Coming soon on turning to the mystics.

Our next mystic is Gabriel Marcel, and he was born in France in 1889, where he lived until his death in 1929.

I learned about Marcel when I was in the monastery and he's a philosopher.

Very mystical in his guidance and his teaching.

I was just struck by the depth and beauty from the very beginning. So I've been reading

him over the years. It's one of these mystics that has guided me and sustained me. Thomas

Merton would refer to him in his talks to the novices. Then I was studying medieval philosophy,

philosophical theology of the Middle Ages under Daniel Walsh, Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine.

He would also explore the philosophy of contemporary thinkers.

And it was, he gave a more in-depth case of Gabriel Marcel.

What's so good about Marcel is that he's so experiential and he's so practical in helping us gain insight into how we experience our own life.

He says, in one sense, we experience it in what he calls existence, which are the complexities and realities and challenges

and gifts of the day-by-day.

And in the day-by-day, the day-by-day existential life,

what happens every so often is the shining through

what he calls the fullness of being.

And the fullness of being, which we're going to see is ultimately God,

because it's eternal and it's infinite.

It comes unexpectedly shining through.

And so he chooses certain moments where this happens to help us recognize

how it happens to us.

And one of the primary themes is the Thou.

...