that we…whatever. And so by accepting our half-heartedness, because God does, and we keep surrendering it over to God, it deepens the bond, see? The bond that our faith isn't in our ability to measure up and stay…it's constantly faithful. It's rather a deep faith in God's infinite fidelity to us in our wavering ways. And we're bound to this peace of God's mercy on us. And so yes, Brian's right, that's it, Jim.

Kirsten Oates (5:03)

Wonderful.

Thank you, Jim. That explanation really helped, too. I'm going to combine the next two questions. Eileen asks, while I resonate completely with the passage on unbound love, I question whether it is possible to fulfill the longing for bound love, which we all desire so much, without spiritual direction. I thought if I trusted the Lord, I could maybe get there. But the more I read and listen, I have doubts. What do you think, Jim? And then I wanted to combine that with a question from Andrea, who just asks, what is spiritual direction? Is it a Catholic thing? Is it common?