The Birth of a Mystical Spirituality

The first Christians practised a way of life they simply called ‘The Way’ in which they received God’s love endlessly poured out by their Risen Lord. They called this the spiritual life because the love of the Risen Lord was none other than the Holy Spirit, the One whose love had bonded the Father to the Son from eternity.

WHILST THE FIRST GOOD FRIDAY was a world-shaking victory for one man, it seemed a total failure to others. All their hopes, dreams, and plans had been shattered as a pall of doom and gloom enveloped the very foundation of their beings. Nevertheless, what happened on the first Pentecost day totally revived them; all their hopes, dreams, and plans were now back on the drawing board. Jesus Christ, whom they loved so deeply and dearly before his terrible crucifixion, had not only risen from the dead, as they saw for themselves but much more. He had been so glorified with his Father’s love that he could now share it with them as he promised and with the three thousand others who, seeing what his love was doing for his disciples, wanted to receive it for themselves.

The Church now existed in all its simplicity. All the external, physical, and spiritual ramifications would grow from what was little more than a mustard seed at the beginning until it transformed the largest empire the world had ever known, into a Christian Empire. This growth happened so swiftly that, even today, secular historians struggle to explain how a small dissident Jewish sect could infiltrate and overtake a massive pagan empire so quickly.

Unlike any other prior religion, this new religion did not depend purely on human love but on the love of God. Like all love, God’s love can be instantly experienced, as they experienced it on the first Pentecost day. But it would take many months, and even years, for it to percolate and penetrate the very marrow of their beings. This spiritual growth would ultimately enable them to receive in full measure what they initially received only in a limited measure. The first Christians practised a way of life they simply called ‘The Way’ in which they received God’s love endlessly poured out by their Risen Lord. They called this the spiritual life because the love of the Risen Lord was none other than the Holy Spirit, the One whose love had bonded the Father to the Son from eternity. It was because this Way could not be seen, nor could the spiritual striving of those who were in ‘The Way’, that it gradually came to be called the ‘Mystic Way’, meaning invisible or unseen because of the secret journey upon which the first Christians were engaged was hidden from outsiders. However, its effects could nevertheless be seen in those who practised it.

Because this Way could only advance to the degree and to the measure that spiritual travellers are united with their Risen Lord, this journey involves an ongoing purification. The imperfect cannot be united with the perfect until there is a sufficient likeness for the One to be united with the other. In subsequent centuries, when the initially vibrant faith gradually grew cold, the importance of a mystical purification was completely forgotten, at least in practice as it is today.

The reason why this happened, and how this Mystical Spirituality can return so that Christ can do through us for the modern pagan world what He did through the ancient pagan world is the subject of this book. May readers not be seduced by false modesty to believe that this task would not include someone as spiritually or morally weak or as intellectually challenged as themselves. Remember St Paul, who said God’s power works best in weakness. Remember those simple, uneducated men whom Christ originally chose to do what he would like to do again through us.

An early Philosopher and a major opponent of the Church called Celsus criticised many of the first Christians because they were a bunch of deplorables culled from the dregs of society. Gradually, the highly educated, intellectual, and sophisticated Roman world succumbed to what it originally viewed as an insignificant and ill-educated Jewish sect, embracing the otherworldly wisdom that praised the lowly poor and condemned the arrogant proud. It takes far longer for the proud to develop the pure and humble hearts that can alone welcome the heart of God.

The early Church was full of such people, not because they were necessarily born pure and humble of heart, but for another reason. When they became Christians, they embraced a way of life that would gradually allow them to become ever more docile to the Holy Spirit in whose name they were baptised. This docility enabled ‘he who is mighty’ to do great things in them and through them for the sake of the world that so needed the One who alone makes all things new. The first Church grew slowly but steadily.

The Christian Way required two years of preparation: learning and praying, meditating, and practising penance and charity before Baptism. After Baptism, a person’s spiritual endeavours would be redoubled thanks to the graces they received. This profound and mystical journey to which they committed themselves generated a quality of love that enabled these first believers to suffer terrible imprisonment, torture, and death for the faith we easily take for granted. Furthermore, they bore the unbearable in such a way (often accompanied by astounding miracles) that torturers, executioners, and voyeurs who had attended their agonising ordeals for entertainment were moved to join them. This astonishing influence inspired Tertullian to write those famous words: ‘The blood of the martyrs became the seeds of the Church’.

This essay is chapter one of Early Christian Spirituality (Essentialist Press, 2024) and is published here by gracious permission of the publisher.

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The featured image is “My Models – Triptych (Right Part)” (1909), by Jacek Malczewski, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.