The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year

A happy conversation. We talk about the change in consciousness within the early Christians. We explore the concept of the "Second Coming."

Marci reads this poem -

Antiphon for Divine Wisdom By Hildegard of Bingen, Translated By Barbara Newman

Sophia!

you of the whirling wings,

circling encompassing

energy of God:

you quicken the world in your clasp.

One wing soars in heaven

one wing sweeps the earth

and the third flies all aroun...

Laura reflects on her powerful and unexpected experience of Holy Week.

She recalls the scene/joke from the Tony award-winning musical "Passing Strange." (Great musical - with adult language and themes)

We talk about the forms of worship, from traditional to modern and the effects they produce. Joseph Campbell had strong opinions on this. "....they've translated the Mass out of ritual language and into a language t...

We talk about Thomas as the "literal man," "wounded healers," the value of our woundedness, healing vs. cures, and what does it mean "to believe."

Mandala like paintings of the Book of Revelation.

Also the work of Robert J. Schreiter and his book The Ministry of Reconciliation

Marci mentions this video about Christ in all things.

The mystical paintings of Fra Angelico.

Link to the readings.

Thank you for li...

We discuss the Easter readings.

Laura imagines the scene and wonders- would you go into the tomb or wait outside?

Marci reads her poem, "Sneaky Jesus" and she recalls Mary Oliver's poem, "The Summer Day."

Link for the Sunday Readings

"The imitation of Christ, then, is participating in the suffering and joys of the world, all the while seeing through them the radiance of the divine presence."

--Joseph...

Marci shares her excitement and knowledge of the 3 holy days of the Triduum. Our original discussion was 1 hour and 20 minutes, now down to 46 minutes. Laura runs out of steam at the end. Please forgive the shortened Easter vigil description.

Holy Thursday Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041725-Supper.cfm

Good Friday Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041825.cfm

Easter Vigil Readings : https://bible.usc...

This was a tough episode for many reasons. Moving into the Passion is hard and Laura struggles to have the courage to share her perspectives on it. Palm Sunday has 4 readings. Here we cover the first three. The next episode is our reading of the Passion and the third episode is our discussion of it. Thank you for sharing this journey with us!

Readings:

Procession with Palms – Gospel Mk 11:1-10, Is 50:4-7, Phil 2:6-11

https://bible.us...

We continue our Passion journey.

Reading - Mk 14:1—15:47

Scroll down to last reading. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032424.cfm

Edward Edinger in "Ego and Archetype" re: the crucifixion: "This state is a transition period. It is the limbo of despair following the death of an old life orientation and preceding the birth of a new one. Jesus’ resurrection symbolizes the birth of a more comprehensive personalit...

We continue on the journey of the Passion. Reflecting on how the media portrays it and our own ability to witness suffering.

"Another aspect of the Gethsemane image that it emphasizes the fact that suffering is a crucial part of the process. The important part is to accept the suffering one encounters. You know we all have the deeply ingrained infantile notion that we’re supposed to be happy. That’s not true. We are supposed t...

We continue to follow cycle C readings.

We discuss our inner wasteland and our wildness, the daily process of resurrection, and finding a third way to deal with political traps.

Edward Edinger "The Christian Archetype: a Jungian commentary on the life of Christ.

“The divine process of change manifests itself to our human understanding . . . as punishment, torment, death, and transfiguration.” -Carl Jung; Alchemical Stu...

Marci shares a wonderful poem by Mechthild of Magdeburg.

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/M/MechthildofM/Effortlessly/index.html

We explore the powerful story of the Prodigal Son.

Today's readings -Joshua 5:9a, 10-12, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033025-YearC.cfm

Thank you for listening! Questions? Comments?

Please send to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.com

Please follow ...

In this episode:

Marci explains the Beguine movement and offers a wonderful poem by Haedwig – a 13th-century poet and mystic.

https://www.greynun.org/2020/02/the-beguines-of-medieval-europe-mystics-and-visionaries/

We talk about “callings” and God’s need of a human partner for Divine work in the world.

Laura mentions Jung’s exploration of God’s evolution in his book, Answer to Job.

https://a.co/d/9V2k6yq

https://footnotes2plato.com/202...

We talk about the power of imagination, we wonder about the history of Gnosticism.

https://earlychristianhistory.net/gnostic.html

Laura mentions the book- The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World 

https://tinyurl.com/y3yex6m4

and we talk about "The Transfiguration" a Song by Sufjan Stevens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDnmO4cTUGc 

Thank you for listening!

Questions? Comments? Please send to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.com

New...

Still recording in stereo. That will soon change!

Laura revisits the idea of "left and right hands" from last week's gospel. Letting her artistic gifts be given from the left hand means that she may not know what happens to them next.

Marci offers many mystical moments.

Readings: Deuteronomy 26:4-10,  Romans 10:8-13, ⁠⁠ Luke 4:1-13

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030925.cfm

Soul, if you want to learn secrets, your heart must fo...

This is our official launch, so that we can start in a season (Lent). This was our first attempt at recording (some was put into our trailer episode). We are in stereo (but that will end). Laura enters a steep learning curve in the recording/editing process.

Marci makes some confessions in this episode! She also creates the SIN slot machine analogy.

Readings:

Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:20—6:2, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

https://bible.us...

8th Sunday in the “Kingdom of Heaven is Now" (aka Ordinary Time)

Keeping to our "beginners mind" mindset, Marci and Laura explore the Johari window (and "blindspot tees")

http://tiny.cc/6ez9001

http://tiny.cc/sdz9001

Themes of the vessel being cooked, also found in alchemy

http://tiny.cc/qgz9001

and Marci's "good fruit test." And another mention of Ilia Delio.

https://christogenesis.org/about/ilia-delio/

Readings: Sirach 27:4-7, ⁠ ⁠ ...

7th Sunday in the “Kingdom of Heaven is Now" (aka Ordinary Time)

Marci and Laura explore the challenging passage “turn the other cheek," with great scholarship from https://www.trinitycoatesville.org/sermons/turning-the-other-cheek-2/

We also discuss Julian of Norwich, the musical Les Misérables, and we mention the ideas of Ilia Delio

https://christogenesis.org/about/ilia-delio/

Readings - 1 Samuel , 1 Corinthians, Luke 6

http...