As we continue our Lenten exploration in The Garden, we’ve been spending time with the wide and often misunderstood landscape of Christian mysticism. In our curiosity, we searched for videos that represent the breadth of this tradition—from historical figures like Hildegard of Bingen and St. Augustine to modern voices like Richard Rohr and Thomas Merton.

We also found a number of videos warning against the “dangers” of Christian mysticism. Fear-based teaching is exactly what pushed me away from the church years ago: the insistence that we shouldn’t trust our own spiritual experiences or listen to our inner life. It’s a worldview that treats curiosity as a threat and mystery as something to be controlled.

The Garden is different. Our tagline, "Many Paths, One Purpose," speaks of us as a community that welcomes multifaith wisdom, honors individual experience, and doesn’t measure belonging by belief. We don’t seek to convert; we seek to live the way of Jesus. That means we aspire to be open-handed, compassionate, courageously curious, and grounded in love rather than fear. We don’t imagine God as wrathful or exclusionary, but as the source of connection, creativity, and belonging.

In that spirit of holy curiosity, we’re sharing a short, clear introduction to Christian mysticism from Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism. It’s a simple three-minute overview, but it offers a gentle doorway into a tradition that invites us to trust our experience, to listen deeply, and to discover how our own story meets the larger story of God.