Retreat given at Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire 1. An Introduction to Journeying Deeper
Published on: 4 September, 2025
By: David Torkington
The first of a series of talks on Mystical Prayer given at Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, England -1. Introduction to Journeying deeper
Retreat Belmont Abbey 2. From Meditation to the beginning of Mystical Contemplation
Published on: 4 September, 2025
By: David Torkington
Each morning after his mother’s death, David’s father brought two cups of tea into his bedroom.
Retreat Belmont Abbey 3. The Signs and the Analogy brought to Completion
Published on: 4 September, 2025
By: David Torkington
This is the third of a series of talks on Mystical Prayer given by David Torkington to members of the laity and the community at Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, England.
Retreat Belmont Abbey 4, How To Pray In the Night
Published on: 4 September, 2025
By: David Torkington
This is the 4th of a series of talks on Mystical Prayer given by David Torkington to members of the laity and the community at Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, England.
Retreat Belmont Abbey 5, Power in weakness
Published on: 4 September, 2025
By: David Torkington
This is the 5th and final of a series of talks on Mystical Prayer given by David Torkington to members of the laity and the community at Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, England.
A Pattern for Personal Prayer
Published on: 1 March, 2025
By: David Torkington
From the Addendum: Passport to Perfection To begin with you can use this pattern for daily prayer, but many people find that they eventually come to know the Blueprint off by heart, and they prefer to use their own words rather than the set prayers below. Begin withPsalm sixty-nine with which St Benedict instructed his…
The Lost Art of Prayer — Praying as Christ Himself Showed Us
Published on: 1 March, 2025
By: David Torkington
Join the online retreat that will be inaugurated on LifeSite News, by his Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider on Ash Wednesday. Listen to David announcing the Retreat starting Ash Wednesday 2025 In order to return to the profound and contemplative origins of our faith in this Jubilee Year, a new form of Retreat had been inaugurated…
October, the Month of the Rosary
Published on: 12 October, 2024
By: David Torkington
The Rosary is the prayer that Our Lady has constantly recommended to those to whom she has appeared in recent years. Despite the fact that this new means of prayer is not a sacrament, it can be called a sacramental, because it can do today what the first mysteries did for the early Christians for…
Prayer to Contemplation – Free Course on Essentialist Press
Published on: 11 October, 2023
By: David Torkington
To listen to all 15 of the talks on prayer, please go to the Essentialist Press website Episode 1: Contemplation and the fruits of Contemplation (full episode) Some time ago the Founder of Essentialist Press came across the website and works of David Torkington, a renowned (and properly titled) ‘Mystical Theologian’. With a love and…
The Sense of the Sacred – Back to the faith of Our Fathers
Published on: 29 September, 2023
By: David Torkington
In a talk that I have just recorded in a series I am giving on prayer, I tell how, as the Director of the Diocesan Retreat and Conference Centre in London, I handed out an anonymous questionnaire to priests who attended the courses from 1972 to 1981. I was horrified to discover that no priest…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Thirty Seventh Episode – From Meditation to Contemplation
Published on: 19 July, 2023
By: David Torkington
A rare and ancient book on mystical theology that was so small and dishevelled that the censors must have overlooked it in the noviciate library, gave me the advice that I needed. “When sweet meditation” it said, “leads you into dark contemplation, be sure that you give to your new prayer exactly the same time…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Thirty Sixth Episode – From Loving the Christ of History, to Union with Christ in Majesty
Published on: 21 June, 2023
By: David Torkington
My comparative success in my prayer life, and in such a short time, deceived me as it would deceive many others into believing I had arrived at what the great saints and mystics call the Mystical Marriage or the Transforming Union. I had in fact only arrived at the heights of first enthusiasm or first…