The preceding chapters have established the universal call to holiness as the foundational aspiration for every baptised Christian and precisely delimited spiritual formation as the systematic response to this divine invitation. Building upon this, this chapter confronts various pressing realities within the Church today, positing a core conviction: a radical deepening of spiritual formation is not merely one solution among many, but the foundational response to these urgent and multifaceted needs.
The challenges facing the Church are significant and widely acknowledged. From the nature of theological education to the vibrancy of liturgical participation, from the interpretation of Scripture to the vitality of religious life, and from internal divisions to the efficacy of evangelisation, a persistent sense of unresolved issues often pervades. While many efforts are undertaken to address these concerns, they frequently lack a common, profound root. This chapter will argue that the prevailing vagueness surrounding “spiritual formation” within the Church – often left to the disparate choices of individual communities – prevents a coherent and effective response to these critical areas. By gently suggesting that a robust and widely accessible framework for spiritual formation offers the transformative power to renew these realities, we lay the groundwork for understanding the indispensable model of formation to be proposed in subsequent chapters.
Theology and Priestly Formation: Shaping the Church’s Future
The future of the Church is inextricably linked to the formation of its priests. Their understanding of faith, their capacity for ministry, and their very spiritual lives are profoundly shaped by the theology they receive during their seminary years. This makes the responsibility of theological formation immense, yet it often operates without full awareness of its own influences.
Vatican II articulated a profound desire for theological students: “The theological disciplines […] should be so taught that the students will correctly draw out Catholic doctrine from divine revelation, profoundly penetrate it, make it the food of their own spiritual lives, and be enabled to proclaim, explain, and protect it in their priestly ministry” (Vat II, OT 16, emphasis added). This desire for a theology that nourishes one’s spiritual life was echoed by Pope Benedict XVI, who frequently reminded us of the historical existence of a “Monastic Theology”—a form of theological inquiry intrinsically linked to contemplation and personal union with God. Similarly, Pope John Paul II spoke of “Sapiential Theology,” emphasising wisdom over mere academic knowledge. The challenge today is to reconnect our current theological methodologies with these more spiritual and wisdom-oriented approaches.
Contemporary theology, particularly in the wake of the pervasive developments in human sciences over the last century (e.g., psychology, sociology, critical exegesis), has, perhaps unconsciously, been shaped by external influences. As noted in “Rethinking Theological Method and Theology” (see http://www.schoolofmary.org) and “Moving from One Theology to the Other,” (ibid.) a shift occurred, often without explicit decision, towards methodologies perceived as most adapted to the modern era. This contrasts with earlier forms of theological study, which, while not inherently “better” or “worse,” were fundamentally different and were largely dismissed or forgotten.
The implications are far-reaching. The very message of the Gospel, as it is understood, proclaimed, and lived, depends more than we realise on the form of theology we practice. If theology becomes detached from the lived experience of faith and personal spiritual growth, it risks becoming an abstract exercise, failing to “profoundly penetrate” the divine mysteries or “make it the food of their own spiritual lives” for those who will lead the Church. A renewed spiritual formation must therefore deeply influence how theology is conceived, taught, and assimilated, fostering a spiritual theology that integrates intellectual rigour with profound personal encounter and existential understanding, as explored in “Spiritual Theology vs. Theology” and “Defining Spiritual Theology.”
Liturgy: Deepening Participation Beyond the External
The call for “full, conscious, and active participation” in the liturgy, a cornerstone of Vatican II’s liturgical reform, remains a work in progress. While external forms of participation have increased, a profound spiritual participation often remains elusive. Consider the priest’s invitation, present in all Mass rites, East and West: “Lift up your hearts.” Do the faithful truly understand what this spiritual ascent entails, or how to realise it?
Today’s liturgical landscape is regrettably marked by pronounced divisions and “liturgical fights” between varying tendencies. As Pope Francis emphasised in Desiderio Desideravi, a deeper understanding of the liturgy’s inherent meaning and spiritual demands is crucial to bridging these divides. When the liturgy is animated by a proper spiritual theology, when its understanding transcends rubrics and external actions to embrace the inner disposition and transformative encounter, the entire “equation” of liturgical worship changes.
This deeper understanding means grasping that liturgy is not merely a set of rituals, but a profound prayer and an encounter with the living Christ. As explored in “Liturgy as Prayer I and II,” (ibid.) true participation invites individuals into a union of hearts with Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to transform them through the sacred rites. This requires spiritual formation that guides the faithful to move beyond superficial observance to an internal, conscious, and fervent engagement with the mysteries being celebrated.
Scripture: Beyond Exegesis to Spiritual Encounter
The impact of modern biblical exegesis on our understanding of Scripture cannot be overstated. While critical methods have brought valuable insights into the historical and literary contexts of the Bible, they have often inadvertently distanced the faithful from a personal, transformative encounter with the Word of God. We possess rigorous biblical theology, but we are frequently “very far from a biblical spiritual theology.”
A significant effort is needed to foster a more holistic approach to biblical formation, one that reclaims the transformative power of Scripture as a living word addressed to the heart. As argued in “Beyond the Letter: Reclaiming a Holistic Approach to Biblical Formation” (ibid.) and “Spiritual Biblical Theology,” (ibid.) this involves moving beyond a purely academic or intellectual engagement to cultivate a “spiritual meeting” with the Word. It requires a method that guides individuals not only to understand what the text says, but how it speaks to their lives, forming their hearts and minds.
This “spiritual meeting” with the Word of God is precisely what Lectio Divina, when properly understood and practiced, aims to achieve. Since the early 1980s, the Church has experienced a quiet revolution in the rediscovery of Lectio Divina. Driven by Vatican II’s call to place the Word of God at the heart of theology, liturgy, and personal prayer, and aided by the rich new Lectionary, the faithful have increasingly engaged with daily Scripture readings. However, without adequate guidance, interpretations of Lectio Divina have sometimes veered into mere spiritual meditation, group sharing, or intellectual Bible study, diluting its transformative power.
Pope Benedict XVI’s emphasis on practicing Lectio Divina “properly” and his inclusion of “action” as a fifth step underscore the need for clarity. We are still striving for a clear understanding of what constitutes “supernatural fruitful listening” to Jesus’ word and its practical implementation. Deviations can obscure the real challenge: to move beyond vague contemplation or general impressions to a concrete encounter with the living Christ through His Word, a process that requires the focused guidance of spiritual formation.
Spiritual Theology: Addressing a Crisis of Depth
The field of Spiritual Theology itself faces significant challenges. While it existed prior to Vatican II, it often lacked the impetus for internal renewal, and subsequently, struggled to redefine itself after the profound shifts of the 1960s. As discussed in “Spiritual Theology vs. Theology,” (ibid.) “Moving from One Theology to the Other,” (ibid.) and “Defining Spiritual Theology,” (ibid.) methods and legitimate critiques emerged, yet a coherent and practical path forward for this vital discipline has been slow to materialise.
The unfortunate reality is that spiritual life within the Church is in crisis, and this crisis is intrinsically linked to a crisis in Spiritual Theology. If the discipline meant to articulate and guide the path to union with God is itself unclear or inadequately developed, how can it effectively nourish the faithful? A renewed spiritual formation is therefore indispensable not only for the faithful but also for the very renewal of Spiritual Theology itself. It necessitates a fresh approach that grounds theological inquiry in lived spiritual experience and systematically articulates the journey toward holiness.
Religious Life: Understanding the Decline and Charting Renewal
The daunting statistics on the steady decline in numbers within religious life from 1965 to 2015 (“La realtà della vita religiosa…”) demand a deeper understanding beyond superficial analysis. While many factors contribute to this crisis, a fundamental question must be asked: Do we fully comprehend the deep spiritual reasons underpinning this trend?
Similarly, the proliferation of “New Movements,” “New Communities,” and “Prayer Groups” within the Church, while often vibrant, are only truly effective if “they drink from authentic wellsprings of Christian prayer” (CCC 2689). This caveat points directly to the critical need for spiritual formation. But what kind of spiritual formation?
The distinction between “spiritual formation” and “religious life” is crucial here, as explored in “The School of Mary and Religious Life.” (ibid.) While religious formation prepares individuals for a specific vowed life within an order, spiritual formation cultivates the inner life of union with God, which is foundational for any state of life, including religious life. The crisis in religious life may, in part, stem from a shallow or insufficient spiritual formation that fails to equip members for the profound personal commitment and growth required. A renewed emphasis on spiritual formation as a distinct, universal body of teaching, applied rigorously within and beyond religious communities, is essential for their revitalisation and for ensuring that new ecclesial movements are truly rooted in authentic spiritual depth.
Divisions Within the Church: Beyond Ideology to Deeper Unity
The contemporary Church is clearly marked by exacerbated divisions, often simplistically framed as “right wing” versus “left wing” tendencies. Pope Francis has frequently highlighted the destructive nature of these polarisations. While legitimate natural inclinations towards conservatism or progress exist, the intense exacerbation of these divisions within the Church, mirroring trends in Western societies, points to deeper, unresolved roots.
Beyond ideological differences, a fundamental lack of shared spiritual understanding and experience contributes significantly to these tensions. When individuals are not deeply rooted in a common journey of spiritual transformation and union with Christ, their perspectives and priorities can diverge sharply, leading to mutual suspicion and an inability to truly listen to and understand one another.
Here, spiritual formation offers a profound antidote. By fostering a shared commitment to the second conversion, to a personal encounter with Jesus, and to the systematic pursuit of holiness, it builds a common ground of spiritual experience that transcends ideological divides. When members of the Church are profoundly formed in charity, humility, and discernment—virtues cultivated through spiritual growth – dialogue becomes genuinely fruitful. It enables a “synodality” based not merely on shared opinions or administrative structures, but on a shared experience of God’s transformative grace.
Aggiornamento: Renewing from Within
Vatican II, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, called the entire Church to an aggiornamento—a renewal and adaptation. Pope Paul VI spoke of two movements for this renewal: an outward adaptation to the modern world, and a crucial inward movement of being renewed from within. What, precisely, is this “going inwardly”?
Religious orders, for instance, were encouraged to return to the foundational charisms of their founders and to renew their constitutions. While these efforts were undertaken, renewal is not merely a matter of changing laws or structures. True renewal, as the Council implicitly understood, happens when individuals and communities are transformed at their core. This internal transformation is the domain of spiritual formation.
The “going inwardly” signifies a radical deepening of personal spiritual life, a profound encounter with Christ, and a systematic cultivation of spiritual growth. Without this intrinsic spiritual renewal, outward adaptations risk becoming superficial or even counterproductive. Spiritual formation provides the roadmap for this interior journey, enabling the Church to be renewed from its very heart, ensuring that its aggiornamento is deeply rooted in the life of the Spirit.
Catechesis: A Solid Foundation, Not the Full Structure
From 1965 onwards, the Church in the West experienced a period of profound questioning, with many fundamental tenets of faith—such as sin, confession, the priesthood, and Christology—being challenged or neglected. This period culminated in Pope Paul VI’s publication of a Creed and, eventually, in 1992, Pope John Paul II’s monumental Catechism of the Catholic Church. This Catechism proved to be an immense grace, clarifying the basic teaching of the Church and providing a solid foundation for faith.
However, a dangerous temptation persists: to reduce all Christian formation to catechesis, adult formation, or OCIA programs. While these provide the indispensable “solid foundations” and basic explanations of our faith, they are not sufficient to equip us to respond fully to the Call to Holiness. As Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) rightly emphasised, Christianity is not merely a set of doctrines or moral codes, but fundamentally a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The temptation to apply only the first three parts of the Catechism (Creed, Sacraments, Commandments) to achieve holiness risks fostering a “formal holiness” that may lack true interior transformation. The fourth part of the Catechism, on prayer, offers only a “taster” and falls far short of serious spiritual formation. Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have consistently pointed towards the need for a deep spiritual life. Yet, what remains absent, much like the clear Catechism requested by bishops in 1985, is a common, widely accessible body of teaching on spiritual formation that takes individuals beyond the foundational knowledge of catechesis to the mystical realities of union with God. Spiritual formation as a distinct, comprehensive, and widely disseminated pedagogical tool is essential to bridge this gap, moving from basic explanation to profound mystagogy and lived transformation. This is not about negating catechesis but building effectively upon it.
Evangelisation and Making Disciples: Offering the Living Christ
The imperative to evangelise, engage in mission, and make disciples is keenly felt throughout the Church. Yet, if our understanding of “discipleship” is limited, what are we truly offering? If it is based primarily on the Catechism, we risk providing a spiritual life that is merely functional, leaving much of the transformative journey vague.
What do we offer a person who has completed adult formation (OCIA) and has perhaps undergone a second conversion? If we speak of aiming for holiness or simply “following Jesus,” what do these concepts truly imply in their lived reality? Catechesis is not mystagogy; mystagogy is not solid spiritual formation; spiritual formation is not deep mystical life. The current approach often falls far short of our duty to guide individuals comprehensively towards genuine spiritual maturity.
Do we continue to relegate advanced spiritual teaching to the realm of religious orders, inviting individuals to “draw from their spirituality”? While the richness of diverse spiritual schools is a blessing, the absence of a common denominator of spiritual formation for all—lay and consecrated alike—before individuals specialise in particular traditions, creates fragmentation. To evangelise is to offer Jesus Christ; if our own experience of Jesus is weak or incomplete, then what we offer to the world risks being adulterated. A robust and universal spiritual formation empowers us to offer the living, transforming Christ with authenticity and power, building disciples who are truly united with Him.
Schools of Spirituality: Legitimate Diversity or Divisive Fragmentation?
One of the significant obstacles to achieving greater clarity and coherence in spiritual matters today is the Church’s lack of a common, accessible body of teaching in Spiritual Life and Spiritual Formation. While the variety and diversity of spiritual schools (e.g., Carmelite, Benedictine, Ignatian, Franciscan) represent a legitimate and rich inheritance, they have, paradoxically, become a source of fragmentation.
The conversation often begins with the question, “Which school of spirituality do you belong to?” If the answer differs, communication can become strained, leading to a lack of deep understanding and genuine dialogue between these traditions. This “legitimate diversity,” in its current state, has often devolved into a form of division, where each “school” remains in its own “little corner,” hindering a broader understanding of the Holy Spirit’s diverse teachings across two millennia of Christianity.
What is urgently needed is a comprehensive, accessible core teaching of spiritual formation that transcends specific schools. This would provide a common language and framework for all Christians, enabling them to understand the fundamental journey of union with God, before exploring the particular nuances and gifts of specific spiritual traditions. Such a common ground would foster genuine dialogue, deeper appreciation for the Holy Spirit’s work in diverse expressions, and ultimately, greater unity within the Church’s rich spiritual patrimony.
Synodality: Formed Persons for Fruitful Discernment
The pursuit of synodality, as a process of journeying together, listening, and discerning, needs to be rooted in the formation of its participants. Imagine a synodal process composed solely of catechumens; their capacity for profound discernment would naturally be limited. While OCIA and basic catechesis provide a common foundation for meaningful synodality, the Church’s call to holiness demands a higher principle.
If the Church truly aspires to be a synodal Church that is “all called to holiness,” then its synodality must be based on a deeper spiritual reality. This is precisely why spiritual formation, as a subsequent and essential step after proper adult formation, is critical. Designed to help individuals respond to Jesus’ call for union and fullness of love (holiness), it offers a far greater capacity for synodality to be truly meaningful and fruitful. Without individuals deeply formed in prayer, discernment, humility, and charity, how can we truly “listen to each other” in the Spirit? Spiritual formation elevates synodality from a mere procedural exercise to a profound spiritual endeavor, ensuring that collective discernment is genuinely inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit.
The Undiscovered Imperative: Deep Spiritual Formation
In my humble view, a crucial element was overlooked, both prior to and during Vatican II: the need for a renewed body of teaching on spiritual renewal and deep spiritual formation. We have, in many ways, faced problems without fully understanding how to equip the faithful to confront them effectively.
The Church’s numerous challenges—from the state of theological education and priestly formation to the vitality of liturgical life, the interpretation of Scripture, the vibrancy of religious life, the pervasive divisions, the efficacy of evangelisation, and the very nature of synodality—all point to a singular, overarching solution. These difficulties persist, in part, because spiritual formation remains a “very blurry or vague reality of the Church, left to personal choices of each community.”
This chapter has sought to highlight these critical areas of difficulty, gently but firmly suggesting that spiritual formation is the transformative solution. By providing a clear, common, and comprehensive framework for spiritual growth, the Church can equip its members—clergy, religious, and laity alike—to respond to Jesus’ call for union with Him. This fundamental renewal from within will, in turn, breathe new life into every aspect of the Church’s mission and life. The necessity of forming individuals deeply in spiritual formation is not merely an option, but an imperative for the Church’s flourishing in the 21st century and beyond.