Fr Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

I remember a time, much less busy than now, when I would sit in silence and stillness and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There was a marvelous quality to that silence—one in which I would, on occasion, feel the weight of God press upon my heart and whisper in my soul.

These experiences would ultimately help guide me to seek to know God more fully. I doubt that I would be here now, as a Priest, without these experiences of God.

It was like I was being pulled and lifted to Christ, wrapped into the life of His body, the Church.

It was, at times, wonderfully overwhelming—accompanied by a paradoxical sense of the profound transcendence and infinitude of God (and my smallness in light of this) as well as the intimacy and immanence of God.

As I look back on my journals and writings from those days, I considered these experiences to be like little droplets of the presence of the Holy Spirit—unveiled and experienced. And I remember thinking to myself, this is just a little bit of the presence of God, imagine experiencing the fullness of the Lord!

These were, undoubtedly, mystical experiences. And the Lord seems to reveal them, like He did to Elijah, on the mountain with that still, small voice. In the silence. In the quiet.

Today we celebrate the feast of Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941). An Anglican laywoman, she became a renowned author and mystic within the church, writing works titled Mysticism and Worship.

For Evelyn, the mystical life was not something available only to spiritual elites or ascetics or monastics. Rather, she was convinced that the mystical life was open “to anyone who cares to nurture it and weave it into everyday experience.” (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 278).

God is at work during our mundane, routine existence.

But it is so easy to forget this! And easier still to ignore it.

Blessed Evelyn calls us to remember that God is ever present, and that the mystical and contemplative life is open to all even amid our mundanity—it just requires some intention, some faith—even faith the size of a mustard seed (as our Gospel reminds us today).

Blessed Evelyn, pray for us to the Lord our God!

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Alex