Teaching the course is by no means easy, but there is something familiar about it that reassures me that I’m doing is what I’m supposed to be doing.

St. Thérèse teaches us that Christian mysticism is not an esoteric branch of theology or something separate from the gospel life.

In John, as in all mystics, to be pure and completely open before God is the purpose of the dark night.

Some will see in Catherine every sign of psychosis: the split personality, hearing voices, demonic visions, and a mystical marriage. The signs, to be sure, are there.

There is a mysticism Francis offers to all believers, a mysticism that he illustrates through the gestures of his own life.

If the mystic is one who experiences in an extraordinary way the intimacy with God offered to everyone, then Mary is the model and pattern of the mystical life.