December 6

Evelyn Underhill and Philip Berrigan

Author

David Barnhart
December 06, 2025

Wood fungus, 2024. Own photo.

Today is the birthday, in 1875, of Evelyn Underhill, English author who popularizes Christian mysticism. 

Today marks the death, in 2002, of Philip Berrigan, Catholic priest and peace activist who staged numerous protest actions and spent approximately eleven years in jail. 

Today is also the feast day of Saint Nicholas, about whom little is known historically. He died on December 6, 343. Legend has it that at the Council of Nicaea, he punched the heretic Arius. His generosity is what cause him to be associated with gift-giving at the Christmas holiday.

Reflection: 

Philip Berrigan wrote: 

“We Christians forget (if we ever learned) that attempts to redress real or imagined injustice by violent means are merely another exercise in denial — denial of God and her nonviolence towards us, denial of love of neighbor, denial of laws essential to our being.”

and particularly relevant for today: 

“Our leaders are lawless, so why not we? If the government threatens other countries with the bomb, why not threaten one another with handguns? If our leaders are raping the planet, why not our neighbors? Our leaders create a climate of fear and violence. Why do they appear shocked when Americans kill, rob, and maim one another?”

Evelyn Underhill wrote: 

“Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment.”

and

"…Christianity was from the first essentially a mystical religion; to me, the doctrine of the New Testament is only intelligible from that standpoint.”

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help us to be both mystics and activists. Amen.