On Mystical Prayer

From the very beginning, encounter with the God of Israel, with the God of Jesus Christ, was always "mystical" -- that is, experiential.  Yahweh was never satisfied with man's ideas or concepts of Who He Is; instead, He always wanted us to experience Him in person.  Abraham heard His Voice, strongly enough for him to leave his people and venture out to a land he knew not where.  And the Voice (probably an inner voice) did not abandon or disappoint him.  God was always with him, even when he made mistakes along the way.

Moses experienced God in the burning bush.  Even though he was afraid, even though he had no confidence in his own ability, the experience of God was strong enough in Moses to eventually lead the Israelites out of the clutches of Pharoah's army.

If God did not want us to experience Him, even now, while still in the flesh, He would not have sent Jesus:  He who sees Me sees the Father; the Father and I are one.  Later, the apostle John was to write: 

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched---this we proclaim concerning the Word of life ...We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (1John: 1).

 

"Fellowship"  -- it means "experience, touching, sharing, friendship."  We are supposed to go beyond thinking about God, imagining God, to friendship with God.  We are supposed to experience Him body, mind, and soul.  This is what we mean by "mystical prayer."  People imagine that mystics are few and far between, but I tell you that anyone who comes to God in real prayer will experience Him.  He is more ready to reveal Himself to us than we are to see, hear, and taste Him.

 

The psalmist says, "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."  He means "taste," not something else.  The experience of God is not a left-brain activity; we know Him as we know our friends -- not by "thinking" about them, but by experiencing them -- right brain, left brain, heart, mind, body, and soul.  Mystical prayer is an intuitive grasp of the whole -- God is the center of everything that has life and breath, even of the stones of the earth.  Once we experience Him, everything is holy and inexpressibly beautiful!

 

Immature religion is not experiential; it is cognitive, in the mind.  It is inauthentic in terms of experiencing God, and it is an excuse not to love.  It is more tribal than embracing.  Most of us grew up with the "law" that we were not to enter a non-Catholic church; that was immature religion, based on the understanding of the times.  There are still a few hold-overs from that era, but most of the   church has grown beyond that understanding.

 

Richard Rohr compares organized religion to a holding tank, a container that holds us in one spot long enough for us to discover what the real questions are, and to learn to struggle with the real questions.  According to him, some form of organized religion is necessary for the first half of life...to give you at least the right words to tell you that mystical experience is possible.  The trouble is that it usually tells you that it's possible, but just don't expect it. It's only for special people.

 

A Sunday service and believing a certain set of doctrines -- which is what organized religion means for most people -- is not enough.  All that can do is hold you inside the boxing ring, but it doesn't teach you how to box with the mystery.

 

"Mystical prayer" is looking with a new set of eyes, which are not comparing, competing, judging, labeling, and analyzing, but receiving the moment in its wholeness....If you lead off with the left brain, you lead off with the judging, calculating, dualistic mind; you can't access the holy because the only thing that gets in is what you already think, what you already agree with.  And God is, by definition, unfamiliar, always mysterious, beyond, more.

 

The goal of mystical prayer is divine union -- union with what is, with the moment, with yourself, with the divine -- which means with everything. (Interview with Richard Rohr. St Anthony Magazine, May, 2014).

 

St. Francis, in his union with the sun and the moon, the wolf and the birds, the lilies of the field and with his beloved "Lady Poverty," was a mystic.  In mysticism, the focus is not on what we are doing to "attain perfection," but always on what God is doing in us and in the world around us.  It is opening ourselves to all that is -- the good, the bad, the ugly -- and seeing it from the perspective of the Divine Life in us.  It is entirely possible for each one of us, no matter who or where we are on the path, to experience God.  How that happens will be different for each one of us, but if we are willing and open to it, if we "hunger and thirst for righteousness," if we are pure of heart, we shall see God.