Mystics I Mystically Connect With

Mystic German Roots: 
Meister Eckhart,
Henry Suso,
Hildegard von Bingen,
St. Gertrude the Great,
Mechthild of Magdeburg,
Hedewick . . .

Mystic Prayer Warriors:
Michael Molinos
Francois Fenelon
Madam Guyon
Frances De Sales . . .

Visionary Mystics:
St. Teresa of Avila
Catherine of Siena
Francis of Assisi
Julian of Norwich
Ignatius of Loyola

Mystic Scholars and Poets:
Origen
Ignatius of Loyola
Meister Eckhart
St. John of the Cross
Julian of Norwich
Teilhard De Chardin

Mystical Intuitions

*My vocation is love

*The Heart of Christ is my temple

*The wounds of Christ's side renew the world

*The light of creation passes thru the sacrament of communion and goes out to the whole world

*God loves his enemies so pray for them

*Accept all suffering as a gift of love for mercy heals the world

*The model of perfection is to become like a small child

*The seal of the Holy Spirit is my wedding ring

A Mystic Looks, Loves, and Lives

"The philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks" -  Evelyn Underhill

I have been doing a study on visions and dreams for this year and I love reading the stories, poems, and explorations of saints, visionaries, and mystics.  Mystics and saints are pioneers and explorers of the spiritual world.  They see things others do not see and know things that can only be known by the
Spirit of God.  I have known a few Christian brothers and sisters who have heard angelic choirs and even seen God's angelic army.  Some who have been transported to heaven and back for what seemed like hours was only minutes in the natural realm.  I have come to the place in my life where I would rather hear someone with a vision from God rather than an argument for God.

Mystics have such a deep love for God that their knowing is beyond knowledge.  Mystics have such a passion for truth that they perceive and see the same reality around them at a whole different level of experiencing and feeling.  My own spiritual life is becoming more mystical as I get still, listen to the mystical intuitions of the Holy Spirit within my own life.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed with joy and peace and other times I am in intense fear and trembling of the Holy.

If there is a direction for Christian writers, poets, and theologians for the future, I would hope it would be in this direction of wonder, mystery, ecstasy, beauty, and developing what I call a sanctified imagination.  Going deeper into the mystery of the Trinity should lead us into a new vitality in our Christian discipleship and faith.  Learning both from the glory of beauty and the depths of pain should teach us greater meaning of Christ's passion, suffering, and entering into a cruciform lifestyle.

What is even more surprising and amazing is when we begin to see in the dark and find light from God we have never seen or experienced before.  We enter into the humanity of Jesus and the divinity of Christ in ways we never thought possible or could ever imagine before.  Self-surrender becomes a lifestyle and communion with God becomes part of our life like breathing.  It is only when we empty ourselves from all the false images of the intellect that we free our own imprisoned spirit.  When we do this, nothing satisfies us but God and truth.  We get glimpses of heaven as well as discover our true selves.  The true mystic knows oneself and is becoming more like God.

When God's Spirit penetrates our spirit then everything becomes naked and exposed.  We feel calmness even when there is strife all around.  God's goodness permeates our soul to where we have such gratitude and aliveness in everything we do.  Chores for others become acts of kindness rather than duties to be tolerated.  Mystics learn to embrace both paradox and an all embracing simplicity to life which seemed so complicated and frantic before.  The mystic knows by shutting out the world and shutting in God is true happiness and bliss.  The mystic enjoys the benefits of heaven knowing full well this is only a foretaste of what is to come.

To Pilgrims, Monks, and Mystics

"I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God, and God is in my soul"  -  Elizabeth of the Trinity

The more I study the Bible, the bigger it gets and the smaller I become.  The longer I meditate on God's Word, the more it penetrates the depths of my heart.  The more I learn, the less I know.  Instead of me mastering the Bible, the Bible is mastering me.  To be a mystic is to encounter God in the ordinary and the everyday.  The movie "Heaven is for Real" comes out tomorrow and I find Christian pilgrims, monks, and mystics stumble, run, and fall into the unseen realm of heaven all the time.  Many times we are neither looking for God or heaven but God and heaven have a habit of finding and running headlong into us.

My prayer life is changing.  My prayers are simply echoes of listening to God and His Word and praying them back to heaven where they come from.  I am learning how to come into God's presence every day.  I find myself at times simply praying my concerns to God and then God prays His concerns for the world back through me.

2014 is like a new season preparing us for another spiritual season of 2015.  I see the wheat and the tares growing together, God doing more than I have ever seen before and Satan trying more to stop God's heavenly advancement on earth.  I am not one for apocalyptic fevers but I pray for all my brothers and sisters in Christ for the coming days because I sense something huge on the horizon spiritually.  The spiritual always changes the natural and manifests in the physical world around us.
Things are not always what they seem.  People who are comfortable will find their world shaken apart and those who find themselves in the miry clay will be lifted out of it to a place they could have never come on their own but only by God's help and direction.

Be still, and know God!

Seeing God in Everything

I recently began reading, at the inspiration of the post by my friend here, Meister Eckhart (Meister is German for Master - just read that today in the introduction to the Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart).  (Interesting side note - Meister is not his first name.  In the Eckhart book, which is an older work, the translator said that after the title of Meister was given to Eckhart, he was then known (from that time on) as Meister.  My observation is I am not aware of any other individual known by that title from antiquity.)

Anyway, I first purchased the older work and its first chapter is a series of talks.  The main emphasis just in this chapter alone that is very challenging is to see God in everything, and Eckhart means everything.

So I also purchased and read On Becoming a Mystical Christian.  I read this before I got the Eckhart book.  So I am reading English's book and he references this song.  Not even a Christian band, but wow what a work of Art.  It took me a few times to "get" the whole video, but God is there in it.

So I am going to post a few posts of various things that draw me to God.  Right now it is going to be new songs/music that God comes through to me.

Everyday Mystics

MYSTICS BELIEVE THAT HEAVEN IS MORE REAL AND SOLID THAN EARTH

Most of us rarely come across someone who speaks or acts like a mystic.  Someone whose very presence smells like Christ and whose very nature reminds you that there really still are saints today.  Someone who was often misunderstood and lived during the 14th century was Meister Eckhart.  We need everyday mystics today.  Listen to Eckhart's words and wisdom for today:

"A man who has been well off for many years, loses it all.  He ought then to reflect wisely and thank God for his misfortune and loss, for only then will he realize how well-off he was before.  He ought to thank God for the well-being he enjoyed for so many years . . . If then, it is true that all that is any good for comfort is lent to man to care for it, what complaint has he when God wants to take it back?  Let him rather thank God that he lent it so long."  -  Meister Eckhart