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Gregory of Nyssa elaborated a theory of the stages of the mystical life that had a profound impact on the future of Christian spirituality. For Gregory, the spiritual journey is a dynamic adventure of progressively deeper union with God that can never stagnate or get boring, since our created nature can never contain or comprehend the fullness of the infinite God. Since God surpasses our intellect, Gregory identifies a certain darkness that characterizes the mystical experience, a theme that would be developed by many subsequent writers over the centuries.

The mystics have been touched by God in an extraordinary way and in some cases have written extraordinarily well of the inner journey. Every mystical text is the story of an individual’s encounter with God. In those words we can find inspiration and motivation to seek, with the same single-minded perseverance, to be open to God’s voice. Not every mystic will appeal to everyone, but one or the other may strike a chord in the heart of someone trying to live the Gospel and know God.

Brother André Bessette joked, “My superiors showed me the door and I stayed there,” and, “I was at the door forty years without going out.” According to the Holy Cross constitutions of the time, the porter lived, ate and prayed somewhat separately from the community, near the entrance. Brother André’s first room had a roughly upholstered bench for a bed, a wardrobe, a pitcher and a bowl. Only a crucifix and an image of Saint Joseph hung on the walls. …. Speaking later in life of all his responsibilities, Brother André said, “I never refused to do what was asked of me.

As our lives grow more pressured, as we grow more tired, and as we begin to talk more about burnout, we fantasize about solitude. We imagine it as a peaceful, quiet place, where we are walking by a lake, watching a sunset, or smoking a pipe in a rocker by the fireplace. But even here, many times we make solitude yet another activity, something we do. Solitude, however, is a form of awareness. It’s a way of being present and perceptive within all of life.

In A.D. 368 when Cappadocia was stricken with a dire famine, the suffering was intense. Basil distributed the entirety of his inheritance to the poor. He also used Church funds to open soup kitchens where he was often found serving food, girded with an apron. Some of the people in his social class, however, both held on to their money and enjoyed profit from the higher prices resulting from decreased supply and increased demand.

The story of Jesus in the Temple tells us that one’s primary family is not our only goal. Another responsibility, one for which our family can prepare us, is the call to follow God in fulfilling our unique mission. In responding to God’s call, we sometimes feel it necessary to do something that will not be understood by family members. Responding to this inner urge can be difficult, especially when close bonds tie together family members. Indeed, the decisions we make as a result of God’s call may cause other family members turmoil and may even lead to ruptured relationships.

Pope Benedict, who addressed 250 artists in the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo’s half-naked, and often grotesque, images, said quite brilliantly, “An essential function of genuine beauty is that it gives humanity a healthy shock!” And then he went on to quote Simone Weil who said that “Beauty is the experimental proof that incarnation is in fact possible.” If there is one moment of beauty, then beauty can indeed exist on this earth; if there is one true moment of Incarnation, then why not incarnation everywhere?