The following book excerpts are from Contemplation: Only the Crucified are Truly Alive, by Gary Michael Hassig, © 2014 StarHolder LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be copied, printed or used in any form, electronic or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author.
Contemplation is all about dying to self in ways the average Christian isn’t necessarily called to. Only the crucified are truly alive—this is a truth that all Christians should experience to some degree; it’s a big part of what being a follower of Jesus means. But as I said before, […]
Centering prayer is the meadowlike gateway to the broad, wondrous valley of contemplative prayer. And these forms of prayer are for me the oyster in which the pearl of great price is found. The Church has had great outpourings of contemplative prayer through the ages, but the secular Age of […]
So what is this “contemplation” thing all about? What does it look like in a person’s life? It’s simply a form of worship—the purest form there is, I believe—what earlier generations referred to as adoration, reduced to its most basic form. There are several components to contemplative spirituality, but the […]
In II Corinthians 3:18, Paul talks about how we can behold the glory of the Lord and be changed into his likeness. (The word translated “behold” in that verse can also be translated “contemplate,” by the way.) Of course, this is a normal part of the Christian life, yet one […]
Out of fear we can miss out on some of the most wonder-full things God wants to give us. Contemplation is a spirituality of people encouraged by God to accept his loving, joyful invitation to “come up higher,” and not to be afraid of delving into the deeper things of […]
There are hundreds of Biblical texts from Genesis to Revelation, a handful of which we will explore in this chapter, that Christian mystics of all ages of the Church have considered mystical. In other words, they echo the mystery, the awesomeness, the paradoxical nature of God himself as experienced by […]
Author’s suggestion: Read this passage as it was written: slowly, meditatively, one breath per line, waiting on God to speak it into your heart as he spoke it into mine. Isaiah 40:6b-8: “All people are like grass, And all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass […]
For many in the Church, calling Jesus “mystical” conjures up in their minds the “cosmic Christ” of the New Age Movement—an “exalted Master” of strange worlds and bizarre experiences that have little if anything to do with the Jesus of the Bible. This is not the mystical Christ. The Jesus […]
