Wayne Teasdale

This is report coming forth from the Parliament of World's Religions held in Chicago, August 28 - September 5, 1993. This ocngress was an attempt to reclaim the experience of the famous "Parliament" in 1893. The essays are a great mixture. The essays were a bit mixed. And how future Parliaments will play out, this book does not really give a guide, in these more fractured times 18 years later. But the book was worth reading.

I especially liked these essays:
Gazing into the Cosmic Soul: a Participant's Reflection on the Parliament, by Georgene L. Wilson
Sharing our Visions: An Open Letter, by Burton Pretty on Top (Native American)
Religions on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century, by Ewart Cousins
The Great Circle Dance of Religions, by Brother David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B.
Robert L. Fastiggi, Toward the Dialogue of Love

and the poem:
In Darkness Grows the Green, by Magdalena Gómez… (lisätietoja)

"The Mystic Hours" was the last book Brother Wayne Teasdale wrote before he died of cancer in 2004. A lay monk in the Christian Contemplative tradition, he had been committed to building common ground between religions, based on the idea that at the core of all religions is mystical wisdom.

In this collection of 365 quotes from people of all walks of life (scientists, mystics, writers, and "everyday" people, et. al, ) followed by his own short commentaries, the objective is to "nourish you spiritually, aesthetically, philosophically, poetically, mystically, and especially humanly".

The title, "The Mystic Hours", refers to a Benedictine practice of fixed-hour prayers in which specific prayers are designated for particular hours of the day. This book is not structured along those lines, nor is this a book of prayers. however, Teasdale suggests that a practice of "divine reading" called "Lectio Divina" be considered by the reader. The objective of "divine reading" is inspiration, not information. This type of reading has four parts: 1) reading, 2) reflection, 3) a "movement" in the depths of one's being (called prayer of the heart), and 4) rest, or contemplation.

As a rule, I have always tried first to read and then to reflect, regardless of what I was reading, but have rarely initiated the third and fourth steps. My experience when I first brought this book home in 2004 was that as a daybook of inspirational pages it fell short, and I put it back on the shelf after 2-3 days of reading. It was not until 2009, as I was clearing out my library of books, that I read the author's introduction, which included the 4-step process of divine reading. Since then the cumulative effect of my "daily reading" has enriched each day in ways I had not expected.… (lisätietoja)