HISTORY OF SPIRITUALITY II

(1) The Renaissance person saw himself in a unique position of knowledge and competence.
The world and the universe seemed to be subject to human comprehension and
understanding. The human spirit had advanced far beyond what to date had been the
human condition. What are some principal reasons for this new confidence of the
human person in the height of the time of the Renaissance?

Overall Characteristics: Man is in a unique position of knowledge and competence. The subject of
his comprehension and understanding was the whole world. The Renaissance person could be
generally defined in terms of individualism, secularity, strength of will, multiplicity of
interests, creative innovations, profound appreciation of nature, beauty, art and the scientific
spirit.

The principal reasons are (in bold):

- Rapid growth and development in several areas of human endeavor and culture:

(1) the arts: di Vinci, Michaelangelo, Dante,

(2) expansion of the known world due to exploration (Columbus, de Gama)

(3) humanism and a new appreciation of classical Greek and Roman cultures

- Renewed appreciation of the value of human life on earth. Petrarch considered the current
age the “modern age” after the ancient and “dark” ages.

- The Scientific Revolution – a sense of mastery over nature. Humankind had never traveled as
far or looked as far into the sky of the future. The growth in understanding led to some conflicts
with the understtod faith. Thomas: the God of creation is the God of salvation and redemption;
there can be no true contradiction between anything we know by reason and anything we
believe by revelation. Augustine: The Holy Spirit prepares us to be Christians, not scientists.

(1) New discoveries in technology: magnetic compass, gunpowder, mechanical clock

(2) Advancement in mathematics: mastery over world and improvement over ancients

(3) Advances in astronomy: earth around sun

- Political-Social Revolution: The rise of city-states and end of feudal order, emergence of
national identities, flourishing of human spirit in new social structures and commerce.

- Philosophical and theological themes – via moderna (the new outlook) in the universities of
Oxford and Paris. A nominalist idea of reducing theology based on the logical manipulation of
ideas. Nominalists rejected metaphysical knowledge and also rational proof of God’s existence,
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 the immortality of the soul, or the relationship between human action and the goodness of these
actions. There became a profound chasm between theology and piety (Thomas a Kempis)

(2) What are some of the historical reasons in the history of the Roman Catholic Church
which would see the reform legislated at the Council of Trent, not merely as a reaction to
the Protestant Reformation, but rather a continuation of a movement of reform initiated
in the High Middle Ages and going through the time of the Renaissance?

The Roman Catholic Counter reform should not be seen as a simply reaction to these events in
Germany initiated with the posting of the 95 thesis. To look at Trent as simply a reaction fails to
keep us aware of a great stream of renewal from it’s head and members. There was a profound
expression of renewal in the foundation of various religious orders whose purpose was to bring
renewal. All renewals begin with a call to return to the Holy Gospel.
Bernard of Clairvoux and the renewal and reform of Benedictine life with the advent of the
Cistercian Order.
There was St. Francis of Assisi (112-1226) and the foundation of the Order of Friars Minor, as well
as St. Dominic (1170-1221) and the Order of Preachers.
Then there was the great mystic St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) prayed and offered her life for
the renewal of the Church.
There was also a general cry for reform closer to this period from the 5 th Lateran Council of 1512-
1517.
Thus the foundation of the so-called Counter Reformation in fact preceded the Protestant
movement.
There was the brotherhood of St. Dominic of Bologna established before 1443, also in Florence in
1442 with the cooperation of St. Antoninus, the Dominican bishop, there was the Brotherhood of St.
Martin. This movement for renewal and reform was foreshadowed in the Oratory of Divine Love
founded in Rome under Pope Julius II (1503-1513) which was itself a revival of a similar fraternity
connected with the late fifteenth-century mystic Catherine of Genoa.
The 5th Lateran Council (1512-1517) was a call for reform and renewal. From the Roman Oratory of
divine Love came St. Cajetan founder of a religious group of priests living a strict vow of poverty.
The co-founder of this movement was the reforming Pope, Paul IV (1555-1559). These ideas of
renewal and reform were made concrete at the Council of Trent, convened by Paul III (1534-1549).
The renewal of the Church did not just take place at Trent. The reform began centuries earlier:

- St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the renewal and reform of the Benedictine life with the Cistercians

- St. Francis of Assisi and the foundation of the Orders of Friars Minor (1182-1226)

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- St. Dominic and the founding of the Order of Preachers (1170-1221), St. Catherine of Siena (3 rd
Order OP) prayed and worked for the reform of the Church (1347-1380)

- Brotherhood of St. Dominic of Bologna (1443)

- Brotherhood of St. Martin in Florence (w/ cooperation of Dominican Bishop St. Antoninus)
(1442), which foreshadowed…

- The 15th Century mystic St. Catherine of Genoa started a fraternity which was renewed in Rome
as the Oratory of Divine Love under Pope Julius II (1503-1513). Years later, St. Cajetan came
from this order and co-founded of a religious group of priests living a strict vow of poverty.
Another co-founder of the group was the reforming pope, Pope Paul IV (1555-1559)

- The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517) was a call for reform and renewal.

- Pope Paul III (1534-1549) then convened the Council of Trent, which not only addressed the
Protestant Reformation, but was the culmination of the centuries of work reforming the Church
as identified above.

(3) Summarize the principal elements in the understanding of the spiritual life according to St.
John of the Cross. In this summary, please distinguish between the active and passive
nights. In what way can the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity be understood as
an over-powering or “emptying” of the spiritual faculties of the intellect, memory and will in
the teaching of St. John of the Cross?

- The journey of the spiritual life is the total transformation of the human person by the grace of
Christ so that the emotions are directed by reason (moral virtues) and reason by the light of
faith, hope and charity (theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit perfecting the moral
virtues).

- In the spiritual life there are moments of desert. This is the usefulness of St John of the Cross.
There may be times in our life where there is no spiritual consolation.

- A key requirement for the journey is the use of means suitable for each stage. Once these means
are identified by personal discernment or spiritual direction, we should persevere in their use.

- Stages of the Spiritual Journey:

- There are 2 Purifications & 3 Ways in St. John’s teaching:
- 1. Purifications of the Senses: (Active/Passive Night of the Senses)
- 2. Purification of the Spirit: (Active/Passive Night of the Senses)
- 3 Ways
- 1. Way of Purgation
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- 2. Way of Illumination
- 3. Way of Transforming Union
A. Purification of the Senses
1. Active Night of Senses:
The senses are reeducated and redirected to God through the purification of disordered voluntary
appetites (or desires) that crave inappropriate sensory satisfaction, The active night of sense, the
purification of attachments to the objects of sense, begins with an habitual desire to imitate Christ.
2. Passive Night of the Senses:
Everybody in this room suffers from psychological semi-pelagianism. (PSP) This means that we
live in the world and society and the way the world works is that we are awarded after we act, and
after we do something. The passive night of the senses is not about us. It is not about us doing
anything. This is part of the transformation. It is psychological because it is in our psyche. Now, it
is also not full blown pelagianism, like the monk. St. John offers three signs that, when
simultaneously present, indicate that seekers are entering the passive night of sense, which is
contemplation.
a. they cease to find any consolation, either from creatures or from the things of God
b. they are pained by their own lack of service to God
c. can no longer meditate as before, and have no desire to apply the imagination to formal
discursive meditation, but rather find satisfaction in a quiet, loving attention toward God.
When these signs are present together, these persons should leave meditation without fear
and follow the Spirit, for God is leading them from meditation to contemplation. This
redirection of the desires is part of a process of integration, whereby our inner fragmentation
is overcome and all aspects of our human existence are brought together in a self-gift to
God.
Since God, then, as the giver communes with individuals through a simple, loving knowledge, they
also, as the receivers, commune with God through a simple and loving knowledge or attention. The
purifying illumination that comes in contemplation is received passively in the soul according to the
supernatural mode of God, and not according to the natural mode of the soul…This immediate and
direct contact with God is an ineffable, indescribable experience, not through images and words, but
in love.
B. Purification of the Spirit:
1. Active Night of the Spirit:
This night happens and consists in an individual’s efforts to purify the spiritual faculties—intellect,
memory, and will—of their false or limited context and methods of knowing God. In this active

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night of the spirit, seekers do whatever they can to purify all their knowledge, memories, and
desires, and direct their lives exclusively to God in faith, hope, and love.
2. Passive Night of the Spirit:
The two nights of sense and spirit are really conjoined in one great night of total development—the
journey of love-permeated faith…In choosing the narrow path of darkness and self-emptying, we
make a love-directed choice of the unknown God. This choice involves letting go of our memories,
past understandings, and experiences. However, in John, renunciation is never negative, but a
choice in love for a better encounter. John’s simple system is an exodus; a reaffirmation of the
essentially paschal aspect of Christian growth. For with this night we are in the sphere of the strictly
and unambiguously mystical.
This is in fact a night of faith—not a diminishment, but a deepening of faith, hope and love to an
heroic degree.
The purification of the senses begun in the earlier phases only comes to its perfection in the radical
refinement of the spirit. If we envisage the grace of God moving progressively inwards, then the
divinization of the outward sensitive life is not accomplished until the light has reached the
innermost substance of the soul and from there irradiates the whole person.

The theological virtues cause the same emptiness and darkness in their respective faculties: faith in
the intellect, hope in the memory, and charity in the will.
Faith: transforms and purifies the intellect in the splendor of the light of truth. Nothing greater than
God can be known. Though created things may give us some remote knowledge of their creator, we
do not come to learn more about God by increased use of the intellect…rather, we come to a deeper
personal knowledge of God by denying the intellect its natural object and opening ourselves to the
revealing vision of faith. The light of faith in its abundance suppresses and overwhelms that of the
intellect. For the intellect, by its own power, extends only to natural knowledge. Thus the intellect is
perfected in the darkness of faith
Hope: Hope transforms and purifies the memory through the absolute goodness of God. Nothing
greater than God can be remembered. The memory chooses to refuse to rest not only in recollection
of all sensory objects, but also in previous images and experiences of God. This is to actively turn
away from a creation of an image of God of our own making.
Charity: Charity transforms and purifies the will by the ultimate, absolute goodness of God.
Nothing greater than God can be loved. The spiritual task is to relate all joy, hope, sorrow, and fear
to the things of God, and by uniting these passions in a single minded commitment to God, the
multiple desires of life become one unique longing for God. The will is perfected in the absence of
every affection, except the desire to directly love God.
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- Step 1: Way of Purgation – leading a life of moral virtue includes Active Night of the Senses
(our efforts to do something ex: try to avoid sins, try to detach from worldly thing…),
which includes a purification of disordered voluntary appetites. Begins with a habitual desire to
imitate Christ. Includes Passive Night of the Senses (we can do nothing, God do and we just
passively be attracted to follow) – lack of consolation in prayer.

- Step 2: Way of Illumination – includes Active (our efforts to do sth) and Passive Nights of
the Spirit(God do) ; this includes a purification of the spiritual faculties (intellect, memory and
will).

- Step 3: Way of Transforming Union – mystical union with the Trinity.

- Nothing greater than God can be known (faith is transformed and purified)

- Nothing greater than God can be remembered (hope/memory is transformed and

purified)

- Nothing greater than God can be loved (charity is purified & transformed)

- There is nothing we can do but receive God’s grace. The gift appears as a darkening or an
absence. The something we do is to remain faithful. We don’t feel like we are progressing and
don’t feel the presence of God that we did before.

(4) In what manner are the passive spiritual dark nights a corrective to a cultural value of
radical independence and self-sufficiency and a means of spiritual healing for what has been
called an unconscious semi-Pelagiansim?

The journey of the spiritual life is the total transformation of the human person by the grace of
Christ so that the emotions are directed by reason (moral virtues) and reason by the light of faith,
hope, charity (theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit perfecting the moral virtues)

The spiritual life is an unwavering search for a union in which seekers not only find God but also
their true selves. It is a universal call to search constantly for union with God. It is a personal
exodus from our own captivity to the promised land. All of John’s major poems suggest this exodus.

This exodus of spiritual dedication is a departure from security, and implies a willingness to journey
through the nights….

Why are these times called “nights?”

John offers in the second chapter of Book One of the Ascent of Mount Carmel three reasons why
this journey can be called a night.

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 1. The point of departure—purification of the appetites and desires—implies a deprivation or
loss. This denial and privation is like a night for all one’s senses.

2. The second reason has to do with the darkness of the road traveled: “Now this road is
faith, and for the intellect faith is also like a dark night.”

3. The third reason “pertains to the point of arrival, namely, God,” who is also a dark night to
the soul in this life” All who long for God must enter this threefold darkness of the journey.

Stages of the Spiritual Journey:

There are 2 Purifications & 3 Ways in St. John’s teaching:

1. Purifications of the Senses: (Active/Passive Night of the Senses)

2. Purification of the Spirit: (Active/Passive Night of the Senses)

3 Ways

1. Way of Purgation

2. Way of Illumination

3. Way of Transforming Union

The pilgrimage of our life is a grace involving the acceptance of the means and opportunity for
spiritual growth through the dark nights ( our cooperation with the grace of Christ [active night] and
our acceptance of grace [passive night]). Night of sense: active night of sense: purification of
disordered voluntary appetites habitual desire to imitate Christ, traditional Christian asceticism.
Passive night of sense; beginning of contemplation.

Night of the spirit: active night of spirit: the person’s efforts to purify the spiritual faculties-the
intellect, memory, and the will of their false or limited contents and methods of knowing God.
Passive night of spirit is an intense experience of loving contemplative prayer which both purifies
and illumines the soul.

The passive night of spirit is the beginning of an extraordinary knowledge of God, a divine self-
communication permeated with love. The increased love for God further intensifies the suffering of
this passive night of the spirit. Since the person feels completely powerless to pursue and encounter
God. The beneficial effects of the passive night include a new knowledge of God, unlike the limited
images and concepts of the senses and spiritual faculties. This knowledge is linked to love. This
experience of divine love cleanses us, cures the root of our evil, gives us accurate self-knowledge
(created, weak, radically dependent on God and personally and infinitely loved for the unique
person that we are created in the image of God and redeemed by Christ).
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For John of the Cross, the spiritual person is wholly directed to God. Because all of the sense and
the internal faculties (intellect, will, and memory) through cooperation with the grace of Christ are
dynamically directed, integrated and dedicated toward God in the gift of one’s whole personally.

The two nights of sense and spirit are really conjoined in one great night of total development—the
journey of love-permeated faith…In choosing the narrow path of darkness and self-emptying, we
make a love-directed choice of the unknown God. This choice involves letting go of our memories,
past understandings, and experiences. However, in John, renunciation is never negative, but a
choice in love for a better encounter. John’s simple system is an exodus; a reaffirmation of the
essentially paschal aspect of Christian growth. The Contemporary Challenge…80.. For with this
night we are in the sphere of the strictly and unambiguously mystical.

This is in fact a night of faith—not a diminishment, but a deepening of faith, hope and love to an
heroic degree.

The purification of the senses begun in the earlier phases only comes to its perfection in the radical
refinement of the spirit. If we envisage the grace of God moving progressively inwards, then the
divinization of the outward sensitive life is not accomplished until the light has reached the
innermost substance of the soul and from there irradiates the whole person.

If I get too attached to the sacramental things, I am exchanging the gifts for the giver of the gifts.

The dark contemplation of the passive night of spirit brings a knowledge of God completely
permeated with love….in this loving union, the individual is integrally dedicated to God who now
understands, hopes, and loves in the seeker.

(5) St. Teresa of Avila uses a metaphor of the different ways that water can be brought to a
garden to speak about prayer. Please develop in greater detail this image and show the
difference between ascetical prayer and mystical prayer in her teaching.

St Theresa of Avila’s image of the spiritual journey as ways of bring water to a field represents the
relationship between grace, human effort, and gift of contemplative prayer.

- First Water: drawing the water up from a well by the use of a bucket - this is the most
labour intensive; involves the effort one spends leaving behind sin and growing in virtue. This
includes the building of Christ-centred friendship, a generous willingness to embrace the Cross
and daily fidelity to the Divine will.

- Second Water: use of a water wheel and aqueduct – habitual practice of prayer, detachment,
seeking solitude without neglecting personal responsibilities to others.

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- Third Water: Water comes from a river or stream so that one no longer has to labor to
transport the water to the field – full union with God; a certain experiential knowledge of the
Divine presence.

- Fourth Water: gentle and abundant rainfall. The water for the field is received without any
effort – an intense awareness of the Divine presence; profound and transforming effects of
God’s grace.

The relationship between grace, human effort, and gift of contemplative prayer can further be found
in St Teresa’s teaching between ascetical prayer which is our free cooperation, effort and striving
with the gift of the Holy Spirit: vocal prayer, meditation, intercession and mystical prayer which is
contemplation or contemplative prayer and thus a gift of divine grace. This gift of prayer involves a
loving experiential knowledge of God. It is a profound expression of faith and charity and the Gifts
of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, and knowledge).

As the Christian pilgrim is progressing in a greater degree of mystical prayer, one needs to remain
peaceful and simply open to receive the grace that the Lord wishes to grant. The actual experience
of mystical prayer cannot be forced or prolonged but gratefully received. This is because it is the
grace of Christ that initiates, sustains and completes every prayer moving the intellect and
will freely.

(6) From his personal life and conversion experiences and writings, in what manner can it be
said that St. Ignatius of Loyola appreciated human psychology and the necessity of the grace of
Christ in the faithful following of Christ?

Every human being has an immense longing for transcendence, for belonging totally to the world,
and for radical interiority. This threefold religious sense finds its fulfillment only in a genuine
Trinitarian spirituality.

Ignatius’ Father-centred mysticism fulfils the need for the all-transcendent Father, the ever-greater
God, God above us.

Imbedded in Ignatius’ Christocentric mysticism is a mysticism of the apostolic service that

comprehends implicitly how love of neighbour is actually love of God.

Finally Ignatius awakens God-in-us, an interior gift to our own deepest interiority, making us by the
gift of the Holy Spirit, transformed in grace, to live in love with the Father and the Son.

In his conversion and in his writings he explains the different thoughts and feelings that arise during
meditation – that of consolation and desolation, each thought leading to an awareness of God and a
deep interior joy and peace. In his Spiritual Exercises he notes the transformative nature of these

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experiences in prayer. Furthermore, the main purpose of the Spiritual Exercises is to help order
one’s life to God. The goal is eternal self-fulfilment as the purpose of life on earth.

(7) Summarize the spirituality of the Spiritual Exercises and the themes of the Four Weeks
which compromises the structure of these Ignatian exercises. Summarize the three occasions
when one can make a good choice in the discernment of the will of God.

In his Spiritual Exercises Ignatius notes the transformative nature of these experiences in prayer.
The main purpose of the Spiritual Exercises is to help order one’s life to God. The goal is eternal
self-fulfillment as the purpose of life on earth. The spiritual exercises can be for beginners and those
who need a conversion/decision involving their whole lives.

First week – exercises characteristic of the purgative way: basic conversion of life history of sin,
reflection on God’s plan for humankind – involvement of the intellect, will and imagination and
emotions in this fundamental turning, conversion of one’s life to the Lord and his service

Second week – the acquisition of virtues in imitation of the life of Christ, reflection on the events in
the life of Christ, prayer to gain an interior knowledge of Christ, three levels of humility, the desire
to act like Christ

Third week – more profound association and identification with Christ in his suffering, Last
Supper, Agony in the garden, Suffering and Death of Christ.

Fourth week – association with the joys of Christ, new life of the Resurrection

St Ignatius of Loyola was a very dedicated Christian psychologist. His major contribution was
spiritual exercises to bring one to a “felt-knowledge” of Jesus. By becoming a friend to Jesus and
experiencing with him his life, suffering, death and Resurrection, we come to know ourselves better.
There is a movement from our deepest centre outward which affects our thoughts and feelings to be
united with Christ. This leads us to a “felt-knowledge” of Jesus Christ.

St Ignatius teaches us that above all things, our first decision must be to choose Christ to be our
guide and companion. This is the standard for all our choices and we may ask ourselves every time
we are indecisive, “Is this choice leading me towards or away from Christ?” ie. What is the
anointed decision (by the Holy Spirit)?

There are three times or occasions when we can make a good decision, that is, choosing that which
is more Christlike and therefore we move closer to Him.

First occasion: “when our God and Lord moves and attracts the will so that the devout soul,
without question and without desire to question, follows what has been manifested to it”. Ie.
“Follow me” and we say “Yes”.
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Second occasion: “when one has developed a clear understanding and knowledge through the
experience of consolations and desolations and the discernment of spirits” to come to a “felt-
knowledge” of Christ (eg. After a 30 day retreat)

Third occasion: during a time of tranquillity, ask what feels more for the glory and praise of God
and what will best advance this? Then through intense prayer ask the Lord to confirm the decision
by either a deep sense of joy and peace, and/or allow the decision to unfold within his providence,
or prevent the choice from happening.

(8) What would be the principal gifts of the life of St. Jean Baptiste-Marie Vianney for
diocesan priests today?

Cure of Ars, born near Lyon, France in 1786; died 1859

The life of St. Jean Baptiste-Marie Vianney reveals many gifts for diocesan priests today:

Encouragement to persevere when obstacles seem insurmountable (eventually was ordained in

1815 despite extremely limited knowledge, average intelligence and found learning excessively
difficult; was drawn in the conscription to fight for Napoleon)

Charity leading to evangelization: He was made parish priest of Ars in 1818 and a few years later
founded an orphanage for girls called “The Providence”. He himself gave the girls instruction in the
catechism and this came to be so popular that eventually they were given every day in the church to
large crowds.

Spiritual Direction: His chief labour was in the direction of souls and people came from
neighbouring parishes, cities and even other countries. During the last 10 years of his life, he spent
from 16-18 hours a day in the confessional. All sought advice as to their vocation, as well as sinners
and the sick. In 1855, 20,000 pilgrims a year were coming to see him. Most came to see him and
listen to his daily instruction. His spiritual direction was characterized by common sense,
remarkable insight and supernatural knowledge, thereby giving a model for diocesan priests today.

Life principle of faith and love of God and this was the basis of his instructions to his audience.

Miracles attributed to John Vianney: obtaining money for his charities and food for his orphans;
supernatural knowledge of the past and future; and healing the sick, especially children.

But the greatest miracle of all was his life. He practiced mortification from his early youth and for
40 years his food and sleep were insufficient to sustain life. Yet he laboured incessantly with
unfailing humility, gentleness, patience and cheerfulness until the age of 73.

(9) In what ways may it be said that the pontificates of Pius IX and Pius XII gave emphasis to
the Roman dimensions of the Roman Catholic Church?
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From the 17th to the 19th Century, the Church saw great expansion, including the Americas. On the
other hand, it was a time of political turmoil in Europe, and there were great challenges from within
and without of the Church to her authority. Amidst this time, the Church began to centralize itself
in Rome, and in particular, by the end of this period St. Peters in Vatican City was recognized as the
center of the Roman Catholic Church. From 1870, the Pope has resided there.

Pope Pius IX (1846-1878)

Pope Pius IX played his role in the “Romanization’ of the Catholic Church by solidifying the power
of the papacy there. In 1854, he infallibly declared, proclaimed and defined the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception of Mary in Ineffibilis Deus. In this he placed his authority as Successor
of Peter to finally define a common teaching of the Church infallible doctrine. This helped to
illustrate the authority of the Pope in Rome.

Pius IX used his authority to help fight errors that were prevalent in the world and worked to
undermine the evangelization of the Church. He wrote against rationalism, liberalism and
materialism in his 1864 Syllabus of Errors.

He also summoned the 20th ecumenical council of the Church in Rome, or more precisely, at the
Vatican. The First Vatican Council opened at St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29 th (Solemnity of
Peter and Paul), 1868. In this council, a wide range of errors were condemned, defining the
relationship between faith and reason and echoing his teaching in the Syllabus of Errors. This
council also defined the Catholic belief in Divine Revelation in Scripture and the senses in which
this is understood (in Dei Filius) and, in order to further define the authority of the Pope in Rome,
the Council addressed the primacy and infallibility of the Bishop of Rome when solemnly
defining dogma in Pastor Aeternus.

The results of the First Vatican Council (which was interrupted by the Fracno-Prussian War and the
Italian Army’s entry into Rome) marked the triumph of the ultramontanist movement.
Ultramontanism supported a central Vatican-based government of the Church. With this
strengthening of the authority and centrality of the Church, religious vocations increased and
Catholic political activity increased internationally as a clear Catholic identity was felt in the world.
A strong involvement of the lay ministry in the Church also grew, which indirectly led to the
movements for liturgical reform.

Pope Pius XII (1939-1958)

In 1943 Pope Pius XII promoted the study of Scripture in his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu.
It was one of the ways in which he incorporated the modern desire for science into the proper
pursuit of true knowledge in Divine Revelation.
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That same year (1943), his encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi expressed again the understanding
that the Catholic Church is the mystical Body of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit and
performing Christ’s salvific work on earth today.

In all, Pope Pius XII wrote 41 papal encyclicals in his pontificate, which is more than his successors
John XIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI have written combined. It shows
his trust in the teaching authority of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. In this way, he helped to
strengthen the Roman dimensions of the Catholic Church.

Like Pope Pius IX, Pope Pius XII also infallibly proclaimed a Marian doctrine. In 1950, his
solemn definition Munificentissimus Deus declared the Assumption of Mary into heaven as
divinely revealed dogma. Again, this was a common belief in the Church that only lacked the
infallible authority of the Pope to make it official Church doctrine.

(10) The spirituality of St. Francis de Sales depends on certain doctrinal principles. How may we
say that his spirituality recovers and brings into renewed awareness a significant teaching of St.
Thomas Aquinas and also anticipates the teaching of the Second Vatican Council regarding the
universal vocation of Christians to holiness?

- St Francis de Sales makes one of the most significant contributions in the history of Roman
Catholic spirituality:

1. To unify all Christian morality and holiness under the bond of charity. This was clearly
found in the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas, but it was necessary in the time of St Francis
de Sales to re-state this fundamental truth that Christian perfection is not to be found in
any particular exercise or practice, but rather in the love of God and neighbor

2. The perfection of charity as the vocation of all Christians.

3. The two spiritual exercises that are fundamental to Christian life – the practice of
mental prayer and the cultivation of the virtues proper to one’s state in life.

Considering this in the light of the Second Vatican Council we can see how it anticipates the
universal call or vocation to holiness. There are four distinct vocations – married, priesthood,
single or religious life. True spirituality is living out our vocation; striving for holiness, loving God
consistently (which is an expression of charity). By such right living we will be transformed by
grace – no matter to which vocation we are called.

(11) In what manner may we say that the life and teachings of St. Therese of Lisieux represent a
spiritual path which will overcome what has been defined as religious romanticism and spiritual
Gnosticism?

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St. Therese’s life was one which embraced not only the beauty and joy of a life without suffering or
sin, but it necessarily includes the Cross of Jesus Christ. That is the way to purification from human
and worldly desires in the areas of faith, hope and love. This is where the errors of religious
romanticism and spiritual psychological Gnosticism are rooted.

 Religious romanticism is thinking that the Christian life is all about naïve sentimentality and
human optimism. The sentimentality is a belief that the faith is all about sweetness and
consolation, a lack of pain and suffering — a life full of feeling loved by God with full
emotion. The human optimism is the belief that humanity reaches the perfection of a
Christian life through human effort alone (not through an understanding of human weakness
and the need for God’s grace at all times).

 Spiritual psychological Gnosticism is the belief that with true understanding of Church
teaching, with enough information and understanding about what we are to believe, we can
avoid a life of temptation and suffering and live in blissful peace.

One need only to look at the life of Christ — one unmarred by sin and entirely filled with virtuous
and charitable acts as well as a complete knowledge of God the Father and his divine will — to see
that suffering and temptation are part of the Christian life, no matter how much one knows or how
good one acts. It is only human to want to avoid pain and to never fail through sin, but it is only
through these efforts that one is cleansed. We need to struggle and see our weakness in order to
know how much we are nothing without God’s help. This purifies our faith, hope and love. God is
the source of all these. We are not. All we receive is grace.

(12) In what way did the principle documents of Vatican II, considered in our class give
emphasis to the catholic dimensions of the Roman Catholic Church?

The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the
community of faith, hope and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates
truth and grace to all men....The society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body
of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community., the earthly Church and the Church
endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary they form
one complex reality which comes together from a human a divine element. For this reason, the
Church is compared, in a powerful analogy, to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed
nature, inseparably united to him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a
somewhat similar way, does the social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ who vivifies
it, in the building up of the body.
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This is the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and
apostolic, which our Savior, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning
him and the other apostles to extend and rule it, and which he raised up for all ages as the pillar and
mainstay of the truth. This church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world,
subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in
communion with him.

In general, the Council teaches about cooperation with grace, a sincere search and good will on the
individual person’s part. Furthermore, the Church is the only created institution which has
commissioned to bring to all people the salvation given given in and through Christ.

...that messianic people, although it does not actually include all people, and at times may appear as
a small flock, is, however, a most sure seed of unity, hope and salvation for-the whole human race.
Established by Christ as a communion of life, love and truth, it is taken up ny him also as the
instrument for the salvation of all; as the light of the world and the salt of the earth it is sent forth
into the whole world. Lumen Gentium II, 9

In Scripture we find a host of interrelated images and figures which Revelation speaks of the
inexhaustible mystery of the Church. The images taken from Testament are variations on a profound
theme: the People <!&Sod. In the New Testament, air these images nnd a new centre because Christ
has become the head of this, peopleT which henceforth is his Body.‫ ״‬CCC 753. This Church was
prepared in marvelous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and the Qld Alliance.
Established in this last age of the world, and made manifest in the outpouring of the Spirit, it will be
brought to glorious completion at the end of time. CCC 759.

(13) In what was are the lives and teaching of Bless Charles Eugene de Foucauld and Bless of
Teresa of Calcitta who lived very different vocations, Bless Charles De Foucald living as a hermit
in the desert, and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta living in crowded urban areas relevant for
contemporary Christians?

The Saints’ Witness of charity to specific challenges to Christianity

false claims of science and rational thought
philosophical relativism
agnosticism, theological relativism, or atheism
examples of holiness of life in the contemporary Church: St. John XXIII, St. Teresa of
Calcutta, St. John Paul II
(i) absolute dedication to faith and praxis of the Roman
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 Catholic Church
(ii) profound life of contemplative prayer
(iii) awareness of the human family and its suffering, hopes, and
challenges, and aspirations
(iv) practical involvement in works of charity and justice
(v) ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue

(14) What are the distinctions between the experience of optimism and happiness, and Christian
Hope and Joy?

Human optimism and happiness are in themselves good, but their source is the
immediate circumstances of life and personality type. Eventually there will be a time when
human optimism and happiness are exhausted by the reality of the human condition. At this
moment is the beginning of true hope and true joy because they have their origin in the
Omnipotent, Omniscient, All-Loving Lord. These gifts are both contemporaneous and witness
to a perfect fullment of our ultimate vocation in the Beatific Vision, eternal life.

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