Ministering to Mystics

1
Ministering to Mystics

• A Not Too Scientific Account

2
Many Roles

• Those who are asked to serve as ministers to
  people with mystical experiences do not have one
  role but many.

3
Ecclesial Roles

• Much of work with people with mystic experience
  is determined by ones own churches general
  understanding of ministry.
• For most Christian churches, this means the
  regular ministry of Word and Sacrament or
  Ordinances.

4
The Stabilizer

• Word and Sacrament are often particularly
  important to many mystics for two reasons
• Word and Sacrament provide the language,
  including the symbols, that can help mystics
  formulate their experiences.
• Often Word and Sacrament can provide needed
  stability for those who have intense spiritual
  lives.
• Word and Sacrament are especially important in
  the Dark Night of the Soul where God appears to
  be absent.

5
The Listener

• Many people who have mystical experiences in the
  modern world have difficulty accepting those
  experiences.
• Are my experiences a sign of mental illness.
• Do these things happen to normal people.
• I am not even sure that I believe in God why
  should I have such experiences.

6
Not Judges

• Listening does not mean judging what people tell
  you about their lives
• Listening does not mean not have an option about
  what people tell you about their lives and
  experiences.

7
Validation

• Few mystical experiences need validation. One of
  the marks of mystical experiences, in fact, seems
  to be that they are self-validating.
• The most important thing is to help a person
  realize that their experience is one that other
  people share.

8
Multiple Theologies

• Interestingly, similar experiences often can have
  several theological interpretations.
• I.e. Sarah Edwards experience which she and her
  husband interpreted in terms of Calvinism is
  almost identical with Teresas experience which
  he interpreted in terms of Catholicism.
• Be open to helping a person find a theological
  voice that suits, not only the experience, but
  their whole style of life.

9
Theological Styles

• Theological and philosophical styles vary
  according to
• Social location
• Political and social commitments
• Philosophic interests and backgrounds
• Personal tastes
• Family history.

10
Maintaining Resources

• The most important gift you can give someone
  struggling with interpreting their experiences
  are resources that help them to understand their
  lives
• The writings of other mystics or philosophers
• Readings that illustrate the spiritual journey
• Poetry and Music

11
Serving as A Spiritual Guide

• You cannot lead anyone deeper than you have gone
  yourself. To serve as a spiritual guide is to be
  honest about ones own experience.
• Humility is never out of fashion. If you are not
  sure that you have the depth to help, you
  probably dont.

12
Learn to Share

• Be willing to share your own experiences, if any.
• Remember that ones own experience is not the
  norm for others. To be called to share is not to
  be called to shape.
• One fulfills the compulsion to tell the world by
  telling the world, not by controlling the world.

13
Shared Truths

• God has been around for a very long time and has
  spoken with many people in many cultures and many
  historical circumstances.
• If so, neither the person that you are directing
  nor yourself has received a message that does not
  have some common elements and understandings with
  others experiences.

14
No Quick Fix

• Avoid the temptation to offer quick fixes to
  spiritual dilemmas
• Spiritual growth may be marked by extraordinary
  events, visions, illuminations, etc., but those
  seeds require years to become mature plants.
• Meditation techniques are not the key to
  spiritual growth, no matter how useful they may
  have been or be in ones own experience.
• Think about the people in your Yoga or Zen class/

15
Mysteries

• Be sure not to strip peoples lives of mystery by
  explaining too much.
• Help people realize that mystical experience,
  whether that of ascent or affect, always has its
  high and its low points. To embrace the mystic
  way is to embrace both as the gift of God.

16
Alone

• Almost all mystical writings echo Plotinus
  statement that the experience is the flight of
  the alone to the Alone.
• Most mystical writers, however, also assert that
  the mystic is the person who finds a new sense of
  vocation and life through their experiences.
• Love is often the means and the goal of mystical
  life.