Christian mysticism
“Everyone is called to be a monk because a monk is supposed to be a perfect Christian!” (St. John Chrysostom)
“Every Christian is called to the heights of intimate mystical union with God.” (Pope John Paul II)
Pope John Paul II once spoke of the richness of Eastern Christian Spirituality, with its emphasis on “divinization,” the process whereby a Christian is transformed into a sharer in the Divinity of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Father pointed out that this emphasis on divinization reflects a conviction that every Christian is called to the heights of intimate mystical union with God.
The Eastern Christian strives more to participate-in than to imitate the activity-of Christ. In the light of Eastern Christian Spirituality, true holiness lies in a heartfelt identification with Christ in the mysteries of His Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and [identification] in the mysteries of His Life in souls, together-with a wholehearted abandonment to the working of the Holy Spirit, which [abandonment] allows Him to animate one’s every thought, word, and action from within.
It is remarkable that during the past 100 years, the Holy Spirit has seen fit to affirm and exalt the principles of the Eastern Christian Spiritual Tradition through the lives and writings of several Western Saints, Blesseds, Venerables and Servants of God. But, He has done more than that. He has also shed new light on the mysteries of the Interior Life of Jesus.
Indeed, through these mystical writings, the Holy Spirit has actually given Latin Christians the gift of an unprecedented understanding of the Interior Life of Jesus . This understanding of the Interior Life of Jesus can lead to a deeper and more complete participation in the Divine Life of God which, in turn, will lead to a new growth of Holiness in the Church and in the World.
To learn more about Mysticism as “The Spirituality for the 21st Century”, click here. To learn more about contemporary Christian Mysticism click here.
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