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Teresa of Ávila, OCD, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer.
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Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and reportedly expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional euphoria.
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In a religious context, the practice of contemplation seeks a direct awareness of the divine which transcends the intellect, often in accordance with religious practices such as meditation or prayer.
The Dark Night of the Soul is a phase of passive purification of the spirit in the mystical development, as described by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross in his treatise Dark Night, a commentary on his poem with the same name. It follows after the second phase, the illumination in which God's presence is felt, but this presence is not yet stable. The author himself did not give any title to his poem, which together with this commentary and the Ascent of Mount Carmel forms a treatise on the active and passive purification of the senses and the spirit, leading to mystical union.
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The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life is the magnum opus of Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, a French theologian of the Order of Preachers. The two-volume publication represents both the summary of teaching ascetical and mystical theology for twenty years at the Angelicum and the synthesis of two other works: Christian Perfection and Contemplation and L’amour de Dieu et la croix de Jesus. The work is framed according to three stages that mark the common path of Christian perfection, which are described in conformity to the preexisting theology and wisdom of Catholic saints and Church Fathers. His synthesis has become one of the most the dominant present-day interpretations of this patrimony.
In Catholic spirituality, spiritual dryness or desolation is a lack of spiritual consolation in one's spiritual life. It is a form of spiritual crisis experienced subjectively as a sense of separation from God or lack of spiritual feeling, especially during contemplative prayer.
Instrumentality is a theological theory that falls under the broader category of the prophetic model of biblical inspiration. Those who espouse the prophetic model consider the authors of all the books of the bible to have been inspired in the same way prophets have been inspired by God to preach. Although, as Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange notes, a prophet can act based on direct revelation from God or from inspiration.
References
- 1 2 3 "Locution", Catholic Dictionary
- ↑ Garrigou-Lagrange OP, Reginald. The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Part 4, Chapt. 55
- ↑ St. John of the Cross. The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross, Ascent Book 2, Chapter 28, ICS Publications, 1991, (Kieran Kavanaugh, Otilio Rodriguez, trans.) ISBN 9780935216141
- ↑ Meninger, William. Julian of Norwich: A Mystic for Today, SteinerBooks, 2010, ISBN 9780880109246
- ↑ De Santo Tomás OCD, Francisco. Médula Mistica, (Trat.VI. Cap.i)
- ↑ Cingolani, C.P., G., Saint Gabriel Possenti, Passionist: A Young Man in Love, page 50. Alba House, 1997
- ↑ "El Castillo Interior," English translation, The Interior Castle, London, 1852, comparing the contemplative soul to a castle with seven successive interior courts, or chambers, analogous to the seven heavens.
- ↑ Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, Chapter III, (The Benedictines of Stanbrook, trans.) Third ed., 1921. London. Thomas Baker
- ↑ Garrigou-Lagrange, Part 4, Chapt. 54
- ↑ St. John of the Cross. Ascent, Book2 Chapter 19
