A Terrific Book

     I recently finished a leisurely read through Carl McColman's wonderful book, 108 Mystics: The Essential Guide to Seers, Saints and Sages.  It's a wonderful resource for those interested, like me, in the inner core of religious experience.  By that, I mean the mystical experience.

     McColman is a lay Cistercian, as well as a contemplative writer, speaker, and retreat leader.  He writes with sensitivity and clarity, a rare gift given the difficulty of putting such experiences into words.

     He focuses on mystics from the Christian tradition (oh, that he would write on mystics from other traditions as well!) and divides them into nine categories of twelve mystics each:

• Visionaries
• Confessors
• Lovers
• Poets
• Saints
• Heretics
• Wisdom Keepers
• Soul Friends
• Unitives

     Of course, many of the mystics could fit into more than one category, but he did a wonderful job of explaining how the core of their writings or teachings pertained to that category.  A terrific book.