Christian Living (Chapter III)
CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
Chapter III: SPIRITUAL LIFE
Author: Felipe Santos, OSB
spiritual families
“The wind blows where it wants” (John 3:8).
No one can claim the monopoly of the Spirit. Christians are baptized with water and with the Spirit. Since Pentecost, the manifestation of the Spirit is made in all languages. It will be throughout the Christian Tradition, due to the diversity of gifts of the Spirit, creators of currents and spiritual families.
Here are some criteria that allow us to truly speak of a spiritual current that forms a school:
. Particular accents and insistences on this or that point of the Christian life, which gives an overall coherence to the spiritual march,
. A way of praying and approaching the mission,
.Elements of spiritual pedagogy,
favorite biblical texts,
Rooting in a strong and determining personal spiritual experience.
hermit spirituality
An exceptional spirituality, in which everything is left to think only of God: asceticism, penance, poverty, obedience, a life immersed in the silence of solitude that becomes fullness…
The great figures: from Saint Anthony (251-356) to the Charterhouse of Saint Bruno (1035-1101). The Carthusians are hermits with a part of their life in common.
Today, the Little Sisters of Bethlehem are hermits
monastic spirituality
The monastic institution of France dates from 361 with the foundation of the Ligug by Saint Martin. The monastery of Lrins was founded in 400 by Saint Honoratus and that of Saint Victor in Marseilles by Cassian.
With Saint Benedict, monastic spirituality develops: in 529 he founds the Montecasino monastery (between Rome and the Alps). He established a rule of life that is progressively imposed in the West (generalized in the 9th century when the Synod of Aix. La-Chapelle).
Among the personalities that have marked the Benedictine order: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century.
The spirituality of the mystics
The twelfth century, a period of economic renewal, is also characterized by religious effervescence. A new thirst takes hold of men and women of different social conditions and ages. Some will inaugurate new spiritual paths within the Church; one of the most original will be the beguinage. Among the great figures; Hildegard of Bingen.
Matre Eckhart, a Dominican (1260-1328), focused her message on “God comes to dwell in us.” His work has given rise to philosophical and theological foundations. The work of Jean Tauler (1300-1361( extends from 1323 to 1361, and is distinguished by his talent as a preacher. Both belong to the mystics of the Rhineland.
The spirituality of the mendicant orders
The 13th century sees the birth of the mendicant orders at the initiative of saints Francis of Ass, Dominic, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. These mendicant orders preach a return to a spirit of poverty and to the fraternity of the origins: the Dominicans or Preaching Brothers, Franciscans or Friars Minor, the Poor Clares… They abandon the cloister and make the world both a place of consecrated life and the field of his mission.
The Spirituality of the Ignatian Family
In 1522, Ignatius of Loyola had a spiritual experience that guided his life. He jots down in a notebook some discoveries that might help others to do the same. These notes will be “The Spiritual Exercises”. The strong ideas of Saint Ignatius: trust in man, education of his freedom, respect for mediations, taking the world seriously as a place of God’s presence.
Ignatian spirituality is not defined by any framework formula, it does not lead to the practice of a virtue, such as poverty or obedience, nor to a type of apostolate, such as presence among the sick, dying, or this or that social category. It goes straight to the very heart of the universal mission of the Church and prepares for this mission men and women who want – by the grace of God – to be fully free and available.
Among the great figures: Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552).
Carmelite spirituality
The Order of Carmel was founded in the early 13th century with the approval of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In the sixteenth century, in the context of the Protestant reform and the Council of Trent, Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross renewed in the Order the sense of prayer and poverty,
Among the great figures; Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591) and closer: Saint Teresa of Lixieux (1873-1897), Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (known as Edith Stein 1891- 1942).
The spirituality of the “French School”
The current of the “French school” corresponds to the renewal of Christian life in the France of Pierre de Brulle (1575-1629). It is the source of a powerful spiritual and missionary impulse, baptized at the end of the 19th century under the name of the “French School of Spirituality”, in which Saint John Eudes, Jean-Jacques Olier and Saint Vincent de Pal participated, among many others.
All these men were at the same time “spiritual” and “apostolic” or “missionary”, and proposed a spirituality to all Christians.
The main lines are the discovery of the greatness of God’s love and the insistence on the personal union of each Christian with Christ.
This School developed with men as diverse as they were rich in personality and in their initiatives, such as Saint Vincent de Pal (1581-1660), founder of the priests of the Mission, Luisa de Marillac (1591-1660) of the Daughters of Charity Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657) of the company of Saint Sulpice and of the seminaries, Saint John Eudes (1601-1680) of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and various female communities, Saint Louis Grignon de Montfort (1673 -1716) whose spirituality has a more Marian accent than the preceding ones, and Saint John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719), founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
salesian spirituality
Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1632) has an optimistic view of God and man. He insists on the gratuity aspect of God’s love that he loves without merit. It was in the 19th century that Salesian spirituality would find a privileged channel of diffusion in Don Bosco, founder of the SALESIANS (Society of Saint Francis de Sales founded in 1859, preceded by the foundation in 1841 of an Oratory.
Among the great figures: San Francisco de Sales, Santa Juana de Chantal and the Visitandinas, San Juan Bosco.
missionary spirituality
The Foreign Missions of Paris were founded in the 17th century. The Congregation of the Spirit or “Spiritans” was created in 1703 by Claude Franois Poullart des Places and became missionary in the eighteenth century. Cardinal Lavigerie (1825-1892) founded in 1868 the Society of African Missionaries or White Fathers, and the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa or “White Sisters”
Foucauldian spirituality
Madeleine Delbrl (1904-1964) is convinced that it is possible to live and announce the Gospel to this new world. With three conditions: 1. Assimilate by himself the faith and the Gospel. 2. Consenting to a certain solitude and desert, are the streets. And in these streets, a people waiting for salvation is found and contemplated. 3. The most important thing in this evangelization is the fraternal character: what needs to be brought to humanity does not come from outside. It comes from the communication of the Love of God with a language of brotherhood.
Among the great figures: Madeleine Delbrl, the worker priests, Father Jacques Loew.
The monastic fraternities of Jerusalem were founded in 1975 by Father Pierre-Marie Delfleu (1934) who felt the impulse to found in “the desert of the cities” marked by many loneliness and lack of love and truth, of the urban monastic Fraternities that they respond to the call of the Church today and in the world of this time.
With particular colors depending on the situation, they live the same fundamental charism of fraternal life, of prayer, work and welcome in the heart of the cities.
conjugal spirituality
Father Caffarel was one of the spiritual teachers of the 20th century. He is known as the founder of the spiritual conjugal magazine. The “Teams of Our Lady” is a conjugal spirituality movement created in 1947 by Fr. Caffarel that addresses couples united by the sacrament of marriage and invites them to a path of progress in the knowledge and love of God and of the neighbor
charismatic spirituality
They are what is ordinarily called “new communities”, among which the following stand out: The new Path, the Beatitudes… Specificity: rootedness in the experience of interior renewal called outpouring of the Spirit.
The Bible
The Bible is the most read book in the world. It permeates our culture and our civilization. It is the bearer of values of justice, freedom and fraternity.
The Bible tells the story of the alliance that God has made with men.
For Christians the Bible is the Word of God: they believe that God is someone who can communicate with them. God has revealed himself to Israel through Moses and the prophets and for Christians, through Jesus Christ.
He bears witness to the relationship between men and God: relationship made of fidelity and renunciation. It is a long road to freedom and love.
It is a book that bears meaning for those who seek everything in their life, truth and the will of God.
The Bible, is it just a book?
The Greek word “Byblos” means “book”. The Bible is a library of 73 books written mostly in Hebrew and Greek over the centuries:
The Bible is divided into two main parts: The Old and the New Testament.
The Old Testament or book of the first covenant has 46 books: the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the book of Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the books of Isaiah, Jeremias, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Ams, Abdas, Jons, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Sophonas, Haggai, Zacharias and Malachi, the Psalms, the book of Job, the Proverbs, Ruth, the Song of Songs, the Ecclesiasticus, the book of Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, the Chronicles, the book of Judith Tobas and the Maccabees.
-The New Testament or book of the second alliance comprises 27 books: the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), the Acts of the Apostles, the letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Glatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians Thessalonians, Timothy, Philemon, Hebrews, letters of James, Peter, John, Jude and Revelation.
What countries does the Bible speak of?
From the countries of the Near East, from Egypt to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and particularly from Canaan, located between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. It is an area of passage and trade desired for more than 3000 years by powerful countries.
How is the Bible written?
The Bible tells the story of the People of Israel more theologically than historically. It gives meaning to events beyond what people have experienced and understood.
Each author is framed in his time, his language, his culture. There is thus a great variety of texts and styles: war narratives (book of Kings), poetic texts: creation narrative, the Psalms, wisdom texts: Proverbs, book of Job; legal texts: the Leviticus.
The authors of the Gospels often use imagined narratives – parables – to reveal profound truths to us.
How to find a text in the Bible?
Each book is…