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.
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…
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 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…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Thirty Fifth Episode – The Mass and Mystical Prayer
Published on: 30 May, 2023
By: David Torkington
The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek and it means to be wrapped in God. The first part of the spiritual adventure on which we have embarked leads us onwards to be wrapped in God when meditation reaches its climax. But this is only first enthusiasm that reaches its high point in what I have…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Thirty Third Episode – Time to Return to Our Origins
Published on: 7 May, 2023
By: David Torkington
Editors do not like repetition or self-indulgence, nor for that matter do readers. However, I am not a novelist trying to entertain, but a teacher trying to make known the Good News. But it has been so watered down and diluted, that it is only Good News for those who want to live it superficially,…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Thirty Second Episode – The Liturgy and Personal Prayer
Published on: 30 April, 2023
By: David Torkington
Many of the great theologians and scripture scholars who preceded and had such an influence on the Second Vatican Council had for the historical reasons that I have shown, been deprived of mystical spirituality in their training. Unfortunately, therefore, it played little if any part in that Council. There was another reason too that reinforced…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Twenty Ninth Episode – Into the Sacred Heart
Published on: 25 February, 2023
By: David Torkington
Almost three hundred years after St Thomas defined contemplation, as used by the first apostles and other apostles who tried to emulate them, another definition of contemplation caused great confusion. True contemplation is a pure gift of God to which we respond in the simplest of prayers that express our current relationship with him. However,…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Twenty Seventh Episode – Beginning the Journey
Published on: 3 February, 2023
By: David Torkington
Dean Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels said that we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. It is for this reason that we must return to the sources of our religion to discover and steep ourselves in the love that was the heart and…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Twenty Sixth Episode – Into the Sacred Heart
Published on: 17 January, 2023
By: David Torkington
If you are travelling to a distant destination you will have to travel by car or coach, by train or ‘plane by ship or space ship. It is exactly the same with the spiritual journey on which we have embarked, only this journey has an infinite destination because it is into the Love of God…
A Course in Mystical Theology – Twenty Fifth Episode – Christ’s Own Contemplation
Published on: 10 January, 2023
By: David Torkington
Although it is imperative that the whole of Christendom must turn back to prayer and without delay, no one seems to be listening. Our Lady has been begging us to do this for years, but nobody seems to be hearing her. After her appearances pilgrims in their hundreds of thousands rushed out to where she…