The Christian mystical process AIN'T that "extraordinary" at all.  It's just a deeper realm of HUMAN life.  Actually, reading this, I saw how much my experiences in BOTH of my marriages (first and current) have helped me get closer to God.  AND why I have to fight so hard against making an idol out of my wife and our marriage. AND how God can use marriage to train one in the Great Commandments and "perichoretic indwelling" between persons.

This is the process I'm in, but, as you see, it's meant for many (ALL) people who would will to become transfigured into God's "lovers."

Post Edited (One Love) : 8/13/2009 3:33:22 PM (GMT-5)

Human heart as "Yichud Room" between the Lord (Christ-the-Logos [God, Bridegroom]) and His Shekinah (the Spirit-indwelled created person [God's Temple, Bride] )  The "place" where spiritual conjugation between the Holy Spirit and human spirit make eternal love to one another, the human beliver made "one" with the Lord in Spirit.   Beloved and Lover in One Love.

"May you merit to have a long life, and may you unite with me in love from now until eternity. May I merit to dwell with you forever."--Yichud statement

Surely, this is what the created human lover says to Christ, the Eternal Lover, when the "mind is in the heart"!

" [Dwayne and I] AGREE that a human being's identity as a PERSON doesn't come from the memories she has, the actions and behavior she engages in with her context, her relationships with other human beings, nor from anything else in the created realm. Nothing in creation and tell me WHO I am. Only God can do that. So there has to be a place, a moment, an experience where God and I get this done, where I experience God in Christ through the Spirit telling me that I'm a priceless beloved son, that the very sustaining core of my existence, where the potential for fulfilling my 'logos' resides, is an indestructible grace-gift from God that doesn't derive from anything in the created order."

--Tom

Post Edited (One Love) : 8/13/2009 3:48:42 PM (GMT-5)

"Mystical marriage bestows the conscious sharing in God’s own life and power and almost complete self-forgetfulness.  The mystic now seeks only God’s will and honor and desires to serve God totally.  Although external trials may continue, absolutely nothing can touch the peace and freedom at the deepest core of the mystic’s being.  The transformed mystic desires greatly to suffer, but in no way does this suffering disturb the peace that flows from the ever present, explicit awareness of living God’s very own life.  In fact, the only thing separating the mystic from the beatific vision is this life itself.

The mystic is experientially united to a love that communicates itself to all persons and to all things.  Therefore, the more deeply the mystic experiences union with God, the more deeply union with God’s creation is experienced.  Transformed by and into Love itself, the mystic becomes creative, totally self-giving, radically concerned about others—in short, spiritually fecund.

Hence, mystics heal in their own persons and through apostolic service the fragmentation found in so much of human life.  They become an even deeper part of the great process of life.  Wholly in God, yet totally in the world, they experience both absolute peace and a holy anxiety to serve God and God’s world.

The mystics insist, however, that the mystical life is more than heroic virtue or service to the world.  These are the outward expressions of their union with God, the sacramental expression of their mystical lives.  They are socially and often politically active because they seek God and God alone.  Only this—not “experiences,” not a transformed personality, not serving the world—gives the mystical life its ultimate value.

Nonetheless, the mystics are the most impressive servants of humanity the world has ever seen.  These deified, christified, spirit-filled persons are the amplifiers of every person’s more hidden life of faith, hope, and love.  Their lives help us bear the interior whispers and see the faint flickers of divine truth and love in ourselves and others.  The Christian mystics point the way to fully authentic human life by illustrating what it means to be a human being, what life means: eternal union (which begins here) with the God of love."

Harvey Egan, S.J.
An Anthology of Christian Mysticism