The Four Mystical Questions

Simple Invitations into Profound Understanding

Here are questions I sometimes share with people on retreats or in spiritual direction. I find these questions helpful for anyone who wants to understand or articulate their unique mystical “style.” There’s no one way to answer these questions, of course; and no book or school of spiritual teaching can help us to find our authentic response. We have to inquire within. Only our hearts can guide us to understand who we are, what we believe, and how we put our beliefs into practice.

1. Who am I?
   What is your deepest sense of yourself? Who are you really? What do you want? How do you find meaning in your life? What is your vocation, your purpose?

2. Who is God?
   Where do you place your faith and your trust? Do you believe you have access to God, and can experience God? If you don’t believe in God, what do you believe in?

3. Who are we?
   What community or communities do you belong to? How do these communities shape your identity and beliefs? How do they nurture you? How do they limit you?

4. Who are they?
   Who do you don’t feel you belong to? Are you in conflict with them? Are they your enemies? Do they frighten or anger you? How do you relate to them?

These deceptively simple questions invite us to know what we truly think and believe about our self, our faith, our community, and our sense of divisions or conflict among humanity.

For example, your “they” might be people who vote differently from you, while my “they” might be people of a different socioeconomic class. Your “we” might be your family and friends, while my “we” might include my church or nation. For you, “God” might by strictly symbolic and impersonal, while I have a sense of God as a conscious presence intimately interested in my life.

Mysticism invites us to encounter the mystery within us. We all are walking miracles, and what a diverse bunch we are! I hope these questions can inspire you to look deeply into your heart, and “be still and know” — not only God, but yourself, your relationships, and the ways you seek to grow.