Tuning into the Mystics
James Finley, a psychotherapist and former monk who studied under Thomas Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani, reflects on how his childhood trauma and his mystical formation became inseparably intertwined - describing early experiences of finding refuge in God's presence amid his father's violence, and later discovering in the monastery a profound sense of 'breathing God' that shaped the rest of his life. Drawing on his six years as a monk, his friendship with Merton, and decades of teaching alongside Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation, Finley describes the mystical path not as an escape from suffering but as a deepening honesty about one's own brokenness, through which one discovers being 'unexplainably loved without foundations.' He closes by reflecting on his current life at 76 — caring for his ailing wife, no longer able to travel, and finding in this podcast a providential way to keep sharing these teachings - insisting that the mystic's authority comes not from having transcended human fragility but from remaining vulnerably present to it, trusting that God sustains us even amid loss, aging, and unraveling.