Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between human spiritual development and mystical experience in the thought of Professor Mieczysław Gogacz, a representative of consistent Thomism. Although spiritual development and mysticism are not identical realities, they are not mutually exclusive either. On the contrary, they are deeply interconnected in both structure and purpose, grounded in the personal relationship between the human being and God. Spiritual development, understood as a process of integral spiritual maturation, encompasses three classical stages: purification, illumination, and union. It is a gradual process directed toward deepening religious life, cultivating virtues, and strengthening prayerful practice. Mystical experience, according to Gogacz, is a singular and intense act of directly becoming aware of God’s presence through both intellect and will. However, it does not constitute a necessary culmination of spiritual development. Rather, it is an exceptional, unpredictable, and entirely gratuitous event — independent of human ascetic efforts and understood as God’s response to the human soul’s longing love. In Gogacz’s conception, the proper ordering of the spiritual faculties — intellect and will — plays a fundamental role. The subordination of the will to the intellect, as the faculty capable of recognizing truth, is intended to protect the person from constructing a subjective and potentially erroneous image of God. The mystical experience of God’s presence is not discursive knowledge but existential and certain awareness — concerning not specific attributes of God, but rather the fact of God’s existence as a personal Being. Though not essential to spiritual development, mystical experience constitutes a significant complement to the path of inner growth, affirming the ontological reality and depth of the human–God relationship. It marks a moment of inner transformation in which the
intellect, freed from imaginative and conceptual constructs, is illuminated by the light of divine presence. Thus, in Gogacz’s perspective, mysticism does not serve to enrich conceptual knowledge about God but rather offers a pure experience of His being — real, absolute, and personal.