Height of Coolness....

While perusing some of my favorite blogs (see sidebar) today, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my Reformation blog entry was recommended and linked from someone else's blog: Postcripts. Now, it is written by my pal RNW and as I've gushed more than a bit about her blog, she has now referred to mine here.

Plus, in answer to my "All Souls' Day" questions about praying for the dead, RNW has also addressed my questions (as well as others' questions as well) in a series of entries; you can check out her point of view here, the first of a three-part series. (I highly recommend reading them all!) I've never heard of these theological points, but they do make some sense; I'm still mulling the ideas over and, like the Bereans, I'll check them against Scriptures and I'll also pray about these issues. It's definitely an intriguing idea that our prayers, like God Himself, can transcend time as well as space. Rather mindblowing, but isn't God like that anyway?

I've also been thinking of mysticism. Today I got slightly involved in a conversation on the Sonlight theology forum regarding "gut reactions" to the concept of mysticism. For me, it's always been a completely positive word. I think of Julian of Norwich, of Teresa of Avila and also of the modern theologians who support the spiritual disciplines as a method of listening to God, such as Richard Foster, Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, and Charles Swindoll. The latter's little book, Intimacy with the Almighty, encourages silence, solitude, and surrender in order to quiet our minds sufficiently so that we can listen to the "still, small voice of God." I have a friend or two who have said that I'm a bit of a mystic; I am definitely interested in mysticism, especially in the medieval mystics. It's such interesting stuff; I'm definitely fascinated by the way that God speaks to and through His saints.

Anyway, these are a few things I'm pondering right now. I should be grading papers for my Intermediate Writing Class for Thursday, but pondering transcendent prayer and mysticism is much more fun....