By Satoru Kikuchi

Mystics and Miracles: True Stories of Lives Touched by God

Bert Ghezzi

ISBN 0-8294-1772-9

Amazon link

From the introduction:

“Miracles intrigue us. They burst into our humdrum routines with startling revelations of the supernatural realm. Some people dismiss them as imagined or psychosomatically induced phenomena. But most of us welcome news of visions, healings, and other divine interventions.”

“We get the word mystic from a Greek root that means “mystery”. A mystic is a person who is “introduced into the mysteries”. Broadly speaking, all Christians are mystics. We believe that by faith we are initiated into the mysteries of Christ’s death and resurrection. But most Christians are not mystics in the technical sense because we have yet to penetrate the Christian mysteries in depth. Mystics enjoy a special closeness to God. They get rid of all the clutter in their hearts to make room for God.”

Mr. Ghezzi has arranged the mystics he has chosen into 6 categories.

Part One–Miracles of Love

1. Healing Touch–St. Martin de Porres
2. Little Miracles of Affection–St. Theresa Margaret
3. Royal Miracles–St. Elizabeth of Hungary
4. Miracles from Failures–Venerable Solanus Casey

Part Two–Miraculous Prayer

1. Miracles That Made Peace–St. Catherine of Siena
2. The “Accidental” Mystic–St. Lutgarde of Aywieres
3. Miracles in the Desert–St. Anthony of Egypt
4. Miracles to the Rescue–St. Clare of Assisi

Part Three–Dreams, Visions, and Other Wonders

1. Visions–St. Perpetua
2. Miracles of the Heart–St. Gertrude the Great
3. Wounded Healer–Blessed padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Part Four–Miracles of Conversion

1. Miracles in Action–St. Dominic
2. Miracles in Death—St. Sabas and St. Apphian
3. Miracles in His Mouth–St. Anthony of Padua
4. The Miracle is the Message–St. Vincent Ferrer

Part Five–Miracles to Awaken Us

1. Miracles for the Poor–St. Francis of Assisi
2. A Miracle in Her Soul–St. Teresa of Avila
3. Raising the Dead and Other Miracles–St. Francis of Paola
4. An Astonishing Invasion of the Supernatural–St. John Bosco

Part Six–Miracles That Changed the Course of History

1. Miraculous Voices–St. Joan of Ark
2. Miracles over Magic–St. Patrick
3. Miracles of Discernment and Obedience–St. Ignatius of Loyola
4. A Miracle Within–St. Francis Xavier

At the end of each section, Mr.Ghezzi includes a statement or prayer from each mystic included. I have chosen to include a prayer from St. Theresa Margaret as I collect prayers that I love.

Genuine Love

“I desire to love you, O my love, with a love that is patient, with a love that abandons itself wholly to you, with a love that acts, and most important of all, with a love that perseveres. Just as one who loves a creature thinks of it often, so let the lover of God have him often in his thoughts. The mirror into which we must look in order to attain divine love in Jesus Christ. If the actions of our neighbors had a hundred sides, we ought to look at them on the best side. When an action is blameworthy, we should strive to see the good intentions back of it. Let us do everything for love and, remembering that love longs for love alone, nothing can appear hard to us.”

By Nicholas T

I have been collecting links for over 10 years. I have organized them by topic in individual folders. Needless to say, this is a clumsy and time-consuming hobby. So I started a few years ago to look for other methods. What I do works for me. I put them on “my team” and rotate publishing them on my main blog, High Energy Life in 12 Weeks.  I have several teams (websites I’ve chosen for a particular topic). Today is “My Mysticism Team”.

Books « The Website of Unknowing

Christian Mystics

Discombobula

Hermitary: the hermit, hermits, eremitism, solitude, silence, anchorites, recluses, simplicity

Home

Julie Unplugged

List of Christian mystics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monastic Mumblings, a Friar’s Journey

mysticism.nl

Mystics « The Website of Unknowing

Philosophers and mystics on the Mystical Site

The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory (BSG)

The Cloud of Unknowing

The Four Precepts Web Portal & Spiritual Search Page

The Mercy Site – Contemplative Prayer for Christians

TheoCenTriC

The Order of Corpus Christi

The Order of Saint Luke

The Order of St. Helena

The Order of St. Luke the Physician, a Christian Healing Ministry, welcomes you!

The Rosicrucian Fellowship – An International Association of Christian Mystics

The Way Of A Pilgrim

Unveiling…

Unmistakably lost and without a care by notsogoodphotgraphy

I have been collecting links for over 10 years. I have organized them by topic in individual folders. Needless to say, this is a clumsy and time-consuming hobby. So I started a few years ago to look for other methods. What I do works for me. I put them on “my team” and rotate publishing them on my main blog, High Energy Life in 12 Weeks .  I will publishing  “my teams”. For today, this is “my mysticism team”.

Books « The Website of Unknowing

Christian Mystics

Discombobula

Hermitary: the hermit, hermits, eremitism, solitude, silence, anchorites, recluses, simplicity

Home

Julie Unplugged

List of Christian Mystics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monastic Mumblings, a Friar’s Journey

mysticism.nl

Mystics « The Website of Unknowing

Philosophers and mystics on the Mystical Site

The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory (BSG)

The Four Precepts Web Portal & Spiritual Search Page

The Mercy Site – Contemplative Prayer for Christians

TheoCenTriC

The Order of Corpus Christi

The Order of Saint Luke

The Order of St. Helena

The Order of St. Luke the Physician, a Christian Healing Ministry, welcomes you!

The Rosicrucian Fellowship – An International Association of Christian Mystics

The Society of the Holy Trinity: A Lutheran Ministerium

The Way Of A Pilgrim

Unveiling…

Two of Arts by gthomasbower

While doing the research for the 50+ books I selected for the Changemaker Library, I realized that I love writing about good books. I have been reading for 60 years so I have a long history of what books can influence lives.

I don’t do book reviews. Instead, I give the book title, the author, the ISBN number and a link to Amazon to buy it. I also include excerpts from the book chosen so that a reader can decide if this book is a good match for him/her. Every Tuesday, I’ll include one of the books which is chosen to match the weekly topic.

Everyday Mysticism: Cherishing the Holy

Anthony J. Ciorra

ISBN 0-8245-1483-1

Amazon link

For each section of his book, Fr. Ciorra starts with three questions to begin thought on the subject. For the introduction, his questions are: “What is Holiness? Think of a canonized saint and then think of a living saint. What does it mean to be holy? Think of someone you know whom you consider to be holy.”

His overview of the book includes:

1. “Chapter One, “Wisdom on Wall Street”, situates spirituality in the marketplace. God is to found in the context of daily life, often in the unexpected moments and areas of the work place. If the Gospel is to be relevant, it cannot be ignored from none to five each day during the work week.”
2. “Chapter Two, “Dangerous Dreams and Rude Awakenings,” places holiness within the life process. Today’s theories of personality development poignantly teach that the human person is constantly changing and developing. Our dreams and goals need to be reshaped as we change and as the world and church around us are changing. There are many models in the church’s traditional treasury for a spirituality of perfection; there are few for a spirituality of imperfection. Instead of rigid methods, I propose that the process of life offers each person a unique opportunity for holiness.”
3. “Chapter Three, “Writing Straight with Crooked Lines”, raises some new questions about suffering. Traditional spiritualities that were based on martyrdom and Jansenism often contained a harsh image of God. This chapter challenges some of these notions. God does not create pain. I suggest a gentle image of God that calls us to growth through our personal suffering as well as through solidarity with the anguish of the world.”
4. “Chapter Four, “A Spirituality of collaboration”, challenges the reader to move deeper into human experience. Charity reaches put to those in need. But compassion actually enters into their experience. This leads to a spirituality that finds the sacred in the midst of human feelings. The ultimate discovery of a prodigal God who is extravagant with the gift of love. Such depth of human and divine association invites all people to collaboration, the highest degree of human interaction and global cooperation.”
5. “Chapter Five, “Cunning as Serpents, Gentle as Doves”, asserts that the values of the marketplace need to be integrated with the principles of the beatitudes. The Marketplace can be transformed through the marriage of these apparent opposites.”
6. “Chapter Six, “Mystics in the Marketplace”, suggests concrete ways of becoming holy in American culture. It proposes a spirituality based on growing from our imperfections. The principles of Alcoholics Anonymous and the methodology of liberation theology are included in this chapter since their starting points are human weakness and everyday experiences. Ways of praying and reflecting in the world are given to point the reader in new directions for mystical experiences in the marketplace.”

“Karl Rahner wrote that the future belongs to the mystic. St. Thomas Aquinas said that mysticism is the knowledge of God through experience. A new era in world and church history offers new experiences. A mystic is one who greets the newness with open arms and a welcoming heart. The way to holiness can no longer be universally defined as each person is unique. The ultimate vocation for each of us is to become who we are. That’s what it means to be a saint. To become anything else is to do violence to God’s creation.”

Omega Sunrise II by lragerich

“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religion.” – Albert Einstein

January, 2010 is the beginning of my 33rdd year of experiencing being captured by the God of my understanding. The first year, I didn’t have any labels for it. If you are a mystic, you generally have to be told by someone else that you are a mystic and find out for yourself what that means. It was only after I read William James’s book, The Varieties of Religious Experience that I had a label of “radical conversion”. Soon after this, someone asked me if I knew what mysticism was and I was able to add another label. I am a Christian but have gained much insight from studying all religions and incorporating other practices into my spiritual experiences.

Mystics are found in all faiths and/or religions. Beginning the mystic journey, each pilgrim has an individual journey yet all will have some common ground with other mystics. For my 32+-year journey, I have let go of most of my earthly ties to family and friends. I felt an extreme urgency to experience and study my inner experience. So, although God’s gift is free, it isn’t cheap. I have lived without most of my family for most of the 32+ year experience. I have never made a lot of money or taken the time to climb the ladder. I have driven cheap cars and owned very little materially. But I did what I wanted to do–follow the God of my understanding as best I could. My reward has been Heaven on earth–the peace, love, joy, contentment, fun is amazing. And I look forward to life’s greatest adventure–giving up this bodily burden.

Some of the spiritual techniques that may help for your spiritual journey are:

(1) centering prepares us for the Presence of God;

(2) deep breathing helps us to quiet our mind because we can only think one thought at a time–when we are counting our breaths in and out, our mind is focused on one thought relieving our anxiety;

(3) meditation and prayer;

(4) mindfulness.

According to Carl McColman, who writes The Website of Unknowing, a soul friend is a friend who provides others with coaching, support and guidance as they progress along the path toward fulfilling their spiritual and mystical potential.