Call of Lay People to the Mystical Life

Authors

  • Wojciech Zyzak The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15633/pch.857

Keywords:

spirituality, mysticism, laity, contemplation, action, baptism, world

Abstract

The subject of this article is the call of lay people to the mystical life. The topic under consideration indicates two poles, around which the main reflection revolves: the mystic and the lay state of life. The call of lay people to mysticism is not just a hypothesis, but a real experience, researched and decribed by theologians. So reflecting on the call to the mystic life of lay people is not so much a matter of ‘whether’, but of ‘how’. In the light of the above, four issues are fundamental: the impossibility to provoke the mystical experience, its dependence on the spirituality of the baptism, the relation of contemplation to action and the relation to the world. It occurs however, that every Christian, together with God’s life of grace bestowed in baptism, receives the basis for the mystical life. Neither an active life in the world, nor work or marriage, hinders the development of this gift.

References

Auer A., Weltoffener Christ. Grundsätzliches und Geschichtliches zur Laienfrömmigkeit, Düsseldorf 1966.

Brugnoli P., La spiritualità dei laici, Brescia 1965. Élisabeth de la Trinité, Śuvres Complètes, Paris 2002. García C., Espiritualidad de los laicos, Burgos 2004. Juan de la Cruz, Obras Completas, Salamanca 2002.

Stein E., Kreuzeswissenschaft. Studie über Johannes vom Kreuz, Freiburg im Breisgau 2003.

Thils G., Les laïcs et l’enjeu des temps “post-modernes”, Cahiers de la revue théologique de Louvain 20, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988.

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Published

2011-10-01

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2011)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2015 Wojciech Zyzak

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