The Church’s Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum blazes forth with such a lofty and sublime account of the Bible in the spiritual life of the Church that it surely must leave us convicted that we are not yet fully living it out. “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her children, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life" (DV 21). Then there is the line about such an anointed reading of the Bible as to be divine, a true lectio divina, that we’re left trying to soften the full impact of the​ simple words​, “Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the same Spirit by whom it was written” (DV ​12). Our Contemplative Symposium on a Mysticism of the Word seeks to help us to do this better through a rich assortment of gifted speakers but also through a conjoined crying out together to the Father for a fresh and fuller sending forth of the Word and Spirit into our hearts.

A mysticism of the Word in the world penetrates into the wisdom of love at the heart of contemplative prayer and transformative of the world. We have already been circling around the theme with the Contemplative Symposium of 2024 on St. Elisabeth of the Trinity, a Praise of Glory releasing the power of the Word of God through her lectio divina on Ephesians 1:3-14. In 2025, it was St. Therese unleashing the power of the Gospel into the world through her Scripture-inspired Little Way of childlike surrender and trust. For July 24-26, 2026, it will be the charisms of Saints Francis and Dominic especially that will animate our prayerful search into the heart of God through his Word.

The friar movements were the fruit of a fresh immersion in the Word of God. St. Dominic was so imbued with the Word he contemplated and preached, and carried on his person in the Gospel of Matthew and the Letters of Saint Paul, that he was simply known as a “man of the Gospel” (vir evangelicus). St. Francis’ mysticism of the Word, likewise, was so embodied in his evangelical living of the mysteries of Christ that it stamped his being to the core leaving him marked even physically with the wounds of Christ. These charisms resulted in so many saints and revivals throughout the ages that it is worth asking: What might a deeper immersion in the Word today yield for us and the world?

This symposium will approach some questions concerning the Bible as the Word of God as the object of our study (from the angle of spiritual exegesis or otherwise) and also questions concerning us, the subject who approaches the Bible and how to draw from the inexhaustible riches of the Word in a robust spirituality. What are the traits of a spirituality that open us to receiving graces of contemplation and anointed, living words from the heart of God for the hearts of others, through our preaching, teaching, prophetic words of encouragement, intercession, and lives as hearers and doers of the Word? How do we approach the Bible in such a way as to penetrate into the inexhaustible depths and richness of the Word of God, both human and divine very much like the incarnate Word Himself and so encounter Jesus in His saving mysteries (cf. DV 13). How can we be more like a Word-stamped Francis or Dominic for our world today?

This symposium will open up a spirituality and indeed a mysticism of the Word. We will ponder how we can pray with the Bible contemplatively to receive a Spirit-breathed word from the Father’s heart for ourselves and for the world. Even Catholics engaged in regular Bible studies are often left with too flat of a reading of the Scriptures. The historical critical method has brought many benefits to our reading of the Bible but has also left many simply on the surface-level of the text. A key project of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s theological career, following the Ressourcement movement, was reviving spiritual exegesis and seeking a “third way” beyond choosing either between the old or the new methods. In this spirit, the Catechism of the Catholic Church #108-19 points the way forward to a deeper reading through the literal and spiritual senses of Scripture, recovering the way the Church fathers and medieval monks prayed the Bible while keeping the best insights of modern methods. In short, we can think of the three spiritual senses as opening up what a given passage says about Jesus (allegorical), our living the mystery of Jesus (moral), and our destiny in Jesus (anagogical) (cf. CCC 117). This opens layers of meaning and riches of the words of Scripture (Col 1:25-2:7) that yields a deeper contemplative and loving engagement with Jesus, the divine Word Himself, and His saving mysteries.

The Carmelite origins of the contemplative symposiums will not be left behind and indeed Our Lady of Mount Carmel almost slipped into the title. In the cell of St. Dominic at Santa Sabina, there is a mural of three friars, including a Carmelite—St. Dominic, St. Francis, and Bl. Angelus—dwelling in a rich unity. The hidden lectio divina of Mount Carmel will resonate with many of our attendees at the symposium since many of you also will not be preachers but, like a Carmelite nun, help support the life of the Church with your treasuring up of the Word in the secret of your heart like Mary (Lk 2:19, 51). A loving pondering of the Word in the nada of Carmel and the desert where Our Lady meets us in that desert place prepared for her and us (Rev 12:1-6) leaves us with a silence that is all Word, as we abide there for God and for the world. In fact, with the explicit influence of Bonaventure and John Tauler, OP on John of the Cross, even with the dark brightness of the nada, we have not moved outside the charisms of Francis and Dominic. 

Saints of these friar families show forth multi-faceted dimensions of a spirituality of the Word. St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas, for instance, open up a spirituality of the Word with theological depth and breadth. St. Bonaventure has an explicit and robust mystical theology of the Word, the same divine Word being uncreated, incarnate, and inspired in the Scriptures (Verbum increatum, Verbum incarnatum, Verbum inspiratum), and he even speaks of a mysteriously wounded Word. Aquinas’ Word breathing forth Love (Son and Spirit) and his theology of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially understanding with its deeper penetration of the truth and wisdom with its savory experiential knowledge of God built on charity, expresses contemplative depth in our engagement with the Word. Then there is Catherine of Siena, the Rhineland Mystics, Angela of Foligno, Maximilian Kolbe, John of the Cross, Elizabeth of the Trinty, and Therese, among many others who provide variegated articulations of divine Wisdom as prayed and lived out. We will be riding the wave of grace of the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ death and the 300th anniversary of St. John of the Cross’ canonization (and 100 years as a Doctor of the Church).

In the time of Francis and Dominic, it was felt as if God was doing a new thing in human history. Bonaventure gave explicit articulation to this prophetic tradition. In this hope-filled dawn, the friar movements were expected to be anointed agents in God’s plan of building up a more contemplative Church as we hasten on to the end of history and full union with the Lord Jesus. Indeed, sometimes even today, when the bright and fiery eyes of a Franciscan and Dominican meet, there is an anointed spark of logos suggesting that this hope-for reality is unfolding even now. If it will burst forth into a fuller contemplative revival in our own day, may depend particularly on this deeper prayerful immersion in the Word. So, come to this Contemplative Symposium July 24-26, 2026 and be a part of this (!), as we ponder and pray together precisely for this fresh in-breaking of God through His living Word. “Francis and Dominic: A Mysticism of the Word in the World” today!