German theologian Karl Rahner (1904-84) said that Christians of the 21st century must be mystics or we would disappear.

In my Christian and priestly experience, I’ve discovered many mystics in everyday life. They are no longer the mystics who fled from the madding crowd and secluded themselves in monasteries in radical contemplation of the ineffable God; now they are men and women seeking to be saints amid their daily duties at home, on the street and at work.

The Holy Spirit of God brought new vitality to the Church, starting with the Second Vatican Council, making us rediscover our universal vocation to holiness as baptized people (“Lumen Gentium,” 50).

I discover mystical mothers who leave their children at school in the mornings, thanking God for the privilege of being instruments of his fertility and trusting that their child will bring, as they grow, new expressions of humanity in the sciences and the arts they are learning.

It fills me with joy to see hundreds of people going to their jobs, not only seeking to earn their daily bread for themselves and their families but also convinced that their sweat is building a more just society where every man or woman is perfecting their dignity and reflecting the wisdom of the Creator who made us in his image.

I rejoice in my daily work to find brother priests who celebrate the sacraments, convinced that they are feeding the world with the Bread of Angels, which always brings hope and surprises around us.

I am enthusiastic and grateful to men and women who do not indifferently pass by the helpless, hungry or people with mental problems wandering senselessly along the roads, but instead put their lives at their service with new forms of fraternal charity.

I cannot help but praise God for all those women consecrated to serving the indigent with their maternal tenderness, all those mystics who spend hours before the tabernacle praying for everyone so that the world believes in Jesus the Savior.

What a giant blessing it is to have all those faithful believers, disciples of Jesus, who put their faith into practice like Blessed Conchita Cabrera, who nursed orphaned babies, contemplating the hungry baby Jesus against her breast.

Mystics who work on our geographical borders are trying to accommodate someone who is looking for an opportunity for a better life and work in this country without requiring visas or bureaucratic passports.

I never tire of thanking God for so many mystics around me who can discover the presence of the Light of God in the midst of the darkness of our turbulent and sometimes terrifying world.

Thank you, Lord, for those everyday mystics who beautify our lives without making noise, but who are your breath that keeps the world in encouraging movement.

Thank you to Mary, your mother, the silent Joseph and the countless anonymous saints who happily and daily show us this mysticism.

This article appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Northwest Catholic magazine. Read the rest of the issue here.