While in Cairo, Egypt, I attended a lecture in 1973 by the late Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III in which he said "Do not think that heaven is for saints. Heaven is for ordinary people." He showed that after thousands had their fills of bread, Jesus asked his disciples to pick up the left-over. The disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. Fr. Dr. Louis Hazboun, professor of the Catholic Institute/University in Lebanon wrote a commentary in Arabic on the miraculous augmenting of bread that Jesus performed then and saw the Eucharistic banquet in the distributed bread (here).
In the 20th century, quite a few blessings came to us through the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God to the children in Fatima in 1917 and subsequently the phenomenon watched by 60,000 persons on October 13th of the same year in Fatima of the Sun dancing and coming closer to them showing miraculously the Blessed Virgin Mary on it...It was a moment for them to kneel and ask God for forgiveness of sins...
In 1925, Pope Pius XI canonized Thérèse; the Little Flower of Lisieux which I visited in 1982 in France and saw her golden hair that she had cut when she entered the Carmel exceptionally at the age of 15. Saint Thérèse wrote her "Story of a Soul" on order of her superior and sister - a book that was soon translated to more than 15 languages. You may wish to read an excellent book about this child of Jesus online here. On Sunday October 19, 1997, Pope Saint John Paul II made Saint Thérèse a doctor of the Church. He himself promoted the mercy of God which we all need...
He also signed a declaration making the mystical theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar a cardinal of the Church.
Another mystical theologian who is said to have influenced the Second Vatican Council is the Jesuit French scientist Teilhard de Chardin (read here his Mass of the world). He was a friend of another Jesuit giant: Cardinal Henri de Lubac. Teilhard was praised in Joseph Ratzinger's book "Introduction to Christianity" (Here is one chapter on the Resurrection of Christ from the pen of the great theologian that became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005). One of Teilhard's followers is the Jesuit scholar Henri Boulad, a personal mentor to me, who was interviewed here in August 2014 by Salt+Light. In the interview Fr. Boulad speaks about humanism and atheism. He wrote many books some of which have been translated to 14 languages.
A most beloved person is the late saintly Bishop Paul Antaki who is certainly a child of God (see here this post on my blog and the comments received after he departed to God at the end of 2011).I am indebted to Fr. Georges Farah as he entrusted me to give lectures to young adults and adults at Jesus the King Melkite Catholic parish in Toronto from 2004 to 2010. See here one of his most impressive talks on the Dormition of the Mother of God.
Another influential Christian philosopher who passed away in November 2014 is René Girard. Bishop Robert Barron commented on his contribution here. He also wrote in First Things an article titled "Are the Gospels Mythical ?" here.
Of the great minds that I have personally met is Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB who is my spiritual director. We discussed many topics of valuable insight including this one about who can be saved by the late Jesuit theologian and Cardinal Avery Dulles written in First Things and other insights by René Girard (e.g. this interview by Peter Robinson of Stanford University with Girard here).Another yet active pastor inspired by Paul Antaki the Great is the current pastor of St. Cyril's parish in Heliopolis, Egypt: Fr. Rafic Greiche.
I wish to end this post with a hymn to the Lord: Love Divine sung at St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast here.
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