124: St Teresa of Avila 3/16: Christ the Groom

When we read St Teresa's books we are struck by something very unusual : the way she treats the Lord is reminiscent of the way a Spanish married woman would have interacted with her husband four hundred years ago. The level of intimacy and bold directness she had with Christ is staggering. Of course throughout the past twenty centuries of Christianity the idea that Jesus is the Groom is not a novel one. He identifies himself in the Gospel with that title. It is true as well to say that we often understand this expression more in a symbolic way rather than literally. We never consider it as being something real. Furthermore, St Teresa's way of writing is very lively, oral, direct and wholesome, so that reading her is like being a secret observer of her real life dealings with the Lord. What do we notice then? We see clearly that Jesus is her Spouse and that “the Groom” is not a beautiful exalting symbol but her simple daily reality.

We can very easily measure how today such a reality is uncommon and disturbing. To be frank one has two choices: either to conclude that she must be becoming mentally deranged or there is an unknown dimension in our faith which we need to explore. Since she is a saint, however, and not just any saint - she is a 'Doctor of the Church' (which underlines the huge trust the Church puts in her teaching) - this brings us to the second choice. It must also be added that it is not an easy choice to enter into this new world she is offering us. To her, all that we invest in a human relationship has to be involved in our relationship with Christ, and becomes a daily reality. This part of our heart – this lower and very human part of our heart – is destined as well to be given to Christ and will have its full share of the Infinite Love of Christ. In fact, one gains the impression of having made a mistake for having dedicated this part of our hearts to a human being! She seems to say to us: 'even this heart which wants to love and be loved, just as in the dream of any adolescent's heart, is to be invested in our relationship with Christ, is invited to experience Christ's Love'. This is very difficult to swallow!

With this in mind, even if we can overcome the initial psychological difficulty, the fact remains that this is too good to be true! Let us acknowledge then, that what she offers in every page of her writings is a 'love story with Christ', the possibility of 'falling in love with Christ': she offers us the Love of our Life! Indeed, the journey of growth in Love that she offers us has as a goal to reach 'spiritual marriage' with Jesus! Therefore we are not faced with a marginal element of her teaching: it is the very core!

Another difficulty now arises. Imagine we can convey this message to a woman – it is far easier for a woman to fall in love with Christ than for a heterosexual man to do so – how would we explain this concept to a man, either consecrated or lay?! On the one hand all this is quite overwhelming, not too politically correct, and on the other hand it is like squaring the circle.

This question is profound and exhilarating, but it has also to be acknowledged, very delicate. As long as the human being has a heart and will continue to feel this desire that God put in him to love and be loved, this question will touch him profoundly. However, our heart is made by whom? How is it made? And for which goal? Here we are talking about the whole human heart, all the human emotions and not only this elevated part that we normally give to God. The 'lower' part of this heart is the one that spontaneously we give to another human being. But this side of our heart is an integral part of our entire heart!

Our heart is made by God. It is made 'in his image and likeness'! The erotic part of our heart is also made 'in his image and likeness'. Some would argue that it is made according to a human dimension in the image and likeness of another human being! Definitely this is not so.. this is not true. Not only do the saints claim it, but God's word first states it: 'you shall love your God [in whose image and likeness your heart is made] with all your heart..'. He didn't say: 'you will give half of your heart to God and the other half to a human love'! He said: 'all your heart'! Why? Because he is capable of filling 'all our heart', otherwise, he would not have made it clear. This teaching is at the very core of God's message to the human being.

The fact is that God, in order to love us more 'authentically', in order to dwell in us, to unite himself to us, took on human nature. St Teresa will often speak about Jesus' human nature (see her Autobiography Chapter 22 and Chapter 7 on the Sixth Mansions), Not only did he take on a human nature, but he even got much closer to us: he gave himself to each one of us on the Cross: body, heart, soul, spirit, divinity and continues to give himself to us in the Eucharist. Isn't that the total gift of oneself? - And what is the definition of marriage? - The mutual gift of the spouses. Who is our real Spouse? Isn't it the one who is capable of giving us everything and who already has done so? In this sense the groom par excellence is Jesus. There is no greater and more total a gift than his!

From the first generation of Christians, Christ has been followed by souls avid for this love! Let us remember Mary Magdalen! And after her all the virgins martyrs, Cecilia, Lucy, Agnes,... Some of them, in fact, stated it very clearly that Christ was their real Spouse. Let us contemplate in detail, then, all the people who followed Christ: monks and nuns, starting with St Antony the Great. This exclusive love for Christ is an approach that is in itself simple where the human being understands that his heart is an immense dwelling place, made in the image and likeness of God and that God only, Christ-The Groom, is capable of filling. They understood that a certain way of loving one's neighbour is idolatry because he then takes the unique place reserved for God! They understood well the First Commandment: 'you shall love your God with all your soul, all your strength, all your heart'. For greater clarity one could also add: 'with all your emotions'.

In this light choice is not an option: either one loves God this way, as the Saints loved Him, or one loves a human being [one's neighbour]. Let us notice that God offers us 'love' in a unique equation: on the one hand he invites us in the first commandment to love him with all our heart, and on the other hand he invites us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Following the logic of the First commandment one would think that if he or she gave all his heart to God, there is nothing left to 'love with' for one's neighbour! While the surprise is that he has to love his neighbour and to love him 'as himself'. The two commandments are like squaring the circle! It is God Himself who says that our heart is created in his image! It is God Himself who says that we have to love him 'with all our heart'! It is God Himself who says implicitly that only He can fill all our heart! God Himself spoke. He never mentioned half-measures!

Human marriage, in consequence, Christian Sacramental Marriage, is not a mere concession derived from the first commandment. The spouse can never take in our heart the place (all the place) that in it belongs to God. It is written nowhere that one can reduce the First Commandment! The First Commandment is an absolute that nobody can diminish or get rid of. No doubt, this looks like an insoluble question. It takes us out of our comfort zone because we can't lie to ourselves. But finding ways to interpret it, diluting it, or finding ways to get around it without confronting the challenge is cowardly and treasonable.

It is in this sense that after her 'second conversion', when Christ appeared to St Teresa, He was perceived as the Groom, the Spouse and a jealous one at that (remember when he says to her: I don't want you to speak to human beings anymore!). It is not a matter of a kind 'symbol' to console the celibate! Just the very opposite. But without a conversion, without God's grace it is impossible to discover this dimension in Christ. The only thing we can say is that this dimension exists and that it is not an unhealthy psychological deviation, but rather it is integral to the heart of the life of the human being as he was created by God and saved by him.

St Teresa goes on to tell us that this is a unique experience, where we discover that Christ is expert at showing us and making us feel that 'falling in love with him' is the only way forward, when He makes us discover that He is really above other “loves” - that, in fact, no human love can be compared to His. She seems to invite whoever has not yet undergone this experience to humbly to make this prayer:

“O Lord,

I have heard that you want to give yourself to me

like the real Spouse of my heart and of my life.

I have not experienced it yet,

but if you want to do so with me,

I leave the door of my heart ajar.”

What about men faced with this possible experience?

Within this question of having the experience of 'falling in love with Jesus' there is a subquestion: what about men? In fact, it is humanly speaking easier for a woman to fall in love with Christ than for a man! Here in a similar way the difficulty is huge!

In order to solve it, some will try to find solutions within a nuptial dimension with others: the Community, even Our Lady. But neither the Community nor Our Lady are what God wants to give us. The central question here in St Teresa's message concerns to 'fall in love with God'! Our heart is made in His very image and not in the image of the Community or Our Lady. Christ is the central object of our love according to St Teresa and He is at the same time God and man.

St Teresa only offers in an indirect way the answer to this difficulty. We will try to guess at it by reading between the lines of her writings. It will certainly become clearer when the last chapter of this book will be addressed.

Who, then, is the best disciple of Christ? Our Lady. She embodies in a perfect way both the feminine and the masculine dimension of every human being. So, there is no difficulty for a heterosexual man to contemplate Mary at the Annunciation and ask God to give him a heart like Mary's heart. He will be able to develop within himself that feminine side while perfectly remaining a man. God promises us this change, development and transformation: I will take away your heart of stone and put in its place a heart of flesh (See Ezekiel 36). This heart of flesh is this new heart capable of believing what we receive in Baptism, this heart is this marian feminine dimension of each and every disciple of Jesus, be he man or woman. In this sense, it is unavoidable for all of us who really want to follow Jesus till the end of our lives. Let us contemplate, for one, the manly Peter, a good man, generous, zealous: how does he follow Christ? On various occasions in fact we find the 'heart of stone' seems to be more active in him! During the last supper, for example, the 'heart of stone' is very much alive in him: he insists on wanting to follow Jesus his way, wanting to defend him, protect him, and even die for him. He does not yet really allow Mary's heart to envelop him totally, activating a deeper 'falling in Love' with Jesus. What is about to happen to him? He will hit the wall at full speed!

What, between the lines, St Teresa of Avila invites us to do in order to better understand this 'feminine dimension' is to contemplate Peter right after the Resurrection, when he will have to face Mary. She believed, hoped and waited for the Groom to Rise! She remained faithful to Jesus' Promise ('the Son of Man will Rise on the Third day') until the end. Peter says three times to a woman: woman I don't know Him! And now The Woman, the New Eve, the True Bride, the Wise Virgin, is about to teach Peter how to become a 'wise Virgin' as Jesus recommends (see Matthew 25:1-13). Peter goes through a radical about-face! Christ, by his Cross, broke Peter's heart of stone and gave him a heart that is made in the image of the first heart that comes out of his side: Mary's heart. This new heart is a 'heart of flesh', a heart where the feminine dimension is fully alive and alert.

St Teresa's answer to our question concerning men, consequently, is the following: it is necessary for men to allow Mary to develop within themselves in order to better follow Christ until the end. Isn't Mary's heart the best in the nuptial dimension? Isn't 'to fall in love with Christ' the only possibility given to us in Baptism - to fall madly, deeply in love with the Groom?

We can hear St Teresa saying: it seems to me that this works very well for men as well!

Let us stop here, gaze and ponder over the result, if such a deep change – like Peter's one after the Resurrection – were to spread more widely within the Church! We would love Jesus with greater power, deeper floods of love would flow from our heart, the erotic energy compressed in us finally finding a way to be elevated, purified, and then expressed! Trying to suppress our sexual tendencies and desire to love, is the worst error we can commit and the consequences are really ugly: it will backfire on us more forcibly. It is important to face and embrace the erotic dimension of the human being - men included - and to allow him or her to discover the absolute love of Christ-The-Groom. One would be able to see the powerful energy that would result; after all aren't mystics the most fruitful of people? They loved with all their heart. St Teresa's message, then, is clear to us. Chastity can only be preserved this way: accepting and learning to 'fall in love' with Christ and to count only on his grace and the intimacy with him. This is, furthermore, the great lesson of St Teresa's conversion (see previous chapter). This is why we need a more complete and clear teaching on the Prayer of the Heart in order to enter into intimacy with Christ and persevere in it.

65: Jesus is born in our heart

There are three Christmas Masses: midnight, dawn and during the day. Not only we are allowed to attend them and but we are invited to receive Communion during these 3 Masses.

The three masses of Christmas tell us of three births of God’s Son:

1- His birth at Bethlehem. Luke 2:1-14.

2- His birth in our hearts. Luke 2:15-20.

3- His birth in eternity (the only begotten of the Father). John 1:1-18.

You’ll certainly guess that I might have a greater interest in the “dawn Mass”. It is a more “interior” perspective about Christmas. It alludes to Jesus’ birth in our hearts.

By our Baptism, Jesus is born in our heart. As a small seed, He’ll grow in us until He reaches the fullness of His height. That moment could be considered as a fuller “birth of Jesus in our hearts” or, if you will, the equivalent of what the Mystics called the “Spiritual Marriage” with Jesus. Remember what saint Paul claimed: “it is not me who live, Christ lives in me”.

Christmas is as well about personal spiritual life: let us look inside and watch out Jesus in us.

Who better than Mary can give birth to Jesus? Who can carry Him in the fullness of His hight and bear the intensity of His Divinity? Mary only can do it. We need both: the Son of God, offering Himself to us as the biggest and deepest gift, and Mary, the “capacity” to handle that divine weight in us.

Let us invite Mary in the cradle of our heart so she can come. She comes carrying Jesus in her. She is the best “space” we can offer to God so He can come and dwell in us.

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus once said that before Communion she invites Mary to dwell in her heart, so when she receives Jesus, the Host, He’ll think that He is dwelling in her. To me, it looks like the best way to receive Jesus in us.

43: The unavoidable mystical dimension of Christianity 2

(Continuation of "Spirituality 16a")

In John chapter 6, when Jesus starts to say that He is “the Bread” and that that Bread is his own flesh (not “body” but “flesh”) and his own blood, people were shocked.

And the good thing is that John, the Apostle, is underlining the fact that people were shocked. John is not avoiding the difficulty inherent to the “mystical dimension” that Jesus is offering: eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

“- Too close!” “- Too intimate!” The least you can say.

John gives us the spontaneous reaction of some people: "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?"

Did Jesus drop it? John doesn’t seem to say that, on the contrary.

Did Jesus say to himself: “ok, this is too difficult for them, I will then stop speaking about this difficult topic, let change the subject”, or “let us dilute it a bit and make it milder”? No, He didn’t. Seriously, we should be surprised by the fact that Jesus kept going on.

He just simply continued on His track. He even emphasised the difficulty, and, to a degree, He made it more difficult. He tried to explain, develop, expand:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6)

Later, in that same text of John 6, John will say that, at this junction, some stopped following Jesus.

Facing the "Mystical Dimension" of our own faith

Each Christian has one day to face the “mystical dimension” of his/her faith, responsibly, as an adult, and decide which side he/she wants to take. To enter deeply in this mystical dimension, or just trop his Christian faith.

Jesus won’t change his plan just because “we don’t like it”, or “we have some difficulty to grasp it”. He is ready to help though, if we are opened, if we ask for His help. But he won’t avoid the “mystical dimension”.

- What is mystical? - “Mystical” can be surprisingly confusing. But it is real, and it is deeply the core of becoming a Christian. When Jesus invites us to “eat his Flesh” (John 6), to “dwell in Him” (John 15), when saint Paul says: “it is not me who lives but Jesus who lives in me”, we are simply in the “mystical” dimension.

We have the three-dimensional world space: 3D. We can add “time” as a fourth dimension. I don’t want to go into a mathematical marathon to add more dimensions, I am just pointing out to the "normal" human being that we already can easily grasp the existence of 4 dimensions. The 2D is simply a photo you are watching. A 3D, is a body, in 3D. If the body moves, we have 3D + time (motion).

The “mystical dimension” is one more dimension that is totally necessary for Christian life.

In order to understand the “mystical dimension”, let me use an analogy, just to open the way to this “new dimension”:

Did you ever watch any episode of “Drop Dead Diva”? It is the story of a 24 years old girl, Deb, who is an aspiring model (you can imagine the body), who has a car accident, reaches heaven, and then comes back to earth but in the body of a 32 years old big girl, Jane, who is a lawyer, and who just died.

The soul (and spirit) of a person, Deb, falls into the body (and the brain) of another person: Jane.

Note: Of course I am not at all going to address the issue of "is this possible or not". For Christianity it is simply not acceptable, for one body is for one soul, numerically this body is for this soul, in a unique and definitive way. I am just taking this TV series case as an analogy. Many people accept that "mystical" game, even if it is not possible to have it in real life, so I just hope it may helps us to get closer to the daily Christian "mystical dimension".

"Transformed", "not "lost"

When Paul says: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Ga 2:20), of course it is not at all identical to Jane’s case in “Drop Dead Diva”, but it has a sort of a remote similarity that opens the way to the real things.

When Jesus grows in us, and becomes more alive (remember the "Spiritual Marriage" or "union with Jesus-God" we saw previously), we still have all our being (our soul is not lost or replaced by Jesus' one like in Jane's case). We still have our body, our soul, and our spirit. We don't loose any part of our being. They are renewed, purified, elevated. We are just "inserted", "rooted" in Jesus' humanity and transformed in it but not lost. "Improved", but not lost.
Our body is in Jesus’ body, our soul, is in Jesus’ soul, our spirit is in Jesus’ spirit. All our human nature (body, soul and spirit) is in His human nature. All our human nature - dwelling in His human nature - is united to his divinity as well. Remember that His human Nature is united to the Divine Nature of the Second Divine Person of the Trinity.
The following diagram helps us "visualise" the "new life" "in Jesus":

The "human being" on the right (each one of us) is invited to enter in the humanity of Jesus (on the left). Saint Augustine says about Communion: we think we eat Him, but in fact He eats us. The three arrows show us that our body enters (is rooted) in Jesus' body; the same for our soul and for our spirit.
"entering" in fact is a very weak word. We should say that we are transformed in Him. Transformation, again, doesn't mean we loose our humanity, our body, our soul, our spirit. They are enriched, Christ grows in them, and starts to take more and more a greater "space" in us, and moves us, acts through us. We don't loose our will, but our will is transformed in His.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus says that when she does good things to her sisters, in fact Jesus in her is acting and doing them. She didn't mean that her personality is lost, but she means that Jesus is alive in her, and has a greater influence, and moves her in a higher and new way. Again: she doesn't loose her will, her freedom.
As you can notice on the diagram, Jesus' humanity (the square that includes His body, soul and spirit) is placed in the Divine Person of the Logos (the large rectangle), the Second Person of the Trinity, and is united to it.

It is like as if you uproot a plant, “our humanity” (body, soul and spirit), and root it in Jesus’ Person (the Logos Incarnate).
Rooted in Jesus, it is like we acquire a mystical person.

36: The Spiritual Journey 10a/11

We meet Jesus' Passion and His Cross two times

It is important to understand that in our life time, we are supposed to meet the Lord's Passion, Crucifixion and Death (and Resurrection, it goes without saying) twice. Of course, this is in case we fulfil all our call to follow Jesus, if we realise the whole journey. (Otherwise, some steps are “aborted”.) The two moments are quite different. The first time is – we may say – an “ascending moment”, toward the union with Jesus-God. So when we meet the Passion, it is a fundamental purification time for us. The deepest purification that prepares us for the Spiritual Betrothal and the Spiritual Marriage. This purification is what S. John of the Cross calls: “Dark night of the spirit”.

Note: Let us remember the deep meaning of the “Spiritual Marriage”. It is a deep and real “union with Jesus” who is God. It is something that one has to really study, in order to understand the new synergy that emerges from it, and constitutes it. Saint Paul says something about it when he says: “it is not me who lives but Jesus who lives in me”. Do we really understand what is to have Jesus living in us? Do we know the exact proportion between “Jesus' Spirit” (the Holy Spirit) and “us” in this synergy? Do we grasp “how it works”? These are fundamental questions each Christian should know, should study. Because this is the meaning of Baptism, and it's first realisation (the Union with Jesus), this is the meaning of our life on earth.

Jesus lives in us, acts with us, through us. The merits of our acts are His'. It is only by understanding the greatness of this spiritual state that we can address the second part of the Spiritual Journey. To my eyes it is a condition, otherwise we will make a very un pleasant psychological projection.

While the second time (that will usually come much after) we meet the Passion of the Lord happens when we start to understand the “weight of love” (as saint Augustine calls it), how it brings us down toward the earth, toward our brothers, toward the “lower parts of the earth” (see Isaiah 9:2), the people who are walking in the darkness, waiting for their deliverance. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in her Manuscript C mentions as well the “weight of Love”.

The power of the Holy Spirit in us, starts to make us hear in a much greater strength the voice of “those living in the land of deep darkness” (Isaiah 9:2). So we “roll up our sleeves” and start to lay down our life (see John 15:13), in the Hands of the Holy Spirit who offers us (as a “lab” or “womb”) for our brothers and sisters, where salvation can happen: “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Ga 4:19) says a man, saint Paul.

Here is one of the best descriptions of the work of the Holy Spirit in this crucial period of descent, when we meet again Jesus' Passion: “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and Someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18).

It deserves a commentary. “stretching out our hands”... becoming, because of spiritual marriage, so humble, and in total synergy, docile under the Action of the Holy Spirit. “Someone else”: the Holy Spirit.

Or if you prefer, there is a more “symbolic” description: you get up “from the meal” of the Wedding (its joys, celebrations, enjoyment), like Jesus (see Philippians 2) you “take off your outer clothing”, you empty yourself like Jesus, in Jesus (see Philippians 2), you “wrap a towel around your waist” (purified, and transformed, the Power of the Holy Spirit has much greater grip over you), “After that” you “pour water into a basin and begin to wash your friends' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around you” (See John 13:4-5) Great and deep description of what is offered to the bride of the Lord. He truly made of her a “mother” for others.

The two periods (I- ascent and II- descent) will probably be separated by a “resting” time, an enjoyable time. We may call it a “honey moon”. Right after the “spiritual marriage”, the soul needs to rest a bit, after the deep radical toughness of the purification. Spiritual growth continues, always, there are no limits in Love, in the Action of the Holy Spirit.

So, as we see, in a synthetical way, we have two journeys that end with the Passion (see the Cross on the diagram). One ascending: the purification, always deeper and deeper, and the other, descending: the participation to the Passion of Jesus, for the sake of our brothers.

“Dark night” or “Participation to the Passion”

The two are very different. The description made by the saints of each spiritual stage might look the same (same words, same darkness, same toughness, ...), and the bad trend today is to call anything that is a bit tough a “dark night”. “Dark night” is an expression taken from Saint John of the Cross (see his book called: “The dark night”). It is a bad trend/fashion to do that because he is the one who shaped that expression, and in his writings it has one main meaning: purification (and not just any suffering).

You can't then use that expression and apply it to what happens to the soul when it is invited to “sit at the table of the sinners” (see the Gospel when it is said that Jesus is sitting amongst the sinner for a meal. It is an expression of saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Manuscript C). You can't help in the purification process of your brothers if you are not even in the Light yourself!! Totally absurd! But the “spiritual literature” today is full of these absurdities that some still call: spiritual theology.

Of course, some small purifications will always continue to happen after the Union with Jesus (Thérèse speaks about them, see Manuscript B, the little bird), but the state of a human being is totally different before the “great trial” of the great purification (end of the ascending curve, meeting the Passion) and after it. By the "great purification", the soul joins the group of the anawim, the poors of spirit, lead by Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

So, again: we meet the Cross, the Passion, in at least two main moments, ascending and descending. But not in the same way, and not for the same purposes.

One should read the deep and correct analysis Father Louis Guillet ocd made of Thérèse's so called “trial of faith”, in the end of her life: “Gethsémani ou l'amour crucifié”. He obviously reaches the “conclusion” that what she is going through can only be a participation to the Passion of Jesus, and not the “dark night of the spirit” as many still say.

The “dark night of the spirit” happened much before in Thérèse's life, just check her letters before early 1893. The years before, she goes through something very tough: it is “the dark night of the spirit”. We'll come back to that another day.

Just enjoy the vision of the total shape of the spiritual journey.

For the Dark night: please have a look at this post.

(To be continued...)

21: Defining Spiritual Theology 2

Let us continue to define “Spiritual Theology" (ST).

1- ST takes care of our Spiritual Life

The object of Spiritual Theology: our Spiritual Life. It is meant to take care of our spiritual life, its growth, its healthy and steady state.

2- ST manages a relationship between Christ and each one of us

Our Spiritual Life is the life of God in us, Jesus' life in us. This life is generated by the combined action of two persons: Jesus and each one of us.

This is why it is important to know what Jesus wants to achieve, how He works, what he wants. And it is as important to know 'how a human being can answer to His Call', reply to him, act, react, in a synergetic, harmonious, way.

3- ST's goal is to make our Spiritual Life grow

Spiritual Theology has various goals. Final, remote goals, and daily goals. It is only by achieving the daily goals that we can reach the final ones.

3.1 Final Goals: 1- Union with Jesus, 2- Fulness of Love

Spiritual life has two main goals:

1- Reaching first the top of the Mountain of the Union with Jesus Christ, God.

2- Reaching, with Jesus, and in Jesus, the bottom of the Mountain, serving our brothers and sisters reaching the fullness of love.

3.2 Intermediate Goal: each day, achieving 'the daily measure'

The intermediate Goal is each step we make, in order to reach the final goal. We have three measures in spiritual life: the act and the day (you may add 'the week').

- The act, any act, we make during the day should be synergetic. It should be done from Jesus, with Jesus, achieving Jesus.

- The real measure though is the day. “Today's effort is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34). I chose to translate here: “effort” and not "trouble" or other words. Showing that there is a measure of correspondence to the Holy Spirit we are called to achieve everyday.

No doubt the lectio divina, and the lectio divina well made, helps us achieve that goal, of adding every day one more synergetic act. Jesus states it: you can't do anything without me (John 15). He invites us to imitate Him by contemplating the will of God and then by his Grace putting it into practice. Lectio divina is completed by the Prayer of the heart. Like sun and water nourish the tree, Lectio divina and prayer of the heart, respectively, nourish us.

It is by accomplishing the “intermediate goal”, the measure of the effort of each day, that our Spiritual Life grows in us and that we can reach the final goals, otherwise, we are not growing properly.

4- Recognising the stages of Spiritual Life

When a mother has a baby, she starts to go, on a regular basis to a paediatrician, because she needs to know if her baby is healthy, doing well, growing … She doesn't always have all the sufficient knowledge in order to take care of her baby.

In the meantime, the Paediatrician has enough knowledge and experience in order to be able to do this checkup. He/she measures and weighs the baby and performs all sorts of checkups in order to be sure that the baby is growing. The Spiritual Master does almost exactly the same work. The faithful goes to him, in order to show his/her inner life and practices. Like the mother goes with her baby.

4.1 Knowing the stages

As the Doctor knows the 'normal' stages of growth of the baby, the 'Spiritual Master' knows them as well. Without knowing the stages and what characterises them, the Doctor cannot ensure the check up, cannot ensure that the baby is healthy and that all is fine. It is the same for the 'Spiritual Master'. It is part of his/her training to know the stages of spiritual life. This comes with study and learning.

4.2 Recognising the stages

One thing is knowing the stages, learning them (scientifically, theoretically), and the other is being able to re-cognise them. This comes with a lot of experience and discernment. The future Master has to become first a Disciple, for various years, in order to receive the discernment. Otherwise it is simply 'hell' (a great confusion). This is a very delicate art, and mistakes could be done very easily.

The “eyes” of the future Master, 'the capacity to see', and then 'the capacity to discern' have to grow. This can only happen under a training with another Master. It is the transmission of the living Tradition of Spiritual Masters.

Reflections

I think, that these simple lines, help define the framework of Spiritual Life and Spiritual Theology.

Wondering too much out of that framework can create confusion and loss of time and energy.

After reading these few lines, you can easily conclude that this "science" (Spiritual Theology) is the queen of all sciences, or better said: if you still consider 'Spiritual Theology' as a branch of Theology (it is your right to do so), wouldn't you consider that this Branch (ST) is not only a fundamental branch, but the Queen of all Branches of Theology? Anyway, the most useful one, the one that most of the faithful claim, wait for, and hardly receive in their lifetime. Look around.

Wouldn't you then wonder : where did it go in the big forest of Theology?

Why Theology divorced from Spiritual Theology? (I thought in the Catholic Church we didn't have divorce !!!!!) The actual Pope laments this divorce and is trying his best to mend it!

Why Spiritual Theology today is a 'half-dead' body lying on the road? (see the Parable of the Good  Samaritan Luke 10:30)

Ok, I will stop lamenting, and get up early, and work, work, work, in this Field - with the Help and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is My CREED.