Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. on "Mystics and Mysticism"  and spiritual warfare, watch the video of his conference (here)
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2 comments:

TonyD said...

I can understand why some people think that Fr. Hardon should be a Saint. He delivers is a very well reasoned talk.

At the same time, there are a number of things that I wish he’d clarified. In particular: Mystics aren’t saints, Saints aren’t Prophets, and Prophets aren’t God. That means that many of his “norms” and “definitions” are based on uncertain footing. For example, there is no consideration for God’s motivation for normative or non-normative phenomena. That is, if motivated to God, then phenomena may or may not be meant for the person who receives it. Similarly, the phenomena may or may not be true to any given set of people. The decision is God's, for God’s reasons. Thus, Fr. Hardon’s norms fail to take into consideration God’s will, and fail to take into consideration the relationship of that will to Fr. Hardon’s logic, deductions, inferences, and personal observations.

I also noticed that Fr. Hardon had a nice, orderly set of definitions and norms for mystics, saints, authentic phenomena, and characteristics of mysticism. His discernment is very intellectual, as opposed to divine.

February 15, 2011 at 3:16 AM
Maria said...

Thank you, Jospeh. How thrilling to actually hear Fr. Hardon. Deo gratias.

February 16, 2011 at 12:47 AM

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