The Spiritual Journey – Hope

• What Does Spiritual Mean?
• ‘The World of Spiritual Life Opened Up For Me’
• Second Conversion: Encountering Jesus
• Can we Trigger the Second Conversion?
• Finding God Within: Convert and Believe in the Gospel
• St. Teresa of Avila : Mapping Spiritual Life
• A Concise Historical Survey of the Stages of Spiritual Growth
• The Greatness of Pope John Paul II: The Catechism of the Catholic Church
• The Spiritual Topography of the Church
• Spiritual Demography of a Parish
• The Future of the Church: Adult Catechesis
• The Spiritual Journey In 11 Diagrams (Or Read The Book)
• The Spiritual Journey and the School’s Formation
• The Aim in Spiritual Life: the Act of Charity
• The Transfiguration of the Parish
• Timeline of Spiritual Life (video)
• The Journey of The Gift of Ourselves to God
• Spiritual Formation
• Human Maturity and Spiritual Growth
• Spiritual Direction and the Three Major Phases of Spiritual Life
• Deeper Contemplation: Turning Points After The Second Conversion
• Mother Teresa: Dark Night or Something Else?
• The Meaning of Our Life: Bearing Children for Jesus
• The Transfiguration of the Lord in Spiritual Life
• Origen, Homily 27 on the Book of Numbers “Concerning the Stages of the Sons of Israel”.
• Human Maturity and Spiritual Growth
• The Second Level of Discernment
• Discernement in Spiritual Life
• Finding Our Way in Spiritual Life (Video Playlist)
• On Christian Death (St. John of the Cross and St. Therese)
• “Spiritual Growth”, from “I Want to See God”, Bl. Marie-Eugene (especially “B. Mystery of Growth”)
• The Main Stages of the Holy Spirit’s Work in the Human Being
• The Convergence of Doctrinal Development, Church History, and the Spiritual Journey
• The Crossing of the Sea of Galilee: Geography as Theology. The Lake of Gennesareth as Narrative Threshold in the Gospels and the Mystical Tradition.
• Bread for the Way: Food, Journey, and the Awakening of the Supernatural in Dreams and in the Gospel of John
• The Seed and the Diamond: The Parable of the Sower and the Journey of the Interior Castle

Hope

Hope is the necessary response to the call to holiness: the call names the goal; hope is what gets us there. Hope, properly understood, shapes each day, displaces lesser desires, and gives the soul the energy to set out and persevere on the journey. Hope is “the heartbeat of every Christian life.” Hope is the energy that makes the climb possible. Hope belongs to the journey as the interior motor that sustains the whole movement from beginning to end.

• Jesus’ Embrace on the Cross
• The Promised Land is Union with Christ: The Necessary Christian Reading of the Old Testament
• From the Red Sea to the Holy of Holies, The Exodus, the Temple, and the Forgotten Goal of the Spiritual Life. A Study in Biblical and Spiritual Theology
• The Forgotten Thelogical Act: Hope
• The Act of Hope: The Church’s Unfinished Business
• The Object of Hope: From Beatific Vision to Union with Christ
• The Distinctively Christian Hope
• Introduction: When Real Hope Starts
• The Future is Jesus
• The Priest, Man of Hope
• “Conform Your Life to What You Celebrate”: Union with Christ as the Heart of the Priesthood
• You may want to watch the videos of this Playlist, especially “Solid Foundations” 1a,b&c: Playlist on “Kerygma – Catechesis – Mystagogy”

Deepest Purification

– The Necessity of Immense Courage in the Spiritual Life

– The Crossing of the Jordan: A Spiritual Battle Requiring Mary’s Presence

Bibliography

• The Journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.
• The Gospel of St. John 6 + 1 signs.
• Origen, “Commentary on Numbers”, Homily n°27
• Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, “Mystical Theology”.
• St. John Climacus, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent”.
• St. Bonaventure, “The Journey of the Mind Into God”.
• St. John of the Cross, “Spiritual Canticle”.
• St. Teresa of Avila, “Interior Castle”.
• R. Garrigou-Lagrange, “The Three Ages of Spiritual Life”
• Bl. Marie Eugene, “I Want to See God” & “I Am a Daughter of the Church”.
• Jean Khoury, “The Spiritual Journey: The Setting for Christian Hope”.