The Origins of Mística

Mística, meaning and popular education in the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement

Mística is a core spiritual practice of CSPL, developed by the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST)

Mística is at once a public, expressive dramatic performance and, drawing on Christian mysticism, and a way of making contact with a transcendent reality. Mística draws on Christian theology generally, and specifically on the practices of the Christian base communities associated with liberation theology which were key in the emergence of the MST. It fortifies activists with the high commitment needed to engage in land occupations and the creation of farming communities through which the MST pursues its central goal of agrarian reform.