Previous Reflections...
July
2001
Hidden Ways of God
Although we may not know it, most of us, deep down, are mystics. Along this line, Carmel today raises our awareness that we are to take the ordinariness of everyday life, seriously.
Mysticism has many sides to it. There is the mysticism of joy, those moments when we experience ourselves beyond ourselves, the times when we are caught up in the goodness of life. As a type of balance to this, there is the mysticism of darkness, in which our constant companion is that of wondering if the night is absurdity and a void, or possibly the nearness of God.
Then, too, there is a type of prophetic mysticism, that still small voice telling us that things should be different from the way they are. Lastly, there is the mysticism of the restless heart. In this mysticism, intuitively we know that we have already tasted God, but not fully. Thus, the inner ache and longing.
(Based on "Grace and Religious Experience" by Donald Buggert, included in Master of the Sacred Page, The Carmelite Institute, Washington, D.C., 1997, pp.201-204.)
Sister Mary Jo Loebig, O.C.D.