This past week, I have been traveling in Europe: Fatima, Lourdes, Avila, and soon enough up to Notre Dame in Paris. What a privilege it is to be in these places so near to the feasts of our Lady of Fatima (10/13) and St. Teresa of Avila (10/15)! Yes, two very important women in my life: Mother Mary and St. Teresa.
Indeed, I have come to realize my need for and indebtedness to the holy women of God’s Church, to those who are living and those who have gone before and set forth a glorious testimony of the feminine genius and mystique of deep, mystical prayer.
Ah, the Holy Women! To be sure, there are also men: St. John of the Cross and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose towns I am also visiting. They, too, have set forth the great mystical vision. But I must say, I am particularly indebted to the great women, to the mystics and Doctors of the Church such as St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Rose of Lima, St. Therese of Lisieux, Sister Faustina, and others who ventured into deep, contemplative, and spousal union with the Lord.
How their deep love, their intensity, and their union with God has inspired me in my own journey toward contemplative prayer! Though I cannot access their spousal love for the Lord, I am able to transpose their experiences to a deep spiritual experience of sonship with God the Father, for He is Abba and I am a son of His.
Ah, the great Catherine of Sienna: her love for the Lord and her wisdom, rooted in both suffering and affliction, joy and ecstasy! She personally met the Lord. What a witness! What a glory! What a testimony the mystics gave us! St. Teresa of Avila: she who encountered the Lord and yet suffered greatly. She was even suspected of heresy and her visions and experiences submitted to the Inquisition.
Alas, Lord, spare us for our suspicious rejection of the normal Christian life! St. Rose of Lima, St. Margaret Mary, and Sister Faustina were considered by many of their contemporaries to be strange, excessive—even possessed! Yet, they knew Him whom they had encountered. They knew His love for them and were willing to suffer with Him and for Him.
Spare us, O Lord, for our obtuseness, our doubt, and our lack of faith in assigning to them, who experienced a normal Christian life, the label of insanity, oddness, extremeness, mental unbalance, and even possession!
They encountered you. They had met you and experienced you. Yet so many of us thought them strange and unbalanced. Forgive us, Lord. Too often have we substituted extreme rationalism for the mystical vision of you, who go beyond mere words and human descriptions.
Forgive us, Lord, for while our intellect is our crowning glory, sometimes we forget that you cannot be reduced to the limits of human concepts.
The mystics remind us of God’s transcendence and we often made them suffer for this.
Yes, Lord, while it is surely our obligation to submit all things to your holy Magisterium, forgive us, Lord, for the times when we have been too slow or skeptical to accept the bold testimony that the mystics gave us: that you are Other and that you draw us beyond what is comfortably understood by us.
Thank you, Lord, for the mystical tradition, for the holy women and men, beginning with John the Apostle, who have testified to us of you, who may have encountered you in ways more deep than words. They suffered much, often at our hands, for their visions, but they knew and would not deny you, whom they encountered.
The intellectual tradition of the Church is magnificent and necessary, but so is the mystical tradition, a tradition not opposed to, or really even distinct from, the intellectual tradition. For the same God is experienced and speaks in both ways. And while all things must be submitted to the sacred Magisterium of the Church, the intellectual and the mystical traditions should both be appreciated and respected.
In particular I must say that as a man, so relentlessly male, I must, despite my gifts as a man, be balanced and completed by the holy women of the Church. Indeed they have been my teachers, especially in the ways of prayer.
Thanks be to God. Some of the most beautiful women I know hang out at the basilica here in Washington D.C. Here is a video I have compiled in gratitude to some very important women in my life:
You can add Dr. Anca-Marie Cerna, President of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Bucharest who addressed the Ordinary Synode on the Family last Friday October 16, 2015, to the list of influential holy women. She may not be a mystic but she obviously has a deeper intellectual insight which appears lacking in a significant number of cardinals attempt to blurr the interpretation of Church docterine.
Robertlifelongcatholic,
I agree, I read Dr. Cerna’s intervention at Voice of the Family (THE WORLD NEEDS REAL FREEDOM, LIBERATION FROM SIN, SAYS ROMANIAN DOCTOR AT THE SYNOD). She really summed up Catholic doctrine and teaching in the three minutes that were allocated. I would suggest that all should read her intervention at the Synod. She has incredible insight born from real experience and she had the fortitude to say it in front of the Synod participants. She’s certainly an outstanding example of a lay Catholic upholding the faith. God Bless her!
Yes! I agree wholeheartedly. This doctor’s address deserves a very wide readership. I wish she was in charge of the synod!
Msgr., so true. It is amazing that just one tiny spark of the mystical can transform a soul and lead it on a path so unsuspected and so wonderful. Those same women had a trans-formative affect on me (along with St. Bridget of Sweden). It has become so nice to be able to see others who have had similar experience. You can almost pick them out of a crowd. And it is amazing how most of those who have had this profound influence on me are women. I rejoice in that!
God Bless
The Holy Women of GOD brought out the integrity in men and the men must uphold the dignity of women. This must be the outlook of the moderns to truly appreciate the symbiotic relationship of both sexes and not to rule over anyone nor compete against each other for GOD made us male and female. Yet each one of us is the epitome of the creation of GOD made in HIS image and likeness endowed with all faculties even the supernatural. Yes, the Holy Women of GOD are profusely gifted of the transcendent because they use their hearts unlike the men who use their intellects in their search for truth. In complementarity the Church must harvest these gifts to truly discern GOD’s plans, most especially now when all kinds of perversions abound. Holy Women Saints of GOD, please pray for us.
You’re wrong. The Church, the Scriptures, nature, and nature’s God all teach that “woman was made for man, not man for woman” and that the wife is subject to the husband.
There’s a huge mistake on this article
Saying if you follow the spirit you are not under the law.
THAT SINS OF THE FLESH CRUSH THE SPIRIT WITHIN US – My point is that you should live in accord with the Spirit and you will not yield to the cravings of the flesh. The Flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; the two are directly opposed. This is why you do not do what your will intends. If you are guided by the spirit you are not under the law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, bickering jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I have warned you before: those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God! (Galatians 5:16-21)AT SINS OF THE FLESH CRUSH THE SPIRIT WITHIN US – My point is that you should live in accord with the Spirit and you will not yield to the cravings of the flesh. The Flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; the two are directly opposed. This is why you do not do what your will intends. If you are guided by the spirit you are not under the law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, bickering jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I have warned you before: those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God! (Galatians 5:16-21)
OK, but are you aware that the line to which you object is also from St. Paul? Further are you aware that the line you object to is in the very passage you use to refute the article?
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Gal 5:18)
Your refutation needs a lot of work. If you still see a conflict you ought to talk to St. Paul and the Holy Spirit because they said it I didn’t
This article makes me feel so happy… Thank you, Msgr Pope.
It seems to me that the “image of God” is the capacity to image God who is Love. Neither male nor female but one in Christ. Adam = Human.
Man’s not imaging this love for the neighbour as the self reaps what it sows – ‘wrath’. The lack of charity brought and brings about the ruination of family and society. See OT. Sodom and Gommorah are prime examples – yet harsher judgement awaits those who judge and scapegoat.
What the mind cannot conceive the mystic heart can.
At Fatima the angel is about to strike the world with a sword.
The splendour radiating from Mary, Her perfect capacity to fully (perfect means wholesome/full) image God’s love, God who is Love – prevents the sword falling. Mercy greater than justice. Love stronger than death.
The good doctor needs to temper her words or reap what her ‘intellect’ sows.
Surprised at a doctor lacking in empathy like this.
God bless us all
Mary guide, the truest contemplative and mystic Heart.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand some of your ideas or what you’re trying to convey, but I wonder at your condemnation of the Dr. What did she say that was untrue? Or are you judging the intentions of her heart? I’m not trying to be mean, I just don’t understand.