Download or read book Meditations for Mediocre Mystics written by Tom Stella and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-10-11 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term "mediocre mystics" seems a fitting way to refer to those who yearn for the nameless but do not qualify as full-blown mystics. I realize that because there is nothing middling about mystics, "mediocre mystics" may appear to be an oxymoron, but the root meaning of "mediocre" is not second-rate. From the Latin mediocris, the word means moderate or ordinary and has been used figuratively to refer to one who is halfway up a mountain. Unlike ordinary folks, sainted mystics have reached the mountaintop; they are on a first-name basis with the nameless! But just because we haven't arrived at the heights, just because our lives unfold in the valley of ordinary, everyday life doesn't mean that we cannot or do not experience the desire that has fueled the mystic's climb.