Notes and
Reflections for a talk on Franciscan Mysticism by Maury Smith
1 Spiritual Therapist mjs.doc
Spiritual
Therapist
After much
reflection I think of myself as a spiritual therapist, a spiritual companion, a
soul mate, a resting place for those who want to seriously reflect on their
relationship with God. Someone with whom
people can share their hearts and their inner selves and discover the next step
to move closer to God.
I am not totally
happy with the name “spiritual therapist” – “spiritual director” is the older
term. I also like the resonance and
connotation of “soul friend.” But both of these older namings denote a
relationship of some duration. In this
day and age I find that many of my ministry relationship as a spiritual
therapist are transient, ad hoc, a one time encounter. Often I meet with a person one time for
consultation or one time in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and I do a lot of
supply ministry so that I am at a particular parish only on occasion. The above are the three occasions for me to
do spiritual therapy. I also consider the homily as a place to do spiritual
therapy. I end most of my homilies
reflecting on how the particular Scripture readings apply to our every day
spirituality.
I am a trained
Pastoral Counselor whose primarily interest is spirituality. I consider myself
a spiritual therapist (spiritual director). The older term, “spiritual
director” carries too many connotations that do not fit what the actual praxis
is in today’s world.
The term “spiritual direction” is thought of traditionally
from the monastic and religious orders practice of former times.
At one time about forty years ago or more the spiritual
director was to be an authoritarian “father”
and the spiritual directee was to obey the spiritual
director. In some settings the two met monthly. Spiritual direction was a one
on one practice. Sometimes the spiritual director was the confessor of the
directee and sometime he was not. The
spiritual director was a priest in most cases although over the history of
spiritual direction there are exceptions in practice. All of this has changed
in contemporary times but people continue to use the same term, “spiritual
diection.” Example: At the retreat house
they kept calling it the “new wing” even though it was over twenty years old.
I am not totally satisfied with the title, “spiritual
therapist.” The traditional term is
spiritual direction but at this point in time spiritual directors do not direct
and do not ask obedience from the person.
I tend to resonate with the naming, “Soul Friend” but then I am not
really the friend of the person I am relating to even though I am a friend of
their soul. I do know that it is an honor and a privilege to share heart to
heart the journey of life of a fellow pilgrim.
As a spiritual
therapist I attend to what my relationship is to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and how the person I am journeying
with is relating with Trinity whether that be the Father, Jesus Christ or the
Holy Spirit.
I have studied the psychologists who are interested in the
spiritual dimension of personhood: Jung, James, Maslow, Progoff (creator of the
Intensive Journal), Assaigoli (the founder of psychosynthesis). I have taken training workshops in Fritz
Perls’ Gestalt Therapy and Neuro-linguistic
programming (Bandler and Grinder’s analysis of quality therapist such as Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir and Fritz
Perls’s) and am also a trained Progoff journal consultant. Currently there are
several developments in the area of transpersonal psychology as it branches off
into various explorations
I have worked in pastoral counseling centers as diagnostic
intake director, individual, marital and group therapy.. For some ten years I had a private practice
and Dr. Anthony Banet, Ph.D and I conducted sensitivity training, encounter
groups and human relations training. My counseling career was cut short when I
was named Novice Director of
As a spiritual therapist
I am a student of theology, scripture, spirituality, history of spirituality,
Franciscan Studies and psychotherapy. I
also have a very broad understanding in what locus I practice. I do some of the traditional one to one on a
regular basis with some people.. I
consider that with some people in the sacrament of reconciliation that I am
doing brief spiritual therapy. And Damian Isabell some years ago invited me to
consider group spiritual therapy. Many of my homilies are group spiritual
therapy. I often end homilies applying
the readings to everyday spirituality, everyday relating to Trinity. I
regularly am sacramental minister at Brooks AFB in
The connotation of the term “brief” comes from the naming of
Milton Erickson’s approach to psychotherapy by his follower’s and proponents.
He was a pioneer in breaking away from the Freudian model of psychotherapy. His
position was that Freud had done the archeological dig but now we stand on his
shoulders and move forward with our understanding of the psyche of the person.
Much of Milton Erickson’s praxis was influenced by his work as an outstanding
hypnotist.
The primary focus
of a spiritual therapist is the person’s relationship with Father, Son and
Spirit, the Trinity, and with their relationship to themselves, and the very
important the focus on the relationship itself with Trinity.
I unmask attempts by some to reify theological terms such as
grace or prayer.
Grace and prayer are all about one’s relationship with God
and to reify them is to turn them into a mental abstractions which then removes
the possibility of a living, now oriented, dynamic relationship with God. To
say this another way, when this reification happens then a person is relating
to an idea rather then the person of God.
By that I mean in the sense that Progoff has a dialog with
wisdom (God or other wisdom figures) and a dialog with the relationship between
the person and Trinity. The relationship between the person and Trinity has a
life of its own and thus can be related to with benefit to a person’s
growth. This may be clearer if I use the
example of the marital relationship. One may do a journal dialog with one’s
spouse but it is also important to dialogue with the marriage relationship
separately since the relationship has a life of its own.. Only secondarily do I
focus on the person’s relationship with others insofar as it affects the
relationship with Trinity.
In theological and scriptural terms the spiritual therapist
creates a covenant with the person. This is common terminology for a pastoral
counselor. I promise to be a companion to the other on their spiritual
pilgrimage or journey towards Trinity. The person promises to be serious about
their relationship with Trinity and accepts the focus of spiritual therapy as
explained above. It is also established that various psycho-spiritual and
spiritual practices may be recommended to the person.
As a spiritual
therapist I am interested in any number of issues in the person’s relationship
to God. But in terms of generic practice
there are three most important focuses in spiritual therapy:
First. The multidimensional psychospiritual
details of the person’s relationship with Trinity. What is the person’s image
of Trinity, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit and what is the history of the various
images of God over the person’s life. One’s image will determine how the person
relates to God and how one feels about God.
Second. How the person is praying now, the person’s maturity of
praying. Which is to explore the person’s understanding of what praying means
in the actual experiencing of a living, dynamic relationship with God in the
here and now.
Often when a person begins to establish a covenant
relationship with a spiritual therapist the issue is whether the person is
really seeking psychological
therapy.
It is easier for a person to say they are going for spiritual
direction then that they are going for psychological therapy. How is the person
praying now and what is the range of the persons praying:
prayers, liturgical, community or family, meditation,
dialogical and contemplative. Is the
person sensitive to the inner-outer dynamic of the movement of the Spirit.
(More about this dynamic later.)
From time to time I explore where the person is in
relationship with Trinity in their lives in the present moment.
What happens when the person attempts to relate to Trinity
through meditation, dialogical prayer and contemplation. Whether the person is following any
particular discipline or school of praying such as for example, centering
prayer.
Whether the person is a diary or journal keeper. Whether the
person has any particular devotion. What
significant experiences of Trinity has the person had: sensing the presence of
Trinity, mystical moments, dryness, etc.
Is the person coming to spiritual therapy to avoid
participating in a needed psychotherapy?
Third. Sensitivity to the movement of the Holy
Spirit in the inner – outer rhythm of life. In other words is the person locked
into one mode of existence or is the person’s life flowing between the two
poles of praying and ministering as a loving disciple.
When the person is deeply sensitive to their own spirit and
that of the Holy Spirit, then when they engage passionately in ministry to the
point of tiredness, the person feels the need to move to solitude and to enter
into one’s spiritual center to be nourished and re-created. And then the person enters deeply into
communion with God, then there develops a great urge to go forth to the mission
of discipleship, serving others. When
the person is truly in touch with this inner-outer dynamic, then the person
flows freely between these two poles.
See Ilia Delio, “Toward A New Theology Of Franciscan
Contemplation:
The Mysticism Of The Historical Event,” The Cord, 46.3
(1996) pp. 131-140
In his sermon, "Christ, the One Teacher of All," the
Seraphic Doctor identifies Christ as the master of contemplative knowledge in
his human- (p.135)
ity and divinity, thus referring to a twofold movement of
contemplation.
He states that contemplation is both an inward movement,
that is, a going in to Christ as the uncreated Word, and
an outward movement, that is, going out to Christ as the
Incarnate Word in the flesh.13
This inward-outward movement of contemplation characterizes
the mysticism of the historical event, whereby conformity
to Christ in body and soul
leads one to the true contemplation of God. This twofold
movement also underlies the concept of image,
since to be an image of God is to be an image of the Son,
who is the perfect Image; and
to be an image of the Son is to be conformed to him in body
and soul.14
Of course there
are other important issues such as at the times of discernment but the focus
here is on Franciscan Mysticism. It
would be too easy to get off track and discuss at length spiritual therapy.
Depending of the person’s psychological and spiritual
maturity,
there is more or less emphasis on the person’s
self-knowledge which is the foundation of the spiritual life.
Bonaventure has as his first chapter in De Pefectione on
self-knowledge.
Often a spiritual therapist facilitates the person’s coming
to a clearer and more precise understanding of their goals
and enables the
person to identify and to name the workings of the Holy Spirit in their
lives.
Serious discernment about important life decisions is
usually a long process. Generally speaking the Spirit whispers.
Another major concern in terms of the inner – outer dynamic
is the time competence
of the person as measured by Shostrom’s POI (Personality
Orientation Inventory).
The time competence scale measures the degree to
which the individual lives in the present with full
awareness and
is able to bring past
experiences and future expectations into a meaningful continuity,
rather than living in the past or future with excessive
regrets or expectations.
Part of the work of spiritual therapy is to learn the
language of the other person.
Often a person has fuzzy thinking about what is happening in
their life.
A person has to learn
how to articulate the spiritual movements within them.
People do not always mean the same thing by a word.
Related to this concern is what Fritz Perls in Gestalt
Therapy called aboutism
. When people take
contemplation seriously and enter into the silence, then all kinds of feelings,
memories, experiences. sexual fantasies, etc. bubble up. Frequently people in
our culture do not know how to relate to their inner life.
To concretize how
a spiritual therapists views Francis, here is an example.
I am using the writings of Thaddée Matura, a scripture
scholar, who has spent his life studying the writings of St. Francis.
Among others he has
three books that have been translated into English: The Gospel Life of Francis of Assisi Today.
The classic teaching on the purgative, illuminative and
perfective way is Bonaventure’s De Triplici Via.
This must be read
from a dynamic viewpoint and not reduced to a reification of Bonaventure’s
theology.
First, Francis’s
image of God.
Thaddée Matura
who has studied Francis writings for over thirty years
writes of a
person who had a very profound understanding of God
from his
meditation on the Scriptures through the Liturgy of the Catholic Church.
“As Francis perceives God, then He is not at first a familiar, approachable Father,
but the God of
majesty, the thrice-holy One revealed to Isaiah…”
Matura writes: “The vision of God which
Francis has is resolutely trinitarian. …
On every page of Francis's writings, we
encounter the omnipresence of God. … God is the central figure in Francis’ writings,
but always under the title of God the Father.
Francis always sees and proclaims Him as the Triune God,
the Trinity.
Francis saw God the Father as the Center and Source of everything …
p. 53: While Francis sees God the Father first and foremost
as “all High, almighty,”
nevertheless he also
stresses the other facet of the divine
Because God is “delectable and totally desirable above all else” (RegNB
He is our pleasure, our absolute delight, the source of all
our happiness. ….
God is also “good,” supremely benevolent, and Francis uses this word “good”
in reference to
Bonaventure has a meditation on God’s goodness in the
Itinerarium.
On Francis’s use of God as good, see
Paolazzi, Carlo. “Francis and His Use of Scribes: A Puzzle to be
Solved.” Greyfriars Review 18 (2004) 323-341.
pp. 331-332:
Good and Master: Attributing to God What Belongs to God
Alone
measured by the Francis's differentiated use of similar
terms.
A. Francis’ image
of the Father
Francis stresses the centrality of the Father
We find that he lists as many as eighty-six different
divine qualities, both nouns (forty-one) and adjectives (forty-five), in [p.
52] an attempt to suggest something of God’s ineffability.
B. Francis’ image
of Jesus
Thus Francis attributes the Incarnation, the Redemption,
and the Second Coming of Christ to the Father: these are His works.
The Son is only, as it were, carrying out His Father's
will,
a view that is closely akin to the perspectives of the
Gospel of
The beloved Son who always satisfies the Father in
everything
With the Father, Christ creates "all things spiritual
and corporal.
He, the beloved Son, is the proof of the Father's love for
us, and
He alone knows the song of thanksgiving that is worthy of the
Father.
From my years of study of Francis, I think that one of the
primary images Francis had was that of the kenotic Christ, Christ Crucified
naked on the cross, Jesus who had no where to lay his head. The opening line of
the Later Rule reads:
“The Rule and Life of the Lesser
Brothers is this: to observe the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by living
in obedience, without anything of one’s own, and in chastity.” (FAED I p. 100.)
Observe the Gospel by living
without anything of one’s own.
“Without anything of one’s own”
includes both an exterior meaning and a interior meaning.
“Without anything and humility
always go together in Francis and in Franciscan spirituality.
The true meaning of humility is
expressed by Francis in Admonition XIX: “what a person is before God, that he
is and no more.” (FAED I Adm XIX, p. 135.)
“We many know with certainty that
nothing belongs to us except vices and sins.” (FAED I ER Chap. XVII v. 7. p.
75.)
“each day He humbles Himself as when He came
from the royal throne in the Virgin’s womb’ each day He himself come to us
appearing humbly; each day He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the
altar in the hands of a priest”.. (FAED I Adm. I p. 129)
C. Francis’ image
of Holy Spirit
In Francis
comprehensive vision of the God the Father and his work, one always finds the
presence of the Sprit next to and adjacent to the Son.
The Spirit is
what is deepest and most mysterious in God,
the Spirit is
what is inexpressible in God.
Francis focuses
on the dynamism of the Spirit in his dwelling within us.
The spirit is the
essence of our spiritual life.
With the Father,
the Son and the Spirit intervene in creation, redemption and the Eucharist.
The Spirit’s main
activity in humans is the prayer of a
pure heart
The Spirit stirs
our hearts to search for God, to desire God and to worship in obedience and
service.
The Spirit’s
first fruits are prayer, humility, patience and love of enemies.
It is the Spirit
who makes a home and a dwelling place, a mystical union with the Trinity
A good example is
The Praises of God written by his own hand in 1224 after his stigmata. FAED I
p. 109.
The Praises of
God
A: The Praises of
God
(Edition of Duane
Lapsanski and Kajetan Esser)
1 You are the holy Lord God Who does
wonderful things.
2 You are strong. You are great. You are
the most high.
You are the almighty king. You holy
Father, King of heaven and earth.
3 You are three and one, the Lord God of
gods;
You are the good, all good, the highest
good, Lord God living and true.
4 You are love, charity; You are wisdom,
You are humility,
You are patience, You are beauty, You are
meekness,
You are security, You are rest,
You are gladness and joy, You are our
hope, You are justice,
You are moderation, You are all our riches
to sufficiency.
5You are beauty, You are meekness,
You are the protector, You are our
custodian and defender, You are strength,
You are refreshment. 6You are our hope,
You are our faith, You are our charity,
You are all our sweetness, You are our
eternal life: Great and wonderful Lord, Almighty God, Merciful Savior.
Here, as always, the center of our prayer
is the Triune God, to whom our hearts respond.
These prayers, some fifteen in all, show
us better than any sermon how to approach God.
With the grace he
was given, Francis was comfortable to enter into the mystery of God. Many of the people I have companioned tend to
stereotype God and hold onto one of the other image of God too tightly which
stifles the development of a more intimate relationship with God.
Second, How
Francis prayed.
Damien Isabell
some years ago traced through the sources how Francis prayed in many different
ways.
In a Workbook for Franciscan Studies (1979)
is listed the many ways that Francis prayed. Among other ways he used song. He used
repetitive prayer: Deus Meus et Omnia which was used like a mantra. He wrote some twenty prayers. And he
dramatized the Christmas crib at Greccio.
The source or origin of prayer is the
Spirit, who dwells in and rests upon the faithful (Adm
Matura notes how Francis learned Scripture from
participating in the Liturgy of the Church, both the Eucharist and the Office,
the Liturgy of the Hours as we name it today. Both these official prayers of
the Church were very important to Francis and perhaps fulfilled his value of
being a Catholic true to the Church.
The twenty
prayers Francis wrote are mostly addressed to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
the Trinity and they are communitarian keeping in mind the Christian community.
He stresses the way we must adore him who
is worthy of all praise. …
He tells us no fewer than fifteen times
that we must adore God,
that we must approach Him with “fear and
trembling,”
prostrating ourselves at least in spirit
before His mystery. …
Adoration moves us to praise because God
is “worthy to be praised and glorified forever” (LaudDei). …
The prayers in Francis’s writing are
almost exclusively prayers of praise, doxologies prolonged after the fashion of
the Eastern Christians.
Or as Michael Cusato has suggested
concerning Francis’s Praises of God (FAED I p. 109) perhaps the influence of
his being in the Muslim culture when he visited the Sultan and that the Prayer
Of a total of fifteen such prayers only
three contain petitions, while the remaining twelve consist of solely of
praise, blessing, thanksgiving, or awestruck contemplation.
“Thus he would direct all his attention and
affection toward the one thing he asked of the Lord, not so much praying as
becoming totally prayer.” FAED II p. 310.
Or as the older
translation in the Omnibus reads:
“not so much
praying as becoming himself a prayer.”
(Omnibus 2C 94 p. 441.)
So, according to Francis, only those whose
hearts have been so enlightened that they spurn earth and seek heaven alone can
truly adore and behold God. That is to say, adoration precedes vision.
he shares them
not only to inform, but also to transform the consciousness of others by
eliciting like praise from them,
which in turn,
leads to an opportunity for encountering God's presence.
In this sense,
Francis's prayers offer a consistent teaching of transformation that can be
termed doxological mysticism.
Although his
prayers do not present explicit information about mysticism,
they do convey an
expressed teaching that mystical transformation occurs through and in the act
of praising God.27
To read Francis's
prayers in such a way is to discover that what first may appear tacit is
actually a profoundly simple and simply profound form of doxological mysticism.
27. Of course language mediates Francis's experience, and
even though experience qua experience remains inaccessible to the observer,
language attempts to convey the meaning(s) of experience to others. Thus,
mystical texts always present "encoded experience(s)" which are
charged with multiple meanings. So even though mystical "experience"
is always interpreted, mediated, and communicated through, in, and by language,
experience can and does precede conscious thought. In other words, there can be
an encounter/experience without language but no language without experience. It
is to this "immediate" or "direct" encounter that we
attempt to penetrate via Francis's prayers which employ language to convey his
consciousness of the event.
See Hammond, Jay. “Saint Francis’s Doxological
Mysticism in Light of His Prayers.” In, Francis of
Ed.
by Jay Hammond. NY:
Most of the
people I have companioned tend to be too focused on methods and programs of
prayers instead of flowing with the Spirit on a given day.
Third, The life
style of Francis attuned to the Spirit.
Just as we see
Jesus in the Gospel moving constantly between preaching to the people and going
aside to pray; so we see that Francis had beaten a well worn path between the
piazza and the cave. Many of the people I have companion get locked into one
position and usually given the workaholism of our society it is in their work.
There is a
tradition among the friars that Francis is the true forma minorum. We have a
rule and many religious are formed by their rule but the friars are formed by
the life and example of Francis. After resigning as Minister General of the
order Francis was very aware of his role as the prime example of living the
charism given him by God. He is a model
for the ideal that one needs to reach towards in every way including the
mystical union with God.
Bonaventure
describes Francis that “He
usually neglected no visitation of the Spirit. (FAED II p. 606.)
Fourth Francis’s
continually search the will of God for him – discernment
A Letter to
Brother Anthony of
Brother Francis
sends greetings to Brother Anthony, my Bishop.c
I am pleased that
you teach sacred theology to the bothers
providing that,
as is contained in the Rule,
you “do not
extinguish the Spirit of prayer and devotion
during study of
this kind.d
(FAED I LtAnt p. 107)
c Preachers and theologians share in the office of Bishop
when approved by the Bishop.
d. This is the environment of Franciscan theology and
study.
[e see FAED I LtAnt p. 107]
Story in Bonaventure on Francis discerning will of God to
preach or contemplate. FAED II pp. 622-624.
Conferred with Sylvester and Clare.
Brief Summary
So as a spiritual therapist when I meet with a new person,
I am interested primarily in five area of the spiritual
journey.
What is the persons image of God?
How is the person now praying possibly as a result of this
image.?
prayers,
meditation, dialogical, contemplative
What is their relationship with God?
intellectual,
emotional, contemplative.
Is the person in touch with the inner outer spiritual
dynamic of discipleship and living by this dynamic?
Where is the person on the reality – fantasy continuum.
In other words how much time does the person spend in their
head intellectualizing and how much time
do they spend experiencing the world through their physical senses.
What is the person’s expectation of our relationship?
Spiritual Therapist Reading the Franciscan Texts
Over the years I have noted that most people are either
theorists or practitioners. Only on
occasion do you find someone who is outstanding as a theorists and a
practitioner such as Carl Rogers, Ira Progoff, Roberto Assaigioli and Milton
Erickson. They all have developed a
praxis for their theories. I consider
St. Bonaventure to be of this caliber also since in our terms today he was a
Scripture scholar, a theologian, a philosopher, a psychologists and he applied
all this to practical spiritual writing.
I have read that he was one of the most read and cherished spiritual
writers for over five hundred years. And
in recent decades there has been a revival of interests in his writings.
And so it is from the perspective of a spiritual therapist
that I read the Franciscan texts. For
example let’s look at the prologue to Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis
in Deum
Bonaventure is a great synthesizer and at the same time he
gives a new perspective by his synthesis.
In the Itinerarium he synthesizes and
provides a
summa of mystical theology.
In the Breveloquim he provided a summa of theology
and
in the Lignum Vitae (the Tree of Life) he synthesizes
the four Gospels, He also took all the legistration of the Franciscan Order up
to his time and organized them into the Constitutions of Narbonne, named after
the chapter that accepted them.
This is
a quote from the Itinerarium Mentis in Deum.
This is the new translation by
Zachary Hayes with introduction and commentary by Philotheus Boehner which may
be obtained from the Franciscan Institute.
8.
Therefore, a person who wishes to ascend to God
must
avoid sin which deforms nature.
The
natural powers of the soul described above must be brought under the power of
reforming grace; and this is done through prayer.
These
powers must also be influenced by justice which purifies; and this is carried
out in every-day actions.
These
powers must also be brought to that knowledge which illumines, and this happens
in meditation.
And they
must be brought to the wisdom that perfects, and
this
takes place in contemplation.14
For just
as no one arrives at wisdom
except
through grace, justice, and knowledge,
so no
one arrives at contemplation
except
by means of penetrating meditation,
a holy
life-style,
and
devout prayer.
[and now Bon summarizes what he
has said above.]
Therefore,
since grace is the foundation of the righteousness of the will and the clear
enlightenment of reason,
it is
necessary first of all to pray.
Then we must live in a holy way.
And third,
we must attend to the spectacles of truth, and
gazing
on them, rise gradually,
until we
arrive at the high mountain,
where
the God of gods is seen in Sion.
Boehner’s footnote 14 Here Saint
Bonaventure explains the subjective conditions for the ascent of God.
It should be noted that these
conditions are the exercises of the De
tripici via – prayer plus a just life, meditation, and contemplation.
So as a spiritual therapist steeped in theology, scripture
and humanistic psychology that focuses on human growth I interpret a connection
between the human growth and the spiritual growth which are one and the same
thing. I am not a dualists who separates
body and soul.
From the scriptures we are one person.
My understanding is that a person like Bonaventure was a
scripture scholar, theologian, psychologists and spiritual writer all in
one. We have divided all of these
disciplines up in our times. So unless a theologian studies psychology or a
psychologist studies theology we do not receive a holistic view of human and
spiritual growth.
So I immediately see a process for human and spiritual
growth in what Bonaventure is writing.
Bonaventure is explaining the Conditions for growth
(ftnt 14, 113),
I read the text with this correlation:
Theological Perspective: Psychological
Perspective:
Avoid
sin Incongruity
Congruity is when
thought, feeling, action and spirit are one.
Pray‑ relationship.
We enter into a relationship with God.
Live
holily‑ Act of will
The will is an important dimension of Roberto Assagioli’s Psychosynthesis which perspective connects with the
and its priority on the will over the intellect. This is not to be
confused with older philosophical psychology that saw the will as a muscle.
Responding to God’s love
is an act of the will.
Today many people all too
often think of love as totally a matter of feeling, of emotion, Franciscan
theology emphasizes the will.
We choose to love
another..
Gaze
at truth‑ Image.
Gazing, resting, the quies Bonaventure speaks of at
the end of the Itinirarium.
Rise
step by step by step until we reach the
mountain height. (of. numb. 8, 43) Developmental
Human and spiritual growth occur in real life day by day.
Each day we must be focused and centered in Jesus Christ and
in the Franciscan tradition in Christ Jesus crucified.
This is a full program of spiritual growth that is spelled
out in the De tripici via.
May I be
clear about one issue. When I make an
interpretation supposedly connecting a contemporary psychological theme with a
classical spiritual wiring. I am NOT
claiming that the classical writer had this contemporary theme in mind. That would be the false activity of reading
back into the historical text a contemporary understanding. All I am saying is
that there seems to be some correlation between what the classical writer’s
though is and the contemporary psychological theme. As to whether there may actually be an
influence or a linkage of thought I leave to the historian or historical
theologian. The only time we can be sure
of an influence on one author to another is when the later author quotes the
earlier author. There is less certainty
when we think they might be talking about the same reality, perhaps even using
different terminology.
And
may I mention briefly that there is also the possibility that a later author is
talking about the same reality but chooses different terminology to talk about
that same reality. This happens a lot in
the field of psychology. To be brief and
so without getting into the subject matter, a couple of years I was updating a
course of mine. I went to the book store
to see what was currently available and came upon this best selling book by a
young psychologists. As I read his book
I became aware that the group psychodynamics that we was naming was named
differently twenty years before by an older psychologists. At my age I have been through a lot of
intellectual fads.
Final Comment
The above discussion is of course an interdisciplinary
approach which I will reflect on more under the heading “A
PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL HERMENEUTIC” in the “INTRODUCTION TO FRANCISCAN
MYSTICISM.”
(click here to go to A
PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL HERMENEUTIC.
Return to Franciscan Mysticism page.