Catholic Mystics

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beckycmarie said:
I saw the headline below on SpiritDaily today, and thought it was worth sharing here.

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‘A True Mystic Is a Holy Person Who Has Reached the Perfect Union with God’**
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There is an official recognition of mysticism by the Church. A mystic is as the headline above says, one who has reach perfection union between the soul and the Divine, at the will of the Divine. The individual cannot make it happen. He predisposes him or herself to be used by God through an intense life of prayer and charity, but it is Grace that makes the union between the soul and the Divine possible.

Some people have been canonized because they were proven to be mystics. Obviously a person who has reached such a union is a saint.

There are two modern Catholics who are regarded as mystics by theologians in Mystical Theology: Bl. Teresa of Calcutta and John Paul II. Eventually these theologians must build their case and present it to the postulator for the cause of canonization. In Mother Teresa’s situation the process toward canonization has begun. One more miracle is needed. John Paul’s process is expected to begin after the fifth anniversay of his death. Though rumour has it that Pope Benedict may dispense with the waiting period. Interestingly enough it was Bishop Felley of the SSPX who let this cat out of the bag, but the Vatican has not denied it. We’ll just have to wait and see.

JR 🙂
 
Greetings!

Try to visit web page: mysticsofthechurch.com/
Wishing you all the best!
Code: 
           [http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/](http://http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/)
Dominik Herle
 
As a lay Passionist, I must include the name of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of The Passionists congregation. He is probably one of the lesser know mystics of the Church, likely because he did not write any books or a rule of life but he did leave us with his congregation and many, many letters talking of his spirituality. He had many visions and ecstacies in his life, including from our Blessed Mother who told him to start a congregation that would strictly pray on the Passion of Her Blessed Son and she also showed him the tunic him and his brothers were to wear and they still wear them today. A wonderful mystic he was!

I did not see St Padre Pio here yet. I’m surprised, because I don’t think any saint was given so many gifts from our Lord than he had. Truly he was special!
 
Sorry, you do not have to go to the web page that I have put.

Dominik Herle
 
tessi said:
*A mystic is someone who sees reality as it is. *

I never heard of that. A mystic is someone with a deep communication with God in prayer that cross the barrier of faith. Saint Therese of Lisieux never had that, that is why she said she would have to find a new way to be saint (and I think that is what makes her so great). She was always distracted in prayer, she never experienced supernatural graces from God as Saint Therese of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross, she wasn’t in “arrobamientos”. She had faith. She was an ordinary woman seeing God in ordinary experiences from everyday life. She is a great Saint but not a mystic.
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I don’t agree with this assessment of St. Therese. She definitely did have a deep communication with God in prayer. In her autobiography, she describes what is clearly the dark night of the spirit (using St. John of the Cross terminology). She also describes visions in her autobiography.

Distractions in prayer - common to everyone, including Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. I don’t think anyone this side of Jesus avoided distraction.

She definitely developed the “little way”, but that way led her to spiritual union.
 
Strategery said:
I don’t agree with this assessment of St. Therese. She definitely did have a deep communication with God in prayer. In her autobiography, she describes what is clearly the dark night of the spirit (using St. John of the Cross terminology). She also describes visions in her autobiography.

Distractions in prayer - common to everyone, including Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. I don’t think anyone this side of Jesus avoided distraction.

She definitely developed the “little way”, but that way led her to spiritual union.
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One need not have visions, ecstasies or locutions to be a mystic. That is not the definition of mysticism. A mystic is one whose journey to God leads them to the heights of contemplation. This is a singular grace that God gives only to certain souls. Many have reached this state of contemplation without the ecstasies, private revelations and so forth. One person who has been called a mystic and never reported any of this was Elizabeth Ann Seton. But if you read her writings you can see a level of understanding of the Divine that is beyond that of most people.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
This thread is still alive?? 🙂

I think it’s generally understood that St. Therese was a mystic of the ordinary way rather than the extraordinary. As such she had, perhaps, less in common with her spiritual mother, St. Teresa of Jesus, than her spiritual father, St. John of the Cross. In fact, it is known St. Therese struggled with the experience of God as described by St. Teresa . . . but was right at home in the world of St. John of the Cross who provided her only spiritual nourishment outside Scripture in her last years. For this reason, modern biographers sometimes describe her as the greatest disciple of St. John (though she didn’t speak in theological and systematic language as he did). Her Little Way described by some as “the democraticization of the Dark Night” and her Story the modern work that “put contemplation on the street.”

The emphasis on the ordinary (i.e. infused contempation), though, doesn’t mean we should consider St. Therese to have been without sublime “experience;” though not necessarily by way of the dramatic (i.e ecstasy, imaginative visions etc.). It’s hard to see the creation of “The Story of A Soul” outside the context of St. John’s teaching on successive locution where human thought comingles with the Divine to produce inspired writing under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. And her sudden and exponential growth spurts in love (her oblation) and knowledge (“My vocation is Love”) have the unmistakable marks of another of St. John’s depictions of mystical experience: the Divine touch. The touch of knowledge described by other authors as intellectual vision.

Further, another modern author theorized that mystics can be either “lights on” or “lights off” and I think this has certain merit when trying to understand the mysticism of St. Therese . . . who was considered the premier example of the latter type. Intimate union with Christ was so ingrained in her make-up that maybe all these things just seemed entirely natural. It seems entirely plausable to me that mystical experience like successive locution and Divine touch were very much a part of her interior life . . . but she might have been entirely unaware of it; focused as she was on the dryness and suffering that was her lot. Or, perhaps, she *did *realize these things for what they were . . . which is why she went to such great lengths to keep so much hidden amongst the wonderful teachings she revealed.

Dave 🙂
 
DBT said:
This thread is still alive?? 🙂

I think it’s generally understood that St. Therese was a mystic of the ordinary way rather than the extraordinary. As such she had, perhaps, less in common with her spiritual mother, St. Teresa of Jesus, than her spiritual father, St. John of the Cross. In fact, it is known St. Therese struggled with the experience of God as described by St. Teresa . . . but was right at home in the world of St. John of the Cross who provided her only spiritual nourishment outside Scripture in her last years. For this reason, modern biographers sometimes describe her as the greatest disciple of St. John (though she didn’t speak in theological and systematic language as he did). Her Little Way described by some as “the democraticization of the Dark Night” and her Story the modern work that “put contemplation on the street.”

The emphasis on the ordinary (i.e. infused contempation), though, doesn’t mean we should consider St. Therese to have been without sublime “experience;” though not necessarily by way of the dramatic (i.e ecstasy, imaginative visions etc.). It’s hard to see the creation of “The Story of A Soul” outside the context of St. John’s teaching on successive locution where human thought comingles with the Divine to produce inspired writing under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. And her sudden and exponential growth spurts in love (her oblation) and knowledge (“My vocation is Love”) have the unmistakable marks of another of St. John’s depictions of mystical experience: the Divine touch. The touch of knowledge described by other authors as intellectual vision.

Further, another modern author theorized that mystics can be either “lights on” or “lights off” and I think this has certain merit when trying to understand the mysticism of St. Therese . . . who was considered the premier example of the latter type. Intimate union with Christ was so ingrained in her make-up that maybe all these things just seemed entirely natural. It seems entirely plausable to me that mystical experience like successive locution and Divine touch were very much a part of her interior life . . . but she might have been entirely unaware of it; focused as she was on the dryness and suffering that was her lot. Or, perhaps, she *did *realize these things for what they were . . . which is why she went to such great lengths to keep so much hidden amongst the wonderful teachings she revealed.

Dave 🙂
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I too read the same writing on “lights on” and “lights off” and I like that explanation.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
nkelly said:
Hello St. Aloysius, I’d recommend you read St. Faustina’s Diary. Has to be one of the very best book I’ve ever read without a doubt.

Hello Paladin, thanks for the recommendation! That sounds like just the kind of book I’m after.

God bless you both,
Noel.
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I second the recommendation of the book fulfillment… Just look at my signature 😃 If you click on the link it will take you to Amazon and you can read other reviews etc.

peace
James
 
From what I’ve seen, NOBODY has mentioned Julian Of Norwich. For shame!!!😦

Reflections On Divine Love is one the sweetest, most powerful, render and kind books ever written.

And let’s not forget Julian’s contemporary Margery Kempe. 👍
 
If we’re going for classics in Mystical Theology, here is a very short writing with a very powerful and deep theology about the nature of God and the nature of creation. “The Canticle of the Sun” by St. Francis of Assisi. It is the most compelling argument for the dignity of creation, especially man.

What is most beautiful in it how the contemplation of the created universe leads man to a vision of the anatomy of God and the anatomy of the soul. For everything that God is and that man should be is proclaimed for us by creation.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
If we’re going for classics in Mystical Theology, here is a very short writing with a very powerful and deep theology about the nature of God and the nature of creation. “The Canticle of the Sun” by St. Francis of Assisi. It is the most compelling argument for the dignity of creation, especially man.

What is most beautiful in it how the contemplation of the created universe leads man to a vision of the anatomy of God and the anatomy of the soul. For everything that God is and that man should be is proclaimed for us by creation.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Bro. I know this post of yours is a few years old, but I wanted to comment on it in light of my experience at Easter Vigil this past week.

I wasnt going to go, because of all the readings, beginning with Creation. But I sense the Spirit urging me to go.

Do you know that the Creation readings stood out in a way that they have never in the past. I was filled with, like you said, dignity of creation.

I experienced a profound love in all that is around me, in all that He created. And this is coming from someone who works on the family farm and is always surrounded by and working with Creation.

At the edge of our farm stands an old oak tree (est age of 250-300 years old). Even prior to the Vigil that tree always gave me reason to pause, all that it has lived thru. Now, even more so.

No words can really explain it fully, but God touched me in a way thru the Vigil and going thru creation and the salvation of man readings like never before.

And I am humbled.
 
I’ve read a lot about different Mysitcs within the Catholic Church and I find my favourite mystic is Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. He was a very humble, simple and prayerful individual and there is literally still hundreds of people alive today who can attest to his god given attributes such as bilocation, stigmata and the ability to see within a persons heart.
 
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