Mechtild of Magdeburg on the Darkish Night time

Yesterday we interrupted our meditations on the Darkish Night time to meditate on the information from Avignon, and aboriginal peoples in Australia, and Washington D.C. about Patriarchy on trial.  In the present day we return to the theme of the Darkish Night time we discover ourselves in. 

The darkness of the solstice season and of Introduction and of world warming and democracide in our time invite us to meditate on the Darkish Night time of our species.

The darkness of the solstice season and of Introduction and of world warming and democracide of our time have urged us to meditate on the Darkish Night time of our species.

Right here I name on our ancestor from the thirteenth century, Mechtild of Magdeburg.  She was a member of the Beguine motion which was the ladies’s motion of the Center Ages.  She underwent a Darkish Night time and talks about it this manner.

There comes a time when each physique and soul enter into such an enormous darkness that one loses gentle and consciousness and is aware of nothing extra of God’s intimacy.
At such a time when the sunshine within the lantern burns out the great thing about the lantern can not be seen.
With longing and misery we’re reminded of our nothingness.

For many individuals November 5 was such a time.  And even earlier than that, the information of world warming and humanity going through its personal extinction is like that.

Mechtild continues:

At such a time I pray to God: ‘Lord, this burden is just too heavy for me!’ And God replies: ‘I’ll take this burden first and clasp it near Myself and that manner you could extra simply bear it.’
However nonetheless I really feel that I can bear not the injuries God has given me, unanointed and unbound.  I’m hunted, captured, sure, wounded so terribly that I can by no means be healed.  God has wounded me shut unto demise…..

I obtain correspondence as of late that many individuals are having experiences like this right this moment.  Mechtild goes on:

Lord, I’ll tear the guts of my soul in two and you will need to lay therein.  You have to lay your self within the wounds of my soul.
I’m ailing and I lengthy deeply for the heath-giving draught which Jesus Christ himself drank.  And he drank of it so deeply that he was on fireplace with love.
God replied: I want at all times to be your doctor, bringing therapeutic anointment for all of your wounds.

Mechtild continues:

From struggling I’ve realized this: That whoever is sore wounded by love won’t ever be made complete until she embrace the exact same love which wounded her.
Life with out sorrow can be idiot’s folly.  That’s the reason God Himself took this path, considered one of sorrow and ache.  God reveals us that it’s nonetheless a beautiful, noble, and holy manner.  Just one with out nice guilt or sin suffers ache.

Having befriended nothingness, Mechtild, like Gandhi, hyperlinks it on to the service of neighbor.  The darkness taught her this lesson:

Love the nothing, flee the self.
Stand alone, search assist from nobody.
Let your being be quiet,
be free from the bondage of all issues.
Free those that are sure,
Give exhortation to the free.
Take care of the sick, however dwell alone.
While you drink the waters of sorrow
you shall kindle the hearth of affection
with the match of perseverance—
that is the way in which to dwell within the desert.*

Sue Woodruff, Meditations with Mechtild of Magdeburg, pp. 60-70.

See Matthew Fox, Unique Blessing, pp. 27, 43, 48, 58, 64, 69, 88, 108, 115. 139f., 142, 145, 148f., 151, 155, 162, 178, 198f., 203, 205, 213, 221f., 233, 242, 248, 271, 274, 278, 283, 287, 291, 293.

See Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, pp. 61-74.

See Matthew Fox, “Liberated and Liberating Sisters: Meister Eckhart Meets Dorothee Soelle, the Beguines Mechtild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete, and Julian of Norwich,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Instances, pp. 77-96.

Banner picture: Darkish Night time with Moon. Picture by Cynthia Greb.

Queries for Contemplation

Do you discover perception and assist for traversing the Darkish Night time and “dwelling within the desert” and doing service from these teachings from Mechtild? What particularly speaks to you?

Advisable Studying

Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a complete new path for Christianity—a path that’s in truth very historic and really grounded in Jewish pondering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is commonly uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed manner.
“Unique Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human neighborhood a radical treatment for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these could have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an ageing Albert Einstein was requested if he had any regrets, he replied, “I want I had learn extra of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics characterize a wide-ranging sampling of those readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no religion. The visionaries quoted vary from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in disaster, and we want street maps that may floor us in knowledge, encourage us to motion, and assist us collect our abilities in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary ebook does simply that. Matthew Fox takes among the most profound religious teachings of the West and interprets them into sensible day by day mediations. Examine and apply these teachings. Take what’s on this ebook and educate it to the youth as a result of the brand new era can not afford to undergo the spirit and moral illiteracy of the previous.” — Adam Bucko, religious activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Basis for Homeless Youth.

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally desires to introduce Eckhart to right this moment’s activists addressing up to date crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and lots of others.
“Matthew Fox is maybe the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a niche between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to right this moment’s non secular disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Creator of Non secular Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead