save us from 'mystics'

when i set up this blog (um, 25 minutes ago), a couple of the names i wanted were taken. so, i figured, there must be folks out there identifying as 'catholic' and 'mystic' and who blog to boot! apparently not.

at any rate, i 'googled' "catholic" and "mystic" and came up with stories of monks (ok, just one) who advocate freelove and 'shrooms' and a 'born-again' catholic who decries the mass as cannibalism. the rest were even worse.

folks: newsflash: 'mysticism' is not synonymous with 'nutball', 'heretic' or 'woolly-headed, faux-zen, pope-hating monk'. mysticism does not mean 'speaking in tongues', 'faith-healer' or 'psychopath'.

i'm afraid 'mystic' means something rather other. and i'm hoping that ignorant catholic lay-people and even more ignorant atheists that who are looking for the next big non-fiction book topic will stop ascribing every tom, dick and lunatic harry the label of 'mystic.'

mon dieu!!! read a book!!! a 'mystic' is one who experiences g-d through images in a direct, personal, emotive and (yes) innovative way. it is intensely personal, idiosyncratic and strange. but it is not necessarily heretical, unorthodox or even progressive. it simply means that some folks think about god, the world and life in a story-book way that uses a highly-developed set of symbols and images that others don't (readily) understand.

normal people. married people. suburban people. they can and are mystics. mystics don't wear signs that say 'mystic'. they don't wear habits (necessarily). they aren't cloistered religious (necessarily). they don't even 'believe' in 'god' (in the normal sense of the phrase) (necessarily).

and i sure wish folks who don't know anything about religion, spirituality, and haven't ever read any books on mysticism, or don't know who St. John of the Cross is, would SHUT. UP. NOW. At least, if folks would stop buying their books. I'd be EVER so grateful.

i have a feeling this hasn't cleared anything up. but i sure do feel better.