Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Adversaries and Enemies of Holy and Spiritual persons!!!!!


to speak of mysticism today means to face adverse criticism. anyone who deals with this topic, in fact, runs the risk of being presumed to want to talk about a mysterious knowledge or experience that belongs, strictly speaking, only to the saints; or he risks being suspected of inscribing occult doctrines which find no place in a world illuminated by knowledge. in the same way, those who often go to church or participate in spiritual exercises that aim at the perfection of their spiritual life, are subject to misunderstanding; His friends may end up accusing him of fanaticism and his tendency to loneliness and repatriation may lead him to flee their company.




one of the reasons many feel dislike for those living an intense spiritual life is a certain ignorance or prejudice about the nature of holiness. some, in fact, identify it with extraordinary supernatural phenomena that god sometimes grants to the saints, such as private revelations, stigmata, levitation, effluvi of light and perfume and the like. These phenomena are strictly gratuitous gifts, which, usually, can not be obtained only by virtue of one's personal efforts. So, when people hear that someone is struggling to be a saint or mystic, he thinks he wants only to receive these extraordinary gifts: then ends up to do with mockery, seeing in this a form of vanity. 

One of the reasons why many feel aversion to those who live an intense spiritual life is a certain ignorance or prejudice concerning the nature of holiness. some, in fact, identify it with extraordinary supernatural phenomena that god sometimes grants to the saints, such as private revelations, stigmata, levitation, effluvi of light and perfume and the like. These phenomena are strictly gratuitous gifts, which, usually, can not be obtained only by virtue of one's personal efforts. So, when people hear that someone is struggling to be a saint or mystic, he thinks he wants only to receive these extraordinary gifts: then ends up to do with mockery, seeing in this a form of vanity.

Another reason that underlies the aversion that some feel toward the devout life is skepticism, typical of the educated and intelligent people, those who are full of experience of the things of the world, but totally lacking in the spirituality that allows to recognize the work of God in some privileged souls: the skeptics quickly liquidate categorizing mystical experiences as simply because their assured, devoted very little time to avvendo preghierea, have never had such experiences. St. John of the Cross compares them rightly to the scribes and fariseri, whom the gentleman accused not only of not having embraced the life of prayers, but also of hindering those who wished to do so. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who shut the kingdom of heaven before men; in fact, you do not enter and hold back those who would like to enter it 

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