Understanding the spiritual journey: from the classical tradition to the ...

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in both directions: a pull backward to this present age, and its dynamic of sin leading to eternaldeath, and a pull forward to the age to come, and its dynamic of grace leading to glory andeternal life. They experience this tension in their individual lives but even more in the life ofthe world in which they live.1.3.2 We note as well the middle line that traverses this diagram from left to right. In theJudeo-Christian world-view we move, as individuals and as a world, towards an end-point inwhich we reach our final stature. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is quitedistinct from those views which see movement as circular, a never-ending recurrence with noreal beginning, no real end, and no real progress.As far as the world is concerned, salvation history moves from creation, the fall, the promise ofthe covenant with the chosen people, the fulfilment of that promise in Christ, who through hisdeath and resurrection establishes a beach-head of grace and eternal life within this world, abeach-head which will expand during the “between-time” and is bound for victory over thispresent age, a victory which will take place at the parousia (second coming) where definitivesalvation is available to all.Individual human beings have their own time of preparation for justification, a time ofteninhabited by various disordered behaviours and a forgetting of God, but also by the work of
grace which prepares them. 6 At a certain point they are ready for the grace of justification byfaith, in which they let go of the false pretense of controlling their own lives and earning theirsalvation through their own efforts, and entrust their whole being to God in Jesus Christ. Atthis point the grace of God, which is the grace of the age to come, establishes a dwelling withinthe deepest part of themselves. They enter into the life of sanctification, which is intended tobe the normal state of humans in this world. The power of grace in them is still fragile, andthey can fall back; but the dynamic of the age to come lures them ever forward that thebeachhead of grace within their hearts might expand into their psyches, their feelings, theirrelationships, and ultimately into the whole world they live in. 7There is a clear progression in the life of the individual:* there is a time of new beginnings, which constellate around justification,purgation, and the experience of conversion from sin;* there is that lengthy time of life in which we tread the path of sanctification, andwe receive graces, often graces of illumination, which guide our path towardsperfection;* there is that time of life where we approach our final state of union with Godand may have foretastes of that union. These are commonly described asexperiences of momentary rapture where we are not connected with oursenses. During this life we are earth-bound, and impeded from definitive union,only possible after our death.6 Christ’s first coming was preceded the whole journey of the chosen people who prepared apath for him, through persons such as Abraham, Moses, and the prophets. Christ’s death andresurrection led him to a state in which he is not bound by the limitations of space and time. This meansthat even if for those living prior to his coming the salvific event that transforms humanity was a futureevent they hoped for, still his grace could reach out and transform them as individual persons and theywould in their own way go through justification, sanctification, and salvation.7 This corresponds to a common human experience: those whom we recognize as at heart goodand authentic persons may have obvious flaws that are part of their daily struggle; and, furthermore,bringing about an ordered and just society is much more difficult than bringing about order within ourown complex selves.
Page 1 and 2: Understanding the spiritual journey
Page 3: distinction between beginners, prof
Page 7 and 8: sun? Is progress towards a goal an
Page 9 and 10: This process of expansion from the
Page 11 and 12: work. 14 It will help us to make a
Page 13 and 14: THE FOUR DEGREES OF VIOLENT LOVE (R
Page 15 and 16: found in Rom 9:3: “for I could wi
Page 17 and 18: THE THREE STAGES AND THE FOUR WEEKS
Page 19: week, but is a more subtle affair.

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