Unfortunately, only the first have of the talk was recorded (the rest was lost).
Below, please find the handouts in electronic format.
Listen to the session online [here]!
Introduction to and overview of the Three Ages of the
Interior Life
A. The
Beginners, Proficients, and Perfect
B. The
Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive Ways
Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, compared
A. The
Three Ages of St. John, and the two Dark Nights
B. The
Seven Mansions of St. Teresa
A problem: Is the division artificial?
A. Is it
helpful to study the spiritual life in this manner?
B. Should
we try to discern where we are in the spiritual life?
C. Is this
related to Sacred Scripture?
The Interior Life of the Apostles and our own
A. The
First Conversion and Purgative Way: The call of the Apostles
B. The Dark
Night of the Senses and Illuminative Way: The Crucifixion and Resurrection
C. The Dark
Night of the Soul and Unitive Way: The Ascension and Pentecost
D. The
Apostles as our models
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DIAGRAM OF THE THREE AGES OF THE INTERIOR LIFE
The
Three Ages of the Interior Life
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Beginners
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Proficients
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Perfect
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Degrees
of Charity
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Initial virtues, first degree of
charity, temperance, chastity, patience, first degrees of humility.
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Solid virtues, second degree of
charity, obedience, more profound humility; spirit of the counsels.
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Eminent and heroic virtues, third
degree of charity, perfect humility, great spirit of faith, abandonment,
almost unalterable patience.
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Virtues
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Gifts of the Holy Ghost rather latent,
inspirations at rare intervals, slight aptitude as yet to profit by them. The
soul is especially conscious
of
its activity.
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The gifts of the Holy Ghost begin to
manifest themselves, especially the three inferior gifts of fear,
knowledge, and piety. The soul, more docile now, profits more from
inspirations and interior illuminations.
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The higher gifts manifest themselves more
notably and frequently. The soul is, as it were, dominated by the Holy
Ghost. Great passivity in His regard, which does not exclude the activity of
the virtues.
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Gifts
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Active purification of the senses and of
the spirit, or exterior and interior mortification.
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Passive purification of the senses,
under the influence especially of the gifts of fear and knowledge. Concomitant
trials. Entrance into the illuminative way.
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Purification of the spirit under the
influence especially of the gift of understanding. Concomitant trials in
which are manifested the gifts of fortitude and of counsel. Entrance into the
perfect unitive way.
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Purifications
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Acquired prayer: vocal prayer,
discursive prayer, affective prayer, which becomes more and more simple,
called the prayer of active recollection.
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Initial infused prayer, isolated acts
of infused contemplation in the course of the acquired prayer of
recollection; then, prayers of supernatural recollection and of arid or
consoled quiet. The gift of piety.
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Infused prayers of simple union, of
complete union
(
sometimes ecstatic), of transforming union, under the more and more marked
influence of the gift of wisdom. Concomitant favors.
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Prayers
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First
and second mansions
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Third
and fourth (and fifth) mansions
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(Fifth),
sixth, and seventh mansions
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Mansions
of St. Teresa of Avila
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THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SENSES
Signs
of the Passive Purification of the Senses
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Psychological Description (St. John of the Cross)
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Theological Explanation (Gifts of the Holy Spirit)
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3. Great difficulty in
meditating discursively, an attraction for the simple affective gaze toward
God.
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Inspiration of the gift of
understanding, beginning of infused contemplation.
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2. Keen desire to serve God,
thirst for justice, and fear of sin. Resistance to temptations.
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Inspiration of the gift of
fortitude, which in the midst of difficulties preserves the hunger and thirst
for justice, and influence of the gift of fear to resist temptations.
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1. Sensible aridity, no
consolation in the things of God, or in created things.
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Inspiration of the gift of
knowledge, which shows the vanity and emptiness of everything created, the
gravity of sin, whence the tears of true contrition.
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THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
(from The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Garrigou-Lagrange)
“As the passive purification of the sensible part of the
soul is manifested by the loss of the sensible consolations to which it was
excessively attached, the passive purification of the spirit seems at first to
consist in the deprivation of the lights previously received of the mysteries
of faith. […]
“Then, what occurs? To lift the soul above this excessively
inferior and superficial knowledge of divine things, the Lord detaches it from
this way of thinking and praying and seems to strip it of its lights. In the words
of St. John of the Cross: ‘God now denudes the faculties, the affections, and
feelings, spiritual and sensual, interior and exterior, leaving the
understanding in darkness, the will dry, the memory empty, the affections of
the soul in the deepest affliction, bitterness, and distress; withholding from
it the former sweetness it had in spiritual things.’ (The Dark Night, Bk. II, chap. 3) […]
“[The soul] can no longer easily apply itself to the
consideration of our Savior's humanity; on the contrary, it is deprived of such
consideration, as were the apostles immediately after Christ's ascension into
heaven. […]
“This deprivation of the sensible presence of Christ's
humanity which preceded the transformation of the apostles, effected on
Pentecost, throws light on the state of darkness and desolation that we are
discussing. It seems to the soul in this state that it enters a spiritual
night, for it is deprived of the lights which hitherto illumined it; darkness
descends as when the sun goes down.”
