tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154812222024-03-19T06:50:53.114-06:00Spiritual TheologyFor the Use of Students and SeminariansAnthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-42847999489141331612014-06-15T08:58:00.001-06:002014-06-15T09:36:37.747-06:00The Journey Begins in the Footsteps of the Saints of France and Spain<div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">On Pentecost, after Agnes and I stepped through our front door, we began a journey following in the footsteps of the Saints of France and Spain. The reflections here concern the first part of this two part journey which we are doing with pilgrims from across the country who set out with us from the Shrine of Saint Anne in Arvada. </span></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDBdguGn6fi04ydb60FfAj4RqbGHci2fsjdrB_Ox9Dum_q8yCrdRF54c7NGCpL_bx10zhTJbKRnwYG-Ds-yMjN0nch9lQ1PAFWvdyf9KE2RvIfu3NzFVqA8xcBL6zEvEzhcX0/s640/blogger-image--377684793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDBdguGn6fi04ydb60FfAj4RqbGHci2fsjdrB_Ox9Dum_q8yCrdRF54c7NGCpL_bx10zhTJbKRnwYG-Ds-yMjN0nch9lQ1PAFWvdyf9KE2RvIfu3NzFVqA8xcBL6zEvEzhcX0/s640/blogger-image--377684793.jpg"></a></div>I will share with you here at beginningtopray.com (in terms of personal reflections and reporting), discerninghearts.com (in terms of podcasts), my personal Facebook page (in terms of pictures) and at rcspiritualdiectiion.com (where I will submit portions of the presentations provided to the pilgrims). The second part begins in Oviedo, Spain and while Agnes will travel by train I will go by foot in the steps of Saint Francis and Saint Ignatius, and I do not yet know whether it is possible to provide updates via blogging and social networks. But we can cross that bridge when we come to it. This first part begins in Paris and will follow the footsteps of the saints of France.</div><div><br></div><div>We have set out on this pilgrimage under very different circumstances than when we made our original plans. A year ago, when we were praying about this journey, we were confident that we were in Northern Colorado for years to come. We departed with a new realization that in this passing world we have no lasting home, that we are on a journey, a pilgrimage of faith to our Father's House. </div><div><br></div><div>After 22 years working in the Archdiocese of Denver, Agnes and I are moving back to California. About a month ago, I accepted a position in he Archdiocese of Los Angeles and we are selling our beautiful home. By the middle of July, we will be moved to Los Angeles and I will be working for the seminaries there: Juan Diego House and Saint John's.</div><div><br></div><div>So it is in the middle of huge life transitions that we have undertaking this adventure. But what an undreamed of grace to have this time set aside for The Lord. For we are all on an adventure together - a pilgrimage is only a sign of this spiritual reality.</div><div><br></div><div>To attain to a spiritual place, we must go by a spiritual means. The place to which we journey is above this world, not geographically or spatially, but in power and glory. Such a place cannot be grasped at by our cleverness or industry. Progress to our heavenly homeland is the Lord's own gift and our work is to make space in our lives for this unimaginable grace. </div><div><br></div><div>Progress to our true home is by faith in Christ Jesus. He is the Way. The only way to arrive at where He leads is by the Spirit whom He generously gives.</div>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-29065944917556656972013-04-15T12:16:00.001-06:002013-04-15T12:16:30.617-06:00Spiritual Canticle and the Reason God Permits Obstacles in PrayerThe Spiritual Canticle begins with a spiritual awakening by which one is launched into a pilgrimage of faith. Since it is characterized by the Divine Indwelling and since only living faith in Christ Jesus accesses the mystery of God, this journey is inward and makes progress by faith and love. The hidden presence of God in the soul means that though God is there, unaided human activity cannot access Him. Even grace filled techniques and methods only dispose the soul to contemplating this hidden presence. <br />
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To find God, Saint John of the Cross insists we must believe. Faith hides the intellect because principles of sacred doctrine are beyond its natural capacity to understand or demonstrate. Instead of proceeding by way of principles it grasps, the intellect proceeds by assenting to what the Church proposes to it. What the Church proposes and what Saint John focuses on in the beginning of the journey is that through faith and baptism, the Holy Trinity dwells in the soul not only to sustain its existence but also to be loved and known by faith. <br />
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Mental prayer or contemplation proceeds from this hidden reality. It is a simple act of faith and love which chooses to believe that God is dwelling in the soul with the desire to establish it in profound friendship. This act of faith withdraws from anything that could distract from such a wonderful gift, and focuses all its power on attending to the wonder of this hidden presence. Mental prayer is a movement of the will that submits the mind to mystery: the effort to seek the presence of God and to cling to this presence even when it cannot be felt or imagined or intuited or even thought about. In Spiritual Canticle 3, 5-9, St. John of the Cross speaks about the challenging obstacles and remarkable assistance the soul receives in this journey.<br />
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Why are the obstacles? The obstacles seem to purify and strengthen the soul's devotion, because they test our faith, challenging our determination to love and to believe in love. The more they challenge, the more love and faith grow from immature and tentative first movements to a deep and immutable way of being. The pilgrim soul takes on a greater and greater bridal identity the more it makes progress. <br />
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If the journey starts a little sluggish and anxious, the soul is always described by Saint John of the Cross as beautiful and loved beyond measure. The Lord is leading the soul from a devotion riddled with anxiety to one that is established in peace. In the silent stillness that characterizes its new existence in Him - a kind of engagement - the Lord invites the soul into a fullness of joy - a solemn betrothal and wedding banquet and life of union together. The passage ways from anxiety to peace and from peace to joy are marked by active things the soul must do like seek virtue and take up mortification, and passive things God permits the soul to suffer like severe external and internal trials. He describes the passive suffering of the soul in terms of wild beasts, thugs and frontiers. We will consider these in our next post.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-26282346313652697692013-02-15T22:16:00.001-07:002013-02-15T22:16:21.516-07:00The Night of the Senses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
St. John of the Cross authored the poem <i>Dark Night </i>a within a couple years of his escape from Toledo. The <i>Ascent of Mount Carmel</i> is the first of two spiritual treatises that take the form of commentaries on this poem. The other treatise is entitled<i> Dark Night</i> (sometimes<i> Dark Night of the Soul</i>). In both treatises "night" refers to a spiritual threshold through which the soul must cross. Deeper intimacy with Christ requires entering into a new territory of the heart, horizons of our humanity with which we are not familiar, the frontiers where our misery finds its limit in the limitlessness of divine mercy. <br />
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His use of night in relation to contemplation is paradoxical. Contemplation involves a kind of seeing, a beholding. He speaks of a dark and obscure contemplation where our heart searches not what it understands about God but what it does not understand. The mind is drawn beyond its need for satisfaction, security and comfort into a place of pure vulnerability. Naked before the truth of God, the Lord is able to renew the mind completely until one's whole life is transformed.<br />
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The night refers to experiences that we do not understand, that are not satisfying, that are not comfortable. Neither the natural light of reason nor the supernatural light of faith seems useful. Instead, especially in those nights related directly to union with God, love alone suffices. <br />
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This faith imbued love involves our effort, but is more characterized by a mysterious work of God. This is especially true as concerns two principle thresholds or nights the Lord entrusts to the soul. <br />
The first night, St. John of the Cross calls "the night of the senses" and the second, he calls "the night of the spirit." He discusses what we need to do to enter the night of the senses and the night of the spirit in <i>Ascent to Mount Carmel</i>. Book One pertains to our activity to enter the night of the senses and Book Two and Three concern our activity in relation to the night of the spirit which he also refers to as the <i>dark</i> night. In the <i>Dark Nigh</i>t he treats of what God does in the night of the senses (Book One) and what God does in the night of the spirit (Book Two). <br />
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The <i>night of the senses</i> pertains to a re-ordering of our sense perception of the world. We must pass through this night if we are to aquire a greater stability and peace in our following of Christ. In the beginning we lack stability and consistency because we are too vulnerable to the world and not vulnerable enough to the Lord. Indeed, to enter into this night we must act against our tendency to relate to the world as a resource for self-preservation, gratification and the acquisition of power. Instead, through renunciation out of devotion to Christ and in imitation of Him, the night of the senses can only be entered into by those resolved to do everything for the glory and honor of God. Our efforts filled with devotion and love for Christ dispose us to something God wants to do in us regarding the way we relate to the world. What God wants to do is beyond our power to do ourselves, so we must surrender to His action humbly accepting that He is really working in our prayer even when we feel we are wasting our time. This kind of contemplation is described as a ray of darkness but also as a divine inflow for our eyes are not strong enough in the beginning to behold the radiant splendor of God but our spirits are meant to be filled with His presence. As He draws us away from our self-serving preoccupations (not only with material goods but spiritual as well), our hearts are vulnerable to this inflow and become pure enough to begin to glimpse His glory.<br />
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The Night of the Spirit will be treated in the next post. This is the threshold that must be passed by those whose spiritual life is stable and consistent but not yet perfect in love. Christ wants to make us perfect in love and to achieve this, another more difficulty night must be entered into - the obscurity the Lord permits the soul to suffer in this night is so intense, St. John of the Cross calls it "Dark Night."<br />
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I have developed the ecclesiological perspective of this journey <a href="http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2013/02/14/love-songs-in-the-night">here</a> and certain anthropological insights <a href="http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2013/02/09/the-prayer-the-blazes-from-the-deepest-center">here</a>. <br />
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Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-77012207975426078462013-02-03T23:09:00.002-07:002013-02-03T23:09:48.967-07:00Notes on Living Flame Stanza 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The stanza proclaims an astonished realization and offers up a heart-rending but shocking petition. It is the song of a soul that has matured in the life of faith. On the one hand, it has become a font of living waters that refreshes everyone around it. On the other, it is bursting forth with the warmth and light of the Fire of Love which enkindles it. It is praying that the Lord might not wait until nature releases it from this present life for it is filled with desire for something this present life is not big enough to know. The Holy Spirit brings this desire to birth in the heart and He uses it to help souls definitively realize the victory of good over evil in their own life and death.<br />
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The Living Flame is the Holy Spirit burning in the soul's deepest center. Unlike the way we might visualize it as a kind of atom, the soul is simple without dimensions or parts. There is no part of it more interior than any other part. This means that when St. John ascribes the soul with a deepest center, he is not designating something actually spatial. Nor is his describing some subliminal depth or the subconscious sphere of psychological activity. Such conventions of modern psychology would be more properly ascribed to the memory - for him a kind of faculty of the soul, but not the soul itself, in his more or less Augustinian anthropology.<br />
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There is so little that we really understand about the soul because, although we are closest to ourselves than anything else in all the cosmos, we remain an impenetrable mystery to ourselves. There is something about being in the image and likeness of God which does not allow the light of natural reason to ever fully penetrate just who we really are or what our true purpose is. Our identity and purpose is not something that can be extrinsically imposed without doing violence to the dignity with which we are fashioned. Instead, the truth about ourselves is something that can only be appropriately proposed to us by another with whom we stand in relation and it is our dignity to accept or reject such proposals when they resonate, when they help us find that ground on which we might stand so as to move forward.<br />
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The Carmelite Master's use of "deepest center" suggests that the soul is in movement towards a greater reality, that it can be and is drawn to something beyond itself. The soul is in relation to Another towards which it advances. The more it advances, the more it becomes what it is meant to be: a creature in relation, in communion, in friendship. Ascribing a deepest center suggests that a dis-ease that afflicts the human condition: unless it finds this center of gravity, the soul cannot rest or be at peace. At the same time, the fact that the soul has a deepest center means that humanity is not intended for a state of permanent restlessness.<br />
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But by describing a deepest center, St. John is suggesting that there are other centers of the soul -- other objects which draw it. By designating this deepest center, he is suggesting that no other object draws the soul in the same definitive way this ultimate object draws it. In order to find the deepest center, these other objects in which the soul tries to find rest must be withdrawn -- asceticism begins this purification but God Himself completes it through permitting severe exterior and interior trials. Before it can be aflame with the Holy Spirit, the soul like a log of wood, must suffer the smoke of its purification. <br />
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This particular soul singing this verse has been purified and so welcomed this Fire that its whole life is aflame with it. Where the soul ends and the Flame begins cannot be found - not because the soul has been nihilistically absorbed into the fire but rather because the Holy Spirit has so given Himself the soul enjoys a relatively perfect possession of Him. <br />
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The Living Flame is so completely received, possessed, enjoyed and at the disposal of the soul, the soul itself has taken on an unimpeded likeness to the Holy Spirit. Indeed the Holy Spirit gives Himself the more the affections of the soul becomes like those of Holy Spirit. It is a likeness made possible by transforming grace. <br />
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This sheer unfathomable gift does not destroy our nature but perfects it and raises it above itself. Though it is always creature, this new mode of existence allows it to disclose the glory of God -- the deep things of God, divine movements so sublime natural reason is completely blind to them. <br />
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Through the divine likeness established in the soul by grace, this new presence of the Holy Spirt moves the soul with divine movement, the eternal eros shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by nature. Just as the Father and the Son behold one another in love through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, this divinized soul longs to behold the glory of the Father without cease - this is the beatific vision which this present life is too limited to know. This is the divine passion that moves the soul to make its shocking petition, its great cry of love.<br />
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I have had the privilege of speaking to souls very close to death who articulate this very same desire. They do not wish to leave their loved ones, but there is nothing in this life in which they can rest any more. Their hearts ache for something more, something beyond the present life -- they long to see God. They do not normally claim any special experiences or visions. They are sometimes impatient, even very impatient with what they must suffer and the do not understand why it is taking God so long to act. Yet this odd frustration they suffer is not the most significant movement of their heart. Another passion has seized them - something so heavenly, they do not understand it, draws their heart. They ache with hope for Him, and though they cannot hold back their tears, they know their hope does not disappoint. </div>
Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-28108985697492959562013-01-07T22:28:00.000-07:002013-01-07T22:28:57.831-07:00Course Offerings Spring 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This semester I teach two seminars and a course -<br />
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1) A seminar on St. John of the Cross where seminarians, my colleague Dr. Joel Barstad and I will argue over the meaning and significance of the poems and commentary of the Doctor of the Church as it pertains to the mystery of faith -- a kind of celebration of the Year of Faith in seminar form. Our texts, besides the <i>Collected Works of St. John of the Cross,</i> include Iain Matthew's <i>Impact of God</i> and Karol Wojtyla's <i>The Nature of Faith according to the writings of St. John of the Cross.</i><br />
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2) The Synthetic Seminar that has customarily been used to prepare the seminarians, after six years of former study, for comprehensive oral exams. The seminar will continue to have an eye to this comprehensive preparation but will also seek a synthesis, a vision of the whole, of the form -- at least to the extent to which the state of scientific theology allows us to see this whole. How do we bring the meaning we discover in theology to bear on the great human, moral, social and personal questions that live in our culture and in our hearts today, and how do we do this in a compelling way, in a way that attends to both the beauty of man's difficult questions and the ineffable glory of God's response? To achieve this, I have introduced essays by Hans Urs von Balthasar and Pope Benedict as well as a document by the International Theological Commission, <i>Theology Today</i>. I will show these contemporary sources as part of a conversation about the nature of theology and how it advances by argument as proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica I, 1, 1-10. Against this background my colleagues together with the seminarians will present and defend individual theses to model how a disciplined theological conversation is to be presented.<br />
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3) A course called Spiritual Classics for men in the Spirituality Year, a year of prayerful reading of the Bible, the Catechism and of the Saints and Mystics before the beginning of formal studies. Readings for my course will include St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity, St. Bernard of Clairvaux among other selections. </div>
Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-51453690937944793362012-10-14T20:58:00.000-06:002012-10-14T21:01:20.823-06:00God's Hope in UsIs there a theological basis for our trust in God? Yes. We can trust in God because He trusts in us even more.<br />
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Theologically, can we say that God believes in us? Does He trust in us - He who is perfect and we who are so sinful and weak? Can we say further that God hopes in us more than we hope in Him? <br />
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One theologian contacted me saying that we should not say this. That it sounds Pelagian, he observed. This is insightful because it could be interpreted to mean that we have all we need and now it is up to us. This also could be interpreted in a manner that calls to question divine omnipotence. But God does not hope in us because we have all we or because we are pretty good people. Quite the opposite - He trusts in us because of something He sees in our weakness. Nor does He trust in us because He has to - we are not necessary in any principle way. His trust is completely free. He trusts in us because He wants to and because of something He sees in us that we do not see.<br />
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What is it that He sees?<br />
(1) Christ sees the glory of the Father in us. This is why He entrusted Himself to us as a helpless baby and as a vulnerable condemned man. We are created in the image and likeness of God -- and there is nothing we can do that can ever erase the image completely. <br />
(2) Furthermore, the Son of God is so devoted to the Father, when He sees His Father's image, His gaze makes the image perfect. Jesus sees us and we become who we are. Jesus looks on us in love, and we discover the pathway to lay up riches in heaven. <br />
(3) It is this gaze of love, and not our failures, that most defines our existence. If Jesus' love for us is the most definitive thing in our lives, He has good reason to trust in us. <br />
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In fact, He does trust in us. Not only did He entrust Himself to us during His visible mission, He continues to entrust Himself to us in the Eucharist, the Sacraments, in those He entrusts to our care, but especially in the poor. If he entrusts all of this to us, then He trusts in us. He trust in us then provides the theological basis for our trust in Him - because He trusts in us, we know we can trust that He will give us all we need, that we are not abandon, that He is with us.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-10236879356290192952012-09-24T23:28:00.002-06:002012-09-24T23:28:34.333-06:00The Via Negativa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The <i>Via Negativa </i>-- the way of negation is a kind of contemplation of God. For those, like<i> Evagrius Ponticus</i>, influenced by Platonic philosophy and gnosticism, this kind of contemplation is necessary because the visible world we live in is on a lower level of being than the invisible world of spiritual things. It is a matter of "the One" and "the many." The many visible things of this life - according to this model - cause us to suffer from fantasies. Only by conversion - in this case, turning away from things and renouncing the fantasies they cause are we free to enter into ourselves to find the logos, the truth. Developing (or devolving) the Greek concept of "know thyself" this contemplation is a movement inward to find the truth. In fact, for Evagrius, the truth alone overcomes our fantasies. This contemplation which is essentially an entering into oneself to find God, they say, identifies us in some sense with "the One." So this is a mysticism of identity not unlike that which is offered by Hegel and various religious traditions from India where individual identity is lost in the absolute.<br />
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<i>Pseudo-dionysius</i>, also influenced by neo-platonism but in a different way, advances that Christian theology demands that we go beyond negation -- negating negation by seeing the world not as mere illusion, but rather as manifestation - epiphany. The reasoning is that God is so totally other, He is even able to transcend his otherness by creating creatures that are able to manifest his glory. The vision of God that is opened up in this approach suggests the Divinity is so vast, so mysterious, so deep; the glory of God requires a great multitude of unique creatures to be properly communicated. St. Thomas Aquinas is profoundly influenced by this kind of theological contemplation.<br />
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Rather than a movement in (en-stasis), Pseudo-dionysius provides us a contemplation that is a movement out of self (ex-stasis). Unlike as is the case in a Hegelian or Gnostic system, the visible physical world is not an obstacle to the invisible spiritual world. Instead, the whole cosmos comes from God and is ordered to God. In other words, creation including individual souls, are meant to be in harmony with the Trinity. Such harmony with God in his works is possible because the Trinity itself is characterized by divine and eternal subsistent relations: knowing, loving and personal relations. Divinity goes beyond itself by allowing space for creatures to exist that they might share in his life and love. Creatures go beyond themselves by manifesting the Creator - the ultimate end of the divine economy is ecstatic. It is a mysticism of relation, harmony, mediation, and beauty.<br />
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In this kind of mysticism, the more they manifest Him, the more they become the creature they were created to be. In other words, creation is in the end not identified with the Creator but in relation to the Lord - the more his works reveal the Invisible God, the more fully each creature realizes its true identity as creature in jubilant relation to the God. This constitutes a liturgical significance for the things that are -- everything exists to reveal the glory of God. The vision of John in the Apocalypse of all ranks of creatures gathered around the throne of the Lamb in endless praise is in harmony with this kind of contemplation of God. At the same time, it present a paradox concerning the mystery of God - He is hidden, yet disclosed. Here, the doctrine of the analogy of being (analogia entis) is, in its Christian sense, born. </div>
Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-12939145100406816472012-09-05T20:17:00.002-06:002012-09-05T20:18:56.567-06:00Theological Contemplation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What is theological contemplation? In paragraph 58 of the Rule of St. Benedict, a section which treats on how to admit new brethren, St. Benedict refers to the practice of lectio divina within the context of quaerere Deum, conversatio morum and habitare secum. The study of theology, as a form of lectio divina, ought to be considered in the same context. <i>Lectio divina</i> is a devotion imbued study of the Word of God which leads to ongoing personal conversion and the capacity to be reconciled with God, one's neighbor and one's own self. <br />
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Devotion is referred to here in its strict sense as it applies to the search for God, <i>quaerere Deum</i>. It is not sentimental or non-scientific. Devotion refers to commitment and passion to seek and find the One whose truth remains ineffable to the light of natural reason and yet transforms the mind in divine splendor. Such devotion is the fruit of <i>quaerere Deum</i>, the effort to seek God with the whole will, intelligence, desire and strength of one's soul. This rationally ordered devotion and devout rationality is integral to both advancing the scientific investigation of sacred doctrine and the deeper reception of the mystical wisdom given by God to those who engage in theological contemplation.<br />
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<i>Lectio divina</i> or sacred reading was not originally distinguished from contemplation or prayerful reflection or scientific study or mental prayer. The practices organically flowed together for the Desert Fathers and the early Benedictines. Theirs was a kneeling theology out of which not only great intellectuals arose but also scholarly saints. Their reflections rose to the level of scientific consciousness even to the point that they produced rationally ordered discourses about their mystical insights. At the same time, their insights were born deep in the holy affections the Lord stirred in them as they beheld the wonders of His Love echoing in the liturgical readings of the Bible their way of life amply provided. <br />
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They did not oppose rationality or affectivity or spirituality but sought a living integration of their whole being and life activities in their pursuit of God. Any study requires curiosity, but the study of God and all things in relation to God also requires the rightist) is properly ordered to its object. It is a disciplined pursuit of the truth where what we study and how we study it must be commensurate. God discloses Himself as the One who desires humanity to be in right relation to Him. Scientific contemplation of God ought to break out in affection for the One who produces holy affection in the heart and created the desire to find Him.<br />
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Any study requires curiosity, but the study of God and all things in relation to God also requires the right desire for God Himself. The only proper response to the Triune mystery disclosed in revelation is total devotion of the heart. Accordingly, a relational knowledge informs the investigation even as insights are raised to a scientific level of consciousness.<br />
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Thus, <i>lectio divina</i> properly informed by <i>quaerere Deum</i> leads to <i>conversatio morum</i>. <i>Conversatio morum</i> could be referred to as<i> conversion of life</i>, but the Latin conveys a deeper meaning than the English suggests at first sight. <i> Morum</i> refers to one's whole manner and all of one's mannerisms, the mode by which one relates to oneself, the world and to God. In the Gospels, disciples either followed <i>the Way of Christ</i> or returned to <i>their former way of life</i>, the traditions of their fathers. Similarly, those who encounter the Word made Flesh in<i> lectio divina</i> also must die to their old way of life and allow themselves to be animated by new life in Christ. <br />
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The conversion <i>lectio divina</i> makes us vulnerable to is much more like a ongoing conversation than it is a simple modification of one's way of life. Everything, all of one's actions, feelings, fantasies, thoughts, and judgments; all of this is to be submitted to the Risen Lord. <i>Lectio divina</i> is less about scrutinizing passages of the Scriptures and more about by scrutinized by the Word revealed in the words of Holy Writ. <i>Lectio divina </i>which searches for God is constantly confronted by divine judgment. Devotion imbued contemplation of Sacred Doctrine ponders the demands of divine justice and is pierced to the heart by the limitlessness of divine mercy. <br />
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Those willing to submit the limits of their misery to the limitlessness of divine mercy in this kind of contemplation discover the secret of being at peace with themselves, with their neighbor and with God. They enjoy this secret even if they are rejected and hated by those entrusted to them. They enjoy this secret even if they are afflicted by insecurity over their own sinful brokenness. <br />
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This is a secret rooted in confidence in God, a confidence only He can give, a confidence which is the fruit of his exceeding love. It is a secret in which God imparts a great purpose to a soul, a personal mission. From the womb of theological contemplation ecclesial mission is conceived and born into the world.</div>
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Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-59027711674297952622012-08-31T09:47:00.000-06:002012-08-31T09:47:06.731-06:00The Origins of Spiritual Theology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spiritual theology is that part of theology that, proceeding from the truths of divine revelation and the religious experience of individual persons, defines the nature of the supernatural life, formulates directives for its growth and development, and explains the process by which souls advance from the beginning of the spiritual life to its full perfection.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, p. 22)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Nature and Origins of Spiritual Theology</span></b></div>
Spiritual theology seeks the connection between the articles of the faith, the perfection of the Christian life, and a kind of knowledge called “mystical,” a kind of knowledge arrived at through an ecclesial and personal encounter with the Living God. In this sense, it is a part of the science of theology which attempts to bring the mutual relationship of mystical and theological wisdom into rational consciousness and discourse.<br />
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To study, to contemplate, to prayerfully reflect, to read (lectio); these activities were not originally distinguished from one another in the writings of the saints and mystics during the patristic era. They converged on an approach to sacred doctrine rooted on devotion to Christ and dedication to the mission of the Church. The active presence of the Risen Lord in the life of the Church evoked theological contemplation in which rational discourse, urgent longings of the heart, and the attending of one's whole being to the Word made flesh converged. An integration of the speculative and the practical, the affective and the intellectual was achieved in the preaching and theological reflection of the time. Unfortunately, this integration was not maintained and the kneeling theology that produced great saints and theologians became fragmented. Spiritual theology can be seen as part of an effort to recover and restore an approach to the spiritual life which is rooted in a profound encounter with Christ through sacred doctrine.<br />
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After the great scholastics revived interest in a disciplined pursuit of spiritual and theological questions, one of the earliest pioneers of this study was Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Paris</st1:placename></st1:place>. He believed that the knowledge which flowed from Christ's presence in the soul or mystical knowledge could not be a direct object of theological research, yet at the same time he acknowledged its importance for the Christian life and attempted to elucidate those parts of the Christian life he believed could be studied. <br />
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He did not assume, as is oftentimes presumed today, that the inability of human reason to understand or manipulate something rendered it outside the range of the truth. He did not equate fact with truth or product with knowledge. Like the scholastics, he was the inheritor of a tradition of thinking in being is the object of knoweldge and truth is the adequation of the mind to reality: <em>veritas est ens</em>. As St. Thomas Aquinas explains, "all that is, is true." <br />
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For Gerson, mystical theology includes both un-demonstable loving knowledge of divine goodnesss arrived at in contemplation and an intellectual understanding of the truths of the faith that can be applied in discerning ones practical experience of God. He distinguishes practical mystical theology (arrived at in contemplation) from speculative mystical theology (arrived at by study). He considers mystical contemplation in terms of the transformation of the affections toward the goodens of God. Although the cause of this mysticism is ineffable (a special work of grace), the effects and the fruits of it can be explored. Furthermore, (and this is important) he also understood that contemplatives were subject to grave error if they were not rooted in a pure understanding of sacred doctrine. In other words, mystical theology does not replace but rather requires scientific theology. (See Jordan Aumann, Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition, San Francisco: Ignatius Press (1985) 168-173, chapter 7.)</div>
Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-80589113167322982982012-08-28T09:36:00.002-06:002012-08-31T08:45:31.794-06:00Introduction to Spiritual Theology - lecture notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Nature and Scope of Spiritual Theology<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spiritual theology is that part of theology that, proceeding from the truths of divine revelation and the religious experience of individual persons, defines the nature of the supernatural life, formulates directives for its growth and development, and explains the process by which souls advance from the beginning of the spiritual life to its full perfection.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, p. 22)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">History<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Spiritual theology seeks the connection between the articles of the faith, the perfection of the Christian life, and a kind of knowledge called “mystical,” a kind of knowledge arrived at through an ecclesial and personal encounter with the Living God. In this sense, it is a part of the science of theology which attempts to bring the mutual relationship of mystical and theological wisdom into rational consciousness and discourse.<br />
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After the great scholastics revived interest in a disciplined pursuit of these questions, one of the earliest pioneers of this study was Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Paris</st1:placename></st1:place>. He believed that the knowledge which flowed from Christ's presence in the soul or mystical knowledge could not be a direct object of theological research, yet at the same time he acknowledged its importance for the Christian life and attempted to elucidate those parts of the Christian life he believed could be studied. <br />
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He did not assume, as is oftentimes presumed today, that the inability of human reason to understand or manipulate something rendered it outside the range of the truth. He did not equate fact with truth or product with knowledge. Like the scholastics, he was the inheritor of a tradition of thinking in being is the object of knoweldge and truth is the adequation of the mind to reality: <em>veritas est ens</em>. As St. Thomas Aquinas explains, "all that is, is true." <br />
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For Gerson, truth includes un-demonstable mystical knowledge of divine goodnesss arrived at in contemplation. He considers mystical contemplation in terms of the transformation of the affections toward the goodens of God. Although the cause of this mysticism is ineffable (a special work of grace), the effects and the fruits of it can be explored. Furthermore, (and this is important) he also understood that contemplatives were subject to grave error if they were not rooted in a pure understanding of sacred doctrine. In other words, mystical theology does not replace but rather requires scientific theology. (See Jordan Aumann, Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition, San Francisco: Ignatius Press (1985) 168-173, chapter 7.)<br />
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From the 16th to the 20th centuries, spiritual theology became divided between what was called “ascetical” theology and “mystical” theology. Ascetical theology had more a moral element and concerned the day to day discipline of the Christian life and the ordinary life of grace. Mystical theology tended toward a theology of prayer and contemplation as well as speculative considerations of the mysteries of the faith in relation to extraordinary mystical phenomenon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twentieth century theologians began to question the wisdom of separating these areas of study. They also became concerned that this kind of theology was not considered ‘academic’ or ‘scholarly’ or in any other sense a serious field of knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet the attempt to demonstrate the validity of spiritual theology as a science has created a diversity of opinion as to whether the field should be considered a dogmatic or moral branch of theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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The 20th century pioneers of this field, mostly Thomists, began an apologetic to establish the field as a legitimate science with its own object and appropriate method of research. At the same time, theologians coming from the Ressourcement schools also became aware that this branch of theology should not be separated from other theological efforts: these other branches needed reference to spiritual theology if they were to remain with the stream of the tradition of the Church. Spiritual theologians, especially those out of the Thomistic and Ressourcement schools, see that research in spiritual theology is vital to the life and mission of the Church because if it is forgotten, the very raison d’etre of the Church is at risk. As one of the pioneers of the twentieth century renewal of this field, Fr. Juan Arintero, explains: “We must examine and consider attentively the hidden and mysterious development of the inner life of the Church. This consideration is fundamental and the most important of all, because this inner life and the exigencies of this vital process are the course of the Church’s development in doctrine and organization.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Introduction, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mystical Evolution.</i>)<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Object<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Spiritual theology is a disciplined exploration of the spiritual life of the Church and is especially concerned with mystical knowledge, a kind of knowing that results from encountering Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kind of knowledge is “mystical” insofar as it involves a union with the mystery of Christ through the holy mysteries unto union with the Holy Trinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a contemplative knowledge that anticipates the ultimate end of the Divine Economy, the perfect unity of creatures with the Holy Trinity in which the fulfillment of all desire is realized – that eternal beatific vision of inexhaustible and exceeding Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are aiming at true theological wisdom, a wisdom that ought to inform all the various branches of theology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In summary, the direct object of spiritual theology is the encounter of the Holy Trinity in the contemplation of the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this sense, spiritual theology corresponds with what the ancients called theology or mystical theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Namely, a participated knowing of the ineffable inner life of the Trinity by grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In itself, this knowledge is beyond the ability of human speech to fully communicate. But the truth bearing statements of our faith, the articles of our faith, bear the truth of this knowledge above all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theologians and mystics struggle to articulate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Garrigou-Lagrange observes, “The mystics … explain the hyperbole and antithesis to which they have recourse in order to draw us from our somnolence and to try to make us glimpse the elevation of divine things.” He goes on to conclude, “No one can know the true meaning of the language of the spiritual writers if he is unable to explain it theologically; and, on the other hand, no one can know the sublimity of theology if he is ignorant of its relation to mysticism.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Three Ages of the Spiritual Life</i>, trans. Sr. Timothea Doyle, OP, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>: Herder (1948) pp 16 and 20.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Method <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Like every science, the study of sacred doctrine in general and spiritual theology specifically has a method proportionate to the wisdom to which it aspires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The method for this science includes prayer, polemics, ressourcement, the wisdom of the saints, inductively providing insight into the spiritual life, deducing conclusions about different expressions of the spiritual life from the application of sacred doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A brief consideration of each of these elements of method in spiritual theology might be helpful.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1. Prayer<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">From ancient times, the goal of theological study has been this wisdom, especially as it is produced by the mystical operation of this Gift of the Spirit in the Christian life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One studied theology to be a saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the branches of theology became atomized, first from philosophy and then from one another, theological wisdom, which had been a unifying principle for the study of sacred doctrine, came to be neglected, more and more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, the unity of life and study was shattered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It became possible to be a theologian without regard for personal sanctity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The contemporary pursuit of spiritual theology puts contemplation at the heart of its endeavor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The theologian must not only talk about prayer, the study of this wisdom must pray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accordingly, the study of spiritual theology demands that theology and prayer should go hand in hand:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #29303b;">Prayer and theology are inseparable. True theology is the adoration offered by the intellect. The intellect clarifies the movement of prayer, but only prayer can give it the fervor of the Spirit. Theology is light, prayer is fire. Their union expresses the union of the intellect and the heart. But it is the intellect that must 'repose' in the heart, and theology must transcend it in love</span></i><span style="color: #29303b;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Olivier Clement, <i>Roots of Christian Mysticism</i>, p. 183</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2. Polemics<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The tendency in spiritual theology in most schools is to generalize religious experience found in manifold spiritualities, especially non-Christian spiritualities, to arrive at principles common to them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is assumed that the mystical knowledge acquired through the faith of the Church is commensurate with changes in consciousness achieved in non-Christian meditation techniques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This effort often obscures the uniqueness of the Christian claim and the very purpose of prayer itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While other religions attempt to attain the absolute by method, Christianity claims that no method is sufficient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><st1:place w:st="on">Union</st1:place> with God is possible only because God himself makes it so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology bears relation to sacred doctrine or revealed truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It asserts the possibility of a real relationship between God and man because of Christ’s passion and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By Christ’s redemptive work, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is given as an actual possession through grace and by grace raises the soul so that it might participate in the very life of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To protect this character of the faith of the Church, spiritual theology can engage in a polemic in relation to other spiritualities to distinguish itself and its claims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">3. Ressourcement<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>Spiritual theology draws from both Scripture and Tradition to define the perfection of the Christian life, principles and spiritual counsels for the Church today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To accomplish this, it must have recourse patristic and medieval theological sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These sources not only are authoritative for the effort, but later developments can only be properly understood against this fuller context of the Church’s experience of the Lord.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">4. The Wisdom of the Saints<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Spiritual principles and counsels are found in the lives of the saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the saints do not always articulate these with great precision or even exemplify them in a way that is universally accessible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think the example of a stigmatist who bears in his body an extraordinary mystical grace for the building up of the Church, but he does so not because everyone should aspire to receive the same grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The task of spiritual theology is to provide a more precise understanding of their counsels and descriptions of the spiritual life without compromising the accuracy of their insights and modes of expression. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Here, the careful art of hagiography becomes vital for spiritual theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The writings of the saints are generally commensurate with their lives of holiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The witness of their lives generally shed light on what they articulated as important for the spiritual life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, a spiritual theologian needs to understand the life history of the saints he utilizes in order to provide the proper theological context for the counsels and descriptions a saint might provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good history of the life of a saint will actually integrate the development of his spiritual writing with his growth in holiness<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">5. Integration of Deductive and Inductive methodologies<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Garrigou-Lagrange argues that following only an inductive approach to the theological sources and the saints does not allow clarity or precision or conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, limiting oneself to only a deductive approach will limit the understanding not only the saints or other theological sources being considered, but also obscures the understanding of definitions, principles and counsels themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology seeks to integrate both efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the writings of the saints and the mystics, how they approach principles and counsels must be closely attended to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their descriptions of these, even if hyperbolic, are often more accurate than what can be expressed with theological precision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, the meaning of these counsels remains obscured and subject to misunderstanding if only a inductive method is followed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, the wisdom of individual saints is weighed against the broader tradition to deduce more precisely the principles their writings and witness contain.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Context<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">There are some who agree with this and then conclude that theological reflection is reducible to the merely subjective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They assume that the experiential knowledge being sought is an intuitively affective kind of science which in different ways makes people feel better about themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By its nature, such knowledge does not admit of a disciplined study unless approach out of the psychological science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In itself it is impenetrably private and inaccessible to reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, in many seminaries and spirituality centers, a serious disciplined pursuit of spiritual theology is replaced by therapeutic meditation and group sharing: spiritual exercises my colleague Fr. Gawronski calls, mere mental hygiene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of this, the faithful are constantly subject to the the popularized versions of the latest spiritual trends, trends that are irrational either because their pre-critical psychology or uncritical theology – whether it be Transcendental Meditation, Eneagram, or more recently Reiki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John of the Cross’s concept of spiritual gluttony might apply – religious experience is reduced to a consumable good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is confusion over Catholic identity and a lack of confidence in the power of the Cross and Catholic teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In reaction to this, especially among young conservative seminarians, prosaic forms of piety rooted in sentimentality spring up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the restoration of novenas and other devotionals can be extremely edifying, failure to understand the nature of these in relation to the growth of charity in the life of prayer can be devastating, as John of the Cross often points out in his works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The spiritual life is reduced to vocal recitations, a merely magical sense of the faith, a certain narrowness regarding holiness (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St. John</st1:city></st1:place> of the Cross’s spiritual pride) and a lack of confidence in the mercy of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The point is that today, more and more, the spiritual life has become regarded as something intrinsically irrational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This trend is due largely to the failure to form men trained as spiritual experts, intellectually vibrant with spiritual principles and counsels that a sound study of spiritual theology can yield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The task is to provide a disciplined study of this field so that irrational approaches to the spiritual life might be avoided and a better informed spirituality might develop for priests, religious and the lay faithful.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Nature and Scope of Spiritual Theology<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">To define spiritual theology as a theological discipline, we should begin by calling to mind the competing definitions of theology in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Anselm it is faith seeking understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St. Thomas</st1:city></st1:place>, it is the study of God and all things in relation to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kind of knowing it yields, or at least ought to yield, is a participation in God’s knowledge of himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason all theology ought to have a spiritual character no matter the branch or particular discipline taken up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From ancient times, the goal of theology has been wisdom, especially the mystical operation of this Gift of the Spirit in the Christian life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">There are some who agree with this and then conclude that theological reflection is reducible to the merely subjective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is because they understand the wisdom attained by prayer to be reducible to the sum total of psychological functions which prayer and contemplation involve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They assume that the experiential knowledge being sought is an intuitively affective kind of science which in different ways makes people feel better about themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a view is unable to break away from the merely subjective and is constantly haunted by the tendency to mistake one’s experience of one’s own ego with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, a purely psychological approach to prayer cannot adequately distinguish experiences of God from experiences with oneself – because to judge experience one must go beyond what is merely experiential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In many seminaries and spirituality centers, a serious disciplined pursuit of spiritual theology is replaced by therapeutic meditation and group sharing, in a whole class of so called spiritual exercises my colleague Fr. Gawronski calls, mere mental hygiene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Static matrix are sometimes proposed where students plot their own spiritual experience against the poles of positive and negative, cataphatic and apophatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes students and professors mistake the ability to articulate certain ideas about spiritual experiences with the wisdom that comes from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A self-sufficient attitude emerges in which one believes oneself as having mastered prayer because a technique and the jargon around it have been acquired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no objective principles in such discussions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A propose vocabulary is used to explain a proposed experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A form of Gnostic jargon – whether psychological, charismatic, evangelical – is contrived to describe psychological experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who use the jargon are believed to have had the experiences it describes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be sure, these experiences may real – but is the way they are understood accurate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without understanding personal experience as something which plays out on a far greater reality, a standard that stands above my own experience, how do I know what I am experiencing is real?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such approaches to the spiritual life are ultimately unsatisfactory because the encounter with God is thought to be exhausted in terms of explanations of those spiritual experiences that can be talked about, the experiences that live only at the surface of the psyche.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In reaction to this, especially among young conservative seminarians, external forms of piety sometimes rooted in sentimentality spring up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want something deeper than that which can be ferreted out in a group discussion about how one feels after practicing a prayer method.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They turn to more traditional and vocal forms of prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the restoration of novenas and other devotionals can be extremely edifying, failure to understand the nature of these in relation to the growth of charity in the life of prayer can be devastating, as John of the Cross often points out in his works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point is that today, more and more, the spiritual life has become regarded as something intrinsically irrational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This trend is due largely to the failure to form men trained as spiritual experts, intellectually vibrant with spiritual principles and counsels that a sound study of spiritual theology can yield.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Spiritual theology, although sometimes healing to study, is not primarily affective or intuitive – although a certain creative intuition is requisite for its development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology, as an object of study and a discipline, is rooted in an objective ecclesial experience of the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The discipline of spiritual theology has been called the queen of the theological sciences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is because its specific object is simpler than all other branches of theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But because of the simplicity of its object, spiritual theology is also the most difficult to adequate define.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It concerns a kind of knowledge called “mystical,” a knowledge arrived at through an ecclesial and personal encounter with the Living God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem is that this kind of knowledge is super-conceptual, more accurately conveyed by means of description than definition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">At the same time, the descriptions of this kind of knowledge lack precision, its truth difficult to judge or discern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of this difficulty, some believe it is impossible to bring this to bear on the theological enterprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, the object of spiritual theology sheds essential light on both speculative and practical theological efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those in both branches are aware that there is an essential connection with spiritual theology, but each sees spiritual theology in relation to its own sphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is why there is a diversity of opinion as to whether this branch of theology is best seen as part of morals or dogmatics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dispute probably is analogous to that physicists have had on whether physical light is a particle or a wave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as physical light is simpler than both particles and waves, the knowledge studied in spiritual theology acts different according to either the speculative or practical questions put to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The object of spiritual theology is the encounter of the Holy Trinity in the contemplation of the Church. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this sense, it corresponds with what the ancients called theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Namely, a participated knowing of the ineffable inner life of the Trinity by grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kind of knowledge is “mystical” insofar as it involves a union with the mystery of Christ through the holy mysteries unto union with the Holy Trinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a contemplative knowledge that anticipates the ultimate end of the Divine Economy, the perfect unity of creatures with the Holy Trinity in which the fulfillment of all desire is realized – that eternal beatific vision of inexhaustible and exceeding Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This science is vital to the life and mission of the Church because if it is forgotten, the very raison d’etre is at risk. Juan Arintero explains: “We must examine and consider attentively the hidden and mysterious development of the inner life of the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This consideration is fundamental and the most important of all, because that inner life and the exigencies of the vital process are the course of the Church’s development in doctrine and organization.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">To come to this knowledge, over and above revealed truth and reason’s efforts to understand it, the experiential is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Confirming this approach, Juan Arintero, the father of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century Dominican <st1:placetype w:st="on">school</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spiritual Theology</st1:placename> at <st1:city w:st="on">Salamanca</st1:city> and the Angelicum in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city></st1:place>, explains what ‘mystical’ means:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">“Mystical” means the same as “hidden.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mystical life is the mysterious life of the grace of Jesus Christ in faithful souls who, dead to themselves, live hidden with Him in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More properly it is the interior life which just souls experience when, animated and possessed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, they receive more and more perfectly, and sometimes clearly perceive, His divine impulses, delightful or painful, whereby they grow in union and conformity with Him who is their head until they become transformed in Him.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A working definition for spiritual theology might be articulated as follows:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Spiritual theology is that part of theology that, proceeding from the truths of divine revelation and the religious experience of individual persons, defines the nature of the supernatural life, formulates directives for its growth and development, and explains the process by which souls advance from the beginning of the spiritual life to its full perfection. (Jordan Aumann, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spiritual Theology</i>, p 22)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">What is the definition of spirituality and how is Christian perfection related to it? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Spirituality refers to the spiritual life, the life of the spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes up the question about how to thrive as a human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All serious spiritualities take up three fundamental human experiences – the desire for the infinite, angst at existence, and fear of death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three paradoxes in this – that a finite being should yearn for the infinite, that an existing being should be uncomfortable with existence, and that a finite, contingent being is a afraid of its own contingency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We find in us a passion to go beyond our own nature or for union with something beyond our nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, we are not at ease with our existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We carry this sense that things are not the way they ought to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some is out of kilter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, we are haunted by a fear of death, a fear of suffering and personal disintegration – physical, psychological, spiritual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have an instinct for self-preservation which is not at peace with the realization that the “self” to be preserved, no matter what we do, will inevitably perish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any true spirituality tries to answer the question: Why should we live and thrive, if in the end it is but folly to have tried to do so?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In Christian spirituality, the spiritual life is in itself supernatural and is ordered to supernatural union with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that this life comes from God who is both the object and principle of all theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Christian spirituality God is revealed as the object of desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sin is revealed as the source of our restlessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Death is revealed as the consequence of sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The supernatural spiritual life of the Christian is ordered to overcoming the power of sin and death through the restoration of union with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since this life comes from God in the order of a gift, it is called grace. Insofar as this gift makes the soul itself holy, it is called sanctifying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as it is given for the building up of the holiness of others, it is gratuitous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as it is given existentially in the present moment, it is actual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as it inclines the faculties of the soul to exist in a new way and act with ease in a certain manner, it is habitual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as it requires the soul’s activity for its effect, it is cooperative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as it is under the impetus of the Holy Spirit, it is operative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sanctifying grace effects substantial union with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grace in the faculties effects psychological union with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Graces that enable or cause action lead to actual union with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Are there objective principles on which the spiritual life is based in the Catholic Tradition?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">There are objective causes of the spiritual life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology identifies, describes and reflects on the consequence of this principles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so, it proceeds scientifically, building on a body of knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The first is God himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason why we yearn for God is that we are made in his image, he is our archetype to which our whole existence is oriented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can only thrive as we move toward him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is more, however, the One God is in movement toward us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is Love – divine eros.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this movement toward us causes our movement toward Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Another principle is the law of sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only Christianity identifies original and personal sin as the cause of the angst we have over our own existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because humanity is in a state of having resisted God, it has a sense that its existence is not the way it ought to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of sin, each person is subject to futility and death: all that is good, noble and true about each of us is diminished and perishable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We fear this dissolution because it destroys the very purpose by which we thrive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">There is also the principle of grace which is sewn over the laws of nature and sin, restoring and perfecting the image and likeness of God in our existence, and overcoming and conquering sin and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grace is the source of human perfection, the beginning of a new kind of existence by which human nature realizes its desire for union with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a pure gift given by God himself so that his desire for man might reach fruition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Why does Spiritual Theology articulate counsels for the spiritual life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Since the object of spiritual theology is the spiritual life, articulating and evaluating spiritual counsels is an important art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The spiritual life in the Catholic Tradition is ordered to the perfection of charity in the life of grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This implies the spiritual theology also gives an account of progress in the spiritual life as well as the supernatural organism – the unfolding of the life of grace within the soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the wisdom of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St. Thomas</st1:city></st1:place>, this requires a grasp of the mystical operations of the gifts of the Spirit as the perfect the infused virtues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insight into these questions requires grounding in theological anthropology, psychology and the divisions of grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">There is a careful balance to be maintained in all this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the one hand, a vision of the whole or wisdom concerning the spiritual life and the ability to articulate it is necessary if proper distinctions are to be made so that counsels might be more clearly understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, respect for the descriptions provided by the mystics is necessary because they penetrate this wisdom more deeply and extensively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if their ability to articulate what they see is not precise, their understanding and descriptions are much more accurate than the discipline of spiritual theology can achieve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In other words, important counsels are found in the lives of the saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the saints do not always articulate these with great precision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The task of spiritual theology is to provide a more precise understanding of their counsels and descriptions of the spiritual life without compromising the accuracy of their insights and modes of expression. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Here, the careful art of hagiography becomes vital for spiritual theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The writings of the saints are generally commensurate with their lives of holiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The witness of their lives generally shed light on what they articulated as important for the spiritual life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, a spiritual theologian needs to understand the life history of the saints he utilizes in order to provide the proper theological context for the counsels and descriptions a saint might provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good history of the life of a saint will actually integrate the development of his spiritual writing with his growth in holiness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>4. Jesus, The Holy Bible and the Seven Great Doctors of the Spiritual Life</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">How is Jesus the Life, the Truth and the Way for Christian perfection?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">St Thomas</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Remember the reasons for the Incarnation – (1) for our salvation and reconciliation to God, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience and a model for holiness, and (4)to deify humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(See the CCC #457-460)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The purposes are achieved through both visible and spiritual missions (see ST I,43) in the mystery of the Church. The Coming of Christ established his mystical Body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Jesus is the Way:</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> In is by virtue of our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">incorporation</b> into that body that we experience that Jesus is the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">means of holiness</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As members of his mystical body, Christians find in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus the Way</b> to the Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are saved and reconciled to God through our living faith in Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctrine of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">parrhesia</b> is key here – namely, that as members of his mystical body <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we hold fast</i></b> to Christ Jesus by a living faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is our holiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Jesus is the Truth:</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way he is the Truth which we incorporate into our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctrine of the exemplarity of Christ through whose example the truth about God’s love is revealed and the truth of about the human person is made manifest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this we have a model to imitate, and our ability to imitate Him is given to us by Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Jesus is the Life.</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As head of the mystical body and by his work of redemption, Christ is the efficient and meritorious principle of the spiritual life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By imparting his Holy Spirit to us, he establishes us in:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Order <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(hierarchy – we have a place in the mystical body of Christ under his headship.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Perfection (full of grace – He is our perfection and source of beatitude)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Power <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>(The spiritual life advances with reliance on the Lord, it all comes from him)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">How do we receive Christ in this way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through the sacraments and living faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It a unique way through the Eucharist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of Christ, Christian spirituality and its perfection seeks the glory of God as its ultimate end and sanctification is the proximate end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given our sinfulness is this really possible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Perfection is absolute and relative<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– Absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">– Relative perfection can be:</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(pertaining directly to charity)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In Christian perfection, it consists <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">primarily</span>, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">St. Thomas</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(See Summa II-II, 184 a 1.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(See Summa II-II, 184, a. 2) Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What then is Christian perfection, the object of this study? <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St Thomas</st1:city></st1:place> “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given our sinfulness is this really possible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him) .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Relative Perfection can be considered under the following aspects: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul);<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come); (3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary (pertaining directly to charity)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">St. Thomas</st1:place></st1:city> explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Summa II-II, 184 a 1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that Christian perfection consists primarily, but not exclusively, in charity, that is friendship love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another way of saying this is that Christian perfection is essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Summa II-II, 184, a. 2<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To continue this discussion, it must be observed that Spiritual theology needs to be distinguished from pre-critical reflection on spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pious reflections on spiritual experiences are not always disciplined, organized or precise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes they might not even be accurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The discovery, analysis and synthesis of insights logically arranged with a certain precision of expression characterize theological research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pious reflection is theological to the degree that it does this, but reflection does not have to be disciplined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not need to discover, analyze or synthesize anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be arranged without regard for logic or precision of expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reflection explores connections by musing intuition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it can more accurately describe a spiritual experience than any theology, precisely because of the imprecision of expression and relaxation of logic it allows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, because not all intuitive connections we imagine are actually true, pious reflection frustrates a clearer understanding of the spiritual life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology, because it is focused in a disciplined and precise way on the end of the spiritual life and all things that lead to that end, offers greater clarity into the spiritual life and experiences that pious reflection seeks to express.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Spiritual theology can be distinguished from other theological sciences because of its object.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like dogmatic theology, articles of the faith comprise the scope of spiritual theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To study spiritual theology one needs a good working knowledge of dogmatic theology:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christology, Soteriology, Pneumentology, Mariology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these branches of theology concern God’s work in as it is visible in history but also as it invisible in the soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology looks more specifically at God’s spiritual work in the soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To properly understand this assertion, we must bear in mind that God’s work in the soul is always in some sense ecclesial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is because the human soul is relational – it lives in a matrix of relationships and cannot be extracted from this web without doing violence to its very nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another way to say this might be that from the standpoint of the dogmatic disciplines, spiritual theology seeks what can be understood about what the Lord is doing in the hearts of men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But spiritual theology is not only speculative like these branches of theology; it is also practical like moral theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whereas dogmatic theology explores revealed truth for its own sake, moral theology seeks to understand how one should live in light of this revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology takes up specifically all those questions about life related too growth in holiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some in fact would rather that it be considered as part of moral theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the scope of moral theology is much broader than that of spiritual theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moral theology studies the whole Christian life from the standpoint of doing what is right and avoiding what is evil for the glory of God by means of grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual theology studies primarily those aspects of the Christian life by which union with God can be increased and brought to perfection – it seeks reasons for maintaining the discipline of the Christian life, for taking up one’s cross and following the Lord.</span></div>
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Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-87049026927067053212012-08-20T23:34:00.001-06:002012-08-20T23:34:07.884-06:00Defining Spiritual Theology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Although it examines and articulates counsels for growth in the life of grace, Spiritual Theology is a dogmatic discipline. A contemporary combining of what was once treated separately as ascetical and mystical theology, this branch of theology brings to the highest level of human consciousness the relation of sacred doctrine to the perfection of Christian holiness. The discipline is, therefore, an integral part of theology as a speculative science of God and all things in relation to God as this proceeds from Divine Revelation.<br />
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To be both accurate and precise in its conclusions, it holds together both theological wisdom and mystical wisdom. Thus, beyond arguing from principles to conclusions, Spiritual Theology also requires a contemplation open to wonder and adoration over the great things God is accomplishing in the life of the Church, things so astounding that in whatever is understood about God and His ways, there is always disproportionately more that is beyond all understanding. <br />
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Spiritual Theology is alive with the Word of God. Animated by the study of the Sacred Page, this discipline accepts the Holy Bible as the inspired and inerrant witness to the Source and Author of all life. Furthermore, this vitalizing contemplation of the Living Word is carried out the context of the life of the Church.<br />
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Spiritual theology searches for the spiritual sense of the Sacred Page, especially when that spiritual sense is co-extensive with the literal. With an eye to the analogy of the faith, this <i>lectio divina</i> even examines the development of the spiritual interpretation and application of various passages in the writings of the saints and mystics. Thus, the sacred reading which informs this discipline also extends to other authoritative sources in different ways. By this effort this science illuminates in a disciplined manner the difficult to discern connections between the propositions of the faith and the witness to Christian holiness in the lives of the saints.<br />
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By its nature a "kneeling theology," Spiritual Theology draws it language and principles from the scientific terminology of various schools of theology and theological disciplines to discern the metaphorical descriptions of the mystics and the spiritual teachings of the Doctors of the Church. In this way, it serves all the other branches of theology by relating their conclusions to the ultimate end of the divine economy. As a unifying branch of research, it is in this sense the "Queen" of the theological disciplines. At the same time, speculative though it is, it is also a science whose conclusions find practical application in the most vital of all human enterprises, the art of all arts, spiritual direction. </div>
Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-47728220320980218052012-04-27T13:35:00.001-06:002012-04-27T13:35:50.028-06:00Reviving My First Blog on Spiritual Theology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This blog is written for students of spiritual theology. Spiritual theology involves the disciplined wonder by which connections within the content of sacred doctrine are critically explored. At the same time, it is a contemplation of the mystery of our faith in a life changing way. It is theology studied on one's knees. It is conducted so that study of the sacred page and all sacred reading opens to a conversation with God by Word and Silence -- the Word of the Father and the silent adoration of his creatures.</div>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1132081095117985182005-11-15T10:24:00.000-07:002005-11-15T11:58:15.196-07:00NazarethLectures in November reflected on 21st Century Masters of the Spiritual Life as proposed by Fr. Aidan Nichols. I have stressed in these the theology of hope and Peguy's insight that the basis of our hope (and therefore our prayerful yearning) is found in God: We hope in God and yearn for him because he hopes and yearns for us even more. Spiritual formation begins with an encounter with Christ that opens up an experience of God's love and hope for us. More recently we have been applying this concept to the various states of life in the Church. A state in life is a stable and committed way of life that does not easily changed and is sealed by some kind of consecration: matrimony, holy orders and religious consecration. Many of the faithful do not live in a state of life - but preparing for or living in a state of life is the normal means of growing in holiness for most of the mystical body.<br /><br />Lay faithful whose spirituality has a secular character grow in holiness through ordering the good things of the world to God - helping to build a civilization of love. Engagement with the world and participation in human affairs and relationships are key to realizing this vocation. The work world, the political world, the culture all must be ordered to God. G.K. Chesterton provides a vision for this. Spouses order the greatest created good of this visible world to God through giving themselves to one another in nuptial friendship open to life and exclusive faithfulness to one another. Parents grow in holiness as the primary educators and catechists of their children when they impart not only the content of the faith and the truth about what it means to be human, but when they teach how to love, how to give oneself in service to God and through God to the world.<br /><br />On the other hand, those consecrated by Holy Orders have a spirituality with an ecclesial and ministerial character. They grow in holiness by ordering the Church to Christ, the mystical body to the head. This is especially true of the bishop but analogously of the priest and the deacon. The priest, by faithfulness to his ministry and prayer, is a living icon of priesthood of Christ just as the deacon is a living icon of Christ the servant. The liturgical ministry is primary here in a manner it is not for any of the other faithful. Dom Marmion points in this direction. Although the liturgy is the source and summit of the Christian life for all the faithful, liturgical ministry is a special means of holiness for the clergy.<br /><br />Finally, those consecrated through poverty, chastity and obedience are a living image of the holiness of God for the Church. Their discipline of life in some sense separates them from the world and by adhering to this 'anachoresis', they signify by their lives the holiness God has called us all too. This is curious because anachoresis does not mean that they are disengaged from the plight of the world or indifferent to suffering. On the contrary, precisely because they have withdrawn from the fight and fury, flight and flurry of the visible world, they see the spiritual values at stake that those of us who are overly engaged in temporal affairs can easily lose sight of. Edith Stein and St. Therese are witnesses to this. By their love of wisdom and simplicity, they help the Church refocus its activities and keep its eye on the ball - the love of Christ. <br /><br />As laity or clergy or religious, we are all called to the same holiness, but the means for each is different - not so much in kind as in degree. Engagement with the world or the ministry or separation from the world is something everyone is involved with in every state in life. But for the laity the note is on engagement, for the clergy ministry, and for religious separation. Despite this difference, when we consider the signs of the time, there is a special image or ideal that can be applied to each state of life that could help each one realize its vocation in a more compellling way for our contemporaries. This is the ideal of Nazareth, a favorite theme of contemplatives in the 20th Century, it may provide insight into how to live in the 21st Century. Below is an article I have been working on that seeks to apply this to priestly formation. <br /><br />Reflection on Nazareth<br />As the Concrete Historical Ideal of the Seminary<br /><br />We need a concrete historical ideal for a seminary that is biblically based and compelling for our post-modern era. Jacques Maritain once suggested that The Holy Roman Empire served as the unrealized but always sought after concrete historical ideal for culture and civilization in the Middle Ages. Similarly, the Modern Seminary, conceived after Trent, seems to have utilized a Medieval Monastic model. But in the post-modern era, is this ideal still compelling? The insights of mystics and the founders of new religious movements of the 20th Century point to a new ideal, one that recovers the biblical basis of monasticism while addressing the deep questions of young men at the beginning of the 21st Century.<br /><br />That the modern seminary drew its inspiration from medieval monasticism but this ideal has become <em>idealized</em>: awareness of human nuances and supernatural subtleties once realized in that loving communion have fallen out of collective consciousness because the ideal does not have a living concrete expression, or, at the very least, such expressions are very rare today. Thus, the ‘medieval monk’ is used as a ‘straw man’ to belittle contemplation as opposed to pastoral charity or else reduce apostolic effort as a servile activism. Ironically, the genius of medieval monasticism is found in its ability to constantly combine in ever renewing ways prayer and work, contemplation and apostolate. In true monasticism, contemplation is not opposed to pastoral charity, any more than work could oppose prayer. Rather, as in every authentic expression of Christianity, in the monastic community the liturgy is dynamically woven into an industrious tapestry of life through which the splendor of God’s plan shines forth in a host of holy friendships, in staggering cultural achievements, and in countless acts of love hidden in the ordinary stuff of life.But it is precisely because we no longer see monasticism in this way that the Medieval Monastery is not able to provide a compelling ideal. <br /><br />The mystics of our time, like the medieval monks, promote the idea that Christians, and priests in particular, must be both contemplative and apostolic. To express this ideal, they tend to refer to the image of Nazareth, the home where Jesus grew into manhood. Their observations suggest that Nazareth may provide a better concrete historical ideal, a more compelling reference point for inspiring Christian formation in general, and diocesan clergy for the 3rd Millennium specifically.<br /><br />If Nazareth is to inspire christian formation, before it can be applied as an ideal, the reality it conveys needs to be contemplated. But how do you contemplate something hidden? For, indeed, Nazareth is a hidden mystery, accessible only by faith, faith informed by friendship love of God, faith for the sake of God. Therefore, contemplation of Nazareth begins with an act of faith: an ascent of the mind to ineffable realities and a loving leap into the mystery of Christ himself.<br /><br />If the contemplation of Nazareth begins with a prayer, a petition of the heart, mystics have associated this petition with consecration to Jesus through Mary.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=15481222#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> That is because consecration, as a petition, appeals to the Heart of Christ who holds and is held in the heart of Mary. Since Christ has given himself over to his Church completely, his memories, the memories of his mother that also belong to him, are a gift for those who ask. As a gift, these memories, especially the memories of Nazareth, should be seen as part of the inexhaustible riches of Christ in the heart of the Church. The experience of mystics suggests that petitionary character of consecration potentially impetrates access to this gift.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=15481222#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a> .<br /><br />When pondered in faith, Nazareth as a glimpse of Christ before his public ministry is both the place where he is first loved, humanly formed, and divinely forming and loving others. When contemplated as the first place where Jesus was known and loved, Nazareth opens up the possibility of a more profound intimacy with Christ. As a place where Jesus formed Mary (and Joseph), and was formed by them, Nazareth also reveals stages of growth in hope filled living faith as well as a principle for integrating a communion of Christian love with preparation for a sacrificial mission.<br /><br />Nazareth as a place of profound intimacy with Christ is a key insight of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Bl. Charles de Foucauld. For both of them, the contemplative outlook that Nazareth evokes inspired their desire to seek to serve Christ not in great deeds but hidden, ordinary ones. Catherine emphasized loving attention to small details of ordinary life and Charles understood this principally in terms of embracing the obscurity of a life of silence in the actual city of Nazareth itself. But for both of these mystics, loving Christ in ordinary activities and loving Christ in prayer were two sides of the same coin.<br /><br />Catherine understood that, like Mary in Nazareth, we realize the joy of living with Christ by serving him in the ordinary things of life. She used this insight to form her staff to see sorting buttons, preparing meals and folding laundry in terms of serving Christ. She used this insight to exhort the staff to do everything for love of Christ. In this way, everything becomes a prayer, an expression of love. <br /><br />Charles saw (at first for himself while actually living in Nazareth, and then for the new community he dreamed of forming while he lived with muslims in deserts of Morrocco) that the Lord calls those he loves for periods of loving contemplation in their life so that they can become radically dependant on the providence of God the Father. Learning to love the Lord in this sort of hidden contemplative life, one is prepared for radical apostolic endeavors because he has learned to surrender completely to the loving will of the Father. Nazareth for those who want to follow Christ is the place where surrender to the Father’s will begins, where it is learned, just as Christ learned.<br /><br />The experience of these two mystics is validated by the theological reflections on this same reality by Father Philippe. He develops these ideas by considering Nazareth as a place of progressive surrender to the will of God. First he considers Nazareth after the sojourn from Egypt as a place where the sanctification of ordinary work and prayer began to be realized. After the finding of Jesus in the temple, Mary ponders the mystery of the Father in a new way that evokes a deeper surrender. The value of her humble working the household is even more obscured by the service to the Father in worship (ministry) that Christ must be about in the temple. Finally, there is the death of Joseph, a loss that occasions an even more radical and total surrender to the loving providence of the Father.<br /><br />Pastores Dabo Vobis and the Program of Priestly Formation provide a picture of the seminary formation not inconsistent with what mystics attempted to present with their reflections on Nazareth. Placing the relationships in priestly formation on the matrix of the communion of love in the Trinity is the best way to prepare men to give themselves in the ministry. At least, Gaudiem et Spes, 24 seems to validate this insight:<br /><br />"The Lord Jesus, when praying to the Father <em>that they may be one . . . even as we are one</em> has opened up new horizons closed to human reason by implying that there is a certain parallel between the union existing among the divine persons and the union of he sons of God in truth and love. It follows, then, that if man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake, man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere gift of giving himself."<br /><br />This passage asserts that the Trinity as a communion of love is the standard, pattern and the source of power by which all relationships should be established and measured. When this principle is applied to priestly formation, it clarifies for us that the identity of each seminarian can only be revealed in communion of love of the Church. Formators and peers ought to serve as the visible and concrete sign of this communio in the here and now for the men entrusted to them for formation. But how do we know whether these relationships have been properly ordered, conformed to the communion of life of the Trinity, a real participation in the communio of the Church? The link is the eternal plan of the Father, the divine design. Unstated and assumed but worthy of mention is the fact that a formation design that orders the mutual relations in priestly formation in the right way, according to the plan of God, makes this visible and concrete sign of the Church more compelling and effective.<br /><br />Relationships: the Context for Formation<br /><br />If effective priestly formation is to advance, it is important to clarify who the chief agents of spiritual formation are and how their complementary roles work together. It is also important to identify objective and measurable criteria for each of these agents so that their effectiveness can be seen. Again, the task here is to discern the divine design, the Father’s plan for spiritual formation. We must ask, “How does the Father desire to order those being formed in relationship to their formators and their tasks?”<br /><br />The list of formators should be considered in its broadest sense. It is important to note that the PPF and PDV already offer a broad description of these when it comes to addressing overall formation in all its aspects. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in many institutions to take a narrow view of the scope of spiritual formation in terms of its criteria and agents. Such a view inhibits a more dynamic implementation of Pastores Dabo Vobis. By building on and expanding the material on the agents of spiritual formation contained in PPF and PDV, a future Spiritual Formation Design will provide an invaluable resource to bishops and other formators.<br /><br />Identity for Mission<br /><br />Standing between the men God entrusts to us to become priests and their ability to answer this call is not only immaturity but deep wounded-ness. We must not assume that fit candidates for the seminary are those who have it all together. The men who come to seminary should be assumed to be broken and very in need of healing. Prevalent and widespread abuse of the the Internet and other media are simply symptoms of the deep, profound wounds to be healed. Often times disobedience or lack of docility are brought up as major formation problems. But aren’t timidity and lack of initiative even worse problems in formation? And what about matters of intimacy, chastity and friendship? What kind of obedience or docility is it when men do not know how to act like men, when they do not know what it is to be fathers, when they are not able to be present to one another?<br /><br />When it comes to addressing the wounds, we have made frequent recourse to psychological counseling. The healing they need is not merely psychological (although it might include that). It is the healing of salvation that transforms wounds into intercession and compassion for others, especially for enemies and those who hurt us (see CCC 2843). Therefore, we should not place too much confidence in psychological resources. They will help to some extent. But spiritual healing requires spiritual means. <br /><br />When this healing (a healing in the sense of salvation) is not afforded men, many of them are not able to deal adequately with a fear of rejection. This screws up their discernment and openness to progress. They are so afraid of rejection that a culture of love and healing is not possible in the seminary. Fear of rejection can only be healed through encouragement and prayer: praying over and with men, men praying over and with each other.<br /><br />Nazareth symbolizes a household of healing, encouragement and prayer. If there was ever admonishment (My child, why have you done this?), it was came in the context of love and prayer. Such a context can dispose seminarians to imitate the Lord in Nazareth: Jesus "went down with them" and "lived under their authority" (Luke 2:51). The way Madonna House addresses this is in <em>Chambers of Her Heart</em>, a book on their “presem” program, is compelling. It proposes that the seminary needs to be an experience of Nazareth: a home of love and prayer where obedience can be learned just as Christ first began to learn obedience by what he suffered (see Heb. 5:7-8).<br /><br />Teaching, Practicing and Evaluating:<br /><br />There is a prevailing assumption that human formation precedes spiritual formation. While grace builds on nature, it is also true that nature is healed and perfected by grace. Therefore, human and spiritual formation do not precede each other but go hand in hand. As one is healed spiritually, he becomes more capable of human maturity. As one grows in human maturity, he becomes more open to grace. <br /><br />But this insight is lost today. It must be said that emphasis is placed on human formation above and beyond spiritual formation. Human formation is believed to be an area for the external forum. In human formation, clinical psychology offers something that at least appears objective and measurable. (ie. Does he exhibit avoidant behavior? Does he disassociate? To what degree is he narcistic? etc.) With objective benchmarks and flags to watch for, human formation is easy to understand and to apply.<br /><br />Spiritual formation is reduced to the internal forum. Consigned to the realm of spiritual direction, judgments concerning someone’s spiritual growth appear to be subjective and the criteria for spiritual progress undefined. In spiritual formation the sorry state of spiritual theology has not arrived at agreed upon and objective criteria. This does not mean spiritual criteria do not exist (in fact, they are abundant in tradition), but that important work in this area is yet to be done.<br /><br />With only vaguely discerned criteria, explaining to an individual seminarian specifically what to work on spiritually and how to measure his progress is a tentative enterprise. This is only compounded when spiritual directors adopt a model of spiritual direction that does not aid spiritual formation. When a spiritual director views his primary role as giving feedback (or worse, airing his own problems) rather than as part of a total formation team whose goal is to form a priest, he is not directing with the end in mind. Further, the obscurity around criteria and the presumption that spirituality is a matter strictly for the internal forum limits spiritual growth as a real consideration in evaluation of readiness for ordination. <br /><br />Since the criteria provided by clinical psychology provide human formation with clearer objective criteria, we cannot be too critical of the tendency of formators to see these as more reliable than criteria used in spiritual formation, and thus, to focus on human maturity in determining whether someone is ready for ordination. But the result is that a spiritually immature individual can be recommended for ordination simply because he has some acceptable good human virtues, obeys the rules and externally demonstrates some sort of docility. Is it possible for someone to exhibit all these measurable behaviors and still not be ready for the ministry?<br /><br />The results of not addressing spiritual formation in a systematic way have had a devastating effect on priestly formation. Men are able to get through six to seven years of formation without really having been formed in a priestly spirituality. Consequently, the value of contemplation, Liturgy of the Hours, and popular piety are not appreciated by many in the ministry. Instead, many priests today are privy to a superficial activism in the ministry which distracts them from greater intimacy with the Lord. This in turn undermines the discipline of simplicity, obedience and celibacy in priestly life. For without intimacy with the Lord, why should such discipline be embraced?<br /><br />Principles at Work in Teaching, Practicing and Evaluating<br /><br />A communion of love patterned in some manner after the Trinity should provide the basis for formation, especially spiritual formation. The ordering of formators among themselves, their complementary duties and their relationships to those they form should conform to the divine design of the Father, the pattern the communion of love in the Trinity. This sounds so theologically abstract until we direct our attention to where this was first realized, namely, Nazareth. It is more than the work of pious imagination to assert that the Holy Family is where our Lord was formed by Mary and Joseph. It derives from the logic of revealed truth that this is where the Son of God first learned to do and teach all the things that he does and teaches in his public ministry. Great mystics and founders of communities of the 20th Century have grasped this insight. It is an insight for our time.<br /><br />This place of the “hidden mysteries” as the Catechism calls them (see 531-534) provides a model for the overall formation, and especially for ordering and discerning the spiritual formation of men for the priesthood. Catherine of Madonna House and Charles de Foucauld both focus on the importance of Nazareth in their own spiritualities. For both, Nazareth is a place where the duty of the moment is learned and practiced, and through this where hidden intimacy with the Lord is found.<br /><br />Jesus learned to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and clothe the naked at home with Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family entails an invitation to journey into a greater love in a hidden way where there is no room for fear of rejection but instead a culture of trust. The Holy Family is also a place where true masculine values are learned: those of perseverance in unappreciated hard work, taking initiative, courage in the face of evil, gentle compassion for the down trod, fighting for what is just, generously accepting responsibility, using authority wisely, and providing for others. <br /><br />Formators need to look to the love shared by the Holy Family as a model for how they perform their work, as a standard to discern the seminary culture. Not only formators, but also seminarians need to be able to contemplate this model with their formators. There is a need in formation for spiritual paternity and maternity to be exercised and received in the lives of those being formed. Rather than a clinical or institutional model that envisions formation as something done to someone, a family model speaks of the forbearance and commitment to deal with someone as they are. <br /><br />The family model means blessing, instructing and admonishing with the model of Nazareth as a school of love. This model extends to praying with, for and over one another for healing and encouragement among formation faculty, among seminarians and between seminarians and formation staff. As stated earlier, formators need to be in touch with the wounds their men bear. This means that they more deeply commit themselves to submitting to God their own wounds and even allowing their own weaknesses to be used by God to instruct seminarians, like a father might wisely do with his son in family life. <br /><br />Establishing Nazareth as a model for formation in this way will require a greater vulnerability, something like the vulnerability parents and children share with one another in families. When we had strong families, this was not necessary. Today, however, some of the lessons of a truly Catholic family life need to be learned over. Seminaries and other places of formation need to be attentive and open to this.<br /><br />Again, Madonna House has adopted this under the direction of Venerable Catherine Doherty de Heuck. As explained in Chambers of her Heart, the whole life of the seminary community becomes formative when it is ordered to the divine plan and when seminarians are taught faithfulness to the duty of the moment. The kitchen is not a place where we “help the cooks” but rather a where we learn to feed the hungry, the laundry where we clothe the naked, et cetera. <br /><br />My point is that the image of Nazareth offers a vision for a formation in a culture of love that speaks to the principles at work in teaching, practicing and evaluating the subcommittee needs to develop. Looking at how Charles de Foucauld and Catherine Doherty de Hueck used this image in forming their communities spiritually in the 20th Century offers a good standard for us as we discern a design for spiritual formation. <br /><br /><br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=15481222#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Cardinal Berulle introduced the practice and theological understanding of Consecration to Jesus through Mary in an attempt to help contemplatives realize a deeper conversion. St. Louis de Montefort developed the theological basis for this practice. In the 20th Century, the usefulness of this practice for a deeply apostolic life was promoted by Maximillian Kolbe and Catherine de Hueck Doherty. <br /><br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=15481222#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Simply put, this means that anyone who humbly asks to love Christ more and serve the Church has the possibility of seeing Nazareth with the eyes of Jesus and Mary. If anyone has any qualms that such a method is not sophisticated enough, then they would also have problems with both the Ignatian and Franciscan traditions whose ways of prayer are both founded on the notion that a graced filled imagination can allow us to see salvation history through the eyes of those who participated in it. I do not have the space to provide the detailed analysis required to illustrate this assertion but invite a review of the observations of Maximilian Kolbe, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, and John Paul II on this pointAnthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1129151904099076972005-10-12T15:17:00.000-06:002005-10-13T14:29:34.656-06:00Study Guide - Mid Term<strong>6105 Spiritual Theology<br />Mid-Term Study Guide<br />Wednesday, October 12, 2005<br />Dr. Anthony Lilles</strong><br /><br /><strong>Please note: There have been some modifications to the study guide and to the mid-term exam instructions. This superceeds my instructions in our class today.</strong><br /><br />Choose One of Three Essay Questions (500 words to be written before the exam -16 points and due on Thursday, October 20):<br />1. How do the specifc means that dispose to the gift of wisdom related to precepts and counsels?<br />2. How is Christ the life of the soul?<br />3. How can the Scriptures be used effectively to promote the spiritual life?<br /><br />12 selected questions from the following 18 (responses not to exceed four sentences or six lines handwritten - 7 points apiece and tested on Tuesday, October 18):<br />1. What is the nature of spiritual theology?<br />2. How is the ultimate end of the divine economy anticipated in this life?<br />3. What does it mean to participate in the glory of God?<br />4. What is the nature of Christian Perfection?<br />5. Theologically, why is charity the primary element of Christian perfection?<br />6. How does the Father send the Son and the Spirit spiritually to the soul?<br />7. What does St. Paul mean by “the renewal of the mind”?<br />8. What is the mystical life?<br />9. What is purity of heart and how is it attained?<br />10. How should a soul conduct itself in the face of diabolical temptation?<br />11. What is the difference from venial sin and an imperfection?<br />12. Concerning temptations of the flesh, how are counsels directed towards desire for pleasure related to those directed to horror over suffering?<br />13. What is the purpose of the Gifts of the Spirit in the spiritual life?<br />14. What are the counsels for entering the active night of the senses?<br />15. What distinguishes the stages of spiritual growth?<br />16. How are prayer, fasting and almsgiving related to the means of spiritual growth listed by Jordan Aumann?<br />17. What does the purification of the internal senses involve?<br />18. What are three things someone can do that specifically dispose to fear of the Lord?Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1128448767374071772005-10-04T11:57:00.000-06:002005-10-04T11:59:27.386-06:00Oct. 4 Conversion and PurificationConversion, Purification and Growth<br /><br />In recent lectures we have considered conversion, purgation, and the stages of growth. Below shows reading assignments and discussions leading up to the exam. <br /><br />Date: Thursday, September 29 Stages of Growth <br />Learning Objective: Identify the major stages of spiritual growth and explain the defining characteristics of each stage.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Mid-term<br />Assignment due Oct. 4: Spiritual Theology, chapter 9, Blog and EBB, <br /> <br />Date: Tuesday, October 4 Topic: Means of Growth<br />Learning Objective: Explain how the sacraments, good works, and prayer as means to spiritual maturity.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Mid-term<br />Assignment due Oct. 6: Spiritual Theology, chapters 10 and 11.<br /><br />Date: Thursday, October 6 Topic: Growth of the Gifts of the Spirit and the Virtues<br /> Learning Objective: Describe the growth of the virtues and the gifts of the Spirit<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Mid-term<br />Assignment due Oct. 25: Spiritual Theology, chapter 12, suggested reading for Midterm Roots of Christian Mysticism, 309-380<br /><br />Date: October 11 Topic: Review<br /><br />Regarding Conversion<br />Although we looked briefly at temperament and factors effecting character, the key is the struggle against sin. The distinction between mortal and venial sin is understood in terms of charity. Mortal sin acts directly against friendship love of God with full knowledge and freedom in a very grave matter so that divine love not longer lives in the soul. Only the (operative) grace of conversion can restore such a soul to love. With venial sin, love is there virtually but not actually. An act of love (cooperative or operative) is all it takes to actualize the power of divine love the soul possesses. With imperfections, there is still actual divine love in the soul but it is there at a lesser degree than it could be. These imperfections like venial sin are sometimes voluntary and other times not.<br /> <br />Conversion (whether in the face of mortal sin, venial sin or imperfections) presumes repentance; or rather repentance is the beginning of conversion. To repent is “to think again.” To convert means “to turn around.” What I propose is that one cannot turn one’s life around unless one acquires a “fresh, spiritual way of thinking”, “the renewed mind,” “the mind of Christ.” We sin and are imperfect because of ignorance, weakness, indifference and malice. These flaws live in us because of the power of sin and death. Fear of death causes these things. Precisely because we are afraid of losing ourselves, our egos, we cling to them. Only when we see ourselves and the world with the resurrected eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, do we see new possibilities that are the source of courage. Such a mind does not see death (or mortification in general – which means death to self, death to the big fat ego) as the end but rather as a pathway to a greater hope. Freed of fear we are free to offer ourselves in love, free to love with God’s love. Only as the mind is purified and transformed (rather than merely enlightened) do we really see with the eyes of the Risen one. <br /><br />As we live converted lives, lives in which we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, we come to know the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect. This kind of knowledge helps us in our struggle against temptation. The world, the flesh and the devil tempt us. The sources for the theology of diabolical temptation are found in the temptation of Eve, the temptation of Cain and the temptation of Christ. By appealing to our gut, head and heart to abuse our relationship with nature, others and God, the Evil One attempts to impede obedience to God. Pride, envy, anger, lust and gluttony as well as the sloth and despair they cause are tendencies he plays upon. The diabolic logic of temptation involves first engaging the soul in a general way by questioning God’s will. Once this has been achieved, an enchanting possibility is offered. If this possibility is entertained, then some apparent goodness, pleasure or advantage can seduce a soul to act against God’s will. Vigilance and prayer beforehand, flight or fight during, and thanksgiving and repentance after temptation are the means by which we overcome the Evil One. <br /><br />The world is a source of temptation not as created by God but rather insofar as it is taken up in structures of sin, under the influence of Satan and subject to futility. The spirit of the world (Zeitgeist?) is not the Spirit of God. Thus, the worldly spirit presents (1) maxims opposed to the Gospel of Christ (e.g. happiness is found in material possession and not in spiritual values), (2) ridicule and persecution of those who live honestly (e.g. the self-controlled and responsible members of society are mocked as “square”), (3) the exultation sexual pleasure and diversion through exciting lust and gluttony (e.g. well, examples from the entertainment industry are too numerous, can you identify a popular sitcom that doesn’t resort this?), (4) the scandalous example of others, especially Catholic leaders (e.g. pedophiles in the ministry). All these things flow from the spirit of the world, the worldly spirit, that we all live under. Knowing the truth about the world, God, and ourselves frees us from this spirit. That is why the contemplation of living faith (seeing with the eyes of the Risen One), thinking about how silly the world really is in the face of God (the vanity of the world), indifference to the mockery and scandal of the world (ignoring what the world thinks) – these are the means to overcome the spirit of the world. <br /><br />Our flesh is the source of temptation because Adam and Eve were seduced through the envy of the devil to be disobedient to God. The consequence of this disobedience is the law of sin and death sewn into the fiber of our humanity. Humanity lives with a death wish and inclines itself to its own destruction. This is so in both experiences of pleasure and suffering. The law of grace takes up the strands of nature and sin and makes a new harmony. The weakness of sin become the occasion of grace, a grace that purifies and perfects our primordial goodness. Through grace we control our base desire for pleasure which if uncontrolled would destroy us. Through grace we patiently endure the sorrow of suffering which if uncontrolled would also destroy us. For this to be realized a soul must be aware if its dignity, the ugliness of sin and foster a preference for suffering over pleasure. Because flesh is driven by selfishness, the spiritual person must practice custody, self-denial and mortification to put the big fat ego to death (mors tuo grandi pingui egoismo). It must make sacrifices in terms of acceptance of duties and resignation to crosses. Since the flesh is weak in this regard it needs recourse to frequent reception of the Sacraments, devotion to Mary, prayer, and wholesome hobbies and undertakings. Most of all, all of these means of overcoming the flesh must lead to and draw from a living encounter and awareness of the Passion of Christ. Whether in suffering or in pleasure, the Passion of Christ heals our humanity and stirs us out of fallen nature’s death wish. The Cross of Christ evokes a response of love that is stronger than death. By keeping one’s eyes fixed on the love revealed there, the spiritual person finds the desire to return love for love, “I would not have it any other way because of what love crucified has done for me.” Such a person enters into the mystical reality of becoming a victim soul, a soul in whom the whole redemptive mystery of Christ is renewed. <br /><br />Regarding Purification<br />In these lectures, we discussed the purification the external and internal senses, the passions, the intellect and the will. It is noteworthy that what can actively be accomplished is not substantially different no matter the faculty discussed. I suggested that for spiritual direction, to master one faculty around which to organize the counsels that apply to all efforts to purify oneself. One who is more intellectual should understand the counsels and organize them around the intellect, or if more passionate, the passions, or more imaginative, the imagination and memory. Finally, purification or purgation occurs not only actively in terms of what we choose but also and primarily in terms of what God does. Thus purgation is active and passive. John of the Cross identifies two principle kinds of purgations – one that is predominately active but has a passive phase and primarily involves the senses (he calls this the dark night of the senses), and the other that is predominately passive but not exclusively and primarily involves the intellect and the will (he calls this the dark night of the spirit – the memory is a spiritual faculty in his anthropology so he includes this here too). The night of the senses concerns the transition from being a beginner to becoming proficient and the night of the spirit concerns the movement to perfection in the Christian life.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1126742922650883192005-09-14T18:07:00.000-06:002005-09-14T18:17:32.696-06:00Sept. 15 LectureLecture Notes for September 15<br /><br />Date Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Topic: Life in Christ and The Monasticism<br />Learning Objective: Distinguish how Christ is the way the truth and the life and describe how early monks understood monasticism as a following of Christ.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion.<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Midterm.<br />Assignment due Sept. 15: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 4, Christian Spirituality, Chapter 6<br /><br />Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Topic: The Supernatural Organism and the Scholastics<br />Learning Objectives: Provide an explanation of the supernatural organism. Describe the relation of the different kinds of grace, virtues, gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Provide understanding of why the scholastics began to develop teachings on the supernatural organism and the divine indwelling.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.<br />Assignment due Sept. 20 : Spiritual Theology, chapter 5 and 6, Christian Spirituality, chapter 8 and Blog and EBB.<br /><br />Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Topic: Christian Perfection and The Catholic Reformers<br />Learning Objective: Define the nature of Christian Perfection and explain mystical experience in relation to it. Identify the basic teachings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in relation to Christian Perfection.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.<br />Assignment due Sept. 22: Spiritual Theology, chapter 7<br /><br />Review<br />In our last lecture we considered how Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Spiritual Theology, pp 49-65). We ran out of time to properly review Christ our life. Under this aspect, Christ is the meritorious, efficient, and ecclesial cause of our spiritual life.<br />By meritorious cause, we mean that Christ merited our redemption through his obedience to the Father in his passion and death in such a way that our weakness serves as the basis of appealing to God’s mercy. This, along with Christ as the exemplar cause of the spiritual life, is foundational to the theology of St. Maximus the Confessor – we grow to spiritual maturity principally because the Word did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at but rather emptied himself; thus, the work by which we were redeemed is the pattern we must follow: we must imitate Christ (See Christian Spirituality, p. 56).<br />By efficient cause, we mean that all grace comes through him; his divinity is the source of the power that saves (sanctifying grace) and his humanity is the instrument through which that power acts. This means that if we are to become holy, we must have some kind of contact with Christ involving his sacred humanity.<br />As ecclesial cause of the Spiritual life, Christ leads us to see that nothing created can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” because the reality of what the Church is. Christ is the head of the mystical body, meaning that he has primacy of order (everything ordered to him), he has primacy of perfection (in him is the fullness of grace and truth), and he has primacy of power (the whole Body and each of its members draws its life from his fullness). The primacy of Christ’s perfection and power in the Church are the most important aspects to consider for the spiritual life because they touch on the life of grace. Christ communicates his power chiefly but not exclusively through the sacraments – the visible signs of grace that when received with the right disposition effect contact with Christ. This kind of contact is that which is given through a faith vivified by charity. St. Thomas teaches that “by faith Christ’s power is united to us” (ST III, q62, a5, ad 2).<br />Jordan Aumann also discusses the role of Mary as mother and mediatrix of graces. This is the proper subject of our Mariology course but for now we will simply observe that her maternal role is related to Christ as efficient cause in terms of her maternal relationship to him and to Christ’s ecclesial causality because of her unique relationship to the Church.<br /><br />As we go into the next subject, we will see that imitation of Christ involves on the one hand the life of grace and on the other the cooperation of our freewill. How does God’s grace and our free will work together towards spiritual growth? The monastic and scholastic movements of the West explored this question and developed a theological understanding of this question that became identified under the term, “supernatural organism.”<br /><br />Western Monasticism<br />Cassian<br />His contribution was to stress the importance of one’s freewill in spiritual growth. By renunciation of the everything that leads from Christ, we imitate Christ in his self-emptying love. For him, what we choose determines whether we will grow. As we choose well, we become capable of deeper prayer.<br />Three phases of asceticism:<br />1. reject all pleasures and vices<br />2. renounce one=s very self B bad habits, unruly affections<br />3. withdraw from all things present and visible, apply self to eternal and invisible<br /><br />Four kinds of prayer<br />1. Prayer for Mercy - or Prayer of Compunction (beginners)<br />2. Prayer of Good Resolutions (Proficient)<br />3. Prayer for the Salvation of souls (spiritually mature)<br />4. Thanksgiving (contemplatives engaged in the prayer of fire)<br /><br />These kinds of prayer ultimately lead to what Cassian calls the Prayer of Fire, scriptural contemplation. This prayer begins by reading the Scriptures and leads back to it.<br /><br /><br />St. Augustine: From the Confessions, we know that Augustine was drawn to the communal life even before his conversion. He came to realize that apart from the grace of Christ, fraternal fellowship based on the pursuit of the truth was subject to futility. He saw that true fellowship was to be realized through a pursuit of Christ. His contribution to spiritual theology lies in his attempts to formulate a rule for the common life, a theology of grace, a theology of prayer, and a theology of the active and contemplative life. We will not be able to discuss his thoughts on the common life, but his theology of grace, prayer and modes of life deserve attention.<br /><br />Theology of Grace and Spiritual Growth<br />This is his most controversial contribution, but perhaps the most important, at least for the development of the theology of grace in the West. In fact, Cassian reacts in his writings to what he perceives as an over-emphasis on grace in the writings of St. Augustine, an emphasis that seems to obscure the role of freewill. But it can be argued that St. Augustine actually presents a more balanced picture because he distinguishes between different kinds of grace. In his theology, grace is divided between sanctifying (a disposition of soul) and actual (a moment of action). Actual graces precede, aid and increase good choices. For Augustine, spiritual growth is primarily growth in grace. Grace grows in us through:<br />1) docility to the Holy Spirit in prayer<br />2) doing everything out of love for God, the imperation of charity (perfect charity is perfect justice), charity transforming natural virtues<br />Charity leads to union, union is the source of wisdom and spiritual maturity. He proposed 7 stages of growth:<br />(1) vegetive, (2) sensitive and (3) rational levels of life<br />(4) virtue and purification<br />(5) tranquility B control of the passions<br />(6) ingresso in lucem<br />(7) indwelling (mansions of the Soul)<br /><br />Theology of Prayer<br />In his Letter to Proba, a widow whom he was advising, he discusses ceaseless prayer. Prayer without ceasing can be achieved by cultivating holy desires. This insight helped scholastic doctors understand that holy desires produced by the Holy Spirit as the cause of prayer.<br /><br />Modes of Life<br />He also begins to work out a theology of the active and contemplative life. He uses Scriptural exemplars: Peter/Martha active (makes progress) John/Mary contemplative (attains goal)<br />But he never insists that these be completed separate expressions of the Christian life. The ideal is integration. Thus, he presents three modes or states of life: Active, Contemplative and both together.<br /><br />St. Benedict: His contribution was to popularize monastic discipline in the West by producing a rule noted for its prudential balance in terms of discipline and human needs. He observed that there were four kinds of monks and of these only the first kind who lived in community were closest to the ideal of the Early Church: (1) cenobites B live with rule, (2) hermits B from cenobites ready to live in desert, (3) sarabaites B self-willed monks, and (4) gyrovagues B no stability, on the move.<br />The way to grow in holiness for Benedict is through obedience, practice of silence, and humility. The practice of humility unfolded in stages of maturity he envisioned in terms of twelve degrees and he described these in very practical terms.<br />Twelve Degrees of Humility:<br />(1) fear of God B no forgetting<br />(2) love not own will<br />(3) submit your superior<br />(4) obedeince under tough circumstances<br />(5) does not conceal from abbbot thought os heart confesses these<br />(6) content with bad treatment<br />(7) believes he is inferior to others<br />(8) does common rule<br />(9) controls tongue and keeps silence<br />(10) not given to laughter<br />(11) speaks gently and seriously<br />(12) heart and actions the same<br /><br />The Middle Ages and Scholasticism<br /><br />A priestly spirituality emerges first with the Norbertines and eventually with the Domincans in response to the reforms initiated by Gregory VII and the call to renewal of Innocent III. Along with the emergence of these clerical forms of spirituality, there were also lay movements, some of which were organized by St. Francis and his followers into new forms of religious life. For the purposes of our discussion, we note that Dominican and Franciscan scholars rose up with the development of the University. Their scholastic teaching was different than the monastic tradition in that they attempted to better organize and systematize the great theological questions monastic schools left unresolved. They did this by carefully integrated philosophy with theology and by returning to patristic and scriptural sources for theology. Concerns about how following Christ is both a matter of grace and freewill were organized into a body of teaching that would be called the supernatural organism.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Supernatural Organism</span></strong><br />This body of teaching utilized the gifts of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, the beatitudes, and virtues derived from Greek philosophy to explain how grace and freewil were related to man's happiness, the perfection of all his powers. It presumes that man is called to a perfection of his powers which he is naturally not capable of. His natural life needs supernatural life to realize its destiny. <br /><br /><strong>The Seven Gifts of the Spirit, The Virtues, The Fruits</strong><br />Types of Life<br />Contemplative Life (Union)<br />Active Life (Illumination)<br />Life of Pleasure (Purification)<br /><br /><br /><strong>Messianic Gifts of the Spirit:<br /></strong>Wisdom<br />Understanding<br />Knowledge<br />Counsel<br />Fortitude<br />Piety<br />Fear of the Lord<br /><br /><strong>Virtues</strong><br />Charity<br />Faith<br />Faith<br />Prudence<br />Fortitude<br />justice<br />Hope<br /><br /><strong>The Fruits of the Spirit from Galations<br /></strong>Love, Joy Peace<br />Faith<br />generosity<br />kindness<br />Patient Endurance<br />gentleness<br />chastity<br /><br /><strong>Beatitudes of Matthew and Luke</strong><br />the Peacemaker<br />the pure of heart<br />the merciful<br />hunger and thirst for justice<br />Blessed are the meek<br />the sorrowful<br />poverty of spirit<br /><br />1. The whole moral life is oriented to union with God and is impossible without the life of grace.<br />2. The Life of Grace consists of the (1) its formal principal, sanctifying grace, the grace that makes us holy (2) infused virtues and gifts (3) the indwelling of the Spirit. (4) actual graces which spur is into action at specific moments.<br />3. Sanctifying grace gives physical, formal, analogous, and accidental participation in the divine nature the chief effects of which include chiefly divine adoption, rights to merit and the beginning of glory, and rights to the paternal blessing of the Father to the Son.<br />4. Secondary effects of sanctifying grace include the communication of supernatural life, Justification and sanctification, the capacity for supernatural merit, degrees of intensity of intimate union with God, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.<br />5. The purpose of the Indwelling is the mutual possession in love of the Trinity and the Soul, and its consequence is great joy and the power to do great things for God.<br />6. The power God provides comes in the form of infused virtues and gifts, [and other gifts freely given (charismatica) that are not properly part of the supernatural organism but for the building up of the Body of Christ].<br />7. Gifts are disposition to act under the impetus of the Holy Spirit. With this disposition, actual operative grace when freely sanctioned moves us from the possibility of acting (virtue) to action (the good act).<br />8. Actual grace can be operative or cooperative. Human effort aided by the life of grace allows us to fulfill the precepts of the law but not perfectly. This aid to human action is called cooperative grace and prepares for special operative graces when the soul chooses to cooperate with the gift that has been given.<br />9. This perfection is only possible through the divine mode of existence conferred through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are divinized to the degree we more continually operate under the Holy Spirit=s impetus.<br />10. The purpose of these gifts is to (a) purify, (b) illumine and (c) unite us to God and to our neighbor.<br /><br />Command of Christ to Perfection<br />We will lecture on this on September 20<br /><br />Review<br />St Thomas “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26<br />Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.<br />The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.<br /><br />In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life. Given our sinfulness is this really possible? To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.<br /><br />Lecture The Perfection of the Christian Life<br /><br />Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.<br />Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)<br />Relative Perfection can be<br />(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul),<br />(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul),<br />This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.<br />(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary<br />(pertaining directly to charity) and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).<br /><br />In Christian perfection, it consists primarily, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God. Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues. The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes. Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.<br /><br />St. Thomas explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union. Summa II-II, 184 a 1.<br /><br />How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life? Summa II-II, 184, a. 2<br />Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.<br />Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.<br />However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:<br />1) By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin<br />2) By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1126628343428122852005-09-13T10:12:00.000-06:002005-09-13T10:26:59.320-06:00September 13 LectureOur Life in Christ and Mary<br /><br />Introduction<br />We began by reviewing biblical and gnostic Christian Spiritualities and a common thread emerged. Both kinds of spiritualities - one from semitic culture and the other from hellenic culture - are built around an imitation of Christ that is made possible by an experience of him: Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen One, the Logos. We could claim that Christian spiritualities are build around the idea that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.<br /><br />Spiritual Theology: Biblical and Early Church Spirituality<br /><br />Biblical Spirituality - a life changing encounter with the Word of God<br />Spiritual experience is understood as an encounter with the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s presence in creation and salvation history, the incarnation of the Word, the Community and its teachings, Scripture and Tradition, the sacraments and especially the Eucharistic banquet, the divine indwelling and prayer, and the desire for his return in glory were all means by which early Christians encountered the Word of God in a transformative way. All were called to take up their Cross and follow in the footsteps of the crucified God, imitating the pattern of self-emptying love revealed in God’s Word. The Christ, the apostles and the sacred authors used different kinds of anthropologies and cosmologies that, while appearing primitive to the hellenic society, were culturally current for both the Jews living in the Land, those in the diaspora, and the God-fearers (Gentiles who believed in the Lord God). At the heart of this spirituality was a cry for mercy, a humble and filial bold petition to the Father, through which alone opened up the possibility of following Christ’s teaching and following his example as handed on by the apostles.<br /><br />Gnostic Christian Spirituality - the pursuit of true spiritual knowledge<br />Because of how they worked out philosophical questions surrounding ‘the one and the many’, Greeks tended to look at concrete particulars as lesser realities. As the Gospel was received by Greek culture, the historical concrete experience of Christ revealed in the scriptures became understood as something not really involving ‘lesser realities’ but actually transcendentals of truth and goodness. Thus, there was a shift from devotion to the Risen One from Nazareth to a devotion to the eternal Word of the Father who is Thought-Reason of God, true Relation (ratio), and Rational Truth. With this shift in devotion, there was a shift in the practice of prayer where petitionary prayer is subordinated in importance to contemplation, a beholding of the Truth who is Christ.<br /><br />Clement of Alexandria<br />Stages of Perfection – mansions of the soul:<br />Holy Fear, Faith, Hope (stages of ordinary faith) and Love (the stage of gnostic faith)<br /><br />Gnostic Faith or Perfect Faith is characterized by contemplation, obedience to precepts, and the instruction of good men. <br />The summit of gnosis is<br />1) contemplation - the beholding of God – and so he understands prayer in terms of contemplation<br /> 2) charity - love establishes or roots gnosis, true spiritual knowledge<br /><br />Spiritual maturity consists in realizing a rational life. Irrational passions and desires are the chief threats to realizing this maturity. <br /><br />The fruit of mature charity is a peace and unity of soul that Clement calls "B"2,4" (from which our English word apathy derives). This is a disposition of soul towards a healthy detachment from created goods so that desires for ‘things’ and the passions do not distract from Reason, the Logos. The insight is that being detached from the things of the world makes the soul holy, ‘sets the soul apart,’ frees it from distractions and other efforts that dissipate its energy. By a holy indifference the soul has more energy to attend to God, to contemplate and enjoy union with him. The Word can only be contemplated by rational souls, souls who live in relation (ratio) to the truth rather than living by irrational passions. As irrational movements are eliminated, the pathos of Christ’s self-emptying love takes over the soul. With this movement of love, the saints are logikos, rational - beings in relation to the Word, to Reason.<br /><br />Origen - disciple of Clement sees growth not so much in terms of the acquisition of various dispositions of soul, like apatheia, but more in terms of the ultimate end of the divine economy, perfect unity with the Holy Trinity realized even in this life by a deifying participation in God’s life opened up through Christ. Imitation of Christ and participation in his mystery are the keys to growth. Thus, some of the hellenic prejudice against the body and the material world is put in better perspective. Origen originates the idea of prayer being the rising of the mind to God so that it is possible to pray without ceasing if in all your activities you are continually aware of God. It could be said that he sees contemplation and prayer as essentially the same activities. This way of looking at prayer is different from the biblical inclination to see prayer in terms of petition, an asking for the blessing of God. <br /><br />Three stages:<br /> Beginners<br />-imitate Christ, fight against self by detachment from the world and consistent examination of self <br /> Proficient<br />-imitate Christ who battled against the devil and overcome his deceptions.<br /><br /> Perfect -through participation in the Word are formed in wisdom, are divinized by contemplation of the Trinity that union with Christ makes possible. This union is termed a mystical marriage, meaning a total mutual possession of God and the soul, a communion of wills in love.<br /><br />Christ is the way, the truth and the life:<br />How can this be if Christ’s life and death are in the past? The 16th Century reformer Cardinal Berulle (and after him the many inheritors of the French School of Spirituality) started explain that what Jesus of Nazareth did in time redounds to the divine Person of the Word forever, or in other words, because the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures in Christ divinize every human action of the Son of God, the events of his human life remain as eternal states to which we have access. Thus, the power of the Messiah’s saving actions in history continues in mystery and it is available through faith in the Risen One who at the Right hand of the Father continues to sanctify us. This power is opened up to us in faith because of the infinite merits of his life, passion and death, and by means of this powerful grace we identify with Christ just as Christ has identified with us. On this basis, Christ’s proclamation that he is the way, the truth and the life can be explained.<br /><br />Christ the Way “The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me.” (Gal. 2:20)<br />Only to the degree that we are configured to Christ, participate in his mystery by imitation, do we have access to the Father, our beatitude. This is why Origen insisted on moving beyond the contemplative gnosis of Clement of Alexandria to actual imitation of the Logos. Preoccupation with imitating Christ becomes the mainstay of the Desert Fathers and Monasticism in the East. How do we attain this imitation of Christ? Not by simply following his moral example, but by truly encountering him. Gregory of Nanzianzen explains, “I must be buried with Christ, rise with him, inherit heaven with him, become son of God, become God ... this is what is the great mystery for us; this is what God incarnate is for us.” (Christian Spirituality, p. 46)<br /><br />To truly encounter Christ includes radically following him to the point of joining him. Thus, the counter cultural witness of Antony of the Desert begins with a radical response to the very dynamism of Christ’s person that calls out through the Scriptures and the Liturgy, “Go, sell all you have” and “Come, follow me.” Joining Christ is incorporation and this begins with Baptism. But this encounter is manifold: although principally sacramental and liturgical, it is also personal, interpersonal, scriptural, and ecclesial - all of these are powerful dimension of the experience Christ. This is why Jordan Aumann teaches that all conclusions pertaining to Christian spirituality flow from the dogma of our incorporation in Christ. He calls this “the basis of our sanctification and the very substance of our spiritual life.” (Spiritual Theology, p. 53)<br /><br />Christ the Truth Gaudiem et Spes #22<br />As we advance in prayer, Gregory of Nyssa explains that there is a transformation in our knowing. In doing so, he advances a teaching set forth by Evagrius Ponticus. Namely, since the battle for the heart is waged in the mind, in the mind logismoi (fantasy) must be put to death so that the logoi (the true ideas) can be contemplated. What they are getting at is that we normally live in a myth, an imagined worldview, that helps us navigate through life (e.g. the two car garage of the American Dream). This fantasy is not the truth and we can only live if we are transformed to know the truth. We might call this transformation a pilgrimage from the senses to the intellect and from the intellect to the heart. In his Life of Moses as well as Homily XI on the Song of Songs, St. Gregory describes three progressive stages of encountering Christ - the burning bush which represents the cosmos through which God’s glory shines without destroying it (this gives us the sense that there is something more to life than the myth we are living in), the cloud covers what can be known through the senses to prepare the soul for what is hidden from the senses (here we let go of what we think we understand about God’s plan for us and abandon the comfort of this life’s fantasies), the darkness shrouding Mt. Sinai, the very sanctuary of God in which the human way of knowing gives way to a divine knowledge, theognosis, true theology(we are enveloped in the mystery of God’s love that surpasses understanding). (Spirituality, p. 49)<br /><br />A. Reveals the Truths about Man<br />Primarily, the exemplary cause of our divine sonship<br />Secondarily, the exemplary cause of our holiness<br /><br />B. Reveals the Truth about the Father<br />The Desert Fathers and Origen<br />Teacher of Truth from the Father<br />All his words are from the Father - the authority of his word<br />All his words lead to the Father - the content of his word<br /><br />Christ the Life - We introduced this theme and will come back to it in our next lecture.<br /><br />A. As meritorious Cause - he obtained the life of the Spirit for us (instrumentality),<br />B. As Efficient Cause - the very source of the life of grace (kenosis), and<br />C. As Head of the Mystical Body - communicates grace to the members through his perfection (kenosis) and power (apophasis).<br /><br />The Role of Our Lady- We will also review this as part of Catholic spirituality in our next lecture, although it is the proper subject matter of a separate course.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1126562689132085632005-09-12T15:58:00.000-06:002005-09-12T16:25:58.113-06:00Syllabus -- Where we are going and what we need to doDate: Thursday, September 8, 2005 Topic: The Spirituality of the Early Church<br />Learning Objective: Provide insight into Christian perfection as an imitation of Christ and description of development of ascetico-mystico teaching through the 4th Century including the concepts of deification and divinization.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, Blog, EBB, and Mid-term Exam.<br />Assignment due Sept 13: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 3; Christian Spirituality, Chapter 4 and 5; and review class notes on Blog and submit questions (http://theo6105.blogspot.com), and entry into discussion on Electronic Bulletin Board (referred to from here on out as ‘Blog and EBB’).<br /><br /><span style="color:#6666cc;">On Tuesday, we will describe the teaching on deification/divinization that emerges in the 4th century. We will also look at the relation of Christ to the Spiritual provided by Jordan Aumann in Chapter 3 of <em>Spiritual Theology</em>.</span><br /><br />Date Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Topic: Life in Christ and The Monasticism<br />Learning Objective: Distinguish how Christ is the way the truth and the life and describe how early monks understood monasticism as a following of Christ.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion.<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Midterm.<br />Assignment due Sept. 15: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 4, Christian Spirituality, Chapter 6<br /><br />Lecture notes for Sept. 13 were in a previous posting by I have reproduced them here for reference. <br />Lecture on Our Life in Christ<br />The Scriptures are a source of encountering Christ, but they in fact reveal that he is present in more wonderful ways than even the written word. On the level of divine revelation, it is appropriate to say that Christ has come once and for all. There is no new revelation objectively speaking. But subjectively, the coming of Christ is still being realized and in the power of the Holy Spirit this coming is dynamic and continual. This means he is always present to us in the world in new ways. Presences of the Word in the World can be distinguished in seven kinds - the presences are experienced in ever new ways by each and every soul searching for Christ – because Christ is searching for each and every soul. 1. Creation2. Hypostatic union3. Personal, the Grace of Indwelling4. Ecclesial, the holy synaxis gathered in prayer5. Scripture and Tradition6. Eucharist and other Sacraments7. Eschatological, all things are ordered to Christ’s power and authorityOur Life in ChristReasons for the Incarnation – (1) salvation, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience, and (4)to deify humanityAchieved through the visible and spiritual missionsComing of Christ established his mystical BodyIncorporation-- members of the mystical bodyB the Way (Christ as means of holiness)Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us:Exemplar of Holiness B the Truth (the following and the imitation of Christ)Efficient, meritorious, mystical head B the Life (union with Christ)Mystical Headorder (hierarchy)perfection (full of grace)Power (all comes from him)How do we receive this?sacraments and living faithEucharistThe glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.Spiritual Experience and the Divine IndwellingHow are the invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit distinguished and related to each other? According to St. Thomas (ST I, q. 43) To be sent means to be present in a new way, the Word and the Spirit are present whenever we become more like them in knowledge and love. Hence, the Word comes or is sent with every new knowledge that stirs up love for God, and Spirit comes with the stirring of the affection of our love for God. These missions always go together meaning that with every new increasing in knowledge there is an increase in affection. Through this knowledge and love, the Word and the Spirit avail themselves to the soul to be enjoyed and to be of service. The Father sends his Son and the Spirit so that souls may enjoy union with God and be enabled to accomplish some great work. The Son and the Spirit place themselves at our disposal for this purpose. The missions of the divine persons are the source of the divine communion and personal vocation of each soul.<br /><br /><br />Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Topic: The Supernatural Organism and the Scholastics<br />Learning Objectives: Provide an explanation of the supernatural organism. Describe the relation of the different kinds of grace, virtues, gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Provide understanding of why the scholastics began to develop teachings on the supernatural organism and the divine indwelling.<br />Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion<br />Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.<br />Assignment due Sept. 20 : Spiritual Theology, chapter 5 and 6, Christian Spirituality, chapter 8 and Blog and EBB.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1126121750548527592005-09-07T13:33:00.000-06:002005-09-07T13:35:50.560-06:00The Goal of our StrivingThese are my notes for our first lectures on Spiritual Theology in spiritual theology. Feel free to comment.<br /><br />Spiritual theology is the queen or servant of all theology dogmatic and moral, speculative and applied. It applies the doctrines of the faith to the perfection of the moral life to determine the nature and analyze the parts of Christian perfection, mysticism and asceticism, their specific elements, stages of growth, the means to attain it, aids, the stages of prayer, discernment of spirits, ordinary and extraordinary mystical phenomena. As such, it takes up both the questions of ascetical theology and mystical theology. In the methodology of our class, these questions are taken up from the perspective of the ultimate end of the divine economy.<br /><br />What is the ultimate end of the divine economy?<br />Perfect unity of creatures in with the Trinity<br /><br />What is the mystical life? This is the object of mystical theology.<br />1. Unity with the mystery of Christ through the mysteries of the Church unto union with the mystery of the Holy Trinity<br />2. All activity under the impetus of the Holy Spirit that by grace attains union with God.<br />3. Ordinary operative graces that flow from baptism when not impeded by personal sin.<br />4. There are also extraordinary operative graces or charisms that do not ordinarily flow from baptism, but are granted to support the normal development of baptismal grace.<br /><br />What is the ascetical life? This is the object of ascetical theology.<br />Asceticism means exercises or discipline and includes all human activity that freely cooperates with grace to dispose to God’s actions.<br /><br />Lecture on Spiritual Experience and the Goal of our Striving<br />Spiritual Experience is deeper than thought, desire, imagination, memory –<br />It is of the heart: communal, ecclesial, liturgical, Christological, Trinitarian – as such what characterizes it is always the glory of God.<br /><br />The Glory of God<br />Divine Glory is the radiant dynamism of God’s truth and goodness, his beauty that evokes the gift of self in total love. This glory is intrinsic and extrinsic in kind. <br /><br />Inner life of the Trinity has an intrinsic glory that whose dynamism evokes a response<br />The response is the extrinsic glory manifest in the Work of the Trinity outside itself.<br />Greatest glory given by the human person – one’s salvation<br />Ultimate End: The Glory of God<br />Proximate Ends: Christian Perfection: Salvation B Beatitude<br />Means: Pursuit of Holiness: Sanctification B Life of Grace<br /><br />St Thomas<br /> Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection I-II q3 a 2 and 4<br /> I ,q 26, a1: Final beatitude in glory depends on<br />1) total perfection<br />2) knowledge of the good possessed in glory – the beatific vision<br /><br />How can the intellect see God since it is not proportionate to him? <br />The encounter of God’s glory in the heart unleashes supernatural power purifying and transforming our faculties – this is only brought to completion in the life to come through the light of glory but it begins now in the life of faith. Spiritual experiences relate to this encounter insofar as they are purifying, transforming and uniting to God. These experiences include operative graces (God’s action that we receive and sanction) and cooperative graces (God’s blessing and aid to human efforts directed to preparing the soul for His action.)<br />Key Concepts:<br />Purification - sorrowful experiences by which the soul empties itself or is emptied for life with God<br />Transformation – yearning experiences by which God prepares the soul for a union of love<br />Union -- joyful experiences by which the soul enjoys the God’s friendship<br />Operative Grace - Gifts of God’s operation<br />Cooperative Grace - Gifts that allow Man’s cooperation<br /><br />How do we get there?<br />The kenosis of Christ reveals the dynamism of Gods glory and the pattern of realizing it in our lives. It is the pattern of radical and reckless self-gift, of self-emptying out of a merciful love for the plight of a friend who suffers. This pattern reveals the nature of Christian holiness – friendship love of God. Affectively this is what God gives to each Christian and effectively it is what Christians share with one another and the whole world in response. The response is apophatic – a letting go of this world and a leaping into the love of Christ.<br /><br /><br />Key Concepts<br />Kenosis – Christ’s total self emptying love<br />Apophasis – leaping into the mystery of Christ’s love, an imitation of Christ’s kenosis, purifying inordinate attachments to this world, transforming the heart for a unity with the Trinity of which this life is meant to be an anticipation.<br /><br />The Scriptures and the Spiritual Life<br />Why are the Scriptures dynamic for the Spiritual life?<br />To understand the role of the Scriptures in the spiritual life, we must begin with the premise that these writings are the Word of God, and that this Word is, above all, the divine person who became flesh and dwelt among us. The Scriptures are not static for the spiritual life but dynamic. That is why different saints throughout the centuries have had their lives completely transformed by just one verse: ‘go sell all you have’ for St. Anthony, ‘make no provision of the flesh’ for St. Augustine. The encounter of Christ in the Scriptures evokes apophasis and this is the beginning of the spiritual life.<br /><br />What is apophasis and how is it related to kenosis?<br />The human leap into the mystery of God’s love follows the same pattern of the Word made flesh who emptied himself, it is also a response to the dynamism of Christ’s gift of self.<br /><br />Preaching and the Beginning of the Spiritual Life<br />How do ministers of the Word lead souls to encounter Christ in the Scriptures, to begin the spiritual life?<br />This Word is self-emptying, it comes to us through kenosis (he emptied himself) and invites us to leap into the mystery of his reckless love. This is implicit in every word of the Word of God. That is why the Church recognizes that beyond the literal meaning of the text, there is also a spiritual meaning even when the literal meaning does not seem spiritual. We search for this spiritual meaning by asking, not only literal questions, but also allegorical, moral, and anagogical questions: <br />Allegorically, we can see a given text in relation Christ and the work of redemption, or in relation to the liturgy and the sacraments.<br />Morally, we can see a given texts in terms of exemplars to imitate or patterns for the Christian life.<br />Anagogically, we can see a given text in relation to the ultimate end of the divine economy, the final eschaton. Sometimes an anagogical truth calls on us through all the senses of the text: literal, allegorical, and moral. We demonstrated this in terms of the holiness of God revealed Exodus 3 and 4.<br /><br />Lecture on Our Life in Christ<br />The Scriptures are a source of encountering Christ, but they in fact reveal that he is present in more wonderful ways than even the written word. On the level of divine revelation, it is appropriate to say that Christ has come once and for all. There is no new revelation objectively speaking. But subjectively, the coming of Christ is still being realized and in the power of the Holy Spirit this coming is dynamic and continual. This means he is always present to us in the world in new ways. Presences of the Word in the World can be distinguished in seven kinds - the presences are experienced in ever new ways by each and every soul searching for Christ – because Christ is searching for each and every soul. <br /><br />1. Creation<br />2. Hypostatic union<br />3. Personal, the Grace of Indwelling<br />4. Ecclesial, the holy synaxis gathered in prayer<br />5. Scripture and Tradition<br />6. Eucharist and other Sacraments<br />7. Eschatological, all things are ordered to Christ’s power and authority<br /><br />Our Life in Christ<br /><br />Reasons for the Incarnation – (1) salvation, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience, and (4)to deify humanity<br />Achieved through the visible and spiritual missions<br /><br />Coming of Christ established his mystical Body<br />Incorporation-- members of the mystical bodyB the Way (Christ as means of holiness)<br /><br />Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us:<br />Exemplar of Holiness B the Truth (the following and the imitation of Christ)<br /><br />Efficient, meritorious, mystical head B the Life (union with Christ)<br />Mystical Head<br />order (hierarchy)<br />perfection (full of grace)<br />Power (all comes from him)<br /><br />How do we receive this?<br />sacraments and living faith<br />Eucharist<br /><br />The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.<br /><br /><br />Spiritual Experience and the Divine Indwelling<br />How are the invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit distinguished and related to each other? <br />According to St. Thomas (ST I, q. 43) To be sent means to be present in a new way, the Word and the Spirit are present whenever we become more like them in knowledge and love. Hence, the Word comes or is sent with every new knowledge that stirs up love for God, and Spirit comes with the stirring of the affection of our love for God. These missions always go together meaning that with every new increasing in knowledge there is an increase in affection. Through this knowledge and love, the Word and the Spirit avail themselves to the soul to be enjoyed and to be of service. The Father sends his Son and the Spirit so that souls may enjoy union with God and be enabled to accomplish some great work. The Son and the Spirit place themselves at our disposal for this purpose. The missions of the divine persons are the source of the divine communion and personal vocation of each soul. <br /><br />Spirituality of the Early Church<br />The spirituality of the Early Church derives from this reflection on how Christ is encountered. Their spirituality was Christ centered, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical and communal. It was based on an imitation of Christ, seeing in his coming, his death and his resurrection a pattern to be imitated and a mystery to plunge into. The community waiting for his coming and in liturgical prayer was vital to this imitation of Christ, it enabled it because it provided the dynamism of His presence.<br /><br />Accordingly, through imitation of Christ, the early Church understood that it was realizing Christ’s command to perfection and the teaching of the Apostles to imitate Christ.<br /><br />Key Scripture passages:<br />Command to perfection<br />Some pertinent passages:<br />Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mt. 5:48, Col 3:14, 1 Jn 4:19<br />Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful Lk 6:36<br />Enter through the narrow gate Mt 7: 13-14<br />Be imitators of God. Ephesians 5:1<br /><br />N.B. Notes for the lecture on the supernatural organism will be provided in a future posting.<br /><br />Lecture on Command of Christ to Perfection<br /><br />Review<br />St Thomas “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26<br />Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.<br />The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.<br /><br />In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life. Given our sinfulness is this really possible? To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.<br /><br />The Perfection of the Christian Life<br /><br />Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.<br />Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)<br />Relative Perfection can be<br />(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul),<br />(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul),<br />This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.<br />(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary<br />(pertaining directly to charity) and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).<br /><br />In Christian perfection, it consists primarily, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God. Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues. The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes. Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.<br /><br />St. Thomas explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union. Summa II-II, 184 a 1.<br /><br />How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life? Summa II-II, 184, a. 2<br />Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.<br />Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.<br />However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:<br />1) By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin<br />2) By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15481222.post-1124212042008532772005-08-16T10:42:00.000-06:002005-08-16T11:07:22.013-06:00Introduction to Spiritual TheologyThese postings offer those preparing for the Roman Catholic priesthood information towards a systematic presentation of Spiritual Theology. This information is specifically geared toward preparation for ministry and supplements classroom lectures and reading assignments. Topics cover the nature of spiritual theology in priestly ministry, the history of Christian spirituality, the universal call to holiness, identification with Jesus, the indwelling of the Trinity, the supernatural organism and the Christian life, the nature and stages of spiritual growth in Christian perfection, the kinds and stages of prayer, the means to spiritual maturity appropriate for the various states of life, discernment of spirits, and ordinary and extraordinary mystical phenomena. These subjects are considered in relation to the cultivation of the parish community as “a school of prayer” and provide a significant portion of the minimal content that must be mastered to successfully complete Fall Semester 2005 theo <em>6105 Spiritual Theology</em> at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. The course begins on Sept. 1, 2005 and continues until December 16, 2005. The mastery of at least two years of philosophy and three years of graduate level theology in Scripture, Morals and Dogma are presumed in the postings, although I hope that others might benefit from what is posted as well. Your comments and questions are most welcome.Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com5