Evelyn Underhill - Mysticism 27

What is this resistance to reading this book?  It is thick and intense, but feels so much like home on every page.  The thing is, I refuse to read it unless I have a solid block of time combined with centering time.  Today I made that happen while waiting for a Eucharistic visit call back.

p. 123: "...onset of this consciousness...so sudden...typical case...St. Paul...the sudden light..."  (like a pop artist who becomes an "overnight success," but has been working and practicing for years)

3: Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. 4: And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5: And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; 6: but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."      -----Acts 9:3-6 (NRSV)

Three marked characteristics:
1 sense of liberation and victory
2 conviction of nearness of God
3 sentiment of love toward God

EXAMPLES:

St. Francis of Assisi - Francis's "whole universe has suffered complete rearrangement"

Catherine of Genoa - unhappy with self and life "...received in her heart the wound of unmeasured Love of God"

Read this passage in Mysticism after hearing Tim Black's sermon today on the inevitability of change and the birth pangs we experience throughout life.