We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Love and the Message of the Mystics
FREE Catholic Classes
Interview With Carmelite Father Maximilian Herraiz
QUERETARO, Mexico, OCT. 31, 2004 (Zenit) - The Church needs more spirit and less attention to structure, says Carmelite Father Maximilian Herraiz, a leading expert on the spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
Father Herraiz, who is in Mexico giving a series of lectures and seminars on St. Teresa, was a professor of theology at the University of Valencia, in Spain, and founder of the International Center of Specialization on St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross in Avila, Spain.
He is now a missionary in the Ivory Coast. In this interview he shared his insights into the two Carmelites.
Q: How does Africa receive the mysticism of St. Teresa or St. John of the Cross?
Father Herraiz: With great enthusiasm, because in Africa there are many people and few things. What we have here, in the West, is many things and few people. When your are monopolized by the supermarket and the television, there is little in the way of personal relationships.
What matters in Africa is personal relationships, because there are no distractions. And they are able to keep their gaze on the God that Jesus revealed to us. But there is a limit. Not only the anguished hunger for bread, but a hunger for learning. Africa is the world's great ignored one, except by the predators.
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Q: Is the nucleus of the mysticism in both saints renunciation of the world?
Father Herraiz: There is a positive option without which all detachment hardens, shrivels and kills a person.
It is the radical option for life, truth, freedom and, very concretely, the option for love, for God. When we opt for love, we find that there is too much extra furniture in our homes. Mysticism tells us that love is the essential dimension of life.
Q: How can one summarize what mysticism is in itself?
Father Herraiz: It is a relationship with the divine Person that -- inevitably -- transfigures, and gives depth and solidity to human relationships.
Mystics, like Africans, are happy with the minimum. What it means is that there is a love that liberates from the many enslavements of things that have passed from being useful to being necessary.
Q: What is Christianity for St. Teresa or for St. John of the Cross?
Father Herraiz: To live an intimate relationship with God, a relationship that creates community and good for others.
The mystics are the great teachers of being. We, in Spanish, have the distinction between "being" and "being present in a specific place." I can "be" in a specific place and yet not "be."
I can "be" in the front pew in the Church and not "be" a Christian personality, built on the foundation of "being" a slave of others, even if the term is frightening.
To "be" the least of all and to decide to give others joy -- that is when I build myself. This is the message of the mystics.
Q: Is there a viable definition for Christian mysticism?
Father Herraiz: Mysticism, in addition to being a dactyl, is a mysterious word. There are close to 60 definitions of it. But, said in a general way, mysticism is a giving in to falling in love, freely, and with determination.
Mysticism is to feel in love and to be committed to seeking a relationship with the one who has invaded one's life. It is God who invades as a grace, never as a punishment.
Q: What is necessary to have the mysticism of St. Teresa or of St. John of the Cross received by Christians as a wonderful way of being enamored of God?
Father Herraiz: We need people who pray, who reflect, who study, who dialogue with the great witnesses of what it means to be a person in general and of Christianity, which is our home. Not poorly trained priests or churches dedicated to worship and nothing else.
The problem of the Church is that much more time has been dedicated to the structure than to the spirit. And we must change this. The mystics are people of a maximum of spirit and a minimum of structures.
Contact
Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org
CA, US
Catholic Online - Publisher, 661 869-1000
info@yourcatholicvoice.org
Keywords
St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, mysticism, Saints, Christian
More Catholic PRWire
Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716
A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain
Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.
The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul
A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.
Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell
My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz
Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell
Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online
Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online
Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online
State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online
Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online
2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online
Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online
Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online
Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online
Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online
Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online
Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online
Full Circle
Robert Gieb
Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite
Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony
Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell
World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online
Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA
Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online
A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe
Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly
Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard
The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely
Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow
A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow
Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea
Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard
Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol
Edging God Out
Paul Sposite
Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow
George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online
Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell
Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite
Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol
Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol
Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online
Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online
Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online
Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online
Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online
Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online
Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol