In Conversation with Mechthild of Magdeburg: Love, Longing, and the Divine (2-part series)

What can a 13th-century woman mystic teach us about longing, love,
and our relationship with the Divine today?
As autumn invites us to slow down, let go, and become attentive to the quiet work of transformation, we will meet Mechthild of Magdeburg within the world of the Beguines and explore her passionate vision of relationship with God, marked by longing, intimacy, vulnerability, and love. Then, through poetry, contemplative reading, and spiritual journaling, we’ll listen for what her words might awaken within us today.

Session One: Mechthild and the Beguines

In this session, we’ll meet Mechthild and the remarkable women known as the Beguines, who created lives centered in prayer, contemplation, community, and service outside traditional monastic structures. We’ll explore how this spiritual movement shaped Mechthild’s life and writing and reflect on what these medieval women can teach us about living contemplatively in the world today.

Session Two: In Conversation with Mechthild

Rather than studying Mechthild from a distance, we’ll receive her words as companions for our own spiritual journeys. Through her poetry and mystical writings, Lectio Divina, spiritual journaling, and poems from Colette Lafia’s Leaving the Shore: Experiencing Poetry as Prayer, which were written in conversation with Mechthild, we’ll explore how poetry can give language to our longing, deepen our prayer life, and open us more fully to the Divine Presence within and around us