Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

“Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic.” (G.K. Chesterton)

October is a mystic’s month. We celebrate St. Francis of Assisi (Oct 4), St. Faustina (Oct 5), and St. Bruno (Oct 6). However, two Carmelite nuns stand out: St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), whose feast is October 1; and St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) whose feast is October 15. Therese considered Teresa a spiritual mother. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared Therese of Lisieux a “Doctor of the Church.” Explore these mystics at leisure. But here’s a word from St. Therese’s autobiography, A Story of a Soul,

"[My] longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling. I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in hope of finding an answer. Chapters 12 and 13 of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians caught my attention… I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet, or teacher; that the Church is composed of various members; and that the eye cannot be the hand… [but] I was not satisfied and did not find peace.

I persevered… and found this encouraging theme: ‘Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others.’ For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love... At length I had found peace of mind.

.... I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realized that love sets off the bounds of all vocations…that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.

Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy… I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church... In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.”