Mystical Renaissance

The Mystics’ time has come again. This second great mystical renaissance has been brewing for decades, as we’ve been asking the questions that bring the divine in direct contact with our souls: “For what purpose have I been born?” and “What is my spiritual path?” and “How can I receive guidance?” These are not ordinary questions. They are spiritual invocations, invitations for God to come closer. And when God hears them, God does exactly that. Caroline Myss Entering the Castle Page 19

Some say that since Jesus walked the earth people have been trying to enter into a spiritual union with God. There have been enhanced waves of mysticism from time to time, such as the time when hermits flocked to the desert in the early years of Christianity; and the time of the medieval mysticism of the Beguines, of those within monasteries and convents, as well as those walled up in anchorages, such as Julian of Norwich.

Today, we are living in a time of another wave of mysticism, not a time when people necessarily leave the world in order to follow their desire to have a spiritual union with God, though some do, but a time of mystics living and working in the world, among their families, their co-workers, and their friends, while practicing a daily spiritual life of prayer and contemplation in order to find God’s guidance, purpose and spiritual path for them.

These people may not be found in our houses of worship, they are not always “religious” people who go to church services on Sunday, but they are people who are trying to find a way of living their lives in and through God in all aspects of their daily lives.  

Many have been disappointed and let down by the Church but that has only made them search for another way to be in spiritual union with God. They have no quarrel with God only with church hierarchy that remembers only those who have money to give their aging and needy buildings but do not think of those who can no longer get to church by themselves though they may have served the church long and faithfully throughout their days.

God does not forget them; God leaves the ninety and nine to search for the one who is lost and, when the lost is found, carries him on his shoulder and takes him back home.

© Judith Lawrence