General Presentation of Spiritual Formation in the School of Mary: The Five years of Spiritual Formation

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Contents

– Spiritual Formation

– Contents of Formation

– The Spiritual Journey

– The Complete Journey

– The Changes

– The Solid Foundations Course

– The Five Phases of Growth

– On the Importance of Solid Foundations 000

– The School’s Fruits

– Transmitting Spiritual Formation

The Mission of the School of Mary is to form Christians in the spiritual life,

enabling them to respond fruitfully to the call to holiness.

Drawing on the living tradition of the Catholic Church,

especially the doctors of the spiritual life, the School

fosters experiential Knowledge of each stage of spiritual growth,

so as to lead students to union with Christ

and a loving participation in His redemptive mission.

Spiritual Formation is as essential in the Church as Catechesis is and it comes after it and presupposes it. Another way of expressing this is to think of Mystagogy, as presented by the Fathers of the Church, as coming after Catechesis.

The Church reminds us that regardless of our state of life at a certain moment in our life Jesus Calls each one of us. He enters our life in a more intense way and invites us to follow Him, a journey which leads us to the fullness of love or holiness. 

To answer Jesus’ Call and to follow Him the Church offers its immense treasures of the Living Tradition of Spiritual Teaching. However, a practical, clear and fruitful Spiritual Formation is needed to help us respond in an optimal form and walk in tune with the Lord and the Holy Spirit to reach the goal, i.e. Union with Jesus and the Fullness of love. This formation is usually given in religious orders alongside Religious Formation. The School of Mary, however, intends to offer it to all Christians.

The School of Mary, consequently, has chosen to offer what is common amongst the treasures of spiritual formation in the Church, drawing essentially from the Mass itself. In the Mass we find the strongest and most powerful spiritual food – Jesus’ Word and Jesus’ Body and Blood. The School draws from the best Catholic Spiritual Masters and intends to offer an uncluttered, practical and clear teaching to help people from all states of life in today’s hectic world. Given this the salt of the Gospel remains alive and challenging. One learns also in a practical way what God expects from us and how, so to speak, to “trigger” the grace of God as the Masters teach it.

When we hear the Lord’s Call to follow Him, the School identifies five different stages of teaching, each adapted to a phase of growth in spiritual life. The five stages are divided into two parts: the first three stages and then the two following (See here). The first three stages’ importance is paramount as they are like the “bottle neck” which allows access to the following two stages.

Spiritual Formation

1- The Universal Call to Holiness

On 21st November 1964 the Second Vatican Council published one of its most important documents: The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. Its Chapter 5 declared that all members of the Church were called to Holiness regardless of the state of life. In many regards, this constitutes the most powerful statement or declaration of the Second Vatican Council. By contrast, previously the Church tended to function in practice with two “classes” of faithful: first, the saved ones, those who just make it by avoiding Hell, but who still might have to go to Purgatory, and secondly, the Holy Ones, made up of Priests and Monks/Religious. Lumen Gentium’s declaration of course rejects this classification.

It is important to acknowledge that since we are dealing with a Call, it occurs, in real time, at a certain point in our life: early, mid-life, or even toward the very end. This makes our life divisible into two periods: before the Call and after the Call. However, are we all always and everywhere capable of hearing Jesus calling us to follow Him? Life before the call in this light, becomes a life that prepares us to hear this call. Catechesis and a full commitment to one’s Christian life are major conditions to free the way for us to hear Jesus’ call.

2- To Answer the Call: Spiritual Formation

To be able to properly answer the call of Jesus, to stand up and start to follow Him depends on a Formation we need to receive. We cannot improvise our response or the Formation. With this in mind we can fully appreciate the role that the bimillennial Wisdom of the Church plays here to help us answer the Call. It cannot be stressed enough that it is important to benefit from the richness of the Church formation-wise. This is what we do usually when we enter religious life, for formation needs a place where it can be received; a place where a doctrine, methods, practices, discernment and accompaniment can be supervised.

3- Religious Formation vs. Spiritual Formation

When we enter a monastery, we receive two formations:

a- to religious life (traditions and practices of the Order) and

b- to spiritual life.

These two elements are needed for any new order to be funded and approved by the Church and require first, a Rule of life (a style of religious life) and secondly, a proven doctrine capable of leading us to perfection.

Note: The immense spiritual richness of the Church often stays behind closed doors, the door of the Noviciate room. But from this it is easy to understand that we need to “open this secret room” – the room of God’s secrets – to all the non-consecrated faithful who are reminded that they are also called to holiness. It is obvious that, on the one hand we cannot claim that all are called to holiness, yet on the other hand deprive people of the secrets of Spiritual Formation.

4- The Work of the School

This is what I have been doing since 1995: with religious, seminarians, nuns, monks and since 1998 with lay people. This formation has also taken place in different countries: in the Middle East, France, Italy, United Kingdom, and in five languages. The School of Mary and this formation were made official from 2003 onwards.

Formation in the School of Mary presents itself first and foremost in a fundamental course: the Solid Foundations Course. It is a long course (forty-eight hours of teaching), challenging, but extremely rewarding. We have never stopped giving it year after year. This course is the real gateway to Spiritual Life and Spiritual Formation. Its reference is SF 000 on the website. Afterwards, many other courses are offered, to help deepen what was given in a concentrated way in the Solid Foundations Course.

Not only this, but the formation follows three important stages of spiritual growth that occur right after hearing Jesus’ Call to follow Him. Each stage has a list of courses that supports the correspondent phase of growth.

Browsing through the website will reveal the richness of the Formation offered there. Courses, often in pre-recorded videos, articles and books are on offer. Also, Tuition and Spiritual Direction are offered. All is left to the freedom of each person’s rhythm of study and choice.

Contents of Formation

The main ideas governing the School’s choice of syllabus when it was shaping the Formation to be offered were as follows:

• A solid basis, common to all, avoiding cluttering people’s minds with non-essential elements, avoiding the famous division of spirituality in the different schools, while taking what is needed from different schools, Masters and Doctors of the Church.
• A practical teaching.
• A renewed understanding of the Scriptures.
• A direct approach to Christ.
• A more accurate understanding of how the Holy Spirit works in the different essential types of prayer.
• Lectio Divina and Prayer of the Heart: in wanting to offer the essential and most nourishing parts of Spiritual Life, we had to look at the Mass more deeply, opening ways to benefit from the Divine Food that the Lord gives us in it: His Word and His Body and Blood. Hence the importance of Lectio Divina and the Prayer of the Heart (Contemplative Prayer) that prolong the two liturgies of the Mass. In this way, the Mass itself structured the teaching in the School of Mary.

Note: we cannot compare the Spiritual Formation one needs to receive after hearing Jesus’ Call to follow Him, with the Fourth Part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is on Prayer. Adult Formation and a serious commitment to implement it are of the utmost importance to allow us to hear Jesus’ Call. However, Spiritual Formation like the one we receive at the School of Mary goes infinitely deeper than this.

In order to understand the spirit of the school one can say that it is at mid-distance between the University Classroom and the Retreat Chapel – or if you prefer, the Noviciate room of a monastery.

The Spiritual Journey

The School of Mary offers five years of formation. “year/years” here don’t mean “academic year” or “school year”, it is not a measure of time or study, it means a formation adapted to a specific stage of spiritual growth, offering clarification and support. The measure here is the degree of growth, the stage of growth in which one finds oneself. One can spend many years in one stage, and vice-versa, one can go at a faster speed. This depends on many factors, like generosity, courage, determination, perseverance and resilience. To a certain extent it is important to know approximatively where one is, in order to address the needs of each stage to correspond better to the modality of the action of the Holy Spirit (see this article). In the School of Mary, each “year” (SF1, SF2,… SF5) addresses a stage of growth.

It is true that on one hand the Church reminds us constantly – and more particularly since Vatican Council II – of what the Gospel says: the faithful, by virtue of their baptism, are all called to holiness. If on one hand this awareness is very well present in the pastoral work of the Church today, on the other hand we have very little information about spiritual growth, its stages, discerning them, and the means to move from one stage to the other. Many would even find it too much to ever enter into such details if great masters in spiritual life like Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, to name the most known, had done it. They feel that in doing so is like entering into God’s work and interfering with the Holy Spirit’s action, and that God knows better what we need and provides it. Others might say that this is like being too attentive to oneself and that this is not good. At the School of Mary we prefer to take a balanced attitude: understanding that God’s work in us bears in itself an aspect of mystery and therefore needs faith and trust and at the same time, acknowledging that if God inspired the great masters to map the spiritual journey and give advice for each stage, it is for a reason and for our good. It all depends on the way we use this teaching about the journey. We also believe in the importance of the help given by a wise, prudent and knowledgeable spiritual director.

At each stage there are important elements at stake. Our growth implies that we move from a human way of dealing with Jesus and with our spiritual life, to a divine way. These stages are very visible in the Gospel to the connoisseur (see this book or articles).  

Mapping the journey of growth of spiritual life belongs to God’s Revelation. He is the one who shows us that there is a journey of growth. Starting from the narrative of Abraham’s call, through Joseph in Egypt, Moses in the Desert, Joshua in the promised land and Solomon building the temple we have here a majestic and foundational revelation of the existence of a journey, a pedagogy, a growth, challenges, transformation, and first and foremost, a clear goal to reach: the Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, his indwelling in the Holy of the Holies and the Worship of God in the Temple.

Acknowledging the fact that the spiritual journey is part of God’s Revelation is of absolute importance. We find the same truth in the Gospels: first the Lord calls his disciples, He invites them to follow Him on a sacred and transformative journey which leads them to the deepest purification when He undergoes his Passion, and Death. His Resurrection, forty days of preaching, Ascension and Pentecost are further cornerstones of their growth and new capacity to become his witnesses and heralds of the Gospel. Mark offers us the confession of the Lord’s divinity by the Centurion as the goal of the journey, a major milestone in our growth. John offers a more structured journey of growth in a form of a “ladder” of purification which leads us from the first sign to the major Sign the Lord performs (the opening of the Jesus’ side), a total of 6 plus 1 signs of growth. An incredible journey.

The journey of growth differentiates us from the Angels. They are purely spiritual being, while we have flesh, and we live in time and our decision to be with God is a long repetition of acts which lead to a transformation. God creates us without asking us our permission, but He will not save us without our collaboration. In this sense, in time, in stages, through real transformative growth we are “co-authors” of our sanctification, the process and the journey of receiving his Redemption, 

If the Bible has this main structural spinal cord, i.e. the journey of growth, it is for a clear purpose to help us on our journey, guide us and offer us all the support we need to reach God: to be united with God and to reach the fullness of love – and there is no greater love than loving our brothers in Jesus, with Jesus, the way He loved us. As we saw above, in the Bible we find history, time, narratives placed in a specific moment in history. The measure of this history of salvation is time, our time, the time of our personal clocks. But if we carefully examine the interior of the Bible’s message and structure, we can easily find another “time” so to speak.

In fact, the real flow of “time” in the Bible is not “our time”, not “time” as we know it, but it is another “time” within “our time”: the transformative journey. Each unit in it is a step ahead in our transformation in Jesus. The Lord speaks to us in time and space and shows us a journey, a parable or a form of speech to tell us about his time, about the way He measures things: their degree of transformation. His time is Eternity, and our journey is to go from the mere clock-time to his eternity through a transformative process where we enter increasingly into his time.

Therefore, the journey of transformation itself is what He points to. As mentioned above, the parable or symbol He uses looks like a journey in time and space: from Abraham’s Call at Ur of the Chaldeans, to Jerusalem with Solomon inaugurating the Worship in the Temple in the Presence of God dwelling in it. As we see, it is not only a journey in space and time, it is a real journey of transformation: He explains to us the meaning of each step. To take just one example, a Father of the Church exegete, commentator and catechist of the early centuries, Origen, saw it very clearly (see his Homily 27 on the book of Numbers).

Of course, mentioning this new measure and its units, growth and stages does not mean that we are negating the existence and use of our time. Far from it. In a more decisive and final way, through the Incarnation, God’s wisdom uses our time to communicate his grace to us, hence the absolute necessity to have an initial correct perception of our time: the liturgical year. Our spiritual life is rooted in years, seasons, weeks, Holy Week, Sundays, Great festivals (Christmas, Easter,..), special tides (Advent, Lent, Easter) where we receive the entire mystery of Jesus, in mouthfuls so to speak, “grace upon grace” (John 1).

Without changing our time and our actual perception of our time, blessed and transformed by the Incarnation of God, it is important to add to it this essential dimension of spiritual growth: transformation, degree of transformation, stages of growth. In this sense, we even enter more deeply into our normal time —already blessed by the Incarnation and the mysteries of Jesus— and we discover another degree or quality to it. So, we end up understanding that our actual time is an open window constantly offering access to graces to us, which in turn engenders transformation and follows a paved way for us extending from our time to God’s eternity.

St. Thomas Aquinas famously said that Eternal life starts here on earth by the reception of God’s Grace. We are now just not only acknowledging this truth but also seeing what the grace of God engenders in us: a real transformation which increases God’s life in us. In this sense Eternity gains day by day a firmer footing in our heart and soul.

The focus now turns to not only the hours, days and years but to the “degree of transformation into God” and to its stages. Normal time, through the grace of God, is not only transfigured by the Incarnation of God and his dwelling among us till today, but time indicates another measure added to it: our degree of change by God’s grace. It is as if between God and us, there is a journey of transformation, a line where each unit transcends the previous drawing us closer to God, transforming us into Him. The distance between us and Him, the measure of growth becomes the degree of transformation, the degree of our new likeness to God.

Throughout the twenty centuries of Christianity, many authors have paid attention to this aspect and dedicated their lives to it: the search for God, and the transformative journey which leads us to the union with Him. When St. Athanasius writes the life of St. Antony the Great, the father of all monks, he shows us his journey, venturing always deeper into the desert, searching for God, until he reaches his final solitude in a cave where he dwells. The image used is not the one of an ascension but is of venturing deeper into the desert, moving from a Coenobitic style of life (being formed in a community near the Nile) to a Hermitic life, hidden in a cave in a mount.

St. Gregory of Nyssa will use Moses’ Ascent into Mount Sinai to show us the journey (see his book: Moses’ Life). St. John Climacus will present spiritual life as an ascent of a ladder which leads us to God (think of Jacob’s ladder): The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Dionisius the Pseudo-Areopagite will show us the earthy and heavenly hierarchies as a journey of Growth. St. Bonaventura will show us the itinerary of the soul to God (see his book). Many saints and great masters will talk to us about the journey: Pope Gregory the Great, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, William of St. Thierry, St. Catherine of Sienna, etc. Finally God sends us the great ones: St. Teresa of Avila (Interior Castle) and St. John of the Cross (Spiritual Canticle and Living Flame of Love).

Historical note: Dionisius the Pseudo-Areopagite became very rapidly the authority in such a matter and reigned from the Middle Ages till the middle of last century. Like many great Christian authors of his time (4^th-5^th Century) he took on board the common teaching found amongst the Greek philosophers and in Jewish mysticism, and he Christianised it developing the doctrine which states the existence of three stages of growth: purification, illumination and union. Despite the existence of other options to understand and model the journey of growth, Dionisius’ authority and teaching mostly remained unchallenged for centuries – he was thought to be a disciple of St. Paul (mentioned in the Acts of the Apostle 13:34) in charge of conveying to us the wisdom which St. Paul did not write about in his letters but only alluded to:“Brothers, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, bus as fleshly people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now.” (1Cor. 3:1-2) Similarly, the letter to the Hebrews was thought to convey this teaching, namely: “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14) 

In the late sixties some authors (K. Rahner) seeking to understand the journey upset this tripartite division. More recently, Fr. Laurent Touze presented a study of how recent research presents the spiritual journey (Laurent Touze, “Come la ricerca contemporanea presenta la crescita spirituale”, in Mysterion, Anno 10 Numero 2 (2017)). After the implosion of the late sixties and the following years, it seems that we are coming back to a more “traditional” version of the journey. The reasons for the “implosion” and the new context (sciences and theology) have not yet, in my humble view, achieved a satisfactory deep assessment and results. Plus, some phenomena like St. Therese’s trial of faith and Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s journey (see here) have not yet received appropriate assessment and “placements” on the journey as the traditional ways express it.

The Complete Journey

The diagram above is a finely detailed and accurate presentation of the spiritual journey. It is meant to bring greater clarity regarding the spiritual journey and regarding the stages of spiritual formation needed at each stage. In fact, it is not enough to have a general view about the journey and the stages of growth, it is important to undergo spiritual formation: to receive the appropriate advice for each stage, put it into practice by the grace of God, and see the effects of God’s action in oneself.

This is a dynamic interactive journey between on one hand God who calls us, guides us, give us the Holy Spirit and on the other our response to his guidance and grace. We find this dynamic in the Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila, in the Spiritual Canticle and Living Flame of St. John of the Cross and in many other works. The above diagram is based on their efforts of “mapping” the spiritual life and on their clear choice to give us not only an indication of each stage, how to discern it, what God would like to do in us, but also it underlines what we need to do at each stage in order to grow. Ensuring a steady growth is certainly the implicit intention these great masters have in mind when they write these great works. Closer to us in time, we have the works of two great and wise Carmelite Masters who help us continue to understand and apply this tradition of “mapping” spiritual growth: Blessed Marie Eugene with his great opus I want to See God (+ I am a Daughter of the Church) and Fr. Louis Guillet OCD (1902-1992), Voyez quel amour Dieu nous donne(See what kind of love the Father has given to us).

One of the qualities of the above diagram is that it integrates first and foremost the seven mansions of St. Teresa of Avila –hence the maximum of VII roman numerals—considering it the framework of the entire journey. This way the reader keeps these common bearings. The other quality is that within each mansion –when needed– one can find details, divisions and nuances coming from St. John of the Cross and from St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and from Fr. Louis Guillet OCD. Two areas underwent a sizeable development (see below): the Sixth and the Seventh Mansions. The Sixth Mansions have been divided into two moments: first the dark night of the spirit (with its three phases) and the spiritual betrothal (engagement). This division was made by Bl. Marie Eugene in his book I am a Daughter of the Church. The Seventh Mansions, then, underwent a huge development: many phases were added within the Union of Love (Spiritual Marriage): part of this development is due to Fr. Louis Guillet OCD ‘s works and to my research on St. John of the Cross.

So, as we can see, it is a description of the different steps and stages of the spiritual journey according to the combined teaching of the three doctors of Carmel: (St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of the Child Jesus). This is the technique used here and it is the same technique Bl. Marie Eugene uses (leaning first on the Interior Castle) and the same Fr. Louis Guillet uses (leaning first on St. John of the Cross’ teaching).

On the diagram, if the Roman numerals indicate the Mansions of the Interior Castle, the divisions inside of each Mansion (a, b, c, d… and 1, 2, 3,..) are meant to indicate both St. John of the Cross’ teaching, steps, nuances and also St. Therese of the Child Jesus’ contribution.

The three doctors combined offer -when needed- more details within a particular Mansion. Mansions VI for instance is divided into two sections, a and b: “a” for the purification of the spirit and “b” for the spiritual betrothal. The purification of the spirit itself, “VIa” is divided in three phases as St. John of the Cross indicates in his book Dark Night, Book II.

The same, applies to the Seventh Mansion. The four chapters of the Seventh Mansion are a masterpiece and are densely concentrated. They deserve considerable development to be understood properly. 

In this Seventh Mansion, on the diagram we have a great number of subdivisions coming from the teaching of St. John of the Cross and St. Therese. This is totally new in Spiritual Theology and is based on the works of Bl. Marie-Eugene OCD (1894-1967) and Fr. Louis Guillet OCD (1902-1992) who deepened the teaching of St. John of the Cross and also the input/contribution of St. Therese. For the Seventh Mansion, the diagram indicates different phases inside the same state of Union with God:

VIIa1 alludes to the celebration of the spiritual marriage.

VIIa2 indicates the process of intensification of the Fire,

VIIb indicates the beginning of the new phase within the Spiritual Marriage, when the spirit so transformed into fire starts to emit flames. This state will continue till the end. It starts in St. Therese with the Act of Oblation of herself to the Merciful Love of God,

VIIc1, c2, c3 indicate different forms of participation in the Passion of the Lord (see St. Therese),

VIId1 and d2 indicate two aspects of the last minutes or hours in our life: agony and also a final “ecstasy” (entering into eternal life) – very important moments and precious in the eyes of God.

Changes and Turning Points

There are bars on the diagram from 1 to 17. They indicate various turning points in our process of growth and also transitions within a stage.

What is the use we can make of this knowledge?

Question: when we speak of “changes” and “turning points”, does it mean that they are perceived? Always perceived? Perceived in the same way? What use can we make of such knowledge? Do we personally have to check? Is this knowledge only or mainly for the use of the spiritual director? Is it really useful to dissect spiritual growth? Isn’t it rather to be kept in the shade and not interfere with the work of the Holy Spirit?

These in total represent a fundamental question which failed to receive enough attention in the general studies and teaching on Spiritual Life. It is a vast question because it implies many aspects. Some of these aspects are: does growth in spiritual life manifest itself? Do we discern it? Who is supposed to discern it? The person themself or the spiritual director? Isn’t the real spiritual life in our spirit and by definition our spirit is beyond perception?

Throughout two millennia many masters were inspired by God to tell us about the journey. Not only this, but as we saw above, the Bible itself is the first and main place where God, speaking to us and guiding us, is teaching us about the journey and its stages of growth. So if God did this and is teaching, but about spiritual growth, it means it is important for us to know it and to know about it. Knowing that faith is not a static reality in us, received in Baptism and staying unchanged till the end of our life, knowing that faith is, as the Lord puts it, a very small seed in the beginning and called to become a very big tree sets a clear goal in our life, nourishes our theological act of Hope, and therefore offers us a very powerful drive, giving us energy, determination and security. It offers us the meaning of our life: we understand then why we are here on earth and our struggles and challenges carry then a completely different meaning. Learning about the stages of growth shows us in a more concrete way that there is a real journey of growth which can be sensed, especially when needed, helping us on our journey.

Each stage is different, each one needs a different type of food and care. Why did St. Teresa of Avila write about the different stages of prayer (Autobiography, Way of Perfection, Interior Castle, etc)? Why did she write about the different stages of Growth (Interior Castle)? Because we are all called to grow and reach the fullness of our realisation (the perfect height of Christ (Ephesians 4:13)), because each stage needs a different set of advice, and at each stage God wants to givea particular type of grace, at each stage there are different challenges. On one hand it is a tremendous help for us. As I said it pervades our energy, drive, excitement, fervour and Act of Hope. On the other hand, a non-prudent and a non-wise use of it can certainly be “dangerous”. We can easily live in illusions, misinterpret our experience, lean on certain aspects and forget others, focus excessively on our growth instead of focusing on being faithful to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit at the stage we are at. Our spiritual ego, the old man, can interfere here very easily. Some consciences can be very scrupulous or uptight, perfectionist and lose sight of the right aspects and ingredients of spiritual growth. Projection is the main danger here. One can easily imagine that he or she has reached a certain point because he or she compared what he is reading with some of his experiences. But this is never enough, since the stages of growth are like a spiral and we grow, yes, but we return to a deeper and higher point in the circle than the previous one, but it remains the same point in the circle, therefore similarity is not enough. Discernment, real deep discernment, is not something we find in books, it comes rather from the art of receiving Spiritual Direction where we learn to listen to God, obey Him and learn to go deeper and start to see new things. Our eyes start to see.

So yes, on the one hand God inspired the authors of the Scriptures and the Spiritual Masters to tell us about the goal and the journey, but at the same time, since the essence of God’s work occurs in our spirit, i.e. beyond perception, so therefore we need to be very prudent and not to make assumptions. An excessive desire to know where we are on the journey of growth can turn out to be counterproductive. On the contrary, focusing on the advice given at each stage and implementing it, is an excellent practice. It cannot be stressed how important it is to ask advice.

Some changes are clearly perceived by the us, like for instance the end of the deepest purification. Strangely spiritual marriage is not! Entering into the participation into the Lord’s Passion is perceived. See below.

The Changes

1: is entry into oneself (the Castle)

It is worth mentioning the importance of the Third Mansions as a real Christian achievement, as it shows the person is seriously committed as a Christian and has an ordered and moral life. The person is aware of it but – as St. Teresa expresses it – love (the Lord’s love) has not yet made this person “crazy” for the Lord (in Spanish she says: sacar de razón, namely, love has not caused the person to lose all reason). There are exceptions – as we will see below with St. Paul – where the second conversion is a strong intervention from God.

2: is a major turning point: the second conversion or hearing Jesus’ Call. Teresa of Avila describes it at the beginning of the Fourth Mansions, Chapter 1, as the entrance into the “supernatural”. In other places she will mention a new way of the intervention of God’s Grace in us, personal and direct: the “Particular Help of the Grace of God”. The entire journey which follows is placed under this form of the action of God. It is the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit, but it will be developed and modified. It will go from a human modality (Mansions IV-V) to a divine modality (Mansions VI and VII). The transition from human to divine occurs in the deep purification (VIa1,2,3).

In most cases the second conversion is often a process and not a sudden event. There can be exceptions when it can be a sudden event as when the Lord strikes down Saul on his way to Damascus.

3: Right after the second conversion one enters into a “miraculous” state where signs and consolations can be abundant. Again exceptions can occur, one can be in a rather “obscure” state (without feeling or sensing God’s action), as St. Teresa of Avila also mentions (Life, Chapters 10 and 11). During this period one has to practise choosing the Lord over earthly goods. One learns to carry one’s cross and follow the Lord, adopting a new style of life and an ordered prayer life.

If the commitment is complete and one gives himself totally to the Lord, the Lord after a while does reduce the consolations and the signs upon which the beginner relies. One needs a thorough teaching on the theological virtues, on how to live “in faith” and to understand the meaning of the ups and downs in spiritual life.

The first phase in the Fourth Mansions is IVa and the second, more toned down, is IVb.

Please note that even numbers in the mansions are mansions needing our effort, whereby we need to ‘ensure a steady growth’ so to speak.

Number 3 is meant to show the two “states” within the Fourth Mansions: one more exuberant with consolations, signs, miracles and the other more toned down with a steadier commitment and without many consolations. Number 3 does not divide the time spent inside of the Fourth Mansions. It is there to indicate the existence of these two forms.

4-5: This constant effort normally bears results. One reaches a “plateau”, experiencing the first liberation from the dominion of the lower half of our being, the sensual part. This grace occurs inside of the Fifth Mansions and indicates or marks a new stable constant ordered life. It is not to be compared with the one in the Third Mansions. It involves a robust spiritual life, a kind of humanly achieved life of holiness. It is not holiness, far from it, but it has all its traits, to the point that one thinks: that’s it, I have reached the goal, and I am leading a good committed spiritual life. One  plans to continue only like this, serving the Lord, remaining fervent, and waiting to meet the Lord one day in death.

5: As in “3”, “5” time is not meant to be divided within the Fifth Mansions – it is not meant to be measured in any way. It is just there to signal the grace of “union of will” described by St. Teresa of Avila in the Fifth Mansions. The quality of the charity of the person here is superior, in the sense that he or she does not rely on his or her “sensuality” or personal choices or inclination in his or her love of the neighbour. Charity here in this mansion has reached high levels of heroism where the person is attentive to love of neighbour, and where this love of the neighbour is propelling the person powerfully forward on her spiritual journey.

6: 6 is a major turning point. The person having maintained his commitment courageously and steadily, attracts the new working of the Holy Spirit: entry into the deep purification, what St. John of the Cross calls the “Dark Night” of the spirit (VIa1-VIa3). The Holy Spirit now focuses on the roots of the sins and the habits they created which are deeply ingrained in the soul. This is the purification par excellence. It is the solemn moment in the spiritual life of the person where the new man will be finally born. This night, VIa, in the mind of St. John of the Cross, like the normal night, has three phases, hence the a1, a2 a3 (See Dark Night Book II cc..). The deep purification takes us from 6 to 9.

Note: St. Teresa of Avila does not talk about the Dark Night of the Spirit. One chapter only in her Sixth Mansions (chapter 11) can be considered to be the closest to the Dark Night.

Suggestion: one might consider that St. Therese undergoes this purification in the years which precede the Christmas of 1892 (1889-1892). One can read and analyse her letters to her sister Celine and see how she lives the deepest purification without having read in extenso the Dark Night of St. John of the Cross. This is a fascinating case. She uses her devotion to the Holy Face and also to the Passion of the Lord described in Isaiah 53 to describe this.

9: 9 is another major turning point in the spiritual journey for it marks the end of the purification and represents at the same time the beginning of the spiritual betrothal. In St. John of the Cross it corresponds to Stanza 13 of the Spiritual Canticle: “Turn them away, O my Beloved!” (“Apartalos Amado…”). This phase, VIb, is developed by St. Teresa of Avila in her Sixth Mansions.

10: This point marks the grace of the Spiritual Marriage. It corresponds to the Seventh Mansions and also to the Spiritual Marriage described by St. John of the Cross in the Spiritual Canticle.

Note: From 10 onward till 17 we are in the interior of the Seventh Mansions. The four chapters of the Seventh Mansion are a masterpiece, so dense, so rich with light, teaching and implications! The different contents of the Seventh Mansions, VIIa1, VIIb, VIIc1, VIIc2, VIIc3, VIId1 and VIId2 are to be situated inside of the world of the Seventh Mansions of St. Teresa of Avila. She lacked the time to develop her teaching of this phase, but it is so rich that despite “all that the doctors of the Church have said, everything still is left to be said” and also the Lord after Spiritual Marriage frequently teaches the soul about the mysteries of his incarnation and redemption.

11: From 10 till 11 we have the celebrations of the Spiritual Marriage. A little bit like a honeymoon. This is also described by St. John of the Cross.

12: 11 to 12 we have an increase of the transformation into the fire of the Holy Spirit and in the intensity of its Flame. 12 then becomes a major turning point. We may place the Act of Oblation of St. Therese at this juncture.

From 12 onward till the end of our life one can consider that the Holy Spirit sends flares or sparkles from the spirit transformed in Him to God the Father and to whomever the soul wants. The description of what happens in our spirit from that moment onward till the end of our spiritual life and natural life, is described with incredible detail and glory by St. John of the Cross in his last opus: Living Flame of Love. This sparkling made by the Holy Spirit and our spirit is something of utmost importance in order to understand the “pure act of love” which has a greater price than all the other works in the Church (See Spiritual Canticle B, stanza 29’s introduction). It is this love, these acts of love, which count in the eyes of God, and which send incredible ripples throughout the world to be saved.

13-15: From 13 till the end with our death (13-17), the person begins to participate in the Passion of the Lord, taking part in the salvation of her brothers and sisters, from within. This is a great mystery, expressed enigmatically by St. Paul: “And in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions/suffering for the sake of his body, that is, the church”(Col. 1:24) This is indeed a great mystery. St. Therese says that God invited her into a mysterious “tunnel” and was permitted to sit at the same table with the sinners – just like Jesus who sat at table with the sinners. “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.” (Mt. 9:10)

The faithful thereby have a share in the Lord’s Passion, and suffering. The suffering of the body (13-14), the emotions (14-15) and the soul (15-16).

16: 16, the last hours of the life of a person, the Holy Agony, VIId1.

17: The holy death of the person, described by St. John of the Cross in the Living Flame of Love. VIId2. These moments VIId1 and VIId2 seem very short in the life of a human being. But the intensity of what is happening – love and suffering – count much more. The death of his beloved has a great value in the eyes of God. One needs to read what St.  John of the Cross says about the holy death of love. St. Therese read the Living Flame of Love and dreamt of undergoing such a death. It was not a pleasant agony and death initially, but it ended in an incredible ecstasy.

The same final ecstasy can be applied to St. Teresa of Avila.

The Solid Foundations Course

The School, in sum, considers the Solid Foundations Course 000 as the necessary entrance gate course because it lays the foundations of a solid spiritual life, where each person learns all the essential parts of spiritual life.

This course sets the common ground and teaches the minimum needed to start a good spiritual life. First and foremost, it identifies and presents the goals of spiritual life (Union with Jesus and Fullness of Love) and the stages of growth to reach it. A transformative line emerges and influences all the following lessons and the courses.

The core of the course consists, on the one hand, of two essential spiritual exercises which come from the Mass, Lectio Divina and the Prayer of the Heart (or Contemplative Prayer) which are taught. The goal and challenge of spiritual formation will be to deepen and strengthen a fruitful practice of these two forms of prayer. They will allow us in fact to properly digest Jesus’ Word at Mass as well as His Body and Blood and to bear fruits.

On the other hand, this course describes in a practical way many other important elements of spiritual life, not the least of them being spiritual anthropology.

The Five Phases of Growth

Guided by the description of the initial spiritual growth made by St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, we can easily identify three important phases of growth which follow the second conversion or hearing Jesus’ Call. Each of these phases of growth has a “year” of topics (SF1, SF2, SF3). Growth, it should be emphasised, is not measured by time but by personal effort. This is why “year” is put between quotation marks. Each “year” has a main course which explains the phase of growth (SF100, SF200, SF300) and many other courses meant to strengthen the practice of each phase and to learn about the new elements needed to nourish our/this growth. In fact, each phase is different from the other and needs its own food.

First Part: SF1, SF2, SF3

— The First Three Phases —

1- The First Phase

The first phase – SF1 – is the phase of a new life, the implementation of new habits: a new daily schedule, a good prayer life and lays stress on how to serve our brothers. See diagram above, from III to IV. In this phase one starts to practise Lectio Divina on a daily basis as well as Prayer of the Heart. The first steps consist in receiving some practical tuition regarding Lectio Divina and Prayer of the Heart, as well as spiritual direction. It is a phase of growth where the personal commitment of the person and perseverance are of the essence. One aims toward a steady practice which should lead to a steady growth.

In this phase, often there are “consolations” given. The “milk” as St. Paul puts it (see 1 Cor. 3:1-3 as above). In Solid Foundations 000 and in the first year one learns how to manage the challenges which one faces at this initial stage. It implies a serious commitment and regularity in spiritual life. It corresponds to the Fourth Mansions of St. Teresa of Avila and to the efforts we need to make as described by St. John of the Cross in Ascent of Mount Carmel Book I.

2- The Second Phase

The Second Phase is SF2. See diagram above, from IV to V (from 3 to 5). Providing the person perseveres and maintains a regular practice and fervour, this effort of spiritual growth is normally crowned by moving into or entering into what St. Teresa of Avila calls in the Interior Castle the Fifth Mansions. In them, she describes a liberation, a union, a consolidation/a rooting of our will in God’s will. She calls this grace of liberation: Union of Will. St. John of the Cross describes it as the purification of our sense, i.e. the lower part of our being, or detachment from material/earthly things. It is a grace received in response to our efforts to correspond with the normal grace of God given to us.

It is by understanding how God’s grace works, what God expects from us, that we can ensure a steady growth.

This phase of growth has as a main course SF200, Ensuring Steady Growth. It covers the Fourth and Fifth Mansions. It has also to be combined with the revisiting of the video courses entitled “Reading & Studying St John of the Cross”, on Ascent Book I and the study of Dark Night Book I (Both are courses offered by the School).

At this stage the person is growing and reaches a new plateau (4-6): a regular prayer life and new depths in spiritual life.

The courses offered at this stage – second year – help support this new phase. Often one thinks that this is a final stage. It feels like a real spiritual Christian life is being led, and because of the liberation of the sense one can easily think that this is holiness. Unfortunately, it is not. A drastic change is about to happen.

3- Third Phase

After a while and maintaining a constant commitment to this new spiritual life, the Lord tests the person by giving some mouthfuls of a new and deep purification, and if He sees the person is able to bear them He allows himself to act more deeply and strongly in the radical work of Purification, SF3. See diagram above, from 6 to 9.  This action entails the Purification of the Spirit. In fact, until then, the person is not aware that all this “holy style of life” is in fact very much led according to a human modality. The new powerful intervention of God in this new phase has as a goal the transition from a human modality to a divine one.

Here also, this important phase has a main Course: SF300. This course explains the necessary teaching regarding this central transition in Spiritual Life: the crossing over of the proficient into a mature spiritual age. The author of the letter to the Hebrews alludes to this teaching when he states: “There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain” (Heb. 5:11-14). St. Paul is more specific and says that spiritual food is initially “milk” and then becomes “solid food” (see 1 Cor. 3:1-3). The Lord, himself, presents us with this deepening state as being offered to all: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:12-13).

Other courses are provided also during this third “year” which offer new depths in spiritual life. The Gospel of St. John is explored and also new topics like Contemplation.

The Second Part: in-depth

The second stage – in depth – comprises two years (SF4 and SF5).

1- First Phase SF4

SF4 addresses Spiritual Betrothal, Spiritual Marriage, Celebrations of Spiritual Marriage and the Flares of the Holy Spirit. See diagram above, from 9 to 13.

2- Second Phase SF5

SF5 addresses a new phase within Spiritual Marriage, which is the participation in the Lord’s Passion and also the fecundity of the person at this stage. See diagram above, from 13 to 17.

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On the Importance of Solid Foundations 000

What After SF000?

The School considers Solid Foundations 000 really as the entrance gate to spiritual formation. Let us re-state some of the main reasons for this:

The question which arises after the Course is: “what next?”

It is important to notice that the majority of the teaching in SF000 is a practical teaching, i.e. it is all meant to be put into practice and allow divine life to develop in the student. This way a true and hopefully steady journey of growth is triggered. But all depends on the implementation of the teaching as follows:

1- Feeding spiritual life with the real object of the Act of Hope: Union with Christ. It becomes the main drive and the only goal. (First lesson + lesson on the Act of Hope)

2- Taking on board the clearer teaching on Mary and putting it into practice as taught. (see the practical advice given after the second lesson on Our Lady in Spiritual Life).

3- Deepening spiritual anthropology, Jesus as our Temple, the place where we pray the Father in the Spirit, entering more deeply into what Jesus achieved on the Cross to bring us back to God (a new contemplation of the Cross)

4- Starting to practise Lectio Divina. If one was practising it before, to note the differences between it and that of the School. (see the steps of implementation of Lectio Divina where “tuition” has its place. Note: tuition is different from Spiritual Direction.)

Learning and deepening how the Fathers of the Church used to read the Scriptures “in the Spirit” (see the following course: SF 102 Bible and Spiritual Life). See the bibliography.

Following courses on the Scriptures: “SF 102: Bible and Spiritual Life”, “SF 103: Sermon on the Mount”, “104: St. Luke’s Gospel”, “302: St. John’s Gospel and Spiritual Life”, “SF 201: Meditating the Passion”,…

5- Putting into practice the Act of Faith: learning to open our inner eye to see the presence of Christ in our daily life. (The Act of Hope is mentioned in n°1 and Lectio and Prayer of the Heart are acts of Love)

6- Noticing the variations of perception of the presence of God (ups and downs, consolations and aridity) and resisting in Faith.

7- Learning the art of warfare and how to understand what God wants from us and what help his grace is offering us.

8- Learning to pay attention during the day to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

9- Learning to enter into Christ more deeply.

10- Noticing how our acts, even if of apparent little value and hidden, have ripple effects on our brothers and sisters.

11- Considering the Holy Spirit as our Master and Guide and always deepening our study of who He is and how we can correspond to His Promptings.

12- Deepening our understanding, meditation and contemplation of God’s love for us. Constantly going back to this starting point of our day and life: God the Father saying to us: “I love you with all my heart, with all my strength, all my mind”. Drawing enormous strength from it.

13- Becoming more and more aware that our desire to love and be loved by a human being, is a powerful drive in our life and that Jesus is the real Groom and is asking for this part of our heart, exclusively.

14- Starting to practise Prayer of the Heart. Checking up on it from time to time.

15- The implementation of all the above leads us to seek the help of a spiritual director. A monthly session is a reasonable rhythm.

16- Cooperating with a wise spiritual director working, step by step to bring order into our own life, implementing Lectio and Prayer of the Heart and also revising our personal daily schedule.

17- Keeping up with spiritual reading in order to strengthen our spiritual culture. To counter the pressure and ignorance in spiritual life of the world in which we live.

In the mind of the Formator, who is doing his best to convey the mind of the Church- Christ’s mind – to the student, it is fair to say that he is expecting the student to commence implementing the above practical points. This is the obvious consequence of Solid Foundations. Some might not be yet at the point of a second conversion and therefore would find all the above extremely overwhelming. Discernment is paramount here. Solid Foundations 000 considers the person being ready spiritually, having reached, or even having crossed, the line of the desire to have a personal relationship with Jesus as a result of hearing Jesus call to follow Him.

Step by step implementing the above, it is fair and reasonable to think that a steady growth will be triggered. It is God’s earnest desire. Growth is not taboo, it is not a sinful movement of pride or audacity. It is the correct generosity of heart, which aligns us with God’s ambitious desires for us. If He is calling us, He is calling us to be united to Him, He is calling us to the fullness of love. This means that these are his gifts for us during this lifetime and that He ardently desires to give them to us. It is not even enough to accept them; we need to earnestly desire what God desires for us. It is sinful says St. John of the Cross not to want to reach this fulness. It wounds God deeply if we refuse to receive his Gift.

This first phase of growth corresponds very much to what St. Teresa of Avila describes as the Fourth Mansions. It corresponds also to what St. John of the Cross explains to us in the first book of Ascent of Mount Carmel, in order to respond to Jesus’ call and Jesus’ love. He describes in the first book of the Dark Night the effect of such effort and growth.

We often experience our own weakness during this period, our moments where we go astray, where we fail to have the correct discernment, where we do not understand what we are supposed to do. We fall, we come back. We resist temptations, doubts, spiritual laziness. We want to renounce the practice of Lectio Divina. We seek consolations or any perception during the Prayer of the Heart. We do not notice how Jesus is waiting for us in the small things (and here St. Therese is a real Master, see her letter to her sister Celine from 1888 onward). Our weakness can seem to have the upper hand. We feel that everything depends on us. In fact, the general help of the Grace of God is given to us, offered to us, at the reach of our hand, but we are not yet used to use it. All the above, however, should not deter us. We should arm ourselves with firm courage, renewed courage, determination, the spirit of the winner, of the Athlete who knows he will win, just because it is Jesus who is calling, and it is He who gives the help. It is hard to learn the art of warfare, hard to accept that our response to Jesus’ love is decisive. Let us count on Our Lady’s help, presence and support. Spiritual Life is her domain. She is in charge of it. Let us entrust ourselves to her and renew this act.

The School’s Fruits

1- New Teaching

It is a huge challenge to offer the salt of Spiritual Life as it is to everybody, lay and religious. Experience shows that the struggles are very similar. Both have benefitted from the School’s clarity and teaching, as is aptly illustrated upon hearing both experienced nuns and lay persons saying: “never heard this before”. It is very challenging to offer a long course like the Solid Foundations Course, and yet despite this many have followed it and asked for more courses.
This teaching is vitally needed.

2- The Change, Transformation, Thirst

What strikes most is the change that people experience in their lives. The teaching is practical, i.e. aiming toward an implementation of what is taught: “tell me what to do in order to grow spiritually”. Seeing their lives changing, the way they attend Mass, the way they pray, the way they understand their own faith, Christianity, is the greatest sign and reward one can expect. Meeting the Risen Lord on a daily basis, not being able to spend their day without listening to Him in an hour of Lectio Divina is a common fruit observed. The exterior aspects of life might not change, but the way they look at them, the way they experience their faith changes everything. Meeting the Risen Lord on a daily basis transforms our life, step by step.

3- Necessity of a Serious Commitment

The Solid Foundations course is a challenge and whoever undertakes it wholeheartedly sees the tangible results of this practical doctrine of the Church.

Transmitting Spiritual Formation

1- The Spiritual Formator

The nagging question that we in the School of Mary hear is: what are we leaving to our children and grandchildren? This is the most important question I think: the Legacy. Just books? Just articles? Just videos? Or living Formators.

We in the School of Mary think that “Spiritual Formation” is essential, that it is not a luxury, and that in order to transmit it we need living persons, imbued with the living spiritual tradition of the Church and being capable of transmitting it, all over the world.

The “Spiritual Formator” is simply the unavoidable essential ingredient of the process of transmission.

Note: The Spiritual Formator is much more than a simple Spiritual Director. He or she covers a much wider spectrum of work and influence. He or she teaches spiritual life, how to practise it; the spiritual director, meanwhile, checks out if everything is working well and gives advice. The formator gives the basis on which the spiritual director leans. Spiritual direction is definitely not mere private tuition.

2- The School has Started a Formation Course

In the School we have started to form Formators in Spiritual Life. Right now, for instance, formation is being given online to help the candidates to learn how to teach the backbone of spiritual formation: the Solid Foundations Course, SF 000.

3- A True Vocation in the Church

We in the School feel that it is important to leave Formators for future generations, and we consider that there is a special mission in the Church that should develop, a vocation: that of the Spiritual Formator. In fact, we cannot continue to leave the Noviciate room with its treasures hidden behind closed doors. Spiritual Formation is for all – and should be available to all. There is no question that being a Spiritual Formator is a real and specific vocation in the Church.

4- Making it Residential

We would like to enthuse young adults (18 to 40 years old) to train to become Spiritual Formators. We would like to offer them residential training to become Spiritual Formators. This training would last a minimum of three full-time years. Such an endeavour, however, needs sponsoring, exactly as occurs in a Seminary or in a Monastery or in a religious convent: youngsters are full- time there and do not pay anything for their formation. It is offered by the Church.

5- Not a Religious Life, but a Service

The difference here is that there is no commitment to a religious life, but it leaves the young person after three years of formation free to work in his or her diocese or join the leaders’ team in the School of Mary. If this makes sense to you, and if you want to support this work, if you want to sponsor a youngster or more than one, please do come and talk to me afterwards or just pick up a card and write to us.

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