Thanks to Sister Angelica and all the unlikely Mystics

That’s not a bad band name. “Sister Angelica and the Mystics.” What little I know of Mother Angelica (as she’s called), I expect she would have found that funny with a self-deprecating chuckle you’d almost mistake for a cough.

Sister Angelica died this Easter Sunday at the age of 92.

Now, I’m a protestant and believe Roman Catholics are dead wrong about a whole host of things. Get it, “host?” But as long as she believed in the resurrection of Jesus and trusted in him as Lord for the forgiveness of her sins, I trust and hope that she is in paradise today.

I have very limited knowledge of Sister Angelica (Sorry, I feel awkward calling her “Mother.”). All that I can pay tribute to is the impression I gathered from her from several years of bemused channel surfing. I’ll explain.

Starting in high school, I began keeping a VCR tape handy to record odd-ball things on TV–often late at night. I guess it was my own version of Youtube. It might have been the influence of David Lynch, but I started keeping a video collage of really strange televangelists and infomercials. I particularly relished this overly enthusiastic aging blonde who couldn’t stop praising a plastic bag or wrapping product complete with a vacuum sealer that would, apparently, solve all of your storage and eating problems for all eternity. And then there was Kathryn Kuhlman, man is she a trip!

Now, you’re gonna have to forgive me because I’m going to have to give you some background on Kathryn Kuhlman and go on a detour. While writing this, I had no idea I was going to be able to find that clip! Well, that clip above is the one that blew my mind and made me want to study rhetoric as part of a performing music.. It also triggered that need to record high strangeness on late night TV!

Keep in mind, in my gut I knew that she was up to no good–that this wasn’t Christianity. This had too much of a traveling circus in it, but it was, no doubt, fascinating and compelling. Look at that pose she does with her hands at around :51. The audience gasps and so did I. At that moment she connects herself with all of the great generals, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc. She is (claiming to be) God’s vessel and she (alone) is dispensing it.

Enough on that crazy lady for now.

Hmmm, how can I tie this back to a tribute to Sister Angelica? I suppose the contrast of her with the eccentric women we Protestants (the pink haired lady) have put on TV can bring us back to our original topic. As messed up as Catholic works-based doctrine is, our lack of doctrine (within American Evangelicalism) has brought on a whole new level of disrepute to the Church.

What I remember mainly of Sister Angelica, after reflecting, is humility, creativity and authority. Again, I don’t think I ever watched an entire program. I started out just laughing at this seemingly curmudgeonly old lady waving her finger at me and going off on tangents.

But…there was something there in those tangents. There was a desire to teach and to bring your imagination deeply into a topic. Again, I can’t even remember what she was talking about. She was making some point about living a godly life being a difficult process. ‘Like walking up and down hills.’ She then went off on a story about being a young girl and getting tired on a long walk…”because it was so hilly,” gesturing with her hands quickly to paint a picture of the multiple hills. It was this pause and tangent of a story that would make me laugh (and nieces/nephews and whoever else got trapped watching my video collages.).

So why is she a mystic and what is a mystic? To me, a true mystic, is one who communicates a direct and personal experience of spiritual truth. It isn’t what our culture teaches us. It isn’t smoke and mist…vagueness. It’s hard to write about. I guess I might also add that a mystic is someone who completely absorbs and surrenders their own ego in the service of the communication of spiritual truth. They are a fool for a greater good and they don’t care about what you think of them.

Yesterday, I decided to write this tribute after hearing a broadcast of Sister Angelica talking about music in heaven. I wish I could find it. (It looks like it’s scheduled again for rebroadcast in April. It’s called “Music and Beauty in Heaven.”) In the talk that I caught, she described an almost Tolkien-like view of music. She spoke of all nature singing–stars and angels and every life from the womb on as a song or hymn to God. That in heaven, what we view as ‘music’ will be very different from our lives on Earth. That our own song may either be discordant or in accord with God. Using her talent for spontaneous examples she spoke about how suffering can cause us to sing the most beautiful music. “Have you ever hollowed out a pumpkin…or think of an empty wine glass. If you strike it, it makes it’s most beautiful tone.”

That’s just plain beautiful.

May she rest in peace.

*EWTN is running a live tribute to her here.

Here’s a great example of Sister Angelica’s insightful teaching. Note her contrast of Judas and Peter’s denials of Jesus around 18:00.