Christian Mystical Theology: A Way of Life

By Patricia F. Frisch A Married Christian Mystic

Christian Mystical Theology: A Way of Life. Mystical theology as a way of life is Bible based. It includes single and married laypeople and the religious who were mystics known throughout centuries up to contemporary times. Mystics are messengers into the Christian and human communities from their divine encounter with Jesus.

In chapter 1, "Committed Eros," Patricia writes about her dual marriages--her human marriage to Richard F. Frisch, fifty-three years, and her mystical marriage with Jesus, thirty-five years. "Committed Eros" shows her longing for faithful community development. Part 1 chapters also explain mystical theology, the language of the mystics, references for the enrichment, and in-depth exploration of mystics from the Bible up to contemporary mystics and the development of the Trinity.

Part 2 flows from part 1 with examples from the Gospels and the Christian history of committed mystical friendships through the presence of Jesus. A unique understanding of Jesus and his mother's relationship to the incarnation becomes the basis for the following chapters regarding committed mystical, agape friendships. Church leadership, intellectual pursuits, and everyday life are finding balance and harmony. Harmony is rising through the mystics, contemplatives, and ordinary people who enjoy peace through prayerful participation in contemporary mystical theology. The book ends with the hope that everyone finds ways to share their prayer journey with the communities.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889431060

Book preview

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Christian Mystical Theology

A Way of Life

Patricia F. Frisch, A Married Christian Mystic

ISBN 979-8-88943-105-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88943-106-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Patricia F. Frisch

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Scripture references are from two versions of the Bible:

Holy Bible: Reference Edition: Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command: Word of Christ Printed in Red Letter: End-of-Verse Reference (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1994).

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible: Revised Standard Version (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

My Backstory

Introduction

Part 1

Chapter 1

Committed Eros: Mystical Marriage and Human Marriage

Mystical Marriage and Human Marriage

Chapter 2

The Description of Christian Mystical Theology and the Mystics

Chapter 3

The Language of the Mystics

Chapter 4

The History of Mystical Theology and the Mystics

Chapter 5

Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity

Part 2: Relationships with Jesus Christ

Relationships with Jesus Christ

Introduction: Female and Male Mystical Friendships Connected through Jesus Christ

Female and Male Mystical Friendships Connected through Jesus Christ

Chapter 6

The Madonna

Chapter 7

Simply Bethany

Chapter 8

The Legend of Jesus and Veronica

Chapter 9

St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) and St. Clare of Assisi (1194–1253)

Chapter 10

The Discalced Carmelite Order's Mystical Role Models

Chapter 11

Mystical Theology; A Way of Life in the Metamodern Era

A Way of Life in the Metamodern Era

Chapter 12

Mystical Theology; A New Way of Life after the Metamodern Era

A New Way of Life after the Metamodern Era

Bibliography

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Firgun is a Hebrew word for the ungrudging pleasure one takes in someone else's good fortune. Here I want to thank my community of supportive people for their generosity of spirit on my behalf while dreaming about and writing my book.

First and foremost I thank my husband, Richard, for his enduring love and patience, day by day, with his kind nature. Next, Lisa Marie Marengo, O.P. as my diligent Reader, and Tom Conry, talented photographer for the Author Page photograph. Thank you to my family and friends for your listening moments and encouragement of my journey as an author.

I note in particular Ginger Thomas, Publication Specialist, for her resilience and excellent extra efforts during my publication process. The entire staff of Christian Faith Publishing earns my recommendations for a dependable, kind and caring approach to publication.

Thanks to all of you. I am humbled by you, joyful givers! (2 Corinthians 9:7)

My Backstory

My backstory combines personal information, academic discipline, and my journey as a Christian mystic through mystical theology. My husband, Richard Frisch, and I, Patricia Fitzgerald, married in the Roman Catholic parish of St. Gregory the Great in Wilmington, New York, on August 29, 1970. Now married for fifty-three years, we are blessed to have seen and enjoyed our grandchildren. The hope of such a life comes from a psalm from the Hebrew scriptures:

May you see your children's children!

Peace be on Israel! (Psalm 128:6 New Oxford Annotated Bible)

Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel. (Psalm 128:6 KJV)

Richard and I moved multiple times to enhance our education and professional job opportunities. From corporate executive to small-business owner, Richard did all that was necessary to support the family. He is a contemplative, kind, quiet man. He is always my compassionate companion during consolation or disconsolation, whether nonspiritual or spiritual, including while I earned a PhD in pastoral counseling. Without notoriety, Richard and I enjoyed spending more than most of our income on the needs of the family and the poor.

Richard and I met at the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, and graduated in 1970. The summer after my junior year, I studied philosophy and theology with a group of students led by the chaplain Father Middendorf at the University of Dayton. Dialoguing with professors and students in several European Catholic and Protestant universities and centers was thought provoking. We met with Karl Rahner, SJ, one of the individuals most responsible for initiating Vatican II, the ecumenical council; his light-filled presence was transformational. His interest in ecumenical unity lit a fire within me that I could not articulate at the time, but the fire radiated sparks that I could not extinguish.

At the age of thirty-four, I began to follow St. Teresa of Avila's prayer journey as she describes her mystical theological prayer life in her book The Interior Castle. She stated that everyone's prayer is different, an excellent warning to accept and embrace whatever spiritual journey Jesus Christ offers each of us as individuals, unlike anyone else.

Throughout the history of the human race, people have seen the presence of the divine or spiritual realms differently from how Christians articulate them. I respect those irreplaceable ways of understanding and naming the Creator. The Benedictine sisters of Baltimore sent me a card for Lent 2020, and it is my favorite line from the poem about becoming an individual:

On the Edge…

Between the masks we wear and

The beauty of who we really are,

Between choices…

In the following pages, I weave my message from my encounter with Jesus Christ with some of my acquired knowledge from the vast and valuable history of the Christian mystics and mystical theology. The contributions of the mystics to Christianity and human community range from the Scriptures to the metamodern era. All mystics were and are Bible based.

In the contemporary Christian era, many lay individuals, married or single, participate in mystical theology. The journeys toward union with Jesus Christ are simply the divine presence in an individual's life, and their sojourns are as unique as every human God creates. Some have an intense relationship with Jesus and are called mystics and often recognized as leaders. Some are contemplatives, and some prepare through meditation on Scripture and recollection to advance in their prayer journeys. My understanding of mystical theology, a way of being in life, is more inclusive than mystics alone. Hopefully, individuals will have the courage and joy to share their prayer journeys to enrich the human community.

Introduction

Christian mystics write about their encounters of union with Jesus. As many mystics have lived throughout history, each adds a unique interpretation. Karl Rahner, SJ, writes in The Mystical Way in Everyday Life: Sermons, Prayers, and Essays that many today know God's presence in their lives. They are everyday people who express their encounters with Jesus and have their subsequent actions benefit the community. They dwell in simplicity and mutual connection with other people, staying alive daily.

Rather than the rational and logical emphasis on the intellectual life of the modern era (the fifteenth to the mid-twentieth century), the metamodern era (1975 to the present) is the harbinger of the deeper life of rising human emotion such as peace and love. The transformation of the fake self to the authentic self through contemplation is living close to the divine presence. Father Richard Rohr teaches this process of transformation (Richard Rohr, Contemplation, Richard Rohr You Tube Channel Name, January 2, 2023, YouTube video, 20:34, https://youtu.be/aZZYlpfZA). The impact of the contemplatives and mystics' consciousness and awareness of God's presence lead the way for a more peaceful and gentle life.

Part 1 of this book begins with chapter 1, Committed Eros, which focuses on mystical marriage and human marriage as tangible expressions of committed love. In his video Contemplation, Father Richard Rohr said he has always thought sexual relationships happen without the mental aspects. The sexual relationship is being in communion with another being. Cutting off the mental is living underneath the mental in the arena of pure being (YouTube video, Richard Rohr on contemplation). Chapter 2 is about the language of the mystics. Chapter 3 addresses mystical theology. Chapter 4 addresses the history of mystical theology and the mystic, committed love expressed by single mystics throughout history—including the metamodern era—that are available in numerous books and articles cited for in-depth exploration in chapter 4. Chapter 5, on the development of the Trinity, completes part 1.

Part 2 flows from part 1 with examples from the Gospels and Christian history of committed mystical friendships knit together through the presence of Jesus. Part 2 begins with a unique understanding of Jesus and his mother in the incarnation. Their relationship is a basis for the chapters following regarding committed agape friendships.

All the relationships in part 1 and part 2 reach out to others, forming communities based on agape love—i.e., unconditional acceptance of all humans.

Purpose and use of this book

As a Christian mystic and author, my encounter with the divine is expressed in the opening chapter, Committed Eros. Jesus always asks his mystics to bring a new message from an encounter with Jesus Christ into human communities, See I make all things new (Revelations 21:5). In plain words, every mystic has a message for the community from encountering Jesus Christ. Within this book are references for understanding mystical theology, the history thereof, and the chance to read about individual mystics or particular eras of mystical theology and the mystics. Each era influences the mystics' messages because of geological areas, cultures, and societies (Julia Lamm, A Guide to Christian Mysticism, 10,14).

Jesus calls his mystics from many divergent ways of life: some have sacred human marriages, live as religious individuals or friends living communities. Some also theologians (Carole Straw, Saint Gregory the Great, Encyclopedia Britannica, updated March 8, 2022). This book is full of references and stories about Christian mystics and their prayer lives based upon mystical theology and their way of being in life. Their way of life involves encountering Jesus in mystical marriage, also known as union with Jesus. Their stories abound with the ability to educate people concerning their consciousness of Jesus and the messages developed during their unique encounters.

The Christian mystics offered the messages to the human community for everyone's benefit. As the book presents the background for Christian mysticism, the reader can understand why it revolves around the mystical marriage between a mystic and Jesus. Human marriage is the metaphor for the divine union with Jesus and the spiritual friendships between a man and a woman in history. Today there exists openness for all to find spiritual relationships with Jesus; the mystics tend to be models and leaders in Christianity. For many people moving toward union with Jesus Christ, contemplative prayer encourages a closer relationship with him. Individuals seek and find the divine as many ways as people God created. The mystics' special prayers address God as thou and knows God's love for them in silence (Buber, Martin. I And Thou. Translated by Walter Kaufmann [New York, New York: Free Press, 2023]). St. Teresa's book The Way of Perfection, presents all the kinds of prayer she wants her nuns to engage in and emphatically states that the mystics' prayers are from God (Kieran Kavanaugh, St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection, Study Edition [Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2000], 270–273).

The narratives found in the Christian Scriptures form the basis from which the mystics express their relationship with Jesus. Throughout history, Christian theology debates about who is considered a mystic. The debate focuses on the mark of a personal relationship with God. As St. Teresa of Avila said:

Before prayer, endeavor to realize Whose Presence you are approaching and to Whom you are about to speak, keeping in mind Whom you are addressing. If our lives were a thousand times as long as they are, we should never fully understand how we ought to behave towards God, before Whom the very Angels tremble, Who can do all He wills, and with Whom to wish is to accomplish. (St. Teresa of Avila, Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, trans. E. Allison Peers [Mineola, New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1946])

In St. Teresa's book The Way of Perfection, she supports her mystics and advises spiritual directors:

not to disturb those who, in a short time, make more progress, causing them to turn back in order to walk at our pace; nor would I want to make those who fly like eagles with the favors God grants them to advance like fettered chickens. (Kieran Kavanaugh, St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection, Study Edition, [Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2000], chapter 17, subsection: Interpretive Notes, 188)

The West has downplayed, forgotten, and even hated the mystics since the Age of Enlightenment. Christian mysticism was considered an error in the domination of reason and logic. Today the mystical right brain is numbed and ignored by fundamentalism, liberal theology, and religious academia. In light of corruption and scandals in some Western Christian churches, many people in the Western world have crossed over into Far Eastern spirituality. They hope to fill the hunger for discovering the depths of their hearts. However, before his death on January 22, 2022, at the age of ninety-five, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist mystical monk, left us with a challenge. He said he did not try to make people Buddhists; he wanted people to return to their original cultures and traditions to make a compassionate difference there (Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, Thich Nhat Hanh, aired September 18, 2003, video, 5:55, https://www.pbs.org/video/religion-and-ethics-newsweekly-thich-nhat-hanh).

This book emphasizes a return to an understanding of the intimate, intense, and passionate awareness of the Christian mystics' marriage with Jesus and the pathways to this union with Jesus Christ. Recorded throughout history are the mystical marriages of single men and women in religious life as nuns, priests, and theologians. Hopefully, the emphasis on seeking and supporting all prayerful people who journey to a closer union with the divine will find the courage to share their undiscovered or hidden stories. In sum, all are encouraged to share the fruits of their prayer lives to increase peace, love, and joy in human communities.

The target population is professionals and laypersons

The target population for this educational book is individuals with an ever-expanding understanding of what it is to be a human being. Starting with the Gospels, Jesus chose simple people to enrich his church through the writings and works of the mystics. The slowly commencing metamodern era provides a rich arena for introducing new ideas, followed by the mystics' messages generated during their consciousness with Jesus Christ. These messages include the unknown stories of lay couples and individuals who follow Jesus through the way of life called mystical theology. Mystical perception and intuitiveness are not found in intellectual pursuits even though many theologians are also mystics.

Often Christian mystics are portrayed as unrealistic, idealistic, and separated from worldly realities. This book challenges these accusations with the creative thinking and behavior that flows from prayer. Prayer is an excellent way to speak to God and be open and receptive to Jesus's communication with us. We are fortunate to have many forms of prayer to choose from: oral, mental, and contemplative. These primary prayer forms are for blessing and adoration, petition and intercession, and thanksgiving. This book includes the infused prayer of the Christian mystics and the ensuing fruits.

Professionals can reap the benefits of this book and work with various individuals and groups on the development of human beings. Mental health counselors, alcohol and drug counselors, pastoral counselors, professors, priests, preachers, ministers, medical professionals, chaplains, and adult religious-education teachers can use it as supplemental material for engaging in discussions. Anyone who works with people's emotions will benefit from knowing more about the lives and prayers of Christian mystics.

Theology and religious studies students can choose chapters for further exploration, commentaries, or references for reviews, articles, and essays. Mystical theology and her mystics are a jewel in a vast field of endeavors about Christianity and the presence of the divine any human can seek and find. Beyond a large professional audience, there is also a reason for this book to be placed in the hands of small faith communities and Bible study groups in churches.

The book has many possible uses as a reference book with many resources available. Each chapter has something to offer the reader.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Committed Eros: Mystical Marriage and Human Marriage

Mystical Marriage and Human Marriage

This chapter is first because my human marriage and mystical marriage influenced the entire book.

Definitions

Mystical marriage. The historical