What is a Catholic Mystic?

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michaelArc

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How would one define someone as being a mystic?

Is this something that is exclusive to Saints or can anyone practice mysticism?
 
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It is a degree of depth of one’s relationship with God. It is completely transcendent in nature. Mystics may have no sense of being on earth, as their experience is not of this earth. Remember also that the Saints who were mystics were not canonized “Saints” while this was occurring. “Interior Castles” by Saint Teresa of Avila is an excellent description of mysticism.
 
Many if not most of the mystics didn’t sit down and say, “Okay, I’m going to practice Mysticism now”.

They simply wished to know, love, think about God more, so they did that.

Some of them were very educated people like St. Teresa of Avila who wrote whole books on the subject, and some of them were poor, less educated people who simply had a gift from God that oriented them towards mysticism.

I’m pretty sure that if God is on your mind all day or most of the day, some mystic elements will start coming into your life.

Mysticsofthechurch.com is a good website to read about Catholic mystics, although we cannot discuss most of the website material here because almost all of it falls in the category of “unapproved private revelations”. However, many of the people on that website (though not all) are either saints or are on the path to sainthood as beati, venerabili or Servants of God.
 
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I’m risking over simplifying things, but in Catholicism, mysticism is really just a way of saying “an experience of God”. A mystical experience could run the gamut from getting a little choked up during communion or while gazing upon a crucifix, or it could include total ecstatic rapture, healings, or more unusual things like physically floating away (St. Cupertino) and stigmata (St Rita, Padre Pio etc) and the kind of contemplation and union with God that Saint Theresa talked about. It could also include visions or apparitions of Jesus or Mary.

My definition of a mystic is someone whose spirituality includes some sort of “experience” or “encounter” and for whom these experiences have a profound enough impact fit into the core of their spirituality and understanding of God.
 
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